The problem of natural and cultural in education of young children

1. The problem of natural and cultural in education of young children NickolayVeraksa, May 2014

2. Cultural and natural forms in a child’s life Cultural component as directed education with participation of an adult Natural as a comparatively high efficiency of a child while solving problems at the age when traditional forms of education are not working yet

3. Casper’s experiments Two groups of mothers, 35th week of pregnancy They were told 2 different poems three times per day during 4 weeks In 4 weeks both poems that were read in unfamiliar voice were transmitted to a fetus The child’s heartbeat was changing in reaction to a familiar poem

4. Casper’s experiments • During 6 weeks of pregnancy children were played the same story on the recorder. The story was read by a future mother. • Infants were adapting their sucking behavior in such a way that they could listen to the familiar story and they stopped to suck when they were hearing an unfamiliar story, read my their mother • They were reacting In the same fashion to the familiar story when it was read by an unfamiliar voice.

5. Imitation of new borns E. Meltzoff Meltzoff, Moore, 1977

6. Research on infants’ perception T. Bower Infant’s perception follows the law of a good form (?). As an adult, an infant prefers a complete triangular among the proposed options. He demonstrates the highest amount of reactions when shown this figure.

7. Space and time relations Infants of 2,5 months old believed that the mouth kept existing after her disappearance from their sight. They understood that the mouth could not disappear and then appear from behind another screen without covering the space in between the two screens. R. Baillargeon Baillargeon, 1999

8. Gibson and Walk experiment In terms of Gibson’s ecological theory of perception children’s behavior is explained by the structure of the perceived objects.

9. Usage of the model Search for the toy based on the model. Experiment with children of 2,5 years old First group: it is possible to play with the model Second group: the model is hidden behind the glass The second group demonstrated the best results DeLoache

10. Common attention At the age of 12 months children are using the pointing gesture not so much in order to draw an adult’s attention, but in order to install common attention and interest for this object. Ulf Liszkowski

11. Case of Nadya N. Drawing that is made by Nadya N at the age of 3

12. Case of Nadya N. A) Nadya N. B) Leonardo Da Vinchi C) A drawing of a 9 year old child

13. Adult’s influence on a child Another data shows imperfection of children’s psychic and justifies the necessity of an adult’s influence on a child in the process of mastering the culture

14. Ruzskaya’sresearches Children of 3-5 years old were taught to distinguish a triangular and rectangular with the help of circling the figures with a finger As a result of learning “the highest form of interiorization of perception process, when based on the previous external models that were many times compared with an object and corrected according to its peculiarities, an internal model is finally formed – a constant perceptive image of a perceived object” A.V. Zaporozhets

15. Venger’s researches Children of 1 and 2 years old undergo difficulties while comparing object’s form and a form of a hole. Correspondence between an object’s form and a form of a hole is not being done Special perceptive task has to be solved – to divide shape out of other characteristics of object. Theory of sensory etalons

16. Development of higher psychological functions Lev Vygotsky Higher Lower The process of development as transformation of lower psychological functions into higher psychological functions.

17. Mediator education The culture is overcoming imperfection of the natural Structural Cognitive Modifiability (SCM) as a theory grew out of Feuerstein’s interest to see people whose functioning was low and in certain cases extremely low, in turn became able to modify themselves through cognitive processes, so that they could adapt themselves to the requirements of society. ReuvenFeuerstein

18. Collision of the standpoints as a manifestation of a contradiction between natural and cultural Analysis of the pedagogy of Icelandic preschools has illustrated that preschool teachers seem to be divided into several camps regarding the role of preschool and preschool teachers. One camp, the most traditional, emphasizes the preschool years as the golden age of free play and development. According to this view, the role of preschool teachers is to provide care and emotional support. Another camp emphasizes preschool as the first level of formal education, where adults are teachers but not caregivers. The third camp argues that caregiving and teaching are mutually inclusive concepts, both necessary for ensuring high quality preschool experience and outcome (Einarsdottir, 2006)

19. Two approaches to understanding of a play Play as a primary (initial) form. It is natural and one should intervene in it. Elly Singer Johan Huizinga

20. Two approaches to understanding of a play Play as a process that has cultural-historical origin Bert van Oers Lev Vygotsky

21. Other forms of existence of cultural and natural 1. Individual as natural (closer to natural) and normative 2. Preschool and primary school education 3. Creative and productive 4. Participatin (?) and leaning 5. Primary and secondary representation, etc.

22. Striving for overcoming the contradiction between natural and cultural Two processes are being indicated: participation and learning. Participation contribute to learning. The responses of preschool teachers in both countries indicated that learning and participation are closely connected. Stig Broström

23. Two forms of representation 1) Primary, natural, psychophysical 2) Secondary, psychological Examples: Sensory (?) tissue and image, personal sense and meaning (Leontiev) Differentiating and perception (Zaporozhets, Venger) Two forms of education: directive and spontaneous

24. Fundamental problem • Option 1. Education converts primary representation into secondary. Then primary representation loses its initial possibilities and transforms into one sense, one meaning. • Option 2. Primary representation continues to exist. If yes, then how to use it and how can it be used in child’s learning?

25. Research on imagination Creativity: objectness of one image is interpreted as objectness of another image Creativity: primary representation is opposed to secondary Olga Dyachenko

26. Dialectical thinking As a result of different researches, children of preschool age do not show weaker results as adults What can be at the ame time Alive and dead Light and heavy? Black and white The same and different

27. 10 Method “Stripes”

28. 9 8 Method “Stripes”

29. Managing primary representation J.Fleivel indicated a special domain of children psychic development – metacognitive knowledge They relate to cognitive activity (its goals, tasks, actions) and knowledge about individual particularities of perception, memory, problem solving Flavell, John H.

30. Understand of culture as the norm • Norm appears as a result of a conflict. Children conflict appears in a collision of natural interests. Therefore, the norm is a product of natural conflict.

31. New understanding of a child • (a) care instead of school subjects, (b) aesthetics and creative arts instead of analytical facts, (c) a thematic approach instead of school subject matter, (d) play, and (e) the children as a group, not just the children as individuals (Johansson, 2006). • These include contemporary ideas of children and childhood, where children are regarded as strong and competent citizens with rights of their own and childhood is seen as an important life stage in its own right (Christensen & James, 2000; Corsaro, 1997; Einarsdottir, 2007; James, Jenks, & Prout, 1998), socio-constructivist ideas where children are seen as active thinkers who learn from each other with support from adults (Vygotsky, 1978) • the voices of children could bring a new perspective JohannaEinarsdottir