"Just do not play, good baby changes." This old saying is tantamount to clichés for modern child educators, but it still makes sense when discussing the relationship between early childhood education and games. Although the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle have long discussed the role of games in education, the special "early education-game" theory did not begin to develop until hundreds of years later.
Game as a treatment
In 1920, Sigmund Freud proposed a psychoanalytic game theory in his book The Principles of Beyond Happiness. In this theory, Freud believes that games are an iterative mechanism for children to deal with traumatic events that they have experienced before, with the aim of repairing or controlling this event.
Game as a practice method
In 1972, Bruner claimed that one of the main functions of children's games was to rehearse behaviors in various real-life situations in a safe, non-hazardous environment, through game training.
Game as a preparatory means
John Dewey was a famous theorist in the early 1900s. According to Dewey's theory, the game is a subconscious activity that can help children develop intellectually and socially. Games should be distinguished from work, which can help children grow and enter a world of work. When children are adults, they no longer rely too much on “games” but look for entertainment from their careers. Children's play activities are prepared for them to become healthy adults who work properly.
Game as a perceptual learning method
Maria Montessori, an Italian educator in the early 1900s, assumed that "games are children's work." According to Montessori's method, which is still used by some private schools, it is best to use the children's playing time as learning or imagination. The Montessori game is perceptual, using a practical way to treat everyday tools like sandboxes. The children play at their own pace, and the teachers work together to help the child learn through the game.
Game as a means of intellectual development
Jean Piaget is known for introducing the theory of the stage of child development. These developmental stages are directly related to the game. As he said, intellectual development is accompanied by children who have experienced these stages—assimilating or manipulating the external world to satisfy the needs—dressing—and adapting, or adapting their own perspectives to the external environment.
Games as a means of social development
Levi Vygotsky recommends that children develop social relationships through games. In the game, children will socialize with others and learn to interact through language and role-playing. Vygotsky is known for introducing the ZPD theory, the near-development interval theory. The theory suggests that because children need their peers or playmates to grow together, they need adult interaction in mastering each social skill, preparing for the introduction of new growth learning content.
Currently, in preschool institutions, because of the use of games in the classroom, two problems can be distinguished: the first problem is that even when teaching children aged 3-5, the use of games and game technology is greatly reduced. The second problem is that some teachers are often unable to use the game method. By analyzing the work practices of preschool institutions, we can highlight the following contradictions: the possibility of using game technology to provide knowledge more effectively to preschool children and the greatest possibility that teachers cannot use games to train and educate modern preschoolers.
Games are a positive learning method.
The concept of "game teaching technology" includes a fairly broad set of methods and techniques for organizing the teaching process in the form of various teaching games. Often, unlike games, pedagogy games have a basic function - well-defined training objectives and corresponding pedagogical results. The result of the game is a dual plan - as a game as well as educational and cognitive outcomes.
The interplay between games and learning is done by creating a hypothetical (conditional) situation in learning. Different types of games are defined by different imaginary situations: director games - through the semantic combination of objects; role-playing games require at least two paired characters; rules-based games - appear when rules are followed. Various games are important for teaching children.
Most games have four main features:
- The main reason that the game brings children's fun is the process, not just the result.
- The creativity and improvisation of this event.
- Game activity, competition, competition, emotional richness of competition.
- Reflecting the content of the game, the logic of the game development and the existence of direct and indirect rules of chronological order.