Technical education and technology have been developing constantly, and
technologically literate citizens are therefore a necessity in our modern society. Despite
an increasing number of innovations and developments in engineering and technology, it
is evident that these fields are neglected in the preschool period. Although children
express a great deal of interest in creative technical activities, child care professionals
either do not recognise it or lack confidence in their knowledge and skills to start planning
technical activities.
The aim of this thesis is to emphasise the importance of identifying developmental
characteristics for planning appropriate activities in preschool and to present the
developmental characteristics of five- and six-year old children. We classified games,
described each type of game and stressed the importance of playing in child development.
We focused on technological literacy and the process of technological education in the
preschool period. The empirical part aimed to check the attitude of child care
professionals to technology, their technological literacy and different ways of
technological education using a questionnaire. The analysis showed that child care
professionals rarely include technical activities in their work planning, for example wood
treatment with manual tools.
According to the findings of this thesis, we would like to motivate child care professionals
to prepare more often and offer children creative technical activities that promote a
creative way of thinking and acting. Most of the professionals would have to obtain
theoretical knowledge in technological literacy so that they could confidently approach
the planning of activities and create conditions to educate children in the field of
technology.
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