Taking into account gender characteristics of preschool children in the educational process
If we want to educate a person in all respects, then we must understand him in all respects.
K. D. Ushinsky
When we talk about boys or girls, we - whether we like it or not - constantly mean that there are differences in their psychology and behavior. The issues of upbringing and development of children of different sexes have recently attracted many researchers (T. P. Khrizman, V. D. Eremeeva, T. A. Repina, T. Doronova, etc.). This interest is due to the fact that modern requirements for an individual approach to personality formation cannot ignore the characteristics of the child’s gender, since these are biosociocultural characteristics. The period of preschool childhood is the time when a child discovers the unique opportunities given to him by his gender. In this regard, the goals of raising and educating boys and girls are seen in a new way. In this aspect, we are talking about gender education of children.
A gender approach in education is an individual approach to a child’s manifestation of his identity, which in the future gives a person greater freedom of choice and self-realization, helps to be flexible enough and be able to use different behavioral possibilities.
Designing a pedagogical process based on an individually differentiated approach in conditions of joint education of girls and boys in kindergarten is a modern and very urgent task.
Its relevance lies in the fact that the content of work with preschoolers, taking into account their gender characteristics, has not been sufficiently developed, which, according to researchers (T.V. Bendas, S.A. Marutyan, T.A. Repina) leads to the absence of specific traits in children , characteristic of gender. Boys lack emotional stability and endurance, while girls lack tolerance, modesty, and the desire for peaceful resolution of conflicts.[2, p.4]
The importance of this issue is also due to the fact that the preschool institution, as a social institution, continues to reproduce the strict standards of traditional culture regarding femininity and masculinity, which in turn does not contribute to the manifestation of the individuality of students.
In addition, one of the problems of raising children in preschool educational institutions is the predominantly female influence on the formation of the gender identity of children of different sexes. The strategy, forms and methods of working with children used in kindergarten are most often designed for girls.[2, p.11]
Thus, at present there are contradictions between:
- the objective need of society for raising children based on a gender approach and the practice of training and education in preschool educational institutions.
— the need for gender education, starting from preschool age, and the insufficient theoretical, practical, didactic, and methodological development of the conditions for gender education of preschoolers.
The relevance of the identified problem and the identified contradictions determined the choice of the theme of the concept “Taking into account the gender characteristics of preschool children in the educational process.”
When developing this topic, I proceeded from the assumption that the effectiveness of the process of gender education may be ensured by a set of the following pedagogical conditions:
1. Educating parents on issues of gender education for girls and boys.
2. Creating situations for preschoolers to fulfill gender roles.
3. Organization of a subject-development environment focused on the gender self-development of children.
4. Educating adults take into account the gender characteristics of children in the pedagogical process.
On this issue, I studied the scientific and methodological manuals by V. D. Eremeeva and T. P. Khrizman “Boys and Girls: Two Different Worlds”, A. M. Shchetinina and O. I. Ivanova “Sex-role development of children 5–7 years old ”, T. Doronova “Girls and boys 3-4 years old in the family and kindergarten”, N. A. Barannikova “About boys and girls, as well as their parents”, articles in the magazine “Preschool Education” No. 6, 2009. N. Tatarintseva “On gender role education of boys and girls: technological component”, No. 4, 2008. O. Nagel “On gender education of preschool children”, articles in the magazine “Kindergarten from A to Z” No. 1 2006. and others.
In the literature studied, the concept of “gender” is interpreted as the social sex of a person, formed in the process of personal upbringing and including psychological, social and cultural differences between men (boys) and women (girls), and existing properties and relationships are called gender.
The above authors consider the ideas of gender education from different positions, namely:
a) from the perspective of the characteristics of the functional organization of the brain (V. D. Eremeeva, T. P. Khrizman);
b) from the position of intergroup interaction of children (A. M. Shchetinina, O. I. Ivanova);
c) from the position of gender-role education and socialization of children (A. M. Shchetinina, O. I. Ivanova).
All of them do not contradict each other, since the same phenomenon is considered from the perspective of psychology, neurophysiology, pedagogy and sociology. But still, scientists distinguish between the concepts of gender and sex role education. What is their difference? The gender approach, unlike the sex-role approach, does not strictly regulate the pattern of behavior and interaction with people; the main thing in it is to take into account the interests of the individual and mitigate differences between the sexes.
The main influence on the development of my author’s idea was played by the research of T. P. Khrizman and V. D. Eremeeva. The authors hypothesized that the leading role in the development of mechanisms of socialization of sex roles is played by higher brain systems, which have different morphofunctional organizations and ensure a child’s tendency to develop under the influence of the upbringing of his behavioral patterns.
Gender differences are an interesting area to study. The psychological literature has accumulated information about age characteristics, learning ability, preferential methods of mental activity, behavioral characteristics, communication, choice of social roles, and developmental potential of children of different sexes.
Thus, boys and girls play and communicate differently, assert their individuality and show their aggressiveness, sympathize and care, solve new problems, and have different starting capabilities of physiological maturity and readiness for schooling. Interesting results were obtained by scientists during a study of the socio-psychological characteristics of the sexes.
Since there are objective gender differences, approaches to raising children of different sexes should be different.
I am currently working with children in their fourth year of life. The issue of gender education of children became very acute for me due to the fact that my group was dominated by boys. I had many difficulties in organizing children in different types of activities and in communicating with them.
In popular scientific literature, when characterizing early preschool age, there are several figurative definitions that reflect the specific characteristics of children three to four years old. For example, some scientists call this age “tender.”
At the same time, it is at this age that problems begin to appear when communicating with children: children do not listen to adults, cannot occupy themselves independently, and do not know how to express negative emotions in a form acceptable to others. At this time, children still exhibit a crisis of three years, which is characterized by negativism, stubbornness, obstinacy, self-will, devaluation of adults, etc.
But the most important thing is that by the age of three, children begin to clearly distinguish and recognize their gender characteristics: I am a boy, I am a girl. According to scientists, the gender identity of a child of this age includes:
- Appearance.
- Name.
— The image of “I” (in the present and future).
— Attitudes (of society and one’s own).
- Roles (of society and your own).
At this age, children's gender identity is consolidated; children distinguish people by gender based on external signs. [2, p.18]
Many experts believe that younger preschoolers are internally motivated to acquire values, interests and behavior patterns that correspond to their gender, for example, boys play with cars and don’t cry, girls play with dolls and like to dress up.[2, p.19]
But 3-4 year old children’s ideas about their own gender identity are not yet stable. For example, if the music director invites girls to dance, then several boys will definitely come out too.
Obviously, the content of gender consciousness of children aged 3–4 years is very limited, but it is sufficient to include tasks related to the formation of gender identity in the process of raising children.
These tasks are partially reflected in the “Childhood” program in the block of social and moral education, namely:
— Children’s mastery of different ways of interacting with adults and peers in play, in everyday communication and everyday activities; showing politeness and empathy in relationships.
— Encouraging children to be independent, active, and kind.
— Fostering independence in self-care.
— Facilitating children’s development of role-playing dialogue and behavior in games.
— Formation of ideas about people, about the features of their appearance, gender differences.
As can be seen from this list, the tasks relate mainly to awareness of the external differences between boys and girls and the formation of moral standards of behavior in communication, play, and everyday activities.
As a result of special research, scientists have found that at this age, gender identity is especially intensively formed in play and visual activities. [2, p.18]
It is in role-playing games that children learn gender behavior. Therefore, the creation of a play environment and the selection of play equipment taking into account the gender characteristics of children is an important condition for the implementation of a gender approach in raising children.
When organizing the play space, I pay attention to:
a) on the attractiveness of game material and role-playing paraphernalia in order to attract children to reflect socially approved images of female and male behavior in the game;
b) on the sufficiency and completeness of the material for games, during which girls reproduce the model of social behavior of a woman - a mother;
c) for the presence of attributes and markers of the play space for games - travel, in which boys are given the opportunity to play out the male model of behavior;
d) for the presence of attributes indicating role positions in the game.
It is known that boys love to run during games, scream, and play war. But if we consider that boys physiologically need more space for play, that in play they develop physically, learn to regulate their strength, and play helps them discharge accumulated energy, then there will be fewer reasons for reproach. I just try to create appropriate conditions for the game, free up as much space as possible in the group, while making sure that there is no manifestation of aggression in the game, teach game techniques and peaceful conflict resolution.
Girls' games require a small space. When organizing the environment, I take this feature into account. The group has selected many small toys, a sufficient number of strollers, dolls and other paraphernalia, and a kitchen corner has been created.
Teaching strategies, forms and methods of working with children used in kindergarten, as I said above, are most often designed for girls. A female teacher, naturally, does not have childhood experience of the experiences that preschool boys encounter when communicating with adults and children. Therefore, when communicating with boys, I was guided only by the idea that if they are boys, then, therefore, they are the embodiment of will, strength, and endurance. As a result of this, boys who are not at all courageous, but rather fearful, physically weak and very vulnerable, are systematically exposed to traumatic influences.
Knowing gender differences, it is possible to design an interaction process that helps to reveal the potential capabilities of children and their individual characteristics.
Table 1
Gender differences between boys and girls
| Girls | Boys |
| · Be the first to answer the teacher’s questions, trying to ensure that the answer is complete · When answering a teacher’s question, look him in the eyes and wait for an emotional reaction | · Do not rush to answer the teacher’s question, carefully consider what to answer · Speech is less developed than girls; it takes more time to find the right words |
| · Better developed auditory canal | · Poorly perceive explanations by ear, need visual reinforcement |
| · Better developed fine motor skills | · The development of the hand is 1.5 years behind that of girls |
| · Sensitive to intonation, form of assessment, and its publicity. They like it when they are admired in the presence of other people, parents | · It is significant to indicate that he has achieved results (learned to say hello, brush his teeth). The tendency is that having achieved results in some type of activity and having received satisfaction and joy, they are ready to repeat the same thing, which allows them to establish themselves in these achievements |
| · Play quiet games on family and everyday topics | · They love friendly fights, which is not a manifestation of aggression, but creates a positive emotional background · Love noisy games |
| · Superior in verbal abilities | Stronger in visual-spatial abilities |
| · Developed auditory perception | · Developed visual perception |
| · More suggestible | · Self-esteem is more stable |
| · They cope better with simple ones. Routine tasks | ·Higher math skills |
| · Great influence of heredity | · Great influence of the social environment |
| · Emotional, touchy, proud | · Emotional like girls, but tend to hide their emotions |
| · Relying on their closest vision, girls lay out their wealth in front of them; a small space is enough for them. In games they show the instinct of motherhood | · They rely on distant vision, run after each other, throw objects, shoot at a target, and use the entire surrounding space. If there is not enough horizontal space, then they master the vertical space (climb onto cabinets, etc.) |
| · Use bright colors in drawing, draw nouns, princesses, flowers | · In the drawings, dark colors draw verbs |
| · Are independent in demonstrating self-service skills | · Show helplessness in simple everyday affairs, in self-care |
| · An interesting person and his inner world | · Prefer exact sciences, are interested in issues that go beyond the surrounding reality |
| · Girls in the games will unite in small groups. In these groups there is less aggressiveness, more reciprocity, conversations are confidential | · Gaming associations are large |
| · Adapt well to new surroundings | · Adapt less well in a new environment, at school |
| · Interdependence is more acceptable. They gain their own individuality through interaction with others. | · Strive for independence. They show their individuality, trying to separate themselves from the teacher, from the mother |
| · Better perform standard tasks according to a template. Careful attention to detail at a high level. They learn rules and algorithms more easily, they like repetition tasks | · They perform better search activities and come up with new ideas. It is more difficult to complete multi-stage tasks, do not tolerate monotony, do not sit still, but love tasks that test their intelligence. |
| · After the start of classes, they quickly gain an optimal level of performance | Peak performance occurs at the end of the lesson |
After analyzing these differences, I developed an algorithm for interacting with girls and boys, which will help avoid many mistakes in raising children.
table 2
Algorithm for interaction between teacher and children, taking into account gender characteristics
| Gender characteristics of children | Ways and techniques of interaction between adults and children |
| Girls | |
| · Quickly grasp new information, but poorly relate to existing knowledge | · Present material slowly and measuredly, repeat standard tasks |
| · Developed auditory perception | · Select techniques with a focus on the auditory channel of perception, clarity is not important |
| · Sensitive to intonation, to emotional reactions of the teacher, they like it when they are admired | · The teacher’s speech is emotionally charged, praise in the presence of other people, parents |
| Perform tasks better in a gender-mixed group | · Offer group forms of activity, joint games, work |
| · Games are designed for near vision, people like to play with small objects | · Make mini-corners for games, discuss the arrangement of furniture in the doll corner |
| · They are the first to answer the teacher’s question, try to ensure that the answer is complete, look into the teacher’s eyes in anticipation of an emotional assessment. | · Look the girl in the eyes and give an emotionally charged assessment (well done, smart, etc.) |
| · Fine motor skills are better developed | · Offer games with small objects, drawing |
| · Girls quickly gain an optimal level of performance, look up to the teacher | Offer more difficult tasks at the beginning of the lesson |
| · They perform template work and typical tasks better. | · Maximum requirements for accuracy and thoroughness, minimum requirements for search and innovation. |
| Boys | |
| · Do work better alone | · Offer individual assignments |
| · High activity of mental work under time pressure | · You can set a time frame for completing a task |
| · Better developed visual perception, poor understanding of explanations by ear | · Select techniques with a focus on the visual channel of perception |
| · React little to intonation and voice modulation. The voltage peaks in the first minutes, then turns off the auditory canal and the information does not reach his consciousness | · Speak calmly, you can’t scold for a long time, whipping up emotions |
| · They like to explore all the space, games are designed for long-range vision | · Provide space for games, play equipment for climbing in horizontal and vertical planes |
| · Everyone wants to be a leader | · Create competitive situations where everyone could become a leader, a winner |
| · When a teacher asks about something, they do not rush to answer, think it over carefully, do not look them in the eye, and can walk around the group | · Do not rush the answer, do not demand a verbatim retelling, so that the boy looks into the eyes. |
| The development of the hand is 1.5 years behind | · Experiences difficulties in activities and self-care |
| · Emotional like girls, but hide their emotions | · Allow to show your emotions, your feelings, do not hold back (Boys don’t cry) |
| · Evaluation of actions is important | · Praise for something (well done, you learned to tie your shoelaces, etc.) |
| · Peak performance at the end of the lesson, they sway for a long time, do not look at the teacher | · At the beginning of the lesson, offer simple tasks, followed by more complex ones of a search nature. |
| · They perform search activities better, can offer a non-standard solution, the requirements for quality, thoroughness, and accuracy of its execution are low | · Offer to put forward an idea, come up with something. Don't give ready answers |
Taking into account the gender characteristics of children allows me to create a positive psychological climate in interaction in the child-child, child-adult system. Boys become more harmonious, their emotional sphere develops. In children, the manifestations of the three-year-old crisis are smoothed out, mental abilities and social skills develop.
The work carried out does not pretend to be an exhaustive analysis of all aspects of the problem under study due to its diversity. Further study of the problem can be continued in the following areas:
— Features of gender education at different stages of preschool childhood.
— Features of gender education of children in different types of activities.
Boys and girls are two different worlds. Very often we misunderstand what is behind their actions, which means we react to them incorrectly. A boy and a girl should never be raised the same way. They look and see differently, listen and hear, speak and remain silent, feel and experience. Let's try to understand and accept our boys and girls as they are, as different and beautiful in their own way as nature created them.
Literature:
1. Barannikova, N. A. About boys and girls, as well as their parents. Methodological manual for teachers of preschool institutions. M.: TC Sfera, 2012. - 128 p.
2. Doronova, T. N. Girls and boys 3–4 years old in the family and kindergarten: A manual for preschool educational institutions. - M.: Linka-Press, 2009. - 224 p.
3. Eremeeva, V.D., Khrizman, T.P. Boys and girls - two different worlds. Neuropsychologists - teachers, educators, parents, school psychologists. - M.: LINKA-PRESS, 1998. - 184 p.
4. Kolomiychenko, L. V. Dynamics and features of gender-role socialization of boys and girls of preschool age // Kindergarten from A to Z No. 1 2006.
5. Nagel O. On gender education of preschoolers //Preschool education. — No. 6 2009.
6. Repina, T. A. The problem of gender-role socialization of preschoolers // Kindergarten from A to Z. - No. 1 2006.
7. Tatarintseva, N. About gender role education of boys and girls: technological component // Preschool education. - No. 4 2008.
8. Chekalina, A. A. What is gender? //Kindergarten from A to Z. - No. 1 2006.
9. Shchetinina A. M., Ivanova O. I. Gender-role development of children 5–7 years old: Methodological manual. - M.: TC Sfera, 2010. - 128 p.
Family is the basis of gender education
Acceptance of a gender role occurs in preschool age:
- A two or three year old child begins to realize whether he is a boy or a girl, and tries to behave in accordance with his gender. In addition, children can accurately determine the gender of people around them, first of all, by looking at clothing and hairstyle.
- Between the ages of 4 and 7 years, gender stability is established. the child realizes that this is a stable value and does not change under the influence of the situation or at will. The girl grows into a woman, and the boy grows into a man.
Psychologists and educators emphasize that the development of gender stability occurs under the influence of sociocultural norms. Gender roles are learned by the child based on parental example. The mother in the family acts as an example of femininity, gentleness, and beauty. The father is an example of strength, care, and masculinity.
Preschool children largely copy the traits characteristic of their parents of the same sex and want to be like them. Attitudes towards the opposite sex also develop under the influence of the family. Boys, growing up, strive to find a wife who is similar to their mother, and girls look for resemblance to their father in their husband.
The relationship between mother and father is very significant for the formation of children’s gender attitudes. The task of parents is to be a personal example, to show care, love, respect and trust in each other. Then the children will absorb this as the norm of marital relations and will strive to create a strong and happy family.
