Concept of Observation Skills of 5-6 Year Old Preschool Children

quickly, accurately, and fully describe the characteristics, properties, connections, relationships, changes, and developments of objects and phenomena in accordance with the proposed observation purposes under certain conditions.

The concept of KNQS has the following main points:

- Observation skill is one of the important skills serving human thinking and cognitive activities in life. The basic psychological condition of observation skill is that people must have certain knowledge and understanding of the observation object, discover the inherent properties and relationships of the observation object in accordance with the proposed observation purpose. Thus, the essence of forming observation skill is to form in the learner a system of operations to clarify the information containing observation tasks and compare them with specific actions.

- Observation skills are governed by the individual's need for knowledge and curiosity, helping that individual know how to examine phenomena thoroughly with the senses and with the participation of the subject's psychological factors such as: memory, thinking, language, attention, emotions, personal interests from many different aspects and perspectives [31, p.2].

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1.2.2. Observation skills of 5-6 year old preschool children

1.2.2.1. Concept of Observation skills of 5-6 year old preschool children

Observation skills of 5-6 year old preschool children are intentional actions and operations of children based on the application of knowledge and understanding of the QS object combined with children's memory, thinking, language, attention, emotions and interests to accurately and fully determine the characteristics, properties, relationships, and changes of objects and phenomena in accordance with the set QS purpose.

This means:

- Firstly, the cognitive skills of 5-6 year old preschool children are necessary skills for cognitive activities, providing understanding of the characteristics, signs, attributes, colors, properties, external manifestations as well as hidden internal properties of cognitive objects, helping to solve cognitive tasks for children.

- Second, the cognitive skills of 5-6 year old preschool children are considered from the perspective of their operational capacity, meaning that the actions and intentional operations in the process of perceiving objects depend greatly on the knowledge, experience, interest, and perseverance in focusing on the high level of attention of each individual child during the cognitive process.

1.2.2.2. Observation skill structure of 5-6 year old preschool children

Author Dang Thanh Hung [30, p.27] when researching KN in general made the following statement: "All KN have the same general structure, only the specific content of each structural element has a difference depending on which KN it is." According to the author, the general structure of KN consists of 4 basic components:

1) The operating system is flexibly organized;

2) Logical sequence of operations;

3) Action adjustment processes;

4) Pace of execution and time structure.

Inheriting the above studies, author Trinh Thi Xim [86] has concretized and pointed out in her research that the structure of preschool students' knowledge and skills includes:

1) QS task design skills;

2) KN performs QS techniques and retains information;

3) QS data processing skills;

4) KN evaluates and makes decisions to adjust and re-QS;

5) KN applies QS results to make decisions about the impact of child education.

Sharing the same opinion with author Trinh Thi Xim, the group of authors Tran Thi Oanh, Nguyen Thi Hien [47] also built the structure of primary school students' knowledge and skills of teachers including elements suitable for the development of primary school students:

1) Task design skills and QS techniques;

2) KN performs QS tasks and uses QS techniques when performing tasks;

3) KN stores information using appropriate techniques and processes that information into data;

4) KN evaluates data and decides to adjust QS or re-QS if necessary;

5) KN analyzes the adjustment results and QS results again;

6) KN applies QS results to make decisions about teaching, education or continuing research of students and their learning.

Inheriting the above viewpoints and based on the development characteristics as well as the characteristics of cognitive skills of 5-6 year old preschool children, it is possible to determine that the cognitive skills of 5-6 year old preschool children include the following component skills:

(1) QS task identification skills

This is the guiding skill for the entire process of children's QS activities. When accurately identifying the QS task, children can easily choose appropriate ways to perform the QS task to bring the highest efficiency to this activity. This skill of children is expressed as follows:

- Children receive or determine their own QS tasks depending on different situations and QS objects.

- Present the identified QS goals and tasks when requested. (What is QS needed for? What needs to be done to carry out that QS task?...).

(2) Skills in using QS method

Demonstrated in the child's choice to use and coordinate the senses (vision, hearing, tactile movement, taste, smell) and supporting tools (glasses, scales, measuring rulers, cameras, etc.) appropriately to contact and survey the QS object to achieve the set QS goals and tasks. Expression:

- Children know how to coordinate the use of methods to survey objects using different senses (vision, hearing, tactile movement, taste, smell), and know how to use supporting tools (glasses, scales, measuring rulers, cameras, etc.) flexibly, without needing adults to remind or guide them.

- Children use their senses to directly contact the QS object in an appropriate order. After determining the QS task, use vision to get an overview of the object, identify the main and secondary aspects of the QS object, choose the appropriate senses to examine the object, detect the characteristic signs of the object, then QS covers it again with vision to reinforce the information that has been QS.

(3) Skills to detect and describe QS results

Children can detect, name and describe the characteristic signs of QS objects according to QS requirements and tasks. The skills of detecting and describing QS results show:

- Children discover and point out the characteristic signs of the QS object and name those signs (What are the signs? What are the characteristics of the signs? What are the names of those signs? ...)

- Describe in spoken and visual language the QS conclusions about the signs, characteristics, and features of the QS object and explain the reasons for making that QS conclusion so that everyone knows.

(4) Skills to evaluate and compare QS results

This skill requires objectivity when assessing the achieved QS results. Children know how to check, evaluate and compare QS results with the initial QS tasks, specifically:

- Children self-check their own QS task performance, take actions to adjust the QS method (if necessary) to better suit the QS subject, compare the QS results achieved with the initial QS task (did the QS task complete? Did it work correctly or incorrectly? Why? What needs to be done to achieve better results next time?).

- Comment on the results of your QS tasks and give the most appropriate opinions for the specific tasks you perform compared to the QS tasks.

The above component skills are specified in the elements of QS activities. Each operation and action has its own characteristics but is closely related, supporting and interacting with each other to form an overall structure in the QS process, suitable for the development of 5-6 year old preschool children.

1.2.3. Developing observation skills for 5-6 year old preschool children

1.2.3.1. Concept

a/ Development is a term used in many studies and real life, considered from many different perspectives:

According to M. Rodentan's philosophical dictionary [56], development is the result of a process of quantitative change leading to qualitative change, meaning that in the process of development there seems to be a return to the starting point but on a new basis, at a higher level. Development is also synonymous with the future, with a new form and new quality. Development is often associated with forecasting activities.

According to the great Vietnamese dictionary of Nguyen Nhu Y [89, p.1321]: Development is movement, progress in an increasing direction.

So, development is the process of movement, progress of a thing from a lower level to a higher level, from simple to complex, from less perfect to more perfect. The concept of development is often used to refer to the process of movement in an upward direction, increasingly progressive of things. This process takes place both gradually and with leaps to lead to the birth of something new to replace the old.

b/ Skill development

According to authors N.D. Levitôv [36], Pham Minh Hac [19], the formation and development of knowledge of a certain activity is a process including three steps:

Step 1: Fully aware of the purpose, method, and conditions of action

Step 2: Observe the sample and try to do it according to the sample

Step 3: Practice how to act according to the requirements and conditions to achieve the set goals.

Author Nguyen Quang Uan [75] views the process of developing KN more generally in two steps:

Step 1: Master knowledge about action or activity;

Step 2: Take action on that knowledge.

c/ Developing intelligence skills for 5-6 year old preschool children

It can be understood: Developing cognitive skills for 5-6 year old preschool children is a process of pedagogical impact with purpose, content and plan in a scientific order of educators on children to create changes in the direction of increasingly progressive actions and intentional operations in the process of perceiving objects and phenomena, helping children quickly, accurately and fully identify the characteristics, properties, relationships, connections, and changes of objects and phenomena to meet the requirements and tasks of cognitive skills.

In fact, developing cognitive skills for 5-6 year old preschool children is a process of purposeful, content-based, and planned pedagogical impact by educators to help children master a system of intentional operations in the process of perception to collect the most complete and accurate information about objects and phenomena that the cognitive task sets out. Therefore, when forming and developing cognitive skills for 5-6 year old preschool children, it is necessary to:

- Guide children to know how to receive and identify QS tasks.

- Guide children to know how to use a combination of QS methods to explore and recognize QS objects.

- Guide children to know how to detect and describe QS results.

- Guide children how to evaluate and compare QS results.

1.2.3.2. Stages of observation skill development of 5-6 year old preschool children

Observation skills of 5-6 year old preschool children are basic skills of cognitive activities, the mechanism of forming cognitive skills is the mechanism of operation associated with the stages of intellectual development of children. J. Piaget's theory of intellectual formation and development [cited in 44] divides the process of intellectual development of children into 4 stages: (1) Sensory-dynamic stage; (2) Concrete pre-operational stage; (3) Concrete operational stage; (4) Formal operational stage or logical thinking. The stages of intellectual development of children are described with developmental steps in an upward direction. After each stage, there is a clear transformation based on the inheritance of the achievements of the previous stage and expressed by the progress in children's understanding.

Applying the above theory in this study, we can determine the stages of cognitive development of 5-6 year old preschool children as follows:

- Imitation stage: This is the stage of forming initial preliminary knowledge, children imitate the sample knowledge actions that the teacher guides. The operations, survey actions, and approaches to the knowledge object are still passive, mechanically following the teacher's instructions. At the end of this stage, children identify the knowledge object, have some general symbols about the knowledge object but have not yet gone into determining the exact details, initially satisfying the child's curiosity.

At this stage, children mainly imitate and learn QS skills, so teachers should model how to receive QS tasks, guide the operations and actions of surveying QS objects, then let children practice with different QS objects to collect information and common symbols about QS objects, initially forming in children the skills to receive QS tasks, helping children grasp the appropriate QS methods for each object.

- Stage of being able to do (self-perform): Children understand the QS task, know how to choose the senses, thinking and language operations to participate in the process of perception and discovery.

break down the object but there are still mistakes in the operation, the QS time is still slow, sometimes children still need guidance and suggestions from the teacher to help discover hidden, hard-to-see details of the QS object.

This is the stage when children need to practice and cultivate their knowledge of many QS objects, which are diverse objects and phenomena. Teachers need to guide and suggest to help children identify QS tasks, use a combination of QS methods, concentrated QS techniques and partial QS to detect details and characteristics that are difficult to identify of QS objects, helping children collect information about QS objects.

- Accurate stage: Children receive the QS task quickly, choose the QS process with the participation of the senses, appropriate thinking and language operations, combine different QS techniques to identify large parts of the object, then identify their external structural features, attributes, qualities, and outstanding signs (size, shape, surface properties, etc.), quickly detect the characteristic features of the QS object, and complete the QS task quickly.

At this stage, children actively practice the learned QS skills. Teachers need to create an active environment with contexts containing diverse QS objects, create surprising, interesting, and even somewhat difficult situations about QS objects so that children can determine their own QS goals, form interest, and motivation to solve QS tasks. During the process of children performing QS tasks, teachers should use open-ended questions to help children quickly choose QS methods and processes to learn and discover interesting, complete, and vivid information about QS objects.

- Skill improvement stage: This is the stage where the QS skill reaches a proactive and flexible level, when receiving continuously changing QS tasks, the QS objects are diverse but the QS quality is always stable with accurate QS information, the attitude of caring and paying attention to the QS objects is naturally formed in children.

This is the stage when children self-improve their knowledge of quality assurance and know how to evaluate the effectiveness of quality assurance. Teachers regularly let children practice quality assurance with diverse and rich quality assurance objects and changing quality assurance tasks to meet the requirements of educational activities. They always encourage and motivate children to be proactive, flexible, and creative in the quality assurance process, creating for children the habit of evaluating and concluding quality assurance and re-evaluating when necessary.

1.2.3.3. Ways to develop observation skills for 5-6 year old preschool children

The methods chosen to develop cognitive skills for 5-6 year old preschool children are pedagogical impacts aimed at developing cognitive skills, always associated with the characteristics and stages of cognitive skills development of children, including:

- Promotes the perfection and flexibility of the senses

It is necessary to keep children's senses healthy, regularly practice using different QS methods that require coordination of the senses and supporting tools (glasses, measuring tapes, cameras) to perform increasingly complex QS tasks with diverse QS objects.

- Provide children with rich knowledge and experience about the world around them

The level of development of children's knowledge and understanding also depends on their knowledge and understanding. In the early stages of developing knowledge and understanding, teachers should practice with children, skillfully.

provide and enhance children's knowledge and understanding. In the stages after the knowledge and understanding are gradually formed and completed, teachers let children experience knowledge and understanding with diverse knowledge and understanding objects in many different forms of knowledge and understanding activities, helping children collect and accumulate a rich amount of information, knowledge, and experience about the world around them.

- Stimulate children's curiosity and desire to learn

Teachers always stimulate children's curiosity and desire to learn through problematic situations with interesting and novel QS objects. During the QS process, children often wonder and ask very interesting questions. Teachers should be patient and find ways to answer to satisfy children's curiosity, thereby maintaining their interest in QS, stimulating children to continue to analyze, judge, and reason to learn, explore and draw new QS conclusions.

- Stimulate children's interests and emotions

Interest and emotion are important motivations for the development of children's QS skills. Therefore, when children practice QS, teachers need to stimulate their emotions and interest by asking open-ended questions. These questions help children apply their knowledge and understanding, and actively express their thoughts and judgments about what they have learned. In addition, teachers also need to increase the provision of new information about the QS subject, combining the use of stories, puzzles, poems, songs, etc. with familiar and appropriate content to attract attention and stimulate children's interest and emotions when practicing QS.

- Develop children's language and thinking

The development of thinking and language has a great influence on the development of children's intelligence. During the intelligence process, thinking operations such as analysis, synthesis, comparison, and generalization help children accurately identify intelligence tasks and orient the process of performing intelligence tasks. Thinking and intellectual operations during the intelligence process help children make judgments and inferences to reach accurate and complete intelligence conclusions.

According to author Nguyen Thi Xuan [88]: At the final stage of the QS process, children can use coherent language to describe QS results, explain, argue for information and draw reasonable QS conclusions. Therefore, when organizing QS for children, teachers always encourage children to actively use language to identify QS tasks (What do you want to QS? For what?), describe QS methods (How to observe?), analyze, judge, infer, draw QS conclusions (How do you guess it? Why do you know?), encourage children to share what they have QS. It is necessary to strengthen language and thinking training for children in activities in many different fields to help children's thinking become sharper and more sensitive, and their language become more and more coherent.

In addition, teachers need to understand the ways to practice QS skills for children in preschool activities. For children's QS activities to be effective, the following issues need to be considered: First, it is necessary to determine the purpose and tasks of QS: What will children QS and what is the purpose of QS? The clearer the purpose and tasks of QS, the more complete and accurate the QS information will be. In addition, teachers also need to clearly define: Where should children QS? When to QS? How long should QS last? Children's QS activities need to be carried out naturally, creating a comfortable and pleasant mood for children.

1.3. Puzzle activities for 5-6 year old preschool children

1.3.1. Concept of patchwork activity

Matching activities are one of the four basic types of preschool activities.

Art educator NP Xakulina [84, p.394] believes that: "Children's creative activity can be understood as the process of arranging different structures from building materials (toys), small objects, paper toys, wood and other materials."

According to author Nguyen Quoc Toan [66, p.15]: "Assembly is a collection of parts, details, and components to form a whole with utility value. Assembling in shaping is considered as arranging, connecting, or attaching details and parts to create a product with a shape similar to an object such as a tree or a house according to the child's preferences and imagination."

Author Le Thi Thanh Thuy [61, p.235] conducted in-depth research on preschool children's creative activities. She defined creative activities in relation to other types of creative art activities such as Drawing, Molding, Assembling, etc. when stating: "Preschool children's collage activities are understood as a type of synthetic activity, in which children mainly express models and structures in three-dimensional space and coordinate with the form of expression in two-dimensional space. In the process of creating shapes, children can combine descriptive techniques typical of different types of activities such as: Drawing, Molding, Assembling, Molding". According to the author, HĐCG is a special form of HĐTH, with the requirement of linking component details to express descriptive content mainly through artistic structures in three-dimensional space. This activity is a school for children to develop well in terms of feeling, perception, QS ability, memory, figurative thinking, imagination and social-emotional formation.

Based on the nature of the learning activities and the above research perspectives, it can be seen that: The piecing activity of preschool children is a type of comprehensive learning activity, in which children can apply many descriptive techniques typical of different art forms such as: Drawing, Molding, Collaging, to recreate objects and scenes in the surrounding world through models, structures, and objects in three-dimensional space from different details and materials according to the imagination, richness and creativity of children.

The connotation of the concept of "Preschool children's learning activities" can be interpreted as follows:

- Firstly , creative activities are a type of learning activity, a comprehensive activity in which children can apply and coordinate knowledge and skills from other types of learning activities such as: Drawing, Molding, and Pasting pictures; through creative activities, children can develop their thinking skills, perception, subtle feelings and form symbolic and figurative capital about the world around them.

- Second , in the HĐCG, preschool children mainly express models and structures in three-dimensional space in combination with two-dimensional space expression through arranging and assembling small details and parts into complete descriptive object structures (artistic product objects) and can arrange them in a three-dimensional space according to artistic ideas to create another art object with a larger scale and closer to the environmental scene (a model showing a park, street, farm, etc.).

1.3.2. Similarities and differences between piecing activities and other types of creative activities

The piecing activity of preschool children is a form of synthetic learning activity, which has a relationship with other forms of learning activities such as: Drawing, Arranging and pasting pictures, Molding. To determine the position of

In the types of activities, it is necessary to find similarities and differences of this activity.

Similarities: The activity of piecing together and other types of learning activities such as: Drawing, Collaging, Molding are similar in nature, being creative artistic activities that reflect impressions of surrounding life from symbols and images built on the basis of perceptual experience combined with emotions and thinking and imagination processes, through diverse and rich materials and shaping materials.

- Difference: The Matching activity has some distinctive features that are different from other types of activities in the following points:

+ Regarding expressive means : When drawing or making collages, children mainly use creative elements such as lines, shapes, colors, sizes, and spatial layouts; When molding images, children express the coordination of elements such as shapes, thickness, density, and voids of diverse blocks, sizes, and surface textures. The color element is not essential in the molded product. To create an expressive collage product, children need to coordinate shapes, shapes, size ratios, and surface textures. The color element is also an important expressive element in the collage product; similar to the Molding activity, in the Creative Activity, children need to demonstrate well the three-dimensional spatial relationship of the component details to create a reasonable structure that represents the characteristics of the image.

+ Regarding shaping materials and shaping techniques : In the Drawing and Pasting activities, children mainly use paper, cardboard, and thin materials to create shapes with drawing, coloring, cutting, tearing, arranging, and attaching techniques to a two-dimensional (2D) plane; the Molding and Assembling activities are similar in terms of materials (mold dough, some small toys or small details to create molding shapes, models), and in terms of assembling block-shaped images. However, in the CG activities, children can use more types of shaping materials (toy details made of plastic, wood, metal; recycled scrap; materials from nature) with more complex shaping techniques to create three-block structures and perspective scenes (3D).

1.3.3. Characteristics of the ability to piece together 5-6 year old preschool children

Puzzle activities are activities that combine learning activities and play activities, giving children many opportunities to experience and express the knowledge and impressions they have collected from the world around them, combined with the ability to puzzle to create different models and products used in their lives. Puzzle ability of preschool children 5

– 6 years old has the following basic characteristics:

- On emotions, feelings and aesthetic attitudes in HĐCG

The process of using the senses to directly contact and QS various types of visual materials helps children discover the beauty of each type of material through its characteristics, details, colors, shapes, sizes, etc., collecting a rich and diverse symbolic capital, from which children's positive emotions arise. Emotions are expressed through bright eyes, cheerful facial expressions or admiration in the voice when children describe the aesthetic characteristics of the visual object. Author Nguyen Anh Tuyet [70, p.40] stated: "This is the period of development of aesthetic emotions", that is, positive emotions arise when children directly contact beauty. It is these aesthetic emotions that will control all of children's emotions, helping them explore and search for materials, similarities, and compatibility of visual materials with their composite ideas.