LECTURE No. 1. Basic principles and patterns of the relationship between learning and development of the human psyche

1. The ratio of learning and development

Educational psychology occupies a certain place between pedagogy and psychology, being the sphere of their joint study of the relationship between education, upbringing and development of the human psyche.

She studies, first of all, the learning process, its characteristics, structure, patterns of the course of this process, as well as age and individual characteristics of learning and conditions that have the greatest effect on the development of the younger generations. Educational psychology studies the patterns of mastering knowledge, skills and abilities, and also explores individual differences in the course of these processes, the patterns of the formation of active creative thinking in students, the development of the human psyche, the formation of mental neoplasms in the process of learning and development.

The process of forming and changing the internal qualities of a person is called development. There are several aspects of development: physical development, which manifests itself in changes in the proportions of a person's body, his height, weight, in the addition of strength; physiological development- manifests itself in changes in the functions of various systems and human organs; mental development- is expressed in the complication of mental processes and abilities - feelings, sensations, perception, thinking, memory, imagination, in the complication of such mental formations as abilities and motives of activity, needs and interests, value orientations. The gradual entry of a person into various types of relations - economic, legal, social, industrial - is called social development. A person becomes a member of society, assimilating all these types of relationships and in them - their functions. Spiritual development is the crown of human development and means that a person has comprehended his purpose in life, his responsibility to the present and future generations, an understanding of the complexity of the universe has come to him, there is a need for constant moral improvement. A person's responsibility for his development - mental, physical and social, responsibility for his own life and the life of other people can be an indicator of a person's spiritual development.

A person's personality develops throughout his life. Mental, social and physical development of a person occurs under the influence of internal, external, natural, social, uncontrollable and controllable factors.

Development occurs individually under the influence of society, the surrounding person, patterns of behavior and values ​​inherent in this society. Attitudes and norms are formed in the course of individual and group activities. Individual objective activity as a process that carries contradictions leads the individual to the development of his higher mental functions. This is not to say that upbringing is secondary to development, their relationship is much more complicated. Development takes place in the process of upbringing, the level of development affects upbringing, changing it. Better upbringing accelerates the pace of human development. Thus, upbringing and development mutually support each other throughout a person's life.

The relationship between child development and learning is one of the central problems of educational psychology. When considering this issue, it is important to note that:

1) "development itself is a complex involutionary-evolutionary forward movement, during which progressive and regressive intellectual, personal, activity, behavioral changes occur in the person himself" (L. S. Vygotsky, B. G. Ananiev);

2) development does not stop throughout a person's life. Its intensity and direction may change. The general characteristics of development are "progress (regression), irreversibility, unevenness, the preservation of the previous in the new, the unity of change and preservation" (L. I. Antsiferova).

Each psychological concept tries to identify, first of all, the laws of the child's development. One of the first theories is recapitulation concept American psychologist S. Hall, in which he puts forward a version that in his development, each child repeats in a brief form the development of the entire human race. So, for example, even the development of children's drawing reflects the stages that pictorial art went through in the history of mankind. It soon became clear how untenable this theory was. But the research of S. Hall's students L. Termena and A. Gesella influenced the development of child psychology. They developed a system for diagnosing the development of the psyche of children from birth to adolescence. A. Gesell analyzed the relationship between learning and development using the twin method, and also developed a method of longitudinal longitudinal study of children and adolescents. A. Gesell reduced development to a simple increase, an increase in behavior, without analyzing the qualitative transformations during the transition from one stage of development to another. He noticed that the younger the child's age, the faster his behavior changes, that is, changes and development occur faster at a young age. L. Termen introduced the concept intelligence quotient and tried to prove that it remains constant throughout life.

Founder of convergence theory V. Stern believed that both hereditary giftedness and the environment determine the laws of child development, that development is influenced by external conditions surrounding a person, and his internal inclinations, abilities, hereditary qualities. V. Stern was a supporter of the concept of recapitulation, believed that the development of the child's psyche repeats the history of the development of mankind and culture. The debate about which of the factors - heredity or environment - is of decisive importance has not stopped until now and transferred to the experimental sphere. For example, according to an English psychologist H. Eysenck, 80% of a person's intellectual development is imprinted by heredity, the remaining 20% ​​of intellectual development is determined by the influence of the environment. Four models of the influence of the environment and previous experience on the development of children's behavior models were proposed by an American psychologist I. Woolville.

1. In the first months of life, the child is helpless and under the influence of the environment, therefore first model called "Hospital bed".

2. Second model – "Amusement park": the child chooses those entertainments that he wants to experience, but he cannot change their subsequent influence on himself.

3. Within third model external stimuli have no effect, and a person makes his own path independently of others, along his "swimming" path. The model is called “Swimmers competition”. In it, the environment acts as a supporting context for human behavior.

4. The fourth model is the "tennis match": there is a constant interaction between the influence of the environment and the person, just like a tennis player adapts to the actions of his opponent and at the same time influences the behavior of another player in a way of reflection.

The question of the nature of the relationship between learning and development is essential. There are different points of view on the solution of this issue:

1) learning is development - W. James, E. Thorndike, J. Watson, K. Koffka, although the nature of learning is understood in different ways by everyone.

2) only the external conditions of formation are learning, that is, "learning is in the tail of development" - V. Stern.

3) "the child's thinking necessarily goes through all phases and stages of development, regardless of whether the child is learning or not," that is, development does not depend on learning - J. Piaget.

4) "learning goes ahead of development, advancing it further and causing new formations in it", - L. S. Vygotsky, J. Bruner, that is, anticipating development, learning stimulates it, relying, in spite of this, on actual development, relying on the future state of the child's development. Contradictions between the already achieved level of formation of a person's abilities, his knowledge and acquired skills of action, as well as motives and methods of communication with the external environment are the driving force of his mental development.

This understanding of the driving forces of mental development was formulated L. S. Vygotsky, A. N. Leontiev, D. B. Elkonin.

In line with Russian psychology's understanding of mental development as an internally contradictory process associated with the emergence of mental and personal neoformations, Vygotsky, following P.P. Blonsky, examines certain epochs, stages, phases in the general scheme of fractures, or crises, of development. At the same time, the criteria for their differentiation, according to L. S. Vygotsky, are the neoplasms that characterize the essence of each age. And mental development itself is interpreted by him as a progressive qualitative change in personality, during which age-related neoplasms are formed with different dynamics. “Age-related neoplasms should be understood as that new type of structure of the personality and its activity, those mental and social changes that first appear at a given age stage and which in the most important and basic way determine the consciousness of the child, his attitude to the environment; his inner and outer life, the entire course of his development in a given period. "

Development can proceed slowly, smoothly or violently, rapidly. According to Vygotsky's definition, it can be revolutionary, sometimes catastrophic. Sharp shifts, aggravation of contradictions, turns in development can take the "form of an acute crisis." In psychology, six periods of crisis are known, according to L. S. Vygotsky: newborn crisis separates the embryonic period of development from infancy. One year crisis- from infancy to early childhood. Crisis 3 years- from early childhood to preschool age. Crisis 7 years is the connecting link between preschool years and school age. Finally crisis 13 years coincides with a developmental break in the transition from school to puberty (puberty - maturity, puberty) age. Crisis 17 years- transition to adolescence.

In general, for educational psychology and for determining the psychological portrait of a student typical for each stage of education, the position of D. B. Elkonin that during a critical period a corresponding neoplasm appears, which subsequently, that is, in a stable period, is line of general development. Even L. S. Vygotsky pointed out that the pedagogical system may not keep up with these changes, and as a result, there may be such effects as the student's academic failure, his educational difficulties, some of the reasons for which are hidden directly in the dynamics of age formation.

L.S.Vygotsky introduced such an important concept for educational psychology as "Social development situation", which determines the content, the formation of the central line of development associated with the main neoplasms. Social development situation Is a kind of system of relations between the child and the social environment. The change in this system also determines the main the law of the dynamics of ages, according to which the driving forces of the development of a child at any age will inevitably lead to the destruction and denial of the very basis of development of the entire age, determining with internal necessity the annulment of the social situation of development, the end of a given developmental epoch and the transition to the next, higher age stage of development. At the same time, L. S. Vygotsky constantly emphasizes that mental development is the integral development of the entire personality.

The definition of the social situation of development as a child's relationship to social reality is in itself quite capacious and includes a means of realizing this relationship - activity. According to A. N. Leontyev, some types of activity are leading at this stage and are of greater importance for the further development of the individual, while other types of activity are of less importance. Some of them play the main, leading role, while others play a less important, subordinate role at this stage of development.

Just like the holistic development of a person, the mental development of a child occurs simultaneously along the lines:

1) intellectual development, that is, the formation of the cognitive sphere, the development of cognitive mechanisms;

2) development of motives and their relationships, the formation of goals, the development of means and methods of activity, that is, the development of the content of the child's activity and his psychological structure;

3) development of self-esteem and self-awareness, interactions with the social environment, the formation of the orientation of the personality and value orientations, that is, the holistic development of the personality.

The sides of the child's mental development can be presented a little differently, namely, as becoming:

1) methods of activity and knowledge;

2) psychological mechanisms of their application;

3) personality, which includes the activities of the child.

One of the sides of the development of the psyche is language development, which occurs on a par with the formation of personality and intellect.

2. The role of individual factors in human mental development

The development of the human psyche is continuous throughout life. Changes in the psyche are easiest to trace by comparing the levels of development of the psyche of an old man, an adult, a schoolchild and an infant. The development of an organism from the moment the embryo is formed until its death is called ontogeny. For many centuries, there has been a mystery of the appearance of consciousness, creative ups and downs, emotional experiences, the complexity of the inner world of a person who is helpless and fragile at the time of birth.

The problem of mental development is one of the central ones in psychology, its foundation, theoretical and practical, depends on the answer to the question of how the psyche arises and what determines its development. Views on the nature of the psyche are opposite. Some scientists give preference to the environment as a source of mental development and deny the importance of the role of biological, innate factors in human mental development. Others believe that nature is an ideal creator, the psyche of children from birth has everything necessary, you just need not interfere with the natural course of development, trust nature.

Modern developmental psychology has abandoned the opposition of biological and environmental (cultural and social) development factors in favor of understanding the necessary importance of both factors in human mental development. The problem of disclosing the idea of ​​the unity of biological and social factors of human development is solved by psychogenetics. Significant data have been obtained on the role of genetic and environmental factors in the development of human intelligence in autism and alcoholism. The person's temperament and personality are intensively investigated. Two questions from developmental psychology are addressed to genetic research: "How are genetic factors distributed over different age ranges?" and "Does heritability change with development?" When assessing the effects of heritability, it is important to understand the increase or decrease in the importance of the role of heredity in the life cycle. Most specialists dealing with the problem of development believe that with an increase in a person's age, the role of his heredity becomes less important in his life. During a person's life, there is a process of accumulating life events, work, education and other life experience. These data confirm that the influence of the environment during life minimizes the influence of heredity on a person's lifestyle. Research confirms that, for example, a person's cognitive abilities change depending on the influence of the environment in which they live. This was revealed in a longitudinal study of adopted children from infancy to adolescence. According to the results of a study of general cognitive abilities (intelligence), it turned out that in adopted children, the differences between them and their biological parents increase with age. If in infants the increase is 0.18, in ten-year-old children - 0.2, then in adolescents it is already equal to 0.3. At the same time, the differences between foster parents and foster children were equal to zero. These findings indicate that the family environment is not as important for overall cognitive ability.

The difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twins increases especially in adulthood. A study of separately raised monozygotic twins found that heredity mattered 75% in five studies. A study of twins in Sweden showed an 80% importance of the role of heritability. This means that 80% of the difference between people in their intellectual development is due to the action of genes.

In order to understand the nature of the formation of the psyche, facts confirming a decrease in the influence of the environment on development are just as important.

The world literature on twins indicates that the influence of the general environment on the development of intelligence becomes insignificant in adulthood, while its contribution to individual differences in childhood is estimated at 25%.

The answer to the question about the constancy of the magnitude of genetic effects in the development process is analyzed in the field of psychogenetics using longitudinal studies. Studies of psychogeneticists have determined the uneven distribution of the influence of the environment and genetic factors of a person throughout his life, as well as in different aspects of development. The data obtained so far indicate that there are two transitional periods of genetic influences on the development of cognitive abilities. First- this is the period of transition from infancy to early childhood. Second period- from early childhood to primary school age. These two periods are the most important in relation to all known theories of cognitive development. The information obtained by psychogenetics and developmental psychology suggests that human development is determined by both genetic and environmental factors. It is the activation of all genetic programs that allows heredity to influence the development of intelligence. But for the full realization of the genetic potential of a person, environmental factors should not interfere, but contribute to his development. Then the result will be maximum.

C. Wadington used as a metaphor for the development process the concept "Epigenetic landscape" in order to more fully imagine how the interaction of natural and environmental factors occurs. In the figure, a dark ball denoted a developing organism located among hills and depressions along which it could roll, following possible paths of development. The movement of the ball rolling down the mountain is always limited by the landscape. The ball at any time can fall into an insurmountable deep depression, and this can happen by chance. In the epigenetic landscape, critical periods of development are designated as the distances between depressions, in which the development process takes on certain specific forms depending on the established environmental factors and time. The development between major changes is shown by troughs connected by a transition between them. And the slopes of the troughs show the rate of development: if the trough is shallow, then it shows a steady state of the development process, and steep troughs reflect periods of rapid changes and transitions from one method of organization to another. The influence of the environment in the transition zones may have more serious consequences, but the same events may not have consequences in other points of the epigenetic landscape.

The epigenetic landscape shows us one of the most important principles of development, which is called the principle of final equality. It lies in the fact that one and the same result of development can be achieved in different ways, and explains why the development of one person proceeds faster than another. At the moment in psychology there is a lot of information and scientific data about human development. One of the main questions is whether it is possible to imagine the course of development in the form of continuous changes taking place with a person gradually, or is this process an abrupt (stepwise) one. Here the concept of "stage" is used specifically and implies essential changes in the characteristics of the individual, which reorganize his behavior. American psychologist J. Flevell offers us the following criteria for the stages of development:

1) stages are distinguished on the basis of qualitative changes. They are not so much about being able to do something better or more, but about doing it differently. For example, at first the child begins to move, crawling on the floor, and then begins to walk. This is a qualitatively different type of locomotion; therefore, this aspect of motor development is one of the characteristics of the developmental stage;

2) during the transition to another stage, various changes occur in individual aspects of the child's behavior. For example, when children learn to speak, it involves understanding the symbolic meaning of words. But at the same time, they begin to use the symbolic properties of objects in the game, imagining that a cube is a machine, a doll is a person. That is, the development of symbolic functions at this stage is becoming more common;

3) transitions between stages usually occur very quickly. A good example of this is the skyrocketing body size of a teenager. A similar rapid reorganization is seen in other areas. When a child learns his native language, the first twenty words are mastered, after which the number of words learned exponentially increases.

Psychologists Z. Freud, E. Erickson, J. Piaget, D.B. Elkonin, L. S. Vygotsky accept the concept of staged development, but at the same time they do not agree with each other in everything. Nevertheless, they all admit that the staging of development does not exclude, but rather presupposes, the continuity of this process. In addition, it is precisely the continuity of the development process that ensures continuity at various stages of this process.

3. Periodization of mental development

Human development is individual. In his ontogeny, both the general laws of development of a representative of humanity and the individual characteristics of the development of each person are realized.

The process of human development includes universal as well as individual laws of the formation of the psyche as a whole and mental abilities separately. Development depends on variations in genetic programs, as well as the environment and circumstances in which it occurs.

One of the laws of human development is his cyclicality.

Periodization of the development of the psyche- This is the structuring of the general laws of the cycle of human life.

Development has a complex organization over time. The value of each year and even month of a person's life has a different meaning, which is determined primarily by the place this time range occupies in the development cycle. Thus, a six-month lag in intellectual development for a two-year-old child is a very serious indicator of distress, while the same lag in time for a six-year-old child is regarded as a slight decrease in the rate of development, and for a 16-year-old child it is generally considered insignificant.

The second feature of development is its heterochronism. Heterochronism of development means its unevenness. This unevenness of development concerns individual aspects of individual human development, as well as whole mental processes. So, for example, the processes of perception are characterized by early stages of development, while the development of aesthetic perception of a person occurs in the mature periods of his life.

The formation of a person's self-awareness occurs in the process of all life, but the differential awareness of oneself as a member of society is characteristic of adolescence.

On an individual basis, heterochronism is manifested by the discrepancy between the physical and psychological, as well as chronological ages, in which unevenness of the mental, socio-psychological and emotional aspects of development can also be observed. For example, when an adult who is intellectually sufficiently developed begins to behave like a teenager, that is, inadequate to his level of development.

Such concepts as critical and sensitive periods of development are closely related to uneven development.

Sensitive period- this is the most favorable range of development time, when the individual is most sensitive to changes in any function, the development of any of his abilities.

For example, the sensitive period in the development of speech is the age from nine months to two years. In fact, the function of speech developed both before and after this age, but it was during this time period that speech develops more intensively. At this time, the child needs additional experience in verbal communication. Adults should support and stimulate his desire to express his feelings through speech.

In all human cultures, the sensitive period of speech development occurs at the same time in the development of the child. A certain range of human development, when this or that ability or a certain function can be realized precisely during this period of time, is called critical period.

Critical periods in human development are very rare. They occur during prenatal development or in the earliest stages of infant development. If any ability or this or that human function was not realized during the critical period, then it can be irretrievably lost.

Let us give such an example of a critical period as the development of binocular vision in infants. For example, if a child has birth defects such as cataracts or strabismus, then they must be identified and corrected, since the child develops stereoscopic vision between thirteen weeks and two years of age. If defects or damages are not corrected during this period, stereoscopic vision will be undeveloped, and compensation for this violation at a later age is no longer possible.

There is no consensus on critical periods of human development. L. S. Vygotsky believed that the mental development of a child has stable and crisis stages, while he called the crisis stages "turns" in the development of the human psyche, which cause the appearance of so-called neoplasms, that is, new formations in the psyche. The development of speech leads to the fact that thinking becomes verbal, and speech becomes intellectual in children already two years of age. But Vygotsky's understanding of the crisis stages is more suitable for the definition of sensitive periods.

Since ancient times, people have had a need to determine the patterns in human development during the life cycle.

We can cite, for example, some periodization of human development, known from antiquity to our time.

Ancient Chinese classification

Youth - up to 20 years old. The age for marriage is up to 30 years. The age for fulfilling public duties is up to 40 years. Cognition of their own delusions - up to 50 years. The last period of his creative life - up to 60 years. The desired age is up to 70 years. Old age - from 70 years.

Classification of the ages of life according to Pythagoras

Formation period - 0-20 years (spring). Young man - 20-40 years old (summer). A man in his prime - 40-60 years old (autumn). An old and fading man - 60–80 years old (winter).

Classification of the ages of life according to Hippocrates

The first period is 0–7 years. The second period is 7-14 years. The third period is 14–21 years. The fourth period is 21–28 years old. The fifth period is 28–35 years old. The sixth period is 35–42 years. The seventh period is 42–49 years. The eighth period is 49–56 years old. The ninth period is 56–63 years. The tenth period is 63–70 years.

The traditional division of the life cycle according to J. Godefroy (1992)

In our time, the cycle of a person's life is divided into periods: intrauterine (prenatal) period, child, adolescence, maturity. All these periods have certain characteristics. Each of the periods is divided into three stages:

1) prenatal period - 266 days:

a) zygote stage - from the moment of fertilization to 14 days;

b) the stage of the embryo - from 14 days to 2 months - anatomical and physiological differentiation of organs;

c) the stage of the fetus - from 3 months to the moment of delivery - the development of systems and functions necessary for life in the external environment (from the 7th month, the fetus acquires the ability to survive in the air);

2) childhood:

a) the stage of the first childhood - from birth to 3 years - the development of functional independence and speech;

b) the stage of the second childhood - 3–6 years - the development of the child's personality and cognitive processes;

c) the stage of the third childhood - 6-12 years - the acquisition of basic cognitive and social skills;

3) adolescence:

a) puberty - 12-16 years - puberty, the formation of new ideas about oneself;

b) juvenile age - 16-18 years - adaptation of adolescents to family, school, peers;

c) adolescence - 18–20 years - the transition from adolescence to maturity, a feeling of psychological independence and social irresponsibility is characteristic;

4) maturity:

a) the stage of early maturity - 20–40 years - intensive personal life, professional activity;

b) mature age - 40-60 years - stability and productivity in professional and social relations;

c) the final period of maturity - 60–65 years - a departure from active life;

d) first old age - 65–75 years;

e) old age - after 75 years.

The above examples of classifications of the life cycle of human development show significant differences in the division by age. The reason for the disagreement is the difference in the grounds and criteria, classifications of the life cycle of human development.

The decomposition of the life cycle of human development into periods makes it possible to better understand the laws of human development, and also allows you to understand the specifics of individual age stages. The designation of periods of development, as well as their time frames, are determined by the conceptual ideas of the authors of periodization about which aspects of development are most important and significant at this stage of human development.

4. Psychology of educational activity

Where a person's actions are governed by the conscious goal of mastering any skills, knowledge, skills, there is learning as an activity. Teaching- This is a specific human activity, it is possible only at that stage of development of the human psyche, at which he has the ability to regulate his actions with the help of a conscious goal. In the process of learning, it is necessary to fulfill certain requirements for the level of development of memory, flexibility of the mind, intelligence and imagination, as well as for volitional qualities, such as control of attention, regulation of the sphere of feelings, etc.

The founder of the activity theory of learning is L. S. Vygotsky, who introduced fundamentally important changes in the concept of the learning process. Vygotsky viewed it as a specific activity for the formation of new formations in the child's psyche, the appropriation of cultural and historical experience by them. Thus, the sources of development are not inherent in the child himself, but in his learning activity, aimed at mastering the methods of acquiring knowledge.

The initial concepts of this theory are:

1) training as a system of organizing teaching methods, in other words, the transfer of social and historical experience to an individual; the purpose of this activity is the planned purposeful mental development of the individual;

2) learning, or educational activity - social in content and functions, representing a special type of cognitive activity of the subject, performed with the aim of mastering a certain set of intellectual skills, knowledge and skills;

3) assimilation - the process of reproducing the abilities formed historically, which is the main link in the learning process.

The starting point in teaching is the need-motivational aspect. Cognitive need is, on the one hand, a prerequisite for the activity of learning, on the other, its result, formed by a motive. In this case, learning activity is considered from the point of view of the formation of cognitive motivation. The learning process in the conditions of its correct organization can become a condition for changing the structure of the motivational-need-sphere of the individual.

The second aspect that characterizes educational activity is associated with the consideration of its constituent structural components.

Each activity is characterized by its subject matter. It may seem that the subject of educational activity is a generalized experience of knowledge, differentiated into separate sciences. In educational activities, the subject of change is the subject who carries out this activity. While assimilating knowledge, a person does not change anything in it, he changes himself. The most important thing in educational activity is a turn to oneself, an assessment of one's own changes, a reflection on oneself.

In the activity approach to the learning process, it is necessary to analyze it as a system and process of solving problems by the student as a subject of this activity.

In educational activity, its subject, means, methods, product, result of action, structure of activity are distinguished.

Learning activity includes cognitive functions. Also, the learning activity includes emotions, motives and needs, volitional functions.

The main characteristics of educational activities:

1) it is directed in a special way at solving educational problems and at mastering educational information, i.e. knowledge;

2) in the process of educational activity, the student masters scientific concepts and general methods of educational actions;

3) in educational activity, general methods of action precede the solution of problems, there is an ascent from the general to the particular;

4) learning activity leads to changes in the person who is learning;

5) depending on the result of the student's actions, changes occur in his behavior and mental properties.

V. V. Davydov proposed an original concept of educational activities.

In the process of educational activity, the student reproduces his ability to learn, which arose at a certain stage in the development of society, as well as his knowledge and skills.

Learning can be called an activity if it satisfies a cognitive need.

The knowledge, the mastery of which the teaching is directed, in this case act as a motive in which the cognitive need of the student has found its object embodiment, and at the same time act as the goal of the teaching activity. If the student does not have a cognitive need, then he will either not learn, or will learn to satisfy some other need. In the latter case, learning is no longer an activity, since the mastery of knowledge in itself does not lead to the satisfaction of the subject's needs, but serves only as an intermediate goal. Here, learning implements another activity, and knowledge is the goal of actions and is not a motive, since the learning process is not prompted by them, but by what the student learns for, which leads to the satisfaction of the underlying need.

Teaching is always realized by an action or a sequence of actions, regardless of what need it is caused by. An activity is realized through various actions, just as with the help of one and the same action, various activities can be realized.

Consequently, the action has relative independence. The purpose of performing educational activities is the assimilation of social experience. This teaching differs from other types of leading human activities. For example, labor activity in general can be characterized by the fact that it is aimed at creating any products of this activity that are necessary for people and have social significance. Considering such activity as teaching, we see that its product is a change in the person himself, his development. A person changes himself, develops, acquires new qualities, acquiring new knowledge. All this is the product of his educational activity, namely, new practical actions, cognitive opportunities.

Educational activity is aimed at the student himself as its subject in terms of development, improvement, and the formation of his personality, based on the purposeful, conscious assignment of social experience to students in different types and forms of theoretical, practical, cognitive, useful for society activities.

The activity of the teaching is peculiar, since its product does not directly replenish the wealth of society, although the wealth of a person's personality is invaluable for society.

Another essential feature of learning is its focus on the satisfaction of the cognitive need, despite the fact that the research activity also realizes the cognitive need.

Learning is adequate to cognitive needs as a type of activity. In research activities, in addition to satisfying cognitive needs, there is the acquisition of new knowledge that was previously absent in social experience. Therefore, research activities are viewed as labor activity. Whereas in educational activity, in contrast to research, the student considers the internal basis of the diversity of reality, which has already been identified by researchers, that is, in educational activity there is an ascent from the general to the particular, from the abstract to the concrete.

In the collective monograph of the staff of the Department of Pedagogy and Pedagogical Psychology of the Faculty of Moscow State University, a meaningful analysis of teaching as an activity is given. "The activity of teaching is self-change, self-development of the subject, its transformation into one who has mastered certain knowledge, skills and abilities" (I.I. Ilyasov). In the course of cognitive activity, the image of the human world is enriched, which is the subject of educational activity. The psychological content of educational activity is the assimilation of knowledge, the mastery of generalized methods of action, in the process of which the student develops.

Learning activity according to D. B. Elkonin is not identical with assimilation, but it is its main content and is determined by the level of its development and structure. Assimilation is included in educational activities. Each person receives knowledge in a certain way peculiar to him. The theory of the phased formation of mental actions (P. Ya.Galperin, N.F. Talyzina) presents the most complete and detailed description of the method of acquiring knowledge. This theory fully discloses the method of educational activity with the help of the principle of orientation and the transition from external objective action to internal mental action and the correlation of the stages of this transition with how the student himself does it. It is known that knowledge can be obtained in three ways: reproductive, creative and research.

The means of educational activity are intellectual actions and mental operations (analysis, synthesis, generalization, classification), as well as sign language means, in the form of which knowledge is acquired.

Learning product- this is actual structured knowledge, which underlies the ability to solve problems in various fields of science and practice that require its application, as well as internal neoplasms in the psyche and behavior in the value, semantic and motivational plans. The products of educational activities as the main organic part are included in the individual experience of the student. The further activity of a person, his success in professional activity, in communication with other people depends on the structural organization of individual experience, its strength, depth, consistency.

The main product of educational activity is the formation of a student's theoretical consciousness and thinking. The nature of knowledge acquired in the course of further education depends on the formation of theoretical thinking replacing empirical thinking. For the formation of theoretical thinking, it is necessary to carry out special pedagogical techniques and methods of constructing educational activities. They are necessary, otherwise theoretical thinking may turn out to be unformed. The importance of this problem leads to the need to diagnose the level of thinking. If students' theoretical thinking turns out to be unformed, then this entails grave consequences for university education.

The main components of the external structure of educational activity:

1) motivation;

2) educational tasks in certain situations in various forms of assignments;

3) educational activities;

4) control, turning into self-control;

5) assessment, turning into self-assessment.

The first compulsory component of educational activities, motivation, enters into the structure of activity and can be external or internal in relation to it. Motivation is always an internal characteristic of a person as a subject of this activity. The effectiveness of the educational process depends on the motivation of the students. It is best if the motives for learning are cognitive, which is not always the case. The motives of educational activity are divided into external and internal. External ones are not associated with cognitive activity and assimilated knowledge. In this case, teaching serves the student as a means to achieve other goals.

The purpose of educational activities is the acquisition of knowledge, this activity does not achieve any other goal. If a student does not have a need for knowledge, then the achievement of this goal becomes meaningless for him if he does not satisfy any other need. For example, a student is trained in order to obtain a prestigious profession, which is his ultimate goal. Thus, teaching can acquire different psychological meanings for the student:

1) correspond to the cognitive need, which acts as a motive for learning, stimulating learning activity;

2) serve as a means of achieving some other goals, then the motive for performing educational activities is another goal.

The activities of all students are outwardly similar, but internally, psychologically, they are different. The difference is manifested primarily in motivation, it determines for the student and for the person in general the meaning of the activity he performs. To increase the effectiveness of educational activities, the nature of motivation is a decisive factor. The formation of only cognitive motives in relation to the academic subject without taking into account the motivational orientation of a person's personality leads to the fact that the student does not strive to be useful to society, satisfying only the need for knowledge. Therefore, educational cognitive motives of activity should always be subordinate to social ones, that is, the student's desire for knowledge should ultimately be motivated by benefits for society.

5. Learning objectives and learning activities in the structure of the learning process

The educational task is the second, but in fact the most important component of educational activity. It is offered to the student as an educational task formulated in a certain way or in the form of a certain educational situation, the totality of which is the learning process.

S. L. Rubinstein in his works he correlated the concept of a task with the concept of action and interpreted it in the general context of goal-setting.

According to S. L. Rubinstein, “a person's voluntary action is the realization of a goal. Before you act, you need to realize the goal for the achievement of which the action is being taken. However essential the goal is, the awareness of the goal alone is not enough. In order to carry it out, it is necessary to take into account the conditions in which the action must be performed. The task of the teaching is determined by the ratio of the conditions for the commission of an action and its purpose. A conscious human action is a more or less conscious solution to a problem. "

Educational task Is a specific learning task that has a clear purpose. According to A. N. Leontiev problem Is a goal set under certain conditions. According to D. B. Elkonin, the educational task differs from all others in that its goal and result are not in changing the objects on which the action is performed, but in changing the subject performing the action.

According to D. B. Elkonin and V. V. Davydov, all educational activity in practical terms should be presented in the form of a system of educational tasks. These tasks are given in certain educational situations and involve certain educational actions - control, subject, auxiliary, such as analysis, writing out, underlining, schematization, generalization. Task structure necessarily includes the object of the problem in its initial state and the model of the required state of the object of the problem. The task is presented as a complex system of information about some phenomenon or object, part of the information in which is defined, and the other part must be found. The process of determining an unknown piece of information also requires the search for new knowledge or the coordination of existing ones.

The way to solve the problem is called the procedure, the implementation of which provides the student with the solution of this problem. If at the same time the student solves the problem in several ways, then in order to find the most economical and concise solution, he uses a larger amount of information, creating new methods and techniques for this situation. Then the student accumulates new experience in applying knowledge, developing research abilities, methods and techniques of logical search. A. G. Ball connects the concept of a solution process with the concept of a method for solving a problem, since when performing solution operations, the costs of energy and time are also taken into account.

By means of problem solving all means can act: ideal- knowledge used by the learner, material- various tools and materialized- formulas, schemes, texts, but the leading means are ideal in verbal form. The task in educational activity acts as a means of achieving the educational goal - the assimilation of certain methods of action. To achieve the educational goal, a certain set of tasks is required, where each takes a certain place. In the learning process, the same goal requires the solution of a number of tasks, the same task can serve to achieve several goals.

As the learning tasks are completed, the student himself changes.

The learning task is set in a specific learning situation. It can turn out to be conflictual, while the interpersonal conflict situation interferes with learning and development. A collaborative learning situation in content can be problematic or neutral. The problem situation is given to the student in the form of questions "how?" and "why?", "what is the connection between phenomena?", "what is the reason?" Here the task arises as a consequence of a problem situation as a result of its analysis, but if the student does not understand, is not interested in the problem situation, then it does not develop into a task. Questions such as "where?"

A problematic situation can have varying degrees of problematicity, the highest degree of which belongs to such an educational situation in which the student independently formulates and solves the problem, independently controls the correctness of his decision. For the conscious implementation and control of their actions by students, they must have specific ideas about the problem being solved, its structure and means of solving it. Pupils receive systematized orientations in the form of information about the problem being solved from the teacher.

The implementation of exercise activities, the solution of educational tasks (problems) is possible only on the basis of educational actions and operations. All student actions are subdivided into non-specific (general) and specific. General types (techniques) of cognitive activity are called so because they are used in various fields of knowledge, for example, skills such as independent planning of activities and self-control of activities. General types of cognitive activity include all methods of logical thinking - proof, classification, comparison, deduction of consequences, etc. General types of cognitive activity are actions such as the ability to observe, be attentive, memorization.

The specific actions of students differ in that they are used only within a certain area of ​​knowledge, therefore they have the characteristics of the subject being studied (addition, sound analysis, etc.).

Thus, cognitive activity Is a system of certain actions of students and knowledge (information), over which the actions of students are performed.

The ability to learn includes cognitive actions that had to be learned in advance, after which they act as a means of acquiring something new.

The learning activity as a whole consists of special actions and operations. By I. I. Ilyasov, first level executive learning activities:

1) to understand the content of educational material;

2) on the processing of educational material.

Control actions take place in parallel with executive actions. Mnemonic and perceptual operations and actions are also realized in educational actions. And operations Are methods of action that have a given goal and meet certain conditions. In the process of learning, a conscious purposeful action is repeated many times, is included in more complex actions and gradually ceases to be consciously controlled by the student, it becomes a way of performing this more complex action. We are talking about conscious operations, former conscious actions that have been transformed into operations. This process is usually called automation of movements in the process of developing new motor skills associated with switching to other afferentations and unloading active attention. By N. A. Bernstein, operations are managed by grass-roots background levels.

In activity, along with conscious operations, operations exist that were not previously recognized as purposeful actions and arose as a result of adjusting to certain conditions of life. A. N. Leontiev presents these operations on the example of a child's linguistic development - he intuitively adjusts, “adjusts” (A. N. Leont'ev) the methods of grammatical formulation of the utterance to the norms of verbal communication in adults. The child is not aware of these actions, so they can be either the result of internalized external objective conscious actions (J. Piaget, P. Ya. Halperin), arising in learning and development, or represent the operational side of the processes of thinking, perception and memory.

It is often more important to teach learners how to learn than simply equipping them with specific subject knowledge. The greatest difficulty of this problem lies in the student's self-selection of the material to be assimilated. At the same time, the assessment and monitoring of the achieved learning outcomes are of great importance. Internal control over the implementation of its activities by its subject has the structure:

4) lack of visible self-control, at this stage, control occurs based on previous experience, due to insignificant signs and details.

V. Ya. Laudis represents educational activity as a component of the educational situation, in which there is a social interaction of students with the teacher and among themselves. In the process of these interactions, the form of cooperation between the teacher and students is important, since the formation of a single semantic field for all participants in the learning process ensures self-regulation of the activities of all its participants. V. Ya. Liaudis gives an important role to joint productive activities arising from the joint solution of creative problems. He considers joint productive activity as a unit of analysis of personality development in the learning process. If the components of joint activity are interconnected with each other, namely, the conditions for the course of educational activity and the relationship of students with each other and with teachers, then the system of joint activity is normal. The personal-activity approach in the learning process means a reorientation of the general process towards the formulation and solution of cognitive, research and projective learning tasks by the students themselves. With the personal-activity approach, the teacher determines the nomenclature, the form of presentation, the hierarchy of educational tasks and actions, the performance of these actions by the students, subject to their mastery of the indicative basis and the algorithm for performing these actions.

Any activity, including educational, has its prerequisite for a need, therefore, for a teacher who implements a personal-activity approach, it is important to formulate the educational, cognitive, communicative needs of students, as well as their own need for the development of generalized techniques and methods of educational activity, the formation of more perfect skills in all types of activities, in the assimilation of new knowledge. Here teacher Is an interesting interlocutor who arouses interest in the subject of communication and in himself as a partner, a meaningful person, informative for students. Teacher-student communication is here seen as cooperation with the teacher's stimulating and organizing role.

Considering the levels of the structure of educational activity from the standpoint of highlighting actions and operations in it, it is possible to distinguish executive, indicative and control-corrective components in the functional structure of activity. The indicative component is of the most essential importance and constitutes the psychological basis of educational activity. Orientation activity has a double function: it builds an indicative image and orients, on its basis, objective activity as a skill that gives the subject of educational activity the opportunity to act independently with new educational material. In the opinion P. Ya. Galperin, the developmental effect of learning at the same time lies in the fact that learning activity forms a new way of orienting the student, new forms of thinking. Activity from external, expanded and joint turns into internal, coiled, individual. The process of internalization of activity into the mental inner plan is the main thing in the mechanism of knowledge assimilation. The mechanisms of assimilation and development are the main points in the activity theory of learning.

6. Psychological factors influencing the learning process

In order to organize a successful learning activity, a teacher must have a good understanding of the main characteristics of students, know their ability to perceive the material being studied, memorize it, process it, and also use the studied information to solve various educational problems. When teaching, first of all, the student's sense organs, his sensations, perception are included in the work, then memorization and formation of associations, comprehension and creative processing of information are connected.

The processes of mental regulation initiate and direct human behavior. Their main role is to provide direction and intensity, as well as temporary regulation of behavior. Let's designate the main of these processes.

Motivation- This is a set of mental processes that provide the direction of behavior and the level of human energy. Together with emotional processes, motivation gives subjectivity to human behavior and initiates it. The main component of the motivation process - the emergence of a need - leads to the emergence of motivational tension, a subjective reflection of a person's need for something. The experience of meeting needs in the process of activity leads to the formation of a motive as a stable mental education. Motive A. N. Leontiev called an objectified need, but, most likely, the motive can be called the image of the ideal object of satisfying the need based on previous experience. The motive is actualized in a specific situation, while a motivational tendency to action arises. Based on the motive and the reflection of the real situation, the goal of the action, the plan of behavior are formed, and a decision is made.

Emotional processes provide a selective attitude of a person to various aspects of reality. Emotion function- This is an assessment of the phenomena of the surrounding reality, the results of an individual's behavior. Internally, this assessment manifests itself in the form of an emotional experience, outwardly - in the form of emotional expression. The basis of emotions is laid in the physiological processes of activation of various systems, but not only physiological arousal is necessary for the emergence of specific emotions. Emotional processes are closely related to motivational processes; emotions manifest an individual's assessment of the possibilities for satisfying his needs in a given situation and in the future. For the emergence of emotion as a specific psychological process, not only motivation is needed, but also a cognitive interpretation of the situation as favorable or unfavorable for achieving the goal.

Decision-making processes are essential. The main moment of making a decision is choice of option action that allows you to achieve the best result. Decision making is based on a person's subjective experience of the likelihood of many events and subjective assessments of the usefulness or harm of these events for oneself. Of great importance is also an assessment of the degree of difficulty in achieving a particular outcome. When choosing an action, a person is guided by various strategies and decision-making rules. The main one is rule of subjective optimality, which consists of confidence in the correctness of the chosen solution, the measure of dissatisfaction with it after the choice, the lack of desire to choose another solution.

Previously, decision-making processes were classified as volitional processes, which are actually aspects of motivational regulation of behavior, namely, a motivational process that allows one to overcome situational difficulties in order to achieve long-term delayed goals.

Control processes provide voluntary regulation of purposeful behavior. These processes follow motivational activation and decision making. Thanks to the control processes, it is possible to carry out an action and achieve the desired result. The theory of mental regulation identifies such processes of control of human behavior as defining goals, forming expectations, assessing the conditions for the implementation of behavior, assessing the results of behavior in the form of interpreting feedback and developing an idea of ​​self-efficacy.

Control processes are reduced to two main blocks: appraisal processes and processes preceding the action.

The main stages of planning and controlling behavior are described in theory of functional systems P.K.Anokhin, in which great importance is attached to feedback mechanisms that provide the ability to compare the parameters of the desired and current state. They provide information about what has already been done and what needs to be done to achieve the goal, as well as provide an emotional assessment of the effectiveness of the activity.

Satisfaction of needs is possible only when a person has information about the existing situation in which it is necessary to act. The cognitive processes of a person allow obtaining such information about the existing situation. Human attention is a process that connects the psycho-regulatory and cognitive spheres of the psyche and allows you to ensure the selectivity of reflection, processing and memorization of information.

The totality of cognitive processes provides a reflection of the sides of objective reality that are important for human life and the creation of an adequate image of the world.

Cognitive processes are divided into groups. Reflection of reality under the direct influence of signals is not the sense organs that provide sensory-perceptual processes. Sensation is associated with the reflection of individual aspects and sides of reality, objects in their integrity reflect perception, the images of which are called primary.

Secondary images, which are the results of reproduction, transformation and fixation of primary images, are dealt with by the processes of representation, memory and imagination.

On the basis of secondary images, a system of personal experience is built and thinking functions. Thinking- the process of generalized and mediated cognition of reality, the result of which is subjectively new knowledge that cannot be derived from direct experience (the content of sensations, ideas, perception).

The result of the transformation of the individual's previous experience are also products of fantasy, but they may have nothing to do with objective reality, while the results of the thought process are always verifiable and true. Thinking also influences the decision-making process and forecasting the future.

In general, cognitive processes reflect the spatio-temporal characteristics of the objective world and correlate with them. Memory is correlated with the past tense, and traces of experienced emotions, feelings, actions, images, thoughts are stored in it. Sensory-perceptual processes are responsible for the reflection of actual reality, ensuring the adaptation of a person to the present. The processes of fantasy, imagination, goal-setting and forecasting are related to the future.

Thinking Is a process that connects the present, past and future. Thinking, as it were, rises above time, establishing a connection between cause and effect, as well as the conditions for the implementation of cause-and-effect relationships. In thinking, the decisive role belongs to the reversibility of operations, which makes it possible to solve the direct and inverse problem, that is, it allows one to restore the initial conditions based on the result of the action.

The third block of human mental processes is communication processes. They allow people to communicate with each other, provide mutual understanding and expression of thoughts and feelings. Language and speech in a communicative sense ensure the interaction of people. Language Is a system of signs or acoustic images that corresponds to a system of concepts.

Language sign- word - represents the unity of the signifier and the signified. The subjective meanings of words are called meanings. The purposeful use of language to regulate the interaction of people with each other is called speech. Communication can occur without words, using gestures, postures and facial expressions, which is called non-verbal communication.

TO non-verbal means of speech behavior include the intonation of the voice, its pitch, timbre, volume. These components allow a person to express their emotions in speech, ensure that other people understand the emotional state of the speaker.

The human psyche as a system has systemic properties that have an individual measure of expression. Individual psychological characteristics of people - the level of intelligence, emotional sensitivity, reaction time - are different. Outwardly, the severity of mental properties is manifested in the behavior and activities of a person. The main mental properties of a person include special and general abilities, personality traits, and features of temperament. The mental properties of an individual may slightly change during a person's life under the influence of life experience, environmental influences, biological factors, although they are considered unchanged.

The theory of individual psychological properties was developed in detail by domestic psychologists V. M. Rusalov, B. G. Anan'ev, V. D. Shadrikov and etc.

The most common formal dynamic characteristic of individual human behavior is his temperament, which mainly includes activity, emotionality, plasticity and pace of activity. Temperament can be attributed to the individual properties of the subsystem of mental regulation of behavior (emotions, motivation, decision-making, etc.).

The properties of mental functional systems that determine the productivity of an activity are human abilities. Abilities have an individual measure of expression. Abilities are not limited to the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities, but affect the ease and speed of mastering them. Abilities are special and common: special abilities correlate with individual subsystems of the psyche, and general ones correlate with the psyche as an integral system. The abilities are, by V.N.Druzhinin and V. D. Shadrikov, the properties of systems, the work of which ensures the reflection of reality, the processes of acquiring knowledge, its application and transformation of information.

Personality traits, or its properties, characterize the individual as a system of his subjective attitudes to himself, to people around him, to groups of people, to the world as a whole, which is manifested in his interactions and communication. Personality seems to be the most mysterious and interesting subject of research. Personality traits show motivational and psycho-regulatory features of the human psyche. The structure of the personality consists of the totality of its properties.

An internal integral characteristic of the individual psyche, relatively unchanged over time, is called a mental state. According to the level of dynamism, states occupy an intermediate place between properties and processes.

Mental properties determine the constant ways of human interaction with the world, mental states reflect his activity at the moment. The mental state is multidimensional, it includes the parameters of all mental processes: cognitive, motivational, emotional, etc. Each mental state is characterized by one or more parameters that distinguish it from many other states. Dominance in a state of a cognitive mental process, emotion or level of activation is determined by what kind of activity or behavioral act provides this state.