Pedagogical Methods Promoting Development of the Multi-perspective Attitude in Early Age Children

Abstract

Children’s perspective-taking skills and multi-perspective attitudes comprise the basis for their social competence. From the educational point of view, it is particularly important to demonstrate the methods that promote children’s understanding of their own and others’ perspectives, since these enable them to develop a multi-perspective attitude. The article discusses perspective-taking skills (perceptive, cognitive, affective) and shows the stages of the development of perspective-taking skills in early childhood through discussion of research on social perspective-taking and visuospatial perspective-taking. The article also attempts to synthesise the conclusions of research with respect to the development of perspective-taking and the multi-perspective attitude. Qualitative research is presented through which the methods utilised by teachers to develop the perspective-taking capacities of groups of 5-6 year olds are demonstrated.