Information about the thesis "Research on the Thinking Characteristics of Children Aged 3 to 6 Years" by graduate student Tran Ha Thu, majoring in Psychology.1. Student's Full Name: Tran Ha Thu 2. Gender: Female 3. Date of Birth: November 29, 1986 4. Place of Birth: Hanoi 5. Decision No. 1355/2008/QD-XHNV-KH&SDH dated October 24, 2008, issued by the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. 6. Changes during the training process: None 7. Thesis Title: Research on the Thinking Characteristics of Children Aged 3 to 6 Years. 8. Major: Psychology; Code: 60 31 80 9. Scientific Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Truong Thi Khanh Ha – Deputy Head of the Psychology Department, University of Social Sciences and Humanities. 10. Summary of the thesis results: This thesis studies the thinking characteristics of children aged 3 to 6 years old (research conducted at Khanh Li private kindergarten and Hoa Sua preschool, Hanoi). The thesis results assessed the level of development of visual-action thinking and visual-figurative thinking in children aged 3 to 6 years old and the influence of family education on the development of children's thinking as follows: Results of Piaget's exercise: - 100% of the children participating in the exercise did not grasp the principle of conservation of mass, quantity, and length. They answered intuitively, based on the external characteristics of objects and phenomena: the height of the water level, the width of the clay block, the length of the string of beads, etc. In their thinking, the reversal operation (reversing an action that has occurred in the mind to return the object or phenomenon to its original position) had not yet been clearly formed. - 13.3% of middle preschool children and 26.7% of older preschool children were able to correctly arrange sticks in order of length. However, some children performed the actions illogically. The majority of children were unable to rank the sticks. The results of the visual-action thinking exercise showed that the visual-action thinking level of preschool children in general was low. Specifically, younger and middle preschool children ranked low, while older preschool children reached an average level. The results of the visual-figurative thinking exercise showed that the visual-figurative thinking level of preschool children in general was average. Younger preschool children ranked low, middle preschool children ranked average, and older preschool children ranked high. Parents' awareness of the necessary conditions for children's thinking development: The majority of parents are very concerned about the development of their children's thinking. Most parents are aware of the essential aspects (nutrition, language, physical activity, emotional development, etc.) for a child's cognitive development. Actions parents frequently perform with their children include: providing nutritious food, answering their questions, praising them when they do well, and guiding and encouraging them when they make mistakes. Actions parents perform less frequently include: creating a safe space for children to run, jump, and play freely, guiding them in using simple household items and doing age-appropriate chores, and taking them outside to play. The most common difficulties parents face in raising children are: picky eaters, lack of knowledge and skills in childcare and education, lack of support, cramped living spaces, lack of playgrounds, and lack of classes teaching childcare skills. Parental parenting styles significantly influence a child's cognitive development. Many parents have not paid attention to developing children's motor skills and object manipulation abilities, failing to understand that this is the foundation for their cognitive development. 11. Practical applications: providing some knowledge and skills for developing preschool children's thinking for parents and preschool teachers. 12. Further research directions: Language characteristics and emotional life of children aged 0-6 years. 13. Published works related to the thesis: None
INFORMATION ON MASTER'S THESIS
1. Full name : Tran Ha Thu 2. Sex: Female 3. Date of birth: November 29, 1986 4. Place of birth: Hanoi 5. Admission decision number: 1355/2008/QD-XHNV-KH&SĐH Dated: October 24, 2008 6. Changes in academic process: N/A 7. Official thesis title: Researching on the thinking of children from 3 to 6 years old. 8. Major: Psychology 9. Code: 60 31 80 10. Supervisor: Associate Professor Truong Thi Khanh Ha – Vice Chairman of Psychology Deparment – Social sciences and humanities university. 11. Summary of the findings of the thesis: The master's thesis researches on the thinking of children aging from 3 to 6 years old (in Khanh Li private kindergarten and Hoa Sua kindergarten in Hanoi). The findings of the thesis evaluate the development level of visual – action and visual – image thinking of the children from 3 to 6 years old and the influence of family education on their thinking development. Results of doing Piaget's exercises: 100% of the children doing the exercises do not grasp the principles of conservation of weight, number and length. They respond emotionally and mainly based on external characteristics of the materials and phenomena such as: height of the water level, width of clay shape, length of the bead string, etc. They haven't clearly formed the reversion thinking process (reversing actions happened in their thinking to make the phenomena back to the initial position). 13.3% of the children in the middle class of the kindergarten and 26.7% ones in the eldest-class are able to correctly arrange things in order of length. However, some of them arranged illogically. The majority of them are not capable of ranking. Results of doing the exercises of action thinking: The level of visual – action thinking of kindergarten children is just low. Among them, the youngest and middle class rank the low. The eldest class ranks average. Results of doing the exercises of image thinking: The level of visual – image thinking of kindergarten children is just average. Among them, the youngest class ranks the lowest; middle one moderate; and eldest highest. Parents' awareness of necessary conditions for children's thinking development: Most of the parents do care of their kids' thinking development. The majority of parents know necessary factors (such as nutrition, linguistics, movement and emotions, ect.) for children's thinking development. What parents often do are: feed nutritious meal, answer kids' questions, evaluate them when they do right, guide and encourage them when they are wrong. What parents do not often do are: create a safe environment for kids to play, instruct them to use simple household items, let them do proper housework, and bring them out. The difficulties that parents meet the most when teaching their children include: lazy infant eaters, lack of knowledge and skills of caring and educating children, lack of housework assistant, narrow house with no entertainment place for children, no outside playground, and no class teaching skills of raising them. Parent's education methods affect children's thinking development. Many parents do not pay attention to develop movement skills and manipulate with objects. They do not understand that this is the basis for the development of childrent's thinking 12. Practical applicability: Providing knowledge and skills for parents and nursery school teachers to develop children's thinking. 13. Further research directions: Children's language and emotions from 0 to 6 years old 14. Thesis – related publications: N/A
