Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.15516/cje.v25i3.4893
Fostering the Development of Metacognitive Capacities of Preschool Children
Edita Slunjski
; University of Zagreb, Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Abstract
Training children for independent learning, i.e., to realise the concept of lifelong learning includes fostering the development of their metacognitive capacities. These refer to the child's ability to think critically, to consider how they think, and to become familiar with their cognitive processes and learning strategies. In order to achieve such a process, it is necessary to develop certain organisational structures that include a high-quality spatial-material and social environment of the preschool. The preschool teacher, i.e., the quality of his/her educational interventions has a special influence on the development of metacognitive capacities of children. The paper presents ethnographic research conducted in preschools with children aged four to six years in order to establish possibilities for fostering the development of metacognitive capacities of preschool children and the conditions that facilitate this process. The study aimed to discover the conditions in which the metacognitive capacities of preschool children develop, i.e., the entirety of the context that has an impact on their development. The study included two preschools with three, i.e., four educational groups, that is, six or eight preschool teachers, two pedagogues, and one expert associate from the University. The study was conducted in 2021. The results of the study indicate that the fostering of the development of metacognitive capacities of preschool children is influenced by the overall physical environment of the preschool, the quality of the social environment of the preschool with the use of ethnographic records available to children, the general atmosphere and the level of democracy in a particular educational group, the educator's skill of "listening to children", the intervention of preschool teachers aimed at encouraging children to self-evaluate, and the reflectivity of the preschool teachers. In order to stimulate the development of meta-cognitive capacities, systematic professional development of preschool teachers, aimed at strengthening their research and reflective competencies, is necessary.
Keywords
ethnographic research; preschool teacher interventions; the preschool context; reflectivity
Hrčak ID:
309706
URI
Publication date:
28.9.2023.
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