由團體討論探究幼兒園主題課程的發展歷程—以Vygotsky的社會文化活動理論觀點

Abstract

Vygotsky認為環境是發展的來源，人類較高功能的心智是與環境互動而來。他認為在人類與環境互動之際所產生的活動是一種動態且集體的形式，也是構成我們真實生活的情境脈絡。活動之關鍵在於參與者的動機與意圖，而活動的目標則是經由協商的歷程來達共識。主題課程的形成是由教室內老師、幼兒與事件互動所構築而成，其特色是透過師/生或生/生一起探究，以協助兒童建構自己的知識，主題課程的形式是在教室社會文化之下，老師、幼兒與每日事件互動所產生的活動。因幼兒園中團體討論是課程進行的最主要活動，故本研究聚焦於探究幼兒園教室內，在自然運作情境之下，如何經由團體討論而形成完整的主題課程，以及在主題課程發展的歷程中如何提升兒童心智的內涵。本研究採Vygotsky的活動理論觀點來分析主題課程的發展脈絡及其內涵；資料的收集以某幼兒園班級內對主題課程的團體討論為場景，再針對師/生對談語料，以社會互動的語意分析，探究主題課程目標的形成，課程及活動發展的脈絡，以及課程發展歷程中教學相關工具所扮演的意義與功能。研究結果發現，在主題課程活動脈絡發展方面，共由八個活動所構築而成，該八個活動的每個目標發展，皆有其階層與順序性，而且呈現出具體化與精緻化的發展趨勢。在主題課程整體情境脈絡的發展上，呈現出迴繞、終止與直線三種形式。本研究建議，對於幼兒原採取師生共建的主題課程取向時，老師除應隨時檢視每日的課程活動內涵外，還須反思整體情境脈絡中所產生的目標與目標之間的順序性，以及目標發展的精緻性。在教學相關的工具方面發現，由於工具是師/生互動的產物，故建議老師應以主題課程中對於幼兒有意義的相關工具為教材。就主題課程的整體情境脈絡對於提升兒童心智的影響而言，發現兒童自發性概念的運用與成人的教導二者同等重要，所以建議，教師應善用兒童的實用知識以協助兒童習得新概念。As Vygotsky suggested, environment is the origin of human development, and the higher mental ability of human beings is derived from the interaction between individuals and their surroundings. He further pointed out the dynamic and collective nature of activities which produced in such interaction construct the context of real human life. The most important parts for those who involved in activity are their motivations and intentions; therefore, the goals of activity are achieved through their negotiations. The topic-centered curriculum emphasizes children should construct their own knowledge through the curricula and activities which developed by interaction among teachers, children and events under classroom social-cultural context. Because group discussion is the most important activity in developing curriculum, so the present research investigates how topic-centered curriculum is developed, and how children’s mental ability is promoted in this curriculum forming process, by collecting data from group discussion period of an intended choice early childhood classroom. Vygotsky’s theory of activity is taken for the purpose of analyzing curriculum content and context. The teacher/student and student /student dialogue data is analyzed by social-semantic approach in order to understand the formation of goals, curriculum, and activity, as well as the context of their development. The teaching-learning related tools and materials are also studied in terms of their meaning and function in the process of curriculum development. The research results indicate that the curriculum development context is constructed by eight major activities. Each goal of activities is connected and appears in levels and orders, which represents a trend of concretization and elaboration. In terms of whole curriculum development context, it presents three forms, circuit, suspend and linearity. The present study offers three applied suggestions to teachers adopted topic-centered curriculum approach. First, besides inspecting daily activity content, teachers shall also give serious consideration on the goals of activities concerning their levels and orders to concretization and elaboration. Second, in terms of teaching-learning related tools and materials, which are the products of interaction, therefore should be related to topics and make sense to students. Third, children’s spontaneous knowledge is as significant as teacher’s instruction, so teachers should take advantage of children’s pragmatic knowledge and take the right time to teach new knowledges to children.