Current Status of Teachers Implementing Methods of Using Materials in Organizing Activities to Develop Skills for 5-6 Year Old Preschool Children

The methods for training and developing teaching skills for 5-6 year old preschool children are different for preschool teachers.

Table 2.11 shows that preschool teachers have exploited and used VLTN in the forms of organizing puzzle lessons to develop children's cognitive skills in parallel with the forms of organizing extracurricular activities ( puzzle activities combined with playing in class, puzzle activities during free time at school, puzzle activities combined with outdoor activities, puzzle activities in comprehensive art activities ). The level of frequent use of VLTN in Puzzle Lessons according to Models , ranked number 1 (Average score 2.43). In fact, Puzzle Lessons according to Models is the hour of "creating shapes according to direct perceptual symbols", the rate of preschool teachers choosing to use this lesson to develop children's cognitive skills is higher than other lessons, showing that 59.3% use it regularly , 24% use it occasionally and 16.7% use it rarely .

Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai L (Le Thanh Nghi Kindergarten) added: "In the process of using VLTN to organize model-based assembling lessons, we also regularly focus on training children's assembling skills. Training children's assembling skills is carried out at all steps in the structure of the lesson, from guiding children to assembling; guiding children to create shapes with VLTN; children creating shapes and finally displaying and commenting on and evaluating children's assembling products from VLTN."

The survey results also show that the training of children's knowledge of military skills is rarely carried out by preschool teachers in the form of organizing Matching Lessons according to self-selected topics. The percentage of preschool teachers choosing to use this form of organizing teaching activities is the lowest (lowest average score is 1.56). According to teachers, using natural materials in teaching activities requires difficult shaping techniques and complex tools, so it is necessary to have guidance and modeling from teachers. In teaching activities using natural materials without teachers modeling, children will have difficulty performing the task of military skills and shaping.

Teacher Tran Thi O (Hoa Sen Kindergarten) added: “When using VLTN to organize CG activities to develop children's creative skills, if the teacher does not directly model, the children will encounter many difficulties. Most children are still confused when exposed to VLTN, their creative skills are limited, so they have not fully discovered the aesthetic characteristics of VLTN. Moreover, the technique of creating shapes with VLTN is also difficult for children, so they need teachers to guide and model. Therefore, we often choose the form of organizing lessons using VLTN according to models or given topics to practice creative skills and creative techniques for children."

It can be seen that GVMN has paid much attention to organizing forms of activities using natural materials to train and develop the ability to think for 5-6 year old preschool children, shown in the viewpoints and methods in which they have organized activities for children, but their choices are not uniform, often emotional, imposed according to personal thoughts, one-sided and not based on valid scientific grounds.

d/ Implement methods of using VLTN in organizing HĐCG to develop knowledge and skills for 5-6 year old preschool children

S TT	Methods	Implementation level (n=150)						Average	Rank
		Frequent		Sometimes		Little progress onion
		SL	TL (%)	SL	TL (%)	SL	TL (%)
1	Visual presentation method	120	80.0	28	18.7	2	1.3	2.79	1
2	Practical and experiential methods	78	52.0	56	37.3	16	10.7	2.41	3
3	Verbal method	97	64.7	45	30.0	8	5.3	2.59	2
4	Other methods	0	0	8	5.3	0	0	0.11	4
Average score								1.98

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Table 2.12. Current status of preschool teachers implementing methods of using VLTN in organizing activities to develop knowledge and skills for 5-6 year old preschool children

Note: Low level: 1.00 ≤ GPA <1.93; Average level: 1.93 ≤ GPA <2.37; High level 2.37 ≤ GPA ≤ 3.00.

With the average score of 1.98, it shows that the implementation of methods of using VLTN in organizing HĐCG to develop knowledge and skills for 5-6 year old preschool children is performed at an average level by preschool teachers.

The level of implementation of VLTN methods in organizing activities to develop knowledge and skills for 5-6 year old preschool children by preschool teachers is also different, in which the visual presentation method (average score of 2.79) is frequently applied by preschool teachers with a rate of 80%, ranked number 1, the verbal method is chosen at number 2 (average score of 2.59), the experiential practice method has an average score of 2.41 ranked number 3.

Some teachers (5.3%) also occasionally apply other methods such as thinking stimulation methods and project-based learning methods, but not often and the usage rate is not high.

To clarify the above data, when analyzing lesson plans, teaching plans, QS, observing classes, and directly interviewing preschool teachers, we found that: Most preschool teachers when organizing activities using natural materials for children often pay much attention to the technique of creating images from natural materials. The methods they often apply are visual presentation methods and verbal methods, associated with suggesting or guiding operations in the process of using natural materials to create composite products.

The method of practical experience helps children identify QS tasks, actions, and QS methods by combining the use of senses to find new characteristics of VLTN, providing symbolic capital for the creative process in the CG activity that has not been given due attention by preschool teachers.

Explaining this, teacher Le My H (Thanh Binh kindergarten) said: "Because the time for a jigsaw lesson for 5-6 year old preschoolers is limited to 30-35 minutes, jigsaw lessons using VLTN often have many complex shaping techniques, so our number 1 priority in these lessons is to focus time on supporting and guiding children's shaping techniques, so we often model and explain how to choose suitable VLTN and shaping techniques with VLTN."

Discussing further with teacher Nguyen Thi H (Le Thanh Nghi kindergarten), we found that the two main methods she regularly applies are : Visual presentation method and Verbal method . The reason given by teacher Nguyen Thi H is: "These methods are very necessary for class time to help children easily perform the task of piecing together, the remaining methods (practice, experience) help expand children's understanding and QS ability, but require a lot of space, time and financial and human conditions to implement".

The above survey results show us that, in the process of implementing methods of using VLTN in organizing activities to develop knowledge and skills for 5-6 year old preschool children, the preschool teachers in the survey used a combination of methods but many times they were not really suitable, not focusing on the orientation of developing aspects of knowledge and skills for children. The explanations they gave were not really reasonable, this could come from many reasons but a very basic reason is that the awareness of preschool teachers about using VLTN in organizing activities to develop knowledge and skills for 5-6 year old preschool children was not really complete, the purpose of organizing lessons using VLTN was not aimed at the task of developing knowledge and skills for children in a suitable way.

e/ Apply measures to use VLTN in organizing HĐCG to develop knowledge and skills for 5-6 year old preschool children

In order to effectively train and develop the ability to use natural materials for preschool children aged 5-6 in the teaching activities using natural materials, it is necessary to develop scientific and reasonable measures. The results of the survey on the current situation of preschool teachers in the survey area applied measures to use natural materials in the teaching activities to develop the ability to use natural materials for preschool children aged 5-6.

– 6 years old is shown in table 2.13.

Table 2.13. Current status of preschool teachers applying measures to use VLTN in organizing activities to develop knowledge and skills for 5-6 year old preschool children

S TT

Measures

Application level (n=150)

Average

Rank

Frequent

Sometimes

Less applicable

TL (%)

Exploiting rich and diverse sources of natural resources to build an educational environment for HĐCG to stimulate interest and needs.

child QS request;

60.0

19.3

20.7

2.39

Create problematic situations during the organization of HDCG

Using VLTN helps children identify QS purposes and tasks;

52.0

21.3

26.7

2.25

Guide children to master the process

QS in HĐCG using VLTN;

52.0

46.0

2.40

Organize for children to experience diverse QS tasks in the forms of organization of HDCG used.

rich source of VLTN;

51.3

24.7

24.0

2.27

Organize youth to practice using QS methods appropriate to each subject in

HDCG uses VLTN;

52.0

37.3

10.7

2.41

Guide and give children hands-on experience in detecting and describing QS results.

in the process of organizing HĐCG using VLTN;

38.0

46.0

16.0

2.22

Guide and give children practice in how to effectively evaluate QS during the organization process.

HDCG uses VLTN.

49.3

6.7

2.35

Average score

2.33

Note: Low level: 1.00 ≤ GPA <2.00; Average level: 2.00 ≤ GPA <2.41; High level: 2.41 ≤ GPA≤ 3.00.

With the average score of 2.33, it shows that the measures to use VLTN in organizing teaching activities to develop children's knowledge of natural sciences are applied at an average level by teachers in the surveyed preschools . These measures are carried out at different levels, in which the measure with the most frequent application rate by preschool teachers is Organizing children to practice experiences using appropriate teaching methods for each subject in teaching activities using VLTN (ranked 1st with an average score of 2.41); Guiding children to master the teaching process in teaching activities using VLTN is ranked 2nd with an average score of 2.40). This proves that preschool teachers have understood when organizing for

When children use VLTN in teaching activities to develop their knowledge of quality, measures to let children experience using QS methods and help them master the QS process during the organization of teaching activities using VLTN play a very important role in helping children collect the most accurate and complete information about the QS object, thereby forming a rich symbolic and figurative capital for children's creative activities of piecing together products from VLTN.

Ms. Tran Thi O (Hoa Sen Kindergarten) shared: " When participating in the activities using natural materials, many children have not yet determined which sense to use to contact and examine the characteristics and properties of natural materials or assembled products. They often look around aimlessly or do not know where to start or where to use the appropriate sense to examine the object and how to examine it. If the kindergarten teachers do not guide and model specifically, these children will not be able to discover the aesthetic characteristics of natural materials to build creative ideas later. Therefore, I and other kindergarten teachers often have to guide and model very carefully for these children. Gradually, when examining and coming into contact with natural materials or models and assembled products, these children will also grasp the process of examining and using appropriate senses to examine the characteristics of the object."

The survey results also showed that the measure of guiding and letting children practice and experience how to detect and describe the results of QS in the process of organizing activities using VLTN was not considered important and given due attention by teachers, ranking 7th in the ranking (average score 2.22).

Ms. Hoang Thi H (Nhi Chau Kindergarten) said: "The number of children in each class is very large, so when organizing the activities using VLTN, we only focus on covering the children's creative tasks without much time for them to describe the results of the QS or give analysis and comments on the QS object. Most of our teachers limit the use of this method, we only use this method at the beginning of the class when children QS samples or at the end of the class when displaying, commenting and evaluating products and it can only be applied to 1 or 2 children".

Talking with some teachers, we found that the measure of exploiting rich and diverse natural resources to create an educational environment for the activities to stimulate children's interest and need to observe is also an attractive measure chosen by many teachers, ranked 3rd (average score is 2.39), but in reality, when implementing this measure, they encounter many difficulties. The main reason is that teachers in the city find it difficult to collect natural resources. Moreover, collecting, preserving and using natural resources requires a lot of effort and investment of time and effort from teachers. To have a diverse amount of natural resources to create an educational environment for the activities to suit educational topics, teachers must invest a lot of effort in searching, collecting and preserving.

Ms. Dang Kim O (Hoa Su Kindergarten) added: “When organizing a lesson on “Making a fish from water fern”, our teachers had to ask relatives to find water fern stalks shaped like a fish in the countryside where there are ponds and rivers, carefully preserving them without crushing them so as to keep the freshness of the water fern for decoration, creating an environment for children to practice and create shapes. This requires teachers to put in a lot of effort, sometimes it is a great feat, so we are very reluctant to implement this measure.”

The measures that the surveyed teachers are using in the process of organizing activities using natural materials to develop scientific knowledge for 5-6 year old preschool children are not really effective. Teachers have not been able to exploit these measures flexibly and thoroughly. There are still many limitations that need to be overcome and they are not feasible.

From the survey results assessing the status of using VLTN in organizing activities to develop children's knowledge and skills of preschool teachers, we found that: Most preschool teachers have identified the goals, implemented some contents, implemented forms, methods and measures to use VLTN in the process of organizing activities to develop knowledge and skills for 5-6 year old preschool children, but the level of identifying and implementing the goals and contents is not complete and implementing forms, methods and measures is still limited and inconsistent, so the educational effectiveness still has many shortcomings and limitations that need to be overcome. This is the basis for us to propose and test some measures to use VLTN in organizing activities to develop knowledge and skills for 5-6 year old preschool children in preschools.

2.2.2.2. Analysis of teacher's work products

Table 2.14. Statistics of the operating products analyzed during the survey

Topic

GV products

Quantity

Children's products

Quantity

1. Family

Plan for organizing patchwork lessons

- Decorate postcards for relatives from VLTN and colored paper (according to given themes).

- Create themed paintings from leaves and cotton, fabric, newspaper... (Topic of your choice)

- Postcards made from natural materials and colored paper.

- Family themed paintings from leaves and objects

other materials

Outdoor activity planning

- Collect and classify leaves from the school garden to use as creative materials;

- Build a house with VLTN (According to the model).

- Leaves

- House made of VLTN

Plan for organizing fun activities

- Game: Arrange and paste leaves to create a themed picture (According to the given topic)

- Arrange the letters learned from VLTN (According to the model)

- Leaf collage

- Letter model arranged from VLTN

Job

Plan for organizing patchwork lessons

- Making tools for various trades from scrap and natural materials (According to model);

- Decorate the teacher's outfit with flowers and leaves (Topic given).

- Tools for various trades made from VLTN

- Ao dai model decorated with flowers and leaves.

Outdoor activity planning

- Create labor tools from natural materials (According to given topic).

- Labor tools from VLTN

Plan for organizing fun activities

- Game: Look at pictures of ceramics;

- Observe the costumes of the professions.

Studying the educational content in the HĐCG program using VLTN for 5-6 year old preschool children in the documents: GDMN Program [6]; Guidelines for organizing and implementing the Preschool education program for 5-6 year old preschool children [73], we found that the documents clearly and fully define the objectives as well as the educational and development content of HĐCG using VLTN towards training children's creative skills, the content of training children's creative skills has not been separated as an element in the structure of the program, lacking specific suggestions for preschool teachers to implement. However, the current GDDMN program is a framework program, only providing general guidelines and suggestions, preschool education facilities are completely proactive in choosing the objectives and content to implement for preschool teachers to implement educational plans suitable for children, suitable for the practical conditions of their locality, school, and preschool class.

Observing, analyzing plans and lesson plans (Table 2.14) and directly interviewing 20 teachers of 12 schools in the survey, we can draw the following conclusions:

- The purpose of using VLTN in organizing HĐCG is to develop children's military skills.

+ Help children express their attitudes, feelings and use their own suggestive words to describe colors, shapes, layouts... in their creative works, stimulate children's interest and enthusiasm in observing natural materials and objects described in the activities shown in 35 activities organization plans of preschool teachers (accounting for 44%);

+ Select and combine raw materials, construction materials, and scrap to create products shown in 57 construction planning documents (accounting for 71%);

+ Coordinate many shaping skills to create products with balanced colors, sizes, shapes, lines and layouts; Comment on shaping products in terms of color, shape, lines and layouts... shown in 72 plans for organizing creative activities (accounting for 90%).

Thus, the plans of GVMN do not clearly show the goal of developing children's creative thinking skills; There is no goal of forming in children the ability to actively search and choose appropriate creative thinking methods to improve the effectiveness of creative thinking activities and awareness in the process of searching for suitable creative materials to create composite products.

- Content of using VLTN in organizing HĐCG to develop KNQS

+ Exploiting the typical aesthetic aspects from local natural resources applied to the activities, thereby developing children's knowledge and skills with familiar topics such as: Making tools for different professions from scrap and natural materials; Decorating teachers' costumes from flowers and leaves; Building a house with natural materials... shown in 50 plans (accounting for 63%);

+ Using VLTN and other creative materials to express the content of the topic such as: Decorating postcards for relatives from VLTN and colored paper; Creating themed paintings from leaves and cotton, fabric, newspaper... expressed in 30 plans (accounting for 37%);

+ Using VLTN creates many opportunities and contexts to help children orient their goals and determine their tasks in extracurricular activities using VLTN with the content: collecting leaves, playing with leaves, making tools for different occupations from VLTN, ceramic pictures, occupations... shown in 49 plans (accounting for 61.2%);

+ Exploiting the beauty of VLTN forms the ability to select and coordinate QS methods suitable for the QS object to collect information about the described object, learn and select shaping materials, shown in 37 plans (accounting for 46.2%).

Thus, the teachers have developed content using natural materials combined with other creative materials for children to create composite products during the organization of activities, thereby training children's creative thinking skills. However, the content of using natural materials in organizing activities is still monotonous, not really attractive, not fully exploiting the rich local natural resources (mainly using natural materials of plant origin) and using natural materials as the main teaching tool to help children acquire creative thinking techniques, foster and consolidate creative thinking skills for children.

- Forms of using VLTN in organizing HĐCG to develop children's military skills

+ The matching lesson is used by teachers for all children in the class to perform a common QS task under direct guidance from the teacher. In which, the matching lesson according to a given topic and the matching lesson according to a model are chosen by 63 teachers (79%), the matching lesson according to a self-selected topic is chosen by 17 teachers (21%);

+ Using forms of organizing extracurricular activities such as: extracurricular activities combined with outdoor activities and extracurricular activities combined with play activities, for groups (5-7 children) to perform small, simple QS tasks associated with specific, simple descriptive objects, increasing opportunities for children to QS and apply their QS skills freely, used by 71 preschool teachers (89%).

Thus, preschool teachers have conducted various forms of organizing teaching activities using natural materials to develop children's knowledge of natural resources. However, children's knowledge activities are often organized very quickly by teachers. Preschool teachers have not paid attention to linking the training of children's knowledge of natural resources to this form of organizing teaching activities. The effectiveness of applying knowledge results to children's knowledge activities is still limited.

- Methods and measures for using VLTN in organizing HĐCG to develop children's military skills

The methods and measures of using VLTN in organizing activities to develop knowledge and skills for 5-6 year old preschool children that preschool teachers apply are relatively diverse and rich, suitable for the process of organizing activities.

+ Coordinate the methods of using VLTN in organizing HĐCG to develop children's knowledge and skills such as: verbal method; experiential practice method; visual illustration method; exemplary method, evaluation shown in all 80 plans (100%).

+ In addition, measures such as: Decorating the classroom environment with creative materials to stimulate children's imagination; Giving children natural objects and familiar phenomena in the school yard and garden; Organizing practice observing natural materials and creative products during class hours... are also used by 100% of preschool teachers.

However, the process of implementing and applying methods and measures by teachers is still formalistic and superficial, not maximizing the effectiveness of the methods to develop children's creative thinking skills; The measure of creating an environment with natural materials and composite products from natural materials to stimulate children's creative thinking has not been exploited and utilized to the fullest by teachers. The arrangement of space and decoration of the classroom environment is still messy between the types of creative materials, not creating attraction and attraction for children's creative thinking skills; Teachers have not created many situations in the process of exploiting the aesthetic characteristics of natural materials to create composite products to develop children's creative thinking skills.