At the heart of such popular pedagogical methods today as the Montessori method, the method of the Waldorf school, lies primarily the principle of clarity. Practical and visual methods of teaching are aimed at giving the child not only the idea of the phenomenon being studied, but also the experience of contact with it.
Characteristics of visual teaching methods
Visual methods of teaching are aimed at visually sensual acquaintance of students with the objective world, phenomena of the world, etc. In this method, two main subspecies are distinguished:
- method of illustrations (to achieve pedagogical results, tables, diagrams, pictures, maps are used);
- method of demonstrations (when students during the learning process are presented with various experiments, installations, scientific and educational films).
In turn, practical methods of instruction are aimed at developing students' practical skills during the performance of various tasks (laboratory work, practical work, participation in didactic games).
Visual methods of teaching preschool children are the best way to interest a child with a studied subject. Using them, the teacher not only talks about some phenomenon, but also demonstrates his or her image.
It is visual aids (especially if a child can not only look at them, but also produce some kind of activity with them) become the main means of teaching in such pedagogical systems.
Games using visual aids
"Broken ladder"
Visual aids: 10 prisms, which differ in height from each other, the base is 5x15 cm, the height of the highest prism is 10 cm, the lowest is 1 cm.
The course of the game. The teacher suggests that the children build a ladder, placing the prisms in order, gradually reducing their height. In case of difficulties, the teacher compares the individual prisms in height. After that, the children turn away, and the leader takes out one step and shifts the others. One of the children who will say where the staircase is "broken" becomes the leader.
"What changed?"
Visual means: three-dimensional and flat geometric shapes.
The course of the game. The teacher with the help of children builds on the table a structure or pattern of flat geometric shapes. One child leaves the table and turns away. At this time in the building something is changing. At the signal of the educator, the child returns and determines what has changed: he names the forms and their place.
"What box?"
Visual aids: five boxes, the size of which gradually decreases. Sets of toys, 5 matryoshkas, 5 rings from the pyramid, 5 cubes, 5 bears. The sizes of toys also gradually decrease.
The course of the game. The educator divides a group of children into 5 subgroups and sets them around a rug on which all the toys lie alternately. Each subgroup is given a box and the caretaker asks: "Who has the biggest? At whom it is less? Who has less? Who is the smallest? "The biggest toys need to be put in the biggest box, the smaller ones in the smaller one, etc. Children should compare the mixed toys and put them in the right box. After the task is completed, the teacher checks the correctness of its execution and if the objects are not correctly laid out, he compares the objects one by one with another.