HOW TO TEACH PRESCHOOL CHILDREN TO THINK

Abstract

The teaching that aims at enhancing thinking ability is important and should start at early childhood since this is the age that the child’s brain is developing rapidly.  Also, this is the age that the children are curious by nature.  They like to observe, explore, and ask questions.  Development of thinking ability for preschool children will enable the children to apply it in their daily living.  It is also an important component that enables the children to solve their problems and make decisions appropriately and rationally.  Furthermore, it is also the foundation for learning and thinking at the higher levels.  The provision of experiences that allows the children to have direct experience of learning by doing can enhance and develop thinking ability of preschool children.  The teachers and persons who are involved in child development must give importance to organizing activities appropriate to the children’s age, giving enough time for the children to think freely, giving opportunity for the children to have fun in thinking either alone or with friends, and creating both physical environment that is flexible and can modify the use of physical areas based on the situations with sufficient and various media and equipment, and mental environment that enables the children to feel warm, not under any pressure, and free to think creatively and review their previous knowledge and memory to mix and integrate in order to create new knowledge and thinking that are different from their previous ones.