Research On Teachers’ Instructional Support Behavior Of Exploration In Group Sessions During Kindergarten Whole-Group Science Lessons

Kindergarten science education activities have unique and important value for children’s physical and mental development.In scientific exploration and discovery,children can not only acquire scientific knowledge,master skills and methods,but also cultivate their own literacy and ability to discover and solve problems in the process of exploration.The process of children’s scientific inquiry is inseparable from the support,guidance and help of teachers.At present,there are still many problems in teachers’ instructional support behavior in kindergarten science education activities,especially in the group inquiry link with children’s independent exploration and scientific discovery as the main purpose,teachers’ support concepts and strategies need to be improved and promoted urgently.In-depth research on teachers’ instructional support behavior in the group inquiry of kindergarten science education activities is conducive to improving the quality of teachers’ instructional support and plays an important role in guiding children’s scientific inquiry and acquiring rich scientific knowledge and ability.Therefore,this study explores teachers’ instructional support behavior from the point of group inquiry,focusing on four questions:(1)What is the current situation of teachers’ instructional support behavior in the group inquiry of kindergarten science education activities?(2)What are the problems of teachers’ instructional support behavior in the group inquiry of kindergarten science education activities? What are the reasons for the problems?(3)What are the suggestions for optimizing teachers’ instructional support behavior in the group inquiry of kindergarten science education activities? After clarifying the above inquiry questions,the study selects 56 group inquiry links in 30 science education activities in 8 kindergartens in C and S cities as the research object,and adopts observation and interview as the main methods to carry out the research.Using the Code Table of Teachers’ Instructional Support Behavior and Children’s Cognitive Response,this paper sorts out and codes the words and deeds of teachers and children in group inquiry,so as to analyze the present situation,existing problems and reasons of teachers’ instructional support behavior in group inquiry.Finally,it is concluded that there are three problems in teachers’ tinstructional support behavior: low frequency of teachers’ instructional support behavior,low efficiency of teachers’ instructional support behavior and inappropriate timing and method of providing instructional support.The reasons mainly include teachers’ lack of understanding of instructional support behavior;Teachers’ instructional knowledge in the field of science is insufficient;The low teacher-child ratio makes it difficult for teachers to provide support for every child;The time arrangement of kindergarten science education activities lacks flexibility;The content of science education is difficult to meet the learning needs of children.In view of the problems and reasons of teachers’ instructional support behavior in the group inquiry of science education activities,this study puts forward five suggestions: to ask questions effectively based on children’s existing learning experience;Inspire children to think and explore deeply through positive feedback;Support children to express their thoughts and wishes in language;Make full use of group inquiry to support and guide children’s learning;Carry out kindergarten-based teaching research and training to optimize teachers’ teaching support behavior.