Introduction
The older preschool age has specific characteristics that condition the orientation of activities in kindergarten and preparation for assuming the role of a pupil (Fredrickson, L. B. 2001, Gáborová, Ľ. 2005, Matthews, D. M. 2008, Lipnická, M. 2013). After completing pre-primary education, parents assume that the child is equipped with the knowledge, skills and habits needed for a successful entry into the first grade of primary school. Work in the oldest age group also includes diagnostic activity by the teacher aimed at revealing signs of adaptation difficulties in future pupils. Preventive activities, formation of required skills, and acquisition of knowledge are part of preschool preparation. The presence of the adaptation context, prevention and identification of signs of adaptation difficulties is the basis of a successful transition into first grade (Broström, S.2003, Dunlop, A-W. 2002, Margetts, K. 2002, Griebel, W. – Niesel, R. 2006, O´Kane, M. 2016).
1 Preschool Preparation of Future Pupils
Preparation in kindergarten is characterized by a comprehensive approach and a broad influence of the educational environment on the development of the child’s personality. Conditions, means and educational situations in preschool education correspond to the specificities of preschool children, directed toward their systematic improvement and attainment of school readiness. Goal-directed preparation for work in the first grade of primary school is long-term and present throughout the entire duration of pre-primary education. Its intensity and concreteness are higher in work with the oldest group of children, future pupils. In the focus are children who, through preschool preparation at kindergarten, can cope better with primary school requirements than peers who did not attend pre-primary education. Based on research conclusions, L. S. Kagan and J.M. Neuman (1998, in: Fabian, H. – Dunlop, A. W. 2007) point to the need for preschool education that provides adequate preparation for entry into the first grade of primary school.
In the final phase of pre-primary education, the preschooler, the future pupil, prepares to master the new role of pupil. Its characteristics touch all aspects of the child’s personality and the resulting changes affect family, preschool, and school environments. The result of preschool preparation in kindergarten is the attainment of school readiness. Its level determines the ability to meet school requirements.
To ensure a smooth and successful transition from kindergarten to primary school, S. Bronström (2003) identified a set of necessary factors with equal influence. The success of beginning school attendance, and the elimination of adaptation difficulties, depends on the child’s individual level of readiness for school education, parental support and family environment, completion of pre-primary education, continuity of curriculum content at different educational levels, and the kindergarten teacher. High-quality educational environment depends on teacher pedagogical activity, where the teacher can respond to children’s needs, stimulate their enthusiasm and interest, and support comprehensive personality development according to their individual potential.
Before school attendance begins, teachers, parents and children have at the center a set of skills that support academic success in primary school. Research studies within the “Family Life Project” defined academic, cognitive, and socio-emotional skills. Academic skills include mathematical and literacy skills, which are strong predictors of later academic success in school. Cognitive skills include executive and language functioning, concretized in the acquisition of skills needed for further literacy development at school. (Burchinal, M. et al. 2019)
Kindergarten, through artificial or spontaneous situations, stimulates the child’s desire to become a pupil. B. Pupala and M. Branická (2002) note that as an external distinguishing sign, children mention differences in the content of activities in primary school, with a stronger presence of learning, and in kindergarten, with the dominance of play. Children understand the need for a gradual detachment from toys and play, which they perceive as a prerequisite for entering primary school. Future pupils expect serious study duties, institutionally organized school learning activities, tasks and discipline.
Kindergarten should individually refine the required knowledge, skills and abilities of the child for entry into first grade. The set of competencies formed in the future pupil becomes the starting point for work at the beginning of school attendance, where the teacher appropriately continues it both in content and in activity.
T. Slezáková (2013) explains differences between play and instructional-cognitive activity, because the content and form of mastery must be respected. In guided instructional activity, there is a cognitive relation of the individual to reality, which play does not include. According to T. Slezáková (2009), intentionally directed activity in kindergarten is the beginning of the child’s intellectual work. The future pupil develops a need to understand the world and uncover relationships, which is a prerequisite for successful school education. Directed activity satisfies and stimulates the child’s curiosity and guides it toward independence.
2 Predispositions of the Future Pupil to Learning Activities
In pre-primary education, the predispositions of future pupils toward learning activities are formed progressively. Their content includes all aspects of the child’s personality. Comprehensive influence on their development is the starting point for achieving a necessary level of learning prerequisites. The teacher carries out deliberate and guided activities aimed at achieving and improving the individual level of readiness for school education.
Learning activity, which is the content of pre-primary education, has specific characteristics in the preschool age and appears in the form of an instructional-cognitive task. An important prerequisite for increasing the success of initial teaching is the acquisition of the level of components of instructional-cognitive activity, which should be developed throughout the entire pre-primary period. (N. P. Sazonovova, in: Slezáková, T. 2012)
Figure 1: Components of instructional-cognitive activity in kindergarten
2.1 Motivation
The kindergarten teacher stimulates children’s activities in accordance with their needs, interests and emotions. Children in the oldest age group possess a set of knowledge and experiences that they can apply and develop in instructional-cognitive activities. According to T. Slezáková (2012), the motivation component includes several specific motives, among which future pupils are dominated by cognitive motives (enriching knowledge, acquiring something new). In this context, evaluative motives (receiving feedback on completed activity), social motives (the importance of learning for the future, education as a prerequisite for a profession), achievement motives (sense of success, desire to be the best), and external motives (participation in school teaching—grade, praise) are also represented.
Before entering the first grade, motivation to learn and to be educated is present, which in a broader context represents motivation for school attendance. Kindergarten teacher work requires developing children’s cognitive interests and curiosity, motivation to acquire new knowledge and to learn, with school as a whole.
B. Kasáčová and M. Cabanová (2011), regarding indicators of school readiness diagnosed at the beginning of school attendance, classify motivational prerequisites as part of socio-affective readiness. Their content is related to the pupil’s interest in learning, school activities, appropriate experience of joy and responsibility, and formation of volitional traits for academic success. T. I. Babajevová (1990, in: Slezáková, T. – Tirpáková, A. 2006) describes three motives that form the structure of the emotional-motivational component of school readiness. The social motive is specified as the child’s desire to become a pupil, readiness for learning activity at school and a new social position. The moral motive represents the child’s desire to be a good pupil. The future pupil wants to learn what is new; the preschool mode no longer satisfies the child, who wants to study and know a lot, which includes a cognitive motive.
In pedagogical practice, desired activities shape future pupils’ ideas about school education. In the context of learning activity, it is necessary to know its significance, activate attention, spark and sustain interest throughout its duration. By the end of pre-primary education, the child should be internally motivated to act, which is a prerequisite for mastering future school obligations through self-initiated activity. A. O. Michajlenko (2000, in: Slezáková, T. 2013) also emphasizes the ability to accept tasks and methods of activity that the teacher sets for the whole group. In work with the oldest age group in kindergarten, it is important to pay attention to the motivational sphere of the future pupil, which is a prerequisite for a successful entry into first grade. Neglect of motivation may have a negative impact on the adaptation period and the emergence of adaptation difficulties.
2.2 The Learning Task
Deliberate activity in kindergarten aims at fulfilling the learning task. The child, in line with individual characteristics, strives for the best possible result. A spontaneous or artificially created learning situation becomes the basis of the learning task in kindergarten. A learning task is an outcome requiring the child’s own effort. (N. P. Sazonovova, in: Slezáková, T. 2012)
Learning tasks in pre-primary education are oriented toward comprehensive personality development. Before entry into first grade, cognitive level of the future pupil is predominantly assessed. Z. Kolláriková and B. Pupala (2010) emphasize that preschool preparation is not focused only on increasing cognitive level, but places emphasis on children’s self-confidence, self-assuredness and optimal self-esteem. A. Kruszewska (2018) also refers to selected authors (Goleman 1997, 1999, 2007, Albrecht 2007), who consider social and emotional skills more important than cognitive development for future child success. The teacher should create equivalent opportunities for strengthening cognitive, socio-emotional and psychomotor skills. Concretization of these skills in pre-primary and primary education allows their comprehensive acquisition as a stable characteristic of the individual. (Raptis, I. – Spanaki, E. 2016) The set of competencies formed in the future pupil becomes the starting point for work at the beginning of school attendance, where the teacher appropriately continues it in content and activity. Entry into school therefore requires comprehensive preparation, which is a prerequisite for a successful start to primary education and at the same time for preventing or eliminating adaptation difficulties.
Stimulus and encouragement from the teacher are prerequisites for gaining new knowledge, skills and experiences. The future pupil develops self-regulation in activity, which leads to self-regulated learning. Each learning task should develop all aspects of the child’s personality, which specifies comprehensive preparation for school education. Initial teaching includes many learning tasks that require mobilization of the pupil’s efforts. If a beginning pupil cannot determine what his or her task is and does not make an effort to achieve it, a negative phenomenon arises, predisposing to adaptation difficulties. Related demands of school education then cannot be met and problems appear. Through her diagnostic work in kindergarten, the teacher can identify signs present in the future pupil’s learning-cognitive activity at the end of pre-primary education. Kindergarten teacher work includes encouraging effort and supporting achievement of children’s activity outcomes.
2.3 Learning Activity
The set of components of instructional-cognitive activity also includes learning activities, which N. P. Sazonovova (2010, in: Slezáková, T. 2012) explains on three levels:
- as opportunities and methods for solving the learning task,
- as activities for acquiring knowledge and gaining experience,
- as procedures for solving different tasks, e.g., analysis, experimentation, generalization.
Execution of learning activities in kindergarten requires several abilities of the future pupil. A.O. Michajlenko (2000, in: Slezáková, T. 2013) describes them as the child’s subjective position in learning activity. The starting point of individual activities is the teacher’s instructions, which the child should understand and carry out to complete the task. In pedagogical practice, their adequacy, consistency, verifiability and clarity are expected. A child is able to work according to a given model, which will later be compared with the individual result. Despite the given model, the future pupil should be guided toward independence in solving varied tasks and using their own creativity.
Learning activities represent several partial components, and failure or deficiencies in them can lead to problems when entering first grade. Learning activities form the basis of school teaching, which contributes to the presence of many adaptation difficulties. To prevent these, sufficient attention should be given to the level of children’s learning activities in pre-primary education. Pedagogical work by the kindergarten teacher with the oldest age group allows their discovery, refinement and verification.
2.4 Control
In the process of intentional learning in the preschool age, control is represented as part of instructional-cognitive activities. At its end, evaluation of activity results is necessary. In kindergarten, this is control that gradually leads to self-control. The result of activity is compared with a model and contextualized as knowledge, skill or habit. At the same time, it is important to emphasize continuous control of one’s own activity. The future pupil forms the ability to monitor themselves, verify the process of work and assess it. (N. P. Sazonovova, in: Slezáková, T. 2012)
Implementation of instructional-cognitive activity in kindergarten expects feedback from the teacher, who comments on its course and result. The child needs information about the correctness of their thinking and actions. By the end of pre-primary education, the child should be able to evaluate and control intended procedures and achieved results. The kindergarten teacher should encourage pupils to produce related explanations, which they can gradually do independently and without prompting. Error in carrying out activity, use of an inappropriate solution method, or achievement of an incorrect result is a source of failure for the child. In initial teaching, it can be a cause of adaptation difficulties, whose prevention requires attention in kindergarten. The child in the oldest age group acquires the ability to control process and outcome through experiences from guided learning activities.
3 Cooperation with the Family of the Future Pupil
The beginning of school attendance relates not only to the personality of the child entering school but also to the family environment. Stakeholders pursue a shared goal—a smooth transition into primary school and successful adaptation. Active cooperation between preschool and family environment belongs among the determinants of future pupil adaptation.
Preparation of the child for entry into primary school is carried out in the family and in kindergarten. In contact with parents, emphasis is placed on the significance of the final year of pre-primary education and its influence on future school education. Parents participate in child development in the interest of successful entry into first grade. (Otevřelová, H. 2016)
Cooperation between kindergarten and family has a positive effect on the child—its overall development in pre-primary and family environments, as well as on parents motivated to support children’s learning. The content of mutual cooperation includes examples of interaction with children, prompts for preparation in the home environment, and examples of stimulating and motivating children to discover. Parents receive important information about the child’s progress, while teachers form a holistic picture including information from the family. (Syslová, Z. 2017)
H. Yoshikawa (2013) emphasizes that support in the family environment increases the influence of preschool education on the development of children’s skills. Parents should provide opportunities for practice, give feedback, and respond to needs. Cooperation with the kindergarten teacher is aimed at achieving the required level of knowledge and skills for entry of the child into first grade.
The family acts as a means of support for children’s education and motivation to learn, which is concretized in a supportive learning environment at home, clear expression of expectations, and provision of opportunities, conditions and resources for self-education. (Boethel, M. 2004 )
The expected entry into first grade is an event for the entire family of the future pupil. Preparation in the home environment includes mutual conversations that may be spontaneous or specifically focused. The content is an introduction to future obligations, activities in school education and sharing of experiences.
A supportive family environment includes varied everyday situations through which the child prepares for the role of pupil. Parents cooperating with kindergarten can appropriately continue and develop the educational content in the home environment. Correct conceptions of required competencies form the basis of a sufficient level of starting readiness. Comprehensive and systematic preparation in the family can mitigate initial difficulties at the start of school attendance. (Slezáková, T. 2012)
Conclusion
Before the start of school attendance, it is necessary to stimulate the development of child prerequisites, including learning predispositions needed for school education and successful integration into the school environment. We consider it necessary to understand the possibilities that improve the quality of preschool preparation to increase the success of the adaptation process of the future pupil. Kindergarten has space to identify signs of adaptation difficulties and to carry out preventive activities. Through instructional-cognitive activities in pre-primary education, predispositions of the future pupil to school education are refined. Children in the oldest age group are confronted with specific educational challenges, whose mastery also requires family support. Mutual cooperation between the kindergarten teacher and parents of the future pupil underpins successful entry into first grade.
Author: Mgr. Radka Teleková
Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra
This paper was prepared with grant support. Grant designation: V/17/2020 (UGA UKF in Nitra). Grant title: Adaptation difficulties of pupils at the beginning of school attendance – their causes and manifestations*
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