The components that make up educational activities. Psychological components. Structure of educational activities

Educational activity has an external structure consisting of the following elements (according to B.A. Sosnovsky):

1) educational situations and tasks - as the presence of a motive, a problem, its acceptance by students;

2) educational activities aimed at solving relevant problems;

3) control - as the relationship between an action and its result with given patterns;

4) assessment - as recording the quality (but not quantity) of the learning result, as motivation for subsequent educational activities, work.

Each of the components of the structure of this activity has its own characteristics. At the same time, being an intellectual activity by nature, educational activity is characterized by the same structure as any other intellectual act, namely: the presence of a motive, a plan (intention, program), execution (implementation) and control

An educational task acts as a specific educational task that has a clear goal, but in order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to take into account the conditions in which the action must be carried out. According to A.N. Leontiev, a task is a goal given under certain conditions. As learning tasks are completed, the student himself changes. Learning activities can be presented as a system of learning tasks that are given in certain learning situations and involve certain learning actions.

The educational task acts as a complex system information about some object, a process in which only part of the information is clearly defined, and the rest is unknown, which must be found using existing knowledge and solution algorithms in combination with independent guesses and searches for optimal solutions.

IN general structure educational activities, a significant place is given to the actions of control (self-control) and assessment (self-assessment). This is due to the fact that any other educational action becomes arbitrary, regulated only if there is monitoring and evaluation in the structure of the activity.

Control involves three links: 1) model, image of what is needed, desired result actions; 2) the process of comparing this image and the real action and 3) making a decision to continue or correct the action. These three links represent the structure of internal control of the subject of activity over its implementation.

P.P. Blonsky outlined four stages of self-control in relation to the assimilation of material. The first stage is characterized by the absence of any self-control. A student at this stage has not mastered the material and therefore cannot control anything. The second stage is complete self-control. At this stage, the student checks the completeness and correctness of the reproduction of the learned material. The third stage is characterized as a stage of selective self-control, in which the student controls and checks only the main issues. At the fourth stage, there is no visible self-control; it is carried out as if on the basis of past experience, on the basis of some minor details, signs.

In educational activities there are many psychological components:

Motive (external or internal), corresponding desire, interest, positive attitude towards learning;

Meaningfulness of activity, attention, consciousness, emotionality, manifestation of volitional qualities;

Direction and activity of activity, variety of types and forms of activity: perception and observation as work with sensually presented material; thinking as active processing of material, its understanding and assimilation (various elements of imagination are also present here); the work of memory as a systemic process, consisting of memorizing, preserving and reproducing material, as a process inseparable from thinking;

Practical use of acquired knowledge and skills in subsequent activities, their clarification and adjustment.

Educational motivation is defined as a particular type of motivation included in the activities of learning, educational activities. Like any other type, educational motivation is determined by a number of factors specific to this activity:

1) the educational system itself, the educational institution where educational activities are carried out;

2) organization of the educational process;

3) subjective characteristics of the student (age, gender, intellectual development, abilities, level of aspirations, self-esteem, his interaction with other students, etc.);

4) the subjective characteristics of the teacher and, above all, the system of his relations to the student, to the work;

5) the specifics of the academic subject.

A necessary condition for creating students’ interest in the content of learning and in the learning activity itself is the opportunity to demonstrate mental independence and initiative in learning. The more active the teaching methods, the easier it is to get students interested in them. The main means of cultivating a sustainable interest in learning is the use of questions and tasks, the solution of which requires active search activity from students.

A major role in the formation of interest in learning is played by the creation of a problem situation, the confrontation of students with a difficulty that they cannot solve with the help of their existing stock of knowledge; When faced with a difficulty, they become convinced of the need to acquire new knowledge or apply old knowledge in a new situation.

All the constituent elements of the structure of educational activity and all its components require special organization, special formation. All these are complex tasks that require relevant knowledge and considerable experience and constant everyday creativity to be solved.

Questions regarding the lecture materials

1. What is training?

2. What are the general learning objectives?

3. What tasks need to be solved during the learning process?

4. What is Gnostic activity?

5. What are the differences between external and internal gnostic activities?

6. What is the structure of educational activities?

7. What psychological components are included in educational activities?

Plan

1. General characteristics of educational activities.
2. Structure of educational activities.
3. Motivation for learning activities.

Additional literature: 13, 17, 18, 30, 89, 91, 92.

Theoretical introduction

Educational activities- one of the types of activities of schoolchildren and students, aimed at their mastering, through dialogues (polylogues) and discussions, theoretical knowledge and related skills in such spheres of social consciousness as science, art, morality, morality, religion. (direction of D.B. Elkonin, V.V. Davydov).

In classical Soviet psychology and pedagogy, educational activity is understood as a special form of social activity, mastery of methods of objective and cognitive actions.

In some other sources, educational activity is understood as a synonym for teaching, learning, teaching.

Educational activity is a specific type of learning in which the student changes his behavior, personality, cognitive sphere, feelings, will, character, abilities. This is the educational task, the solution of which leads to the formation of ideas, concepts about objects and phenomena of external and inner world in students. The discovery of reality occurs with the help of the older generation and the collaboration of the students themselves. (D.B. Elkonin, V.V. Davydov). The concept of educational activity includes criteria for the level of knowledge, skills and abilities: scientific character, consistency, strength, practical value, such as the acceptance of an educational task, independent creative decisions, self-control, self-assessment of success.

Educational activity is a combination of physical, practical, speech, mental actions. Practical, external actions are based on performance, on doing through imitation, exercise, and physical activity. Gnostic (“gnosis” - meaning from Greek) actions are the collection and processing of information. They can be substantive: manipulation, processing, assembly, development. These include perceptual actions, such as viewing, listening, observing, depicting, designating, describing, speaking, repeating, organizing material, highlighting semantic units, direct, inverse, cause-and-effect connections, using mental and mnemonic operations.

The following levels of the student are distinguished: passive perception and mastery of the information provided; active independent search and transformation of information; search, use of it organized from the outside.

Structure of educational activities. Highlight the following elements educational activities: cognitive need, educational task, educational motives, educational actions, operations.

Need e there is a state that expresses the need for something or someone, requiring its satisfaction for existence and development, serving as a source of activity. In the student’s educational activity, this is the desire to acquire knowledge, skills, abilities in the subjects being studied, to master the laws of origin, formation of objects and subjects of the disciplines studied. This happens in the process of her organized educational activities. Awareness of the need - a visible, intended result, becomes the goal of educational activity, which is divided into a series educational tasks, solved as actions are performed in certain operating conditions using special means, methods, methods. The specificity of the educational task is that when solving it, the student masters the general method of solving a whole class of homogeneous particular problems. The intended goal is achieved, results arise, direct and collateral, both conscious and unconscious. In this case, the main thing is the change in the student himself, his personality, and abilities.

The subjective side of educational activity is characterized and determined by the dominant motive this activity. This motive may be preparing oneself for future adult life, self-affirmation in the student’s reference group, receiving a high grade, maintaining one’s well-being under pressure from parents, teachers, and the student body.

The dominant motive of a student’s educational activity can also be an educational-cognitive motive, when educational activity is subjectively carried out for the sake of knowledge, mastery of a system of knowledge, skills, self-development and self-improvement as an individual. In this case, the objective and subjective sides of educational activity coincide, and then this activity acquires enormous socially and personally significant meaning.

A subject is usually driven to a certain activity not by any one motive, but by a combination of often contradictory motives that form the motivation for this activity. But the nature of this motivation and the nature of the activity itself are determined by the most significant, dominant motive, which causes, determines and directs this particular activity and not another. Behind each motive included in motivation is a certain need. Motivation is the process of transforming needs into motives - incentives for certain activities. So motivation is both a set of motives for activity and the process of transforming a need into a motive that causes activity to satisfy this need.

The motive of an activity may be subjectively realized vaguely or not at all, but what the subject wants to achieve as a result of this activity, the subject, as a rule, is aware.

Depending on the real situation, external and internal motives for educational activities are distinguished. Encouragement, demand, competition, threat, group influence, expectation of benefits - these are external incentives, they push towards a goal from the outside, often this causes indifference, conflicts, tension, and failure in studies.

Internal motivation attracts one to a goal; it is associated with interest in knowledge, curiosity, the desire to master experience, and to assert oneself. This motivation is optimal, aimed at overcoming obstacles and difficulties in learning, and creates conditions for the development of personal qualities.

Learning activities constitute the problem solving process. Actions happen material(real transformation of an object - diagrams, diagrams, drawings, etc.), speech (loud speech or external speech to oneself) receptive(transformation of objects in terms of perception), mental (action in the internal plane without relying on any external means).

If we approach the question of the structure of educational activities from the position of its organization, then we can propose following structure:

A) Introductory-motivational stage, in which schoolchildren must understand and understand why. Why do they need to study this topic, what is its significance in science, what is the history of its emergence and the development of those concepts and theories that they will have to study. Students are awakened to cognitive and educational motives and interests in the upcoming educational activity.

B) Operational-cognitive stage, where students study and master the content educational topic, acquire knowledge, skills and abilities. The main educational task is divided into successive partial educational tasks and their holistic solution.

C) Control and evaluation stage, when students summarize the studied material of the topic, including it in common system your knowledge and skills; establish whether they have solved the accepted basic educational-cognitive task, what has been learned and what has not been learned, and why. Based on this analysis, they evaluate their activities as a whole and individual actions, their successes and failures, after which the results of educational activities are adjusted.

Practical work

Exercise 1. Studying the motives of educational activities. From the answer options, select the ones that suit you.

1. What motivates you to study?

Demand from parents, teachers,

Desire to get a good grade

The desire to receive praise, encouragement from adults and friends,

The desire to obtain a matriculation certificate, diploma,

The desire to enter a special educational institution, to get the desired job,

The desire to be an educated, intelligent person, the fear of letting down one’s parents, teachers, team,

The desire to learn new things, to navigate modern knowledge,

The desire to use knowledge in further practical activities for the benefit of people and society.

2. What prevents you from studying?

Reluctance to teach, complete assignments, laziness,

There is no confidence in one's abilities, in the ability to achieve success.

Inability to independently understand the material, work with a book,

Inaccessibility of educational material,

Passion for other interests and activities.

The answer options can serve as an indicator of the level of motivation.

Task 2. The perception of new information depends on the level (depth and completeness) of the previously acquired system of concepts (knowledge), and the development of thinking and skillful use of previously acquired knowledge when solving an educational task.

Carefully read the examples of schoolchildren’s educational activities given below, their mistakes in solving educational problems, and give answers to the questions formulated below.

1. Children 5 years old are shown two vessels with different diameters and asked: “will there be the same amount of water if it is poured from one vessel to another?” the children answer: “yes, it will be the same.” But when water is poured from a narrower vessel into a wide one, the children answer that there is less water in this wide vessel.

2. It is explained to younger schoolchildren that the concepts “noun”, “verb”, “adjective” have the underlying meaning: “object”, “action”, “attribute”. Children refer to the noun “house”, but do not refer to it the word “happiness”, and the word “stand” supposedly means an object (“desk” is standing), the word “carpenter” - an action (“walks”, “alive”).

3. The teacher explains that main feature right triangle - availability right angle, everyone draws this triangle, the right angle at the bottom - at the base. Some students, while identifying correctly, do not recognize a right triangle if it is given in a different position.

4. In a geography lesson, students are explained and shown a drawing depicting a watershed in the form of a hill. Giving the concept of “watershed”, the children argue that the Caucasus Range is not a watershed, because it's a mountain, not a hill

5. In a physics course, the concept of “Weight” is studied - this is a force that attracts to the earth, all bodies have weight - this is their property, strength and weight - related concepts, like gravity and the free fall of bodies. Student’s answer: “Let’s take something and weigh it, select weights so that there is balance on the scales. How many grams, kilograms, tons a body weighs, this will be “Weight”.

Explain the psychological characteristics of the student’s mental activity in each specific case and explain the difficulties in answering the teacher’s questions.

Determine the reasons for the incorrect solution of educational problems by schoolchildren.

Task 3. Prove what qualities need to be cultivated in a student in order for him to study well.

Task 4. Remember what the leading type of activity is and prove at what age educational activity is leading?

Task 5. What do mental, perceptual, and mnemonic actions include? Give examples of these actions.

MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING

Plan

1. Concept educational motivation.

2. Levels of development of educational motivation.

3. Reasons for the decrease in educational motivation .

4. Ways to develop motivation.

Additional literature: 13, 21, 33, 50, 51, 52, 53, 83, 92.

Theoretical introduction

Motivation as a leading factor in the regulation of a person’s activity, behavior and activities is of exceptional interest to teachers and parents. Essentially no effective interaction with the child. As a teenager, it is impossible without taking into account the peculiarities of his motivation. There may be completely different reasons behind objectively absolutely identical actions of a student, i.e. the motivating sources of these actions, their motivation may be different.

Under motive We will understand the internal motivation of the individual to one or another type of activity associated with the satisfaction of a certain need. We will assume that ideals, interests, beliefs, values, and attitudes can also act as motives.

Under motivational sphere we will understand a set of persistent motives that have a certain hierarchy and express the orientation of the individual. A.K. Markova writes: “The motivational sphere is a constantly changing and sometimes contradictory structure, consisting of different motivations (needs, the meaning of teaching, its motives, emotions, interests), where the place of the leading motive is taken by one or another motivation, depending on the conditions training, circumstances. Therefore, the formation of motivation is not a process of increasing positive or worsening negative attitudes towards learning, but a complication of the motivations included in it.”

The success of educational activities depends on many psychological and pedagogical factors. It is extremely obvious big influence the strength of educational motivation and its structure on the success of educational activities. Conducted research (V.A. Yakunin) suggests that “strong” and “weak” students differ from each other not in their level of intelligence, but in their motivation for learning activities. High motivation can play the role of a compensatory factor in the event of an insufficient supply of the required knowledge, skills and abilities in a student. The teacher must not only be able to develop the motivation for teaching, but at the beginning it is necessary to cognize it, to establish for himself the reality with which he is dealing.

Educational motivation is determined by a number of factors: the educational system itself, the organization of the educational process, the subjective characteristics of the student, and the characteristics of the teacher himself.

A.K. Markova highlighted the following levels of development of educational motivation in schoolchildren:

1. Negative attitude towards learning: motives of avoiding trouble, punishment, explaining one’s failures predominate external reasons, her satisfaction with herself and the teacher, self-doubt.

2. Neutral attitude towards learning: unstable interest in the external results of learning, experiencing boredom, uncertainty.

3. Positive, but amorphous situational attitude towards learning: a broad cognitive motive in the form of interest in the result of learning and in the teacher’s mark, broad undivided social motives of responsibility, instability of motives.

4. Positive attitude towards learning: cognitive motives, interest in ways of acquiring knowledge.

5. An active, creative attitude to learning: motives for self-education, awareness of the relationship between one’s motives and goals.

6. Personal, responsible, active attitude to learning: motives for improving methods of cooperation in educational and cognitive activities, a stable internal position. Motives for responsibility for the results of joint activities.

Reasons for decreased educational motivation:

Incorrect selection of educational material content that causes overload or underload of the student.

Lack of mastery of modern teaching methods by the teacher;

The teacher’s inability to build relationships with students;

Personality characteristics of the teacher;

Low level of student knowledge;

Lack of formation of methods of educational activities, methods of independent work.

Disadvantages in the development of mental processes, mainly the child’s mental sphere;

Inadequate use by the child of his individual - typological features manifested in cognitive activity.

V.G. Aseev identifies two ways to influence motivation:

a) “from top to bottom”, work is carried out with students to understand motives, goals and ideals are revealed, which gradually become internal from externally understood.

b) “bottom up” - through the organization of various types of activities, which helps to actualize and reinforce the motives of students

The general way of forming learning motivation is to promote the transformation of existing motivations (sketchy, impulsive, unstable, unconscious, ineffective) into a mature motivational sphere with a stable structure, that is, with the dominance and predominance of individual motives and selectivity. Forming motivation does not mean putting ready-made motives and goals into the student’s head, but putting him in such conditions and situations. Ways to form learning motivation:

1. The role of educational material. Not every educational material can have a motivational influence, but only that whose information content corresponds to the current and emerging needs of the student.

The material should be accessible but difficult. New material should show the limitations of past knowledge and show familiar objects from a new perspective.

It must be remembered that schoolchildren have a need for new experiences and for exercising mental functions. In addition, for adolescents - in self-affirmation, reflection, for high school students - in the search for the meaning of life, self-esteem.

2. Organization of educational activities: studying a topic or section should consist of 3 stages:

a) The stage of inducing initial motivation - at this stage, the teacher brings students to an awareness of what needs to be learned in the lesson and why it needs to be learned, the student must understand what useful and new things he will learn today, where he can apply what he has learned, what benefits will the learning give him lesson material.

b) The stage of reinforcement and strengthening of the emerging motivation - at this stage the teacher arouses interest in several ways of solving problems and their comparison (cognitive motives), in different ways of cooperation with another person (social motives). The teacher can alternate different types of activities (reproductive and search, oral and written, difficult and easy, individual and frontal), use the mark and measure of difficulty of the material in such a way as to alternate motives and emotions in students with positive and negative modality, attracting them to self-control and self-esteem.

c) Stage of completion of the lesson - it is important at this stage that each student leaves the activity with a positive personal experience, and that at the end of the lesson there is a positive attitude towards further learning, that is, a positive motivation for the future.

3. The student’s involvement in group forms of organizing various types of activities contributes to the emergence of healthy competition and gives emotional appeal to educational activities. The student begins to feel that he is not playing a subordinate, but a major and active role in the learning process.

4. Value of the assessment. For positive motivation, it is not the mark itself that is important, but the information hidden in the mark about the student’s capabilities. Assessment increases motivation if it relates not to the student's abilities as a whole, but to the effort that the student puts into completing a task. The teacher should compare the student's successes not with the successes of other students, but with his own previous results. An assessment that creates in the child a desire for self-development and self-education is considered effective.

Practical work

Exercise 1. Write an essay on one of the suggested topics: What makes me learn? What do I like and dislike about college (at school)? What is it about academic subjects and different tasks that attracts me?

Task 2. Learn techniques for exploring motivation, goals, and emotions as you study. ( Take notes on pp. 20-21, 24-32 in the book. Markova A.K., Matis T.A., Orlov A.B Formation of learning motivation. M., 1990).

Task 3. Read the suggested situations carefully and:

Identify some psychological reasons decrease in educational motivation, causing school difficulties;

Analyze the types and effectiveness of assistance provided to students by teachers and parents;

Suggest ways to provide assistance with changes in the motivational sphere.

1. Sasha (11 years old) from the words of her mother: “We have one problem - we can’t speak Russian, because of this we don’t want to go to school, we don’t want to do our homework. He has so many bad marks in the language that it just takes him aback. The teacher often leaves him after lessons, I work with him - I force him to write dictations, but things don’t move. He’s doing well in math – even the teacher praises him...”

2. Vika (12 years old) “My daughter doesn’t listen to me at all, she considers herself an adult, but she won’t sit down to do her homework until you remind her. In the morning he doesn’t even get up for school if the alarm goes off unless he wakes him up…. I moved to "3" and started skipping school. In response to teachers’ comments, he gets insolent and snaps. You know, I’m ashamed, I work at this school myself, I’m a teacher myself, but I can’t find an approach to it...”

3. Maxim (13 years old) “Maxim is a normal boy. The main problem is that he doesn’t want to study. Previously, I studied at “4” and “5” in all subjects, but now I don’t want to at all. Fs don't sober him up. Whenever I say anything, I start to get angry, but an angry person can do whatever you want. She blackmails me with the fact that she gave birth to him in vain. He reproaches his father for drinking.... He never admits his guilt.”

4. Katya (11 years old) “Creepy girl. He doesn’t want to go to school, he locks himself in his room and sits there. Studying, if studying, is normal; There are almost no C grades. We scold and punish her. My father even spanked me several times. The teacher even noticed her petty theft, stole something from her right off the table and gave it to the kids. She shamed her, but Katya continued to steal. Katerina survived this, she didn’t refuse to go to school, but now for six months now I’ve been kicking her out or walking her to school. How can we get her to go to school? Help".

5. Leva (12 years old) “Usually she doesn’t skip class, but in class she doesn’t listen to the teacher’s explanations. In class he is known as a clown, disrupts lessons, and messes around. He never completes the teachers’ assignments, he quits tests and says: “What’s the point of sitting - it will still be a “2”. At home he watches TV and plays on the computer. If we forbid playing on the computer, he goes outside or to his friends’ house.”

6. Maxim (14 years old) “I finished primary school well. The teacher spoke of him as a very capable boy who studied below his capabilities. Has a wonderful memory. We stopped controlling him early because he could cope on his own. Relations with the guys were always normal, he was not offended. Over the past two years, I moved to “2”, I went to school more than once, and sat in class, to no avail. He stated that he would no longer go to school, since he was not interested there, but would look for a job.”

Task 4. Dodonov B.I. highlights the next one types of motivation: pleasure from the activity itself, significance for the individual result teachings, “motivating” force rewards I am for coercive activities pressure to the individual.

Which motive do you think is more sustainable? Give reasons for your answer.

Task 5. One of early research personal motivation was the work of H. Murray. He identified four types of main drivers of human behavior: the need for achievement, the need for dominance (power motive), the need for independence, the need for affiliation.

Which of the above motives do you think has the greatest influence on academic success?

Task 6. Test – MUN questionnaire.

Instructions. When answering questions, you must choose one of the answers: “yes” or “no.” If you find it difficult to answer, then “more likely yes than no” or “more likely no than yes.”

You should answer questions at a fairly fast pace, without thinking about the answer for a long time. The answer that comes to mind first is usually the most accurate.

1. When I get involved in work, I am usually optimistic and hope for success.
2. Usually active in activities.
3. Tends to take initiative.
4. When performing important tasks, I try, if possible, to find reasons to refuse them.
5. I often choose extremes: either very easy or completely impossible tasks.
6. When faced with obstacles, as a rule, I do not retreat, but look for ways to overcome them.
7. When alternating successes and failures, he tends to overestimate his successes.
8. Productivity depends mainly on my own determination, and not on external control.
9. When performing fairly difficult tasks under time pressure, my performance deteriorates.
10. The tendency to be persistent in achieving goals.
11. I am inclined to plan my future for a fairly distant future.
12. If I take a risk, it’s more likely to be a thoughtful one.
13. I am usually not very persistent in achieving a goal, especially if there is no external control.
14. I prefer to set myself moderately difficult or slightly exaggerated, but achievable goals, rather than strive for the impossible.
15. If I fail at a task, its attractiveness to me usually decreases.
16. When I alternate between successes and failures, I tend to overestimate my failures.
17. I prefer to plan my future only for the near future.
18. When working under limited time, my performance usually improves, even if the task is quite difficult.
19. As a rule, I do not give up on a goal even if I fail on the way to achieving it.
20. If I have chosen a task for myself, then in case of failure its attractiveness for me increases even more.

Key to the questionnaire.

YES: 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20.

NO: 4, 5, 7, 9, 13, 15, 17.

Processing the results.

For each answer that matches the key, the subject is given 1 point. Counting total points scored.

Sum of points from 1 to 7 - motivation: fear of failure; 8-9 - there is a certain attraction to the motivation of fear of failure, and if 12-13 - to the motivation of failure; 8 to 13 – the motivational pole is not clearly expressed; 14 to 20 – motivation for success.

Analyze the results and draw conclusions.

SECTION 3

PSYCHOLOGY OF EDUCATION

My article describes the structure of educational activities, consisting of the main components of educational activities. The main task primary school-- teach a child to learn, correctly set educational tasks for himself and successfully solve them.

Download:

Preview:

Municipal state educational institution

"Secondary school No. 5 in Mikhailovka, Volgograd region"

"Components of educational activities"

according to the system of D.B. Elkonin - V.V. Davydova.

(article)

Completed the work:

Petrova Valentina Nikolaevna,

primary school teacher.

COMPONENTS OF LEARNING ACTIVITIES.

According to D. B. Elkonin,educational activitiesis not identical to assimilation - it is the mainmain content of educational activities and is determined by the structure and level of its development, in which assimilation is included.

The method of educational activity is the answer to the question of how to learn, in what way to obtain knowledge.

The external structure of educational activities consists of such main components as:

• motivation;
• educational tasks in certain situations in various forms of tasks:
• learning activities:
• control turning into self-control;
• assessment that turns into self-esteem.

Motivation, as the first obligatory component of educational activity, is included in the structure of the activity; it can be internal or external in relation to it, but is always internal characteristic personality as the subject of this activity.

The first component is motivation.As is already known, educational activities are multimotivated. It is stimulated and directed by various educational motives. Among them there are motives that are most adequate to educational tasks, if they are formed in the student, his academic work becomes meaningful and effective. D. B. Elkonin calls them educational and cognitive motives. They are based on cognitive needs and the need for self-development. This is an interest in the content side of educational activity, in what is being studied and interest in the process of activity - how, in what ways results are achieved, educational tasks are solved. The child must be motivated not only by the result, but also by the process of educational activity itself. This is also a motive for one’s own growth, self-improvement, and development of one’s abilities.

Children entering 1st grade do not have a coherent structure of educational activities. It is formed over several years.

Some motives arise directly in learning and are associated withcontent and forms of educational activities (interest in the reading process,drawing, etc.).

In educational activities, many different motives can be distinguished:

• educational and cognitive motives: the desire to perform new actions, the desire to learn something new, the need for self-development;
• broad social motives: motive of duty, responsibility, motive good luck, the motive not to let the team down;

The educational motivation of first-graders is poor, mainly due to the absence of many social motives. Cognitive interest (interest in the content and process of learning) in most children, even by the end of this age, is at a low level.

In order for the student to developeducational activities,they have to decide constantly educational tasks. The essence of the educational task is that when solving it through educational activities Schoolchildren initially master a meaningful general method, and then use it in an error-free approach to each particular task. At the same time, the student’s thought moves from the general to the specific.

The second component is the learning task,that is, a system of tasks during which the child masters the most common methods of action. A learning task must be distinguished from individual tasks. Usually, children, solving many specific problems, spontaneously discover for themselves a general method of solving them, and this method turns out to be conscious to varying degrees in different students, and they make mistakes when solving similar problems.

Training operations (the third component) are part of the method of action.

Operations and the learning task are considered the main link in the structure of learning activities.

The main difference between the learning taskfrom any other tasks, according to D. B. Elkonin, is thatthen its purpose and result are to change the object itself, and not in changing the objects with which the subject acts.

The entire learning task must be presented as a system of learning tasks.

The learning task isthe goal of the learning activity accepted and realized by the child that the student must master. An educational task is different from a practical one. A practical task is, for example: learning a poem, parsing a sentence, solving a problem. The learning task is related to the purpose for which one or another practical task needs to be completed. For example: copy down and parse a word to indicate all its significant parts. Thus, when solving a practical problem, the student as a subject achieves a change in the object of his action. The result of such a decision is some modified object. When solving an educational task, the student also makes changes in objects or in ideas about them through his actions, but in this case the result is a change in the acting subject himself. An educational task can be considered solved only when predetermined changes have occurred in the subject.

Another component of learning activities is learning activities schoolchildren, by performing which they master the objective method of action.Learning activities are activitieswhich schoolchildren can actively produce with educational material and which allow them to solve an educational problem; it is what the student must do to discover the property of the object he is studying. According to the degree of generalization, the types of educational actions are general (comparison, analysis, classification, ability to plan one’s activities) and specific (related to the academic subject). This is how a learning task is given in a specific learning situation. The task arises as a consequence of the problem situation as a result of its analysis.

The educational task is solved by students by performing the following educational actions:

• transforming the conditions of the problem in order to discover the general relationship of the object being studied;
• modeling the selected relationship in subject, graphic or letter form;
• transformation of the relation model to study its properties in its “pure form”;
• building a system of particular problems solved in a general way;
• assessment of mastering the general method as a result of solving a given one. monitoring the implementation of previous actions;
• educational task.

The next component of the structure of educational activities is action your control . This is a correlation with a pattern that is given from the outside. Control consists of determining the compliance of other learning activities with the conditions and requirements of the learning task. This is a determination of whether the student has achieved the result or not. Control based on the result (final) is distinguished; planning control (before starting work); operational control (monitoring the progress of the action). As the work progresses, the student can say in what way he solves the problem. This is a more mature control that allows you to correct errors. Thanks to this educational action, the child’s final mastery of the acquired method occurs.

Assessment activities allow you to determine whether the general method for solving a given learning task has been learned or not. Assessment consists not simply of ascertaining whether or not the educational material has been mastered, but in a meaningful, qualitative consideration of the result of mastery in accordance with the goal. In teaching practice, this component is highlighted especially clearly.

The following skills are indicators of students’ level of control actions:

• before starting an activity, plan it and identify subjective difficulties;
• change the composition of actions in accordance with changed operating conditions;
• consciously alternate expanded and shortened forms of control;
• move from working with a natural object to working with its symbolic image;
• ability to independently create systems of test tasks.

There are 4 stages of self-control:

• lack of self-control. Control is exercised by the teacher;
• complete self-control; the student controls how completely and correctly he reproduced the material, but at the same time he does not notice all the individual errors;
• selective control, where the student controls only the main thing. He corrects mistakes himself, but after he has made them;
• internal self-control.

The result of educational activities is not the receipt of a finished product, but the mastery of methods and knowledge that will subsequently allow one to obtain a product.The main task of primary school is to teach a child to learn.The essence of the educational task is the restructuring of the student’s entire personality, that is,the result of educational activities ischanges in the subject itself.These changes occur in general development the child's personality, mental development in general, in the level of knowledge, abilities, skills, in the level of the formed activity itself.

Gradually, the child learns to independently set educational tasks and carry out actions to solve them. The child develops independent educational activity, that is, the ability to learn.

Main psychological mechanisms the formation of components of educational activity of younger schoolchildren are: mastering the actions of control (self-control) and assessment (self-esteem), which also act as a manifestation of reflection and self-regulation.

Most authors define learning as the acquisition of specific experience, in particular, knowledge, skills, behaviors and activities. I.I. Ilyasov, unlike other scientists, separates the concepts of teaching and development. He understands the teachings empirical level as gaining experience, as something that can be called external in relation to the changes that will occur on the internal plane, i.e. in mental processes, actions, operations. These internal processes he calls it development. Due to the fact that the content of the concept of teaching remains only the acquisition of external experience, and development refers to the acquisition of what is common to one’s soul, that is, general methods of action and operations, this made it possible for the author to highlight the types of teaching.

Thus, according to the type of acquired cognitive generalized and specific experience, learning can be the assimilation of sensitive (exteroceptive and proprioceptive) and rational (empirical and theoretical) material, as well as experience in practical and research activities, reproductive and creative. Teaching can be distinguished as organized and spontaneous according to the conditions of its occurrence. For example, passing it in conditions of assistance and management or in conditions of an independent process.

According to the nature of this process, Ilyasov distinguishes purposeful, voluntary or unfocused, involuntary learning as a by-product of other processes and activities, for example, as a result of gaming activities, identified by I.I. Ilyasov, targeted voluntary exercises are active exercises. The Czech theorist I. Litart calls it the educational activity of students.

So, the concept of teaching and educational activity are not identical. Educational activity is one of the forms of teaching.

The subject’s educational activity has a structure that includes the following components:

1) motivation;

2) learning tasks in specific situations;

3) educational activities;

4) control turning into self-control;

5) assessment, turning into self-esteem.

Motivation is one of the important components of this activity. It is with the source of the subject's activity. Most authors explain motivation as a system of psychological factors that determine human behavior and activity. S. Zanyuk highlights the dynamic and structural (content) aspects of motivation. In his opinion, the productivity of activity, its process and result are determined, firstly, by the direction of motives, their content, and secondly, by the strength, activity, intensity of motives of the corresponding content.

The structural aspect of motivation is the manifestation of diverse human needs. The content aspect of motivation includes such components as the content of motivation (a system of psychological factors such as inducing activity), the connection between motives; hierarchy of motives, needs that underlie motives and predetermine behavior. The dynamic aspect of motivation is determined by such characteristics as strength, persistence, degree of arousal of motives, and the ability to switch from one motive to another.

A motive is a set of external and internal conditions that cause the subject’s activity and determine its direction.

The concept of “motive” is often correlated with the concept of “need.” S. Zanyuk distinguishes these concepts in this way. “When analyzing the question of why an organism generally comes into a state of activity, the manifestations of needs and instincts as sources of activity are examined. If the question is studied of what the activity of the organism is directed towards, for the sake of which these particular actions of the act are chosen, and not others, the manifestations of motives as reasons that determine the choice of direction of behavior.

Need encourages activity, and motive motivates directed activity. When a need is specified and finds an object that can satisfy it, it turns into a motive. "L.I. Bozhovich writes that objects can act as motives outside world, ideas, ideas, feelings, experiences, in a word, everything in which the need is embodied. The concept of "motive", the narrow concept of "need".

The broadest concept is the “motivational sphere”, the content of which L.S. Vygotsky included the affective, volitional sphere of personality, the experience of satisfying needs in a general psychological context, the motivation of the “I” unites driving forces behavior.

Types of motives are distinguished depending on:

1) the nature of participation in the activity (conscious, actually operating motives);

2) time of predetermination of activity (long-short motivation);

3) social significance;

4) involvement in activity or from such motives that are outside it (broad social motives and narrow personal motives); motives for a particular type of activity, etc.

S. Zanyuk, referring to the classification of motives by L.I. Bozhovich, depending on the connection of the motive with the content or process of activity (internal, external motives), discusses the classification as follows:

1. Internal motives. Motives related to the process and content of the activity (when the activity is motivated by the process and content, and not by external factors)

2. External motives.

Broad social motives:

a) the motive of duty and responsibility to society, group, individuals;

b) motives of self-expression and self-improvement;

Narrow personal motives:

a) the desire to gain approval from other people;

b) the desire to get high social status(prestigious motivation).

Motives to avoid troubles that may arise when other people's demands, expectations, or needs are not met

In terms of considering the classification bases of motivation and the structure of needs, A. Maslow’s “demand triangle” is of great interest. The researcher shows the needs of the individual in terms of self-actualization, development, and maintenance of the body’s vital functions. A large role in the structure of personal needs is assigned to communicative and cognitive needs, but without connection with activity.

According to the views of B. Dodonov, activity is stimulated by the following group of motives:

1. Pleasure from the process of activity itself;

2. Direct result of the activity (created product, acquired knowledge, etc.);

3. Remuneration for activities (pay, promotion;

4. Fame, etc.;

5. Avoidance of sanctions (punishment) that would be threatened in case of evasion of activities or dishonest performance of them.

Motivation for learning is a separate type of motives included in educational activities.

A.K. Markova identifies two large groups of motives:

1) cognitive motives,

2) social motives, and the first group of motives can be divided into several subgroups:

1) broad cognitive motives, which consist of schoolchildren’s orientation towards mastering new knowledge;

2) educational and cognitive, consisting in the orientation of schoolchildren to assimilation, contributed to the acquisition of knowledge;

3) motives for self-education.

All these motives can ensure that the student has an “achievement motive,” which is the student’s desire to succeed.

The second group includes the following subgroups:

Broad social motives;

Narrow social or positional motives, consisting of the desire to take a certain position.

According to A.K. Markova, it is not the presence of social or cognitive motives itself that determines their content characteristics (the presence of personal significance of the teaching, its real influence on the process of learning, the place of the motive - leading or secondary, the level of awareness of the motive, the degree of its distribution to various educational subjects).

The dynamic characteristics of motives include their stability, modality (their emotional shades), the strength of the motive, its severity, the speed of occurrence, etc.

The author notes that the teacher needs to take into account the multi-motivation of learning; throughout the course of teaching, sometimes one or the other motives of the student are personally significant. In general, the motivational sphere of learning is determined by the nature of the educational activity of schoolchildren, the development and maturity of its structure, the formation of its components (learning task, learning actions, self-control and self-assessment actions), the interaction of enhancing learning with others, the meaning of learning for each student, etc. .e. his ideals, value orientations, the nature of the motives for learning, the maturity of goals, the characteristics of emotions accompanying the process of learning.

The second component of educational activity is the educational task. The development of the concept of “task” took place with the development of activity theory, in particular in the works of M.Ya. Basova, S.L. Rubinshteina, O.M. Leontyeva, V.V. Davydova, G.S. Kostyuka, O.V. Skripchenko. M.Ya. Basov understood the moment of the task as a form of expression of the unconscious as a factor that leads to knowledge. He substantiated the expediency of using in psychology the broad concept of task and the port of any terms with it - action goal and tasks S.L. Rubinstein, O.M. Leontyev associated a person’s voluntary action with the goal and conditions for achieving it. In their opinion, the relationship between goals and conditions determines the problem that can be solved by action, and conscious action is a more or less conscious solution to the problem. So, according to the basic principles of activity theory, every human action is aimed at solving problems.

Current problems of the problem-based approach are reflected in the works of G.O. Balla, Yu.I. Mashbits G.O. Ball calls learning tasks those that are solved or should be solved by students in the process of their educational activities S.K. crusted with elements general theory tasks, G.O. Ball emphasizes that the task is considered as a system, which necessarily includes two components: the subject of the task and the requirement of the task. The solution to the problem is to transfer the subject of the initial state to the desired one.

Educational activity also has its own external structure, consisting of such main components as: 1) motivation; 2) educational tasks in certain situations in various forms of tasks; 3) educational activities; 4) control turning into self-control; 5) assessment, turning into self-esteem. Each of them has its own characteristics. However, it should be noted here that, being by nature an intellectual activity, educational activity is characterized by the same structure as any other intellectual act, namely: the presence of a motive, a plan (intention, program), execution (implementation) and control (K. Pribram , Y. Galanter, J. Miller, A. N. Leontiev).

Describing the structural organization of educational activities in the general context of the theory of D. B. Elkonin, V. V. Davydov, I. I. Ilyasov notes: “...learning situations and tasks are characterized by the fact that here the student receives a task to master a general method of action and the purpose of its mastery, as well as samples. and instructions for finding general ways to solve problems of a certain class. Learning activities are the actions of students to obtain and find scientific concepts and general methods of action, as well as to reproduce and apply them to solve specific problems. Control actions are aimed at comparing the results of one’s educational actions with given samples. Assessment actions record the final quality of assimilation of given scientific knowledge and general methods of solving problems.”

Let us consider in more detail each of the components of the external structure of educational activity, presented schematically below.

Motivation, as will be shown in the next chapter, is one of the important decisive components not only of the structural organization of educational activity (remember the “law of readiness” by E. Thorndike, motivation as the first obligatory stage in the gradual formation of mental actions by P. Ya. Galperin), but also, what is very important is the subjective characteristics of the activity itself. Motivation, as the first mandatory component of educational activity, is included in the structure of the activity; it can be internal or external to it, but is always an internal characteristic of the individual as the subject of this activity. It is this primary importance of motivation in the educational activity of the subject that explains its detailed consideration in the next chapter.

The second, but essentially the most important component of the structure of educational activity is the educational task. It is offered to the student a) as a specific educational task, the formulation of which is extremely important for the solution and its result: and b) in a specific educational situation, the totality of which represents the educational process itself. The concept of “task” has big story development in science. In psychological terms, one of the first researchers in Russian science to develop the category and its tasks was M. Ya. Basov (1892-1931). Analyzing the child’s activity, he noted that for a wide variety of educational and life situations What is common is the moment of the task as such.” This general point is related to the need for a person to discover what he does not yet know and what cannot simply be seen in an object; To do this, he will need a certain action with this item. In his works, he substantiated the expediency of using the broad concept of a task in psychology, using the terms action, goal and task.

Subsequently, in the works of S. L. Rubinstein, the concept tasks received a broader interpretation in relation to the concept action and in the general context of goal setting. According to S. L. Rubinstein, “The so-called voluntary action of a person is the implementation of a goal. Before. To act, one must realize the goal to achieve which the action is being taken. However, no matter how significant the goal. Mere awareness of the goal is not enough. In order to implement it, it is necessary to take into account the conditions in which the action must be performed. The relationship between the goal and the conditions determines the task that must be resolved by the action. Conscious human action is a more or less conscious solution to a problem.” Note that the task is determined by the relationship between the goal and the conditions. According to A.I. Leontyev, a task is a goal given under certain conditions.

Considering the general didactic content of the concept task, V. I. Ginetsinsky defines it as “...a standardized (schematized) form of describing a certain fragment (segment) of cognitive activity that has already been carried out (that has achieved the required result), aimed at creating conditions for reproducing this activity in a learning environment.” The conditions of the problem and its requirements include the given and the sought, and the main one is to “express the sought through the given.” The importance of the formulation of the task is also noted: according to the criterion of correctness, complexity, where the latter is an objective indicator that correlates with the subjective difficulty or ease of solving the problem. In didactic terms, two characteristics of psychological tasks noted by V.I. Ginetsinsky are also important - “diagnosticity and creativity,” where the first correlates with the task of determining the assimilation of educational material, and the second with stimulation cognitive activity, a certain cognitive effort.

Based on the definition of educational activity as a specific activity of the subject to master generalized methods of action, aimed at his self-development based on solving educational tasks specifically set by the teacher and through educational actions, we note that the educational task is the main morphological unit of educational activity. The main difference between an educational task and any other tasks, according to D. B. Elkonin, is that its goal and result are to change the subject itself, and not to change the objects with which the subject acts.

The composition of educational tasks, i.e. questions (and, of course, answers) on which a student works during a given period of educational time, should be known to the teacher, as well as to the student. Almost all educational activities should be presented as a system of educational tasks (D. B. Elkonin, V. V. Davydov, A. G. Ball). They are given in certain educational situations and involve certain educational actions - subject, control and auxiliary (technical) actions, such as generalization, analysis, schematization, underlining, writing out, etc. At the same time, according to A. K. Markova, mastery of a learning task is practiced as students’ understanding of the ultimate goal and purpose of a given learning task.

An educational task, like any other, is currently considered as a systemic education (A.G. Ball), in which two components are required: 1) the subject of the task in the initial state, 2) a model of the required state of the subject of the task.

The composition of the problem as “given and sought”, “known and unknown”, “condition and requirement” is presented in the form of their initial state and “model of the required future” (N.A. Bernshtein, A.K. Anokhin) as a result of resolving the relationship between components of the task. IN this interpretation The task includes the action of predicting the result and its model representation. A task is considered as a complex system of information about a phenomenon, object, process, in which only part of the information is clearly defined, and the rest is unknown. It can be found only on the basis of solving a problem or information formulated in such a way that there is inconsistency and contradiction between individual concepts and provisions, requiring a search for new knowledge, proof, transformation, coordination, etc.

A detailed consideration of the composition of the educational task is presented in the works of L. M. Fridman, E. I. Mashbits. In any task, including educational ones, the following components are distinguished: goal (requirement);

objects that are part of the task conditions; their functions; and for some tasks - instructions on methods and means of solution, which are contained in explicit, but more often in hidden form.

In L. M. Friedman’s interpretation, any task consists of the same parts:

1. Subject area - a class of fixed designated objects in question.

2. Relationships that connect these objects.

3. Problem requirement - an indication of the purpose of solving the problem, what needs to be established during the solution.

4. Problem operator - a set of those actions (operations) that must be performed on the problem condition in order to solve it. In this presentation, the concepts of “solution method” and “operator” are very close, but in the activity-based interpretation of educational activities it is more convenient to use the term “solution method”.

When considering a method for solving a problem, the concept of a decision subject or solver is introduced (A. G. Ball). Accordingly, the method for solving the problem is called “any procedure that, when carried out by a solver, can provide a solution to a given problem.” In other words, the solution method correlates with the subjective characteristics of the human solver, which determine not only the choice and sequence of operations, but also the overall solution strategy. Solving a problem in various ways provides great opportunities for improving educational activities and the development of the subject himself. When solving a problem one way, the student's goal is to find the correct answer; solving a problem in several ways, he is faced with choosing the most concise, economical solution, which requires updating a lot of theoretical knowledge, known methods and techniques and creation of new ones for a given situation. At the same time, certain experience in applying knowledge is accumulated, which contributes to the development of logical search techniques and, in turn, develops the student’s research abilities. A. G. Ball connects the concept of a solution process with the concept of a method for solving a problem, noting that when describing a solution, not only the solver’s operations themselves are taken into account, but also the time and energy costs for their implementation.

The model for solving a learning task, along with the actual indicative one, also includes other parts of the method of action, and above all control and executive. At the same time, it is noted (E.I. Mashbits) that the full functioning of educational activity presupposes the formation of all parts of the method of action. To solve a problem, the subject-solver must have a certain set of means that are not included in the task and are attracted from the outside. The means of solution can be material (tools, machines), materialized (texts, diagrams, formulas) and ideal (knowledge that is involved by the solver). All means can be used in a learning task, but the ideal ones in verbal form are the leading ones.

From the position of managing educational activities, the essential features of the educational task are highlighted by E. I. Mashbits. Following D.B. Elkonin, he considers the first and most significant feature of an educational task to be its focus on the subject, because its solution presupposes changes not in the “task structure” itself, but in the subject himself, who is solving it.

Changes in a task are not important in themselves, as in, for example, labor activity, but as a means of changing the subject. In other words, a learning task is a means of achieving learning goals. From this point of view, it is not they themselves that are essential, but the assimilation of a certain method of action.

The second feature of a learning task is that it is ambiguous, or uncertain. Students may attach a slightly different meaning to the task than the teaching one. E.I. Mashbits called this phenomenon “additional definition of the problem,” and it occurs due to various reasons, due to the inability to understand the requirements of the task, confusion various relationships, often this happens depending on the motivation of the subject.

The third ability of a learning task is that in order to achieve any goal, the solution of not one, but several tasks is required, however, the solution of one task can contribute to the achievement of various learning goals. Consequently, to achieve any educational goal, a certain set of tasks is required, where each one takes its assigned place. Let us take a closer look at the psychological requirements for educational tasks.

Currently, the basic requirements for educational tasks as learning influences have been identified, which are determined by the uniqueness of the task’s place in educational activities and the relationship between educational tasks and educational goals (E. I. Mashbits). A consideration of the relationship between a task and a goal in the “set of tasks - Many goals” system is proposed, since in educational activities one and the same goal requires solving a number of problems, and one I the same task serves to achieve multiple goals. (Here it should be noted that the total number of tasks in the academic subject is close to 100 thousand.) This implies a number of requirements:

1. “It is not one single task that should be designed, but a set of tasks.” Note that the problem considered as a system exists - as such in more large system tasks and its usefulness should be discussed in relation to its position in the specified system. Depending on this, the same task can be both useful and useless.

2. “When designing a system of tasks, one must strive to ensure that it ensures the achievement of not only immediate educational goals, but also distant ones.” The author further notes that, unfortunately, in school practice the main focus is on achieving immediate goals. When designing learning tasks, the student must clearly understand the hierarchy of all learning goals, both immediate and distant. The ascent to the latter occurs consistently, purposefully, by generalizing the already acquired means of the educational system.

3. “Educational tasks must ensure the assimilation of a system of means necessary and sufficient for the successful implementation of educational activities.” In practice, as a rule, some elements of the system of tools are used, which ensures the solution of problems of only one class, but is not enough to solve another class of problems.

4. “The educational task must be designed in such a way that the appropriate means of activity, the assimilation of which is provided for in the process of solving problems, act as a direct product of training.”

As many researchers have found, what is included in the direct product of students’ actions is better absorbed by them. In most educational tasks, according to the author, the executive part acts as a direct product, and the orientation and control part acts as a by-product. The implementation of this requirement also involves the use of tasks for students to understand their actions, i.e. reflection. These types of problems help students generalize their actions in solving educational problems. Despite the fact that scientists pay great attention to the issues of reflection, in practice the teacher does not have the means to regulate students’ reflection in solving problems.

In order for students to consciously carry out and control their actions when solving educational problems, they must have clear ideas about the problem, its structure, and means of solution. They should receive such information in the form of a coherent guidance system from the teacher.

The learning task in the context of learning activity is given (exists) in the definition of the learning situation. (In our interpretation, the learning situation acts as a unit of an integral educational process.) The learning situation can be cooperative and conflicting. At the same time, if a substantive conflict, i.e., a clash of different positions, relationships, points of view regarding a school subject, promotes learning, then an interpersonal conflict, i.e., a conflict between schoolchildren themselves as people, individuals, hinders it. (Collaboration will be discussed in Part VI.)

The content of a learning situation can be neutral or problematic. Both types of these situations are presented in teaching, but the second requires great efforts of the teacher (teacher), therefore, despite the importance of problematizing teaching, problem situations are less common in the educational process. The creation of a problem situation presupposes the presence of a problem (task), i.e. the relationship between the new and the known (given), the educational and cognitive needs of the student and his ability (opportunity) to solve this problem (V. Okon, A. M. Matyushkin, A. V Brushlinskiy, M.I. Makhmutov, etc.). The teacher (teacher) is faced with the task of organizing situations in which an objective problem situation organized by him, containing contradictions and taking into account the capabilities of students, would become their subjective problem situation and would be appropriated by them in the form of some problem to be solved.

Creating a problematic situation, a problem in teaching, poses a significant pedagogical difficulty for every teacher. What is the reason for this difficulty? Let's look at this in more detail. First of all, let us recall the general didactic definition of problem-based learning given by M. I. Makhmutov: “...this is a type of developmental education that combines systematic independent search activity of students with their assimilation of ready-made scientific conclusions, and the system of methods is built taking into account goal setting and the principle of problem-solving; the process of interaction between teaching and learning is focused on the formation of the scientific... worldview of students, their cognitive independence, stable motives for learning and mental (including creative) abilities in the course of their assimilation of scientific concepts and methods of activity, determined by a system of problem situations.” A psychologically problematic situation means that a person faces problems and tasks that need to be solved. Human thinking arises in certain problematic situations. “It consists in starting from what is explicitly given, known, to determine what is given implicitly, i.e., given unknown, appears in the course of this process as what is sought.”

As A. M. Matyushkin notes, the problem situation itself determines the relationship between the subject and the conditions of his activity, in which this unknown, sought-after is revealed. Let us emphasize once again that in order to create and solve a problem situation, three conditions are necessary: ​​1) the cognitive need of the subject, 2) the relationship between the given and the sought, 3) certain physical, intellectual, and operational capabilities of the solution. In other words, the subject must be placed in a situation of intellectual difficulty, from which he himself must find a way out. As a rule, a problem situation is asked to the student in the form of a question such as “why?”, “how?”, “what is the reason, the connection between these phenomena?” etc. But it is necessary to take into account that only a question that requires intellectual work to solve a new problem for a person can be problematic. Questions like “how much”, “where” often focus only on reproducing what is stored in memory, what a person already knows, and the answer to it does not require special reasoning or decision.

Problem situations may differ in the degree of problematic nature (see Part II, Chapter 1, § 2). The highest degree of problematic nature is inherent in such a learning situation in which a person 1) himself formulates a problem (task), 2) himself finds its solution, 3) solves it and 4) self-monitors the correctness of this solution. The problem is least pronounced when the student implements only the third component of this process, namely the solution. Everything else is done and prepared by the teacher. Determining problem levels is also approached from other positions, for example, measures of productivity in solving a problem, cooperation, etc. It is obvious that when organizing educational process The teacher must develop a sequence of difficulties, regardless of what lies at the basis of determining their gradation.

Noting the difference between a problematic task and any other, A. M. Matyushkin writes: “A problematic task, unlike ordinary educational tasks, is not simply a description of a certain situation, including a description of the data that makes up the conditions of the problem and indications of the unknown, which should be revealed on the basis of these conditions. In a problematic task, the subject himself is included in the task situation.”

The creation of an educational problem situation is a prerequisite and form of presenting an educational task to the student. All educational activities consist of a systematic and consistent presentation of problem situations by the teacher and the resolution of the latter in tasks through educational actions. Almost all learning activities should be presented as a system of learning tasks given in certain learning situations and involving certain learning actions. It should be noted here that the concept of a task is often used along with the concept of “problem situation”. It is necessary to clearly distinguish between these two concepts: a problem situation means that in the course of activity a person has encountered something incomprehensible, unknown, i.e. an objective situation arises when the problem that has arisen requires some kind of effort from a person, action, first mental, and then, perhaps, practical ones.

At the moment when thinking is “involved” in human activity, the problematic situation develops into a task - “...the second appears from the first, is closely related to it, but differs from it.” The task arises as a consequence of the problem situation as a result of its analysis. (If the subject does not accept the problem situation for certain reasons, it cannot develop into a task.) In other words, the task can be considered as “problem situation model”(L.M. Friedman), constructed and, therefore, accepted by the subject solving it.

Solving a problem in an educational problem situation involves several stages.

First stage - This is an understanding of the task, formulated in ready-made form by the teacher or determined by the student himself. The latter depends on what level of problem the problem is at and on the student’s ability to solve it.

Second phase -“acceptance” of the task by the student, he must solve it for himself, it must be personally significant, and therefore understood and accepted for solution. The third stage is connected with the fact that solving a problem should cause an emotional experience (better satisfaction than annoyance, dissatisfaction with oneself) and the desire to set and solve one’s own problem, etc. Here it is important to note the role of the formulation of the task for the correct understanding of the problem. So, if the task is formulated in the form of an assignment “analyze”, “explain why”, “what, in our opinion, is the reason”, then the student determines latent, hidden connections, builds a certain logical sequence for solving the problem. If the task is given in the form of “describe”, “tell”, then the student can limit himself only to the presentation of what is most explicitly given and necessary for solving, understanding and accepting the task (K. Dunker, S. L. Rubinstein, A. N. Leontyev, N. S. Mansurov). As was shown in a study conducted by V. A. Malakhova, such causal forms of the task as “explain”, “describe”, etc., are, in fact, different tasks that guide the child’s thinking and his speech expression along a certain path. At the same time, in different age groups the influence of the imperative and non-imperative forms of the task turned out to be significantly different.

One of the important structural components of activity is action - the morphological unit of any activity. Activity does not exist except in the form of actions. This is the most important “formative” in human activity. “Human activity does not exist except in the form of action or the purpose of action, “... activity is usually carried out by some set of actions, subordinate to particular goals, which can be distinguished from the general goal.” According to A. N. Leontyev, “action is a process whose motive does not coincide with its subject. (i.e. with what it is aimed at), but lies in another activity in which this action is included. At the same time, “the subject of action is not something other than its conscious immediate goal.” In other words, if the motive is correlated with the activity as a whole, then the actions correspond to a specific goal. Due to the fact that the activity itself is represented by actions, it is both motivated and goal-oriented (goal-oriented), while actions correspond only to the goal.

As emphasized in the theory of activity of A. N. Leontiev, “There is a peculiar relationship between activity and action. The motive of activity can, shifting, move to the object (goal) of action. As a result of this, action turns into activity... It is in this way that new activities are born, new relationships to reality arise.” Let us illustrate this transformation with the examples given by A. N. Leontyev: a child solves a problem, his actions consist of finding a solution and writing it down. If this is a schoolchild and his actions are evaluated by the teacher, and he begins to carry them out, since he is interested in finding a solution and obtaining a result in itself, then these actions “transition” into activity, in this case - the activity of teaching. If this is a preschooler and the solution to the problem is motivated only by the fact that whether the child goes to play or not depends on its result, then solving the problem remains only an action. Thus, any activity, including educational activity, consists of actions and is not possible otherwise than through them, while the actions themselves can exist outside of activity. In this consideration of educational activity, only the most diverse educational activities included in it are analyzed.

Essential for the analysis of educational actions is the moment of transition to the level of operations. According to A. N. Leontiev, operations are methods of action that meet certain conditions in which its goal is given. A conscious, purposeful action in learning, repeated many times and included in other more complex actions, gradually ceases to be the object of the student’s conscious control, becoming a way of performing this more complex action. These are the so-called (A. N. Leontyev) conscious operations, former conscious actions turned into operations. So, for example, when mastering a foreign language, the action of pronouncing (articulating) a sound unusual for the native language (for the Russian language, for example, guttural, nasal sounds, etc.) is quite intense, it is purposefully, consciously controlled by the method and place of implementation, requires volitional effort. As this action is practiced, the pronounced sound is included in a syllable, word, phrase. The action of its pronunciation is automated, not controlled by consciousness, which is aimed at others, more high levels activity, and moves to the level of “background automatism” (N.A. Bernstein), turning into a way of performing other actions. A strengthened action becomes a condition for performing another, more complex one and moves to the level of operation, i.e., as it were, a technique for performing speech activity. At the same time, operations are controlled, according to N.A. Bernstein, by its background levels. “The process of switching technical components of movement to lower, background conditions is what is usually called automation of movements in the process of developing new motor skills and which is inevitably associated with switching to other afferentations and unloading of active attention.” Let us note that the transition from the level of action to operations is the basis for the technologization of learning.

Along with conscious operations in activity, there are operations that were not previously recognized as purposeful actions. They arose as a result of “adjustments” (A. N. Leontiev) to certain living conditions. A. N. Leontyev illustrates these operations with examples of a child’s language development - his intuitive “adjustment” of the methods of grammatical formatting of statements to the norms of speech communication of adults. The child is not aware of these actions, which is why they cannot be defined as such. Consequently, they are self-forming, intuitively formed operations as a result of imitation, his internal, intellectual actions. They can be the result of either internalized external objective conscious actions (J. Piaget, P. Ya. Galperin) arising in development or learning, or represent the operational side of mental processes:

thinking, memory, perception. According to S. L. Rubinstein, “the system of operations that determines the structure of mental activity and determines its course is itself formed, transformed and consolidated in the process of this activity”, and onwards “...to resolve the task facing it, thinking proceeds through diverse operations that make up various interconnected and transitional aspects of the thought process.” Such operations include comparison, classification, identity, difference, analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization. Let us note here that the corresponding internal mental operations determine the structure of perception (V. P. Zinchenko), memory (P. P. Blonsky, A. A. Smirnov, V. Ya. Liaudis) and other mental processes.

Educational actions can be considered from different points of view, from different positions: from a subjective-activity perspective, from a subject-oriented perspective; from the point of view of relation to the subject of activity (main or auxiliary action); from the perspective of internal or external actions; from differentiation of internal mental, intellectual actions, to mental processes; from the position of dominance of productivity (reproduction), etc. In other words, the diversity of types of actions reflects the entire diversity of human activity in general and educational activity in particular. Let's look at their main types.

From the position of the subject of activity, the teaching primarily highlights the actions of goal setting, programming, planning, performing actions, control actions (self-control), evaluation (self-esteem). Each of them correlates with a certain stage of educational activity and implements it. Thus, awareness of the purpose of solving a problem, writing a text, calculating as an answer to the question “why”, “for what purpose am I doing this” is the beginning of any activity. But posing such questions, finding an answer and subordinating one’s behavior to this decision is a complex set of actions. Considering the plans and structure of behavior, Y. Galanter, J. Miller, K. Pribram noted the importance of developing a general plan (strategy) of behavior, that is, a set of certain mental actions to understand the nature and sequence of behavioral acts. Performing actions are external actions (verbal, non-verbal, formalized, informal, objective, auxiliary) to implement internal actions of goal setting, planning, programming. At the same time, the subject of the activity constantly evaluates and controls its process and result in the form of actions of comparison, correction, etc. Due to the fact that the actions of control and evaluation of the student are converted external interpsychological actions of the teacher, they will be considered separately.

From the perspective of the subject of the educational activity itself, transformative, research actions are distinguished. In terms of educational activity (D.B. Elkonin, V.V. Davydov, A.K. Markova), educational actions are generally constructed as “active transformations by a child of an object to reveal the properties of the subject of acquisition.” At the same time, as the researchers note, these actions can be of two plans: “I) an educational action to detect a universal genetically original relationship in particular (special) material and 2) an educational action to establish the degree of specificity of a previously identified universal relationship.”

Theoretical knowledge as a subject of educational activity is acquired, according to V.V. Davydov, through research and reproduction actions aimed at meaningful generalization, and serves as a way for the student “to discover a certain pattern, a necessary relationship between special and individual phenomena with the general basis of a certain whole, to discover the law of formation, the internal unity of this whole.”

In correlation with the mental activity of the student, as noted above, they distinguish, as noted above, mental, perceptual, mnemonic actions, intellectual actions that constitute the internal mental activity of the subject, which, in turn, is an internal “integral part” (S. L. Rubinstein) in the considered case of educational . activities. Each of these actions breaks down into smaller ones (under certain conditions - operations). Thus, mental actions (or logical) include, first of all, comparison, analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization, classification, etc. At the same time, as S. L. Rubinstein emphasizes, “...all these operations are different aspects of the main operation of thinking - “mediation,” i.e., the disclosure of increasingly significant objective connections and relationships.” S. L. Rubinstein emphasizes that the thought process “is accomplished as a system of consciously regulated intellectual operations in the process of thinking with a problem, the resolution of which the thought process is aimed at, and its conditions. The verification, criticism, and control carried out in this way characterizes thinking as a conscious process.” These characteristics inside activities, and in particular educational activities, once again record the importance of such actions as goal setting, programming, control.

Along with mental ones, perceptual and mnemonic actions and operations are implemented in educational actions. Perceptual actions include recognition, identification, etc., mnemonic actions - imprinting, filtering information, its structuring, storage, updating, etc. In other words, every complex educational action that involves intellectual actions means inclusion large quantity often undifferentiated perceptual, mnemonic and mental operations. Due to the fact that they are not differentiated in general group educational activities, the teacher sometimes cannot accurately diagnose the nature of the student’s difficulty in solving an educational task.

In educational activities, reproductive and productive actions are also differentiated (D. B. Elkonin, V. V. Davydov, A. K. Markova, L. L. Gurova, O.K. Tikhomirov, E.D. Telegina, V.V. Gagai, etc.). Reproductive actions include primarily performing, reproducing actions. Analytical, synthetic, control and evaluation, etc., when they are carried out according to given criteria, in a template way, are also reproductive. Actions of goal setting, transformation, reconstruction, as well as control, evaluation, analysis and synthesis carried out according to independently formed criteria are considered productive. In other words, in educational activities, according to the criterion of productivity and reproduction, three groups of actions can be distinguished. Actions that, according to their functional purpose, are performed according to given parameters, in a given way, are always reproductive, for example, performing; aimed at creating something new, for example goal setting, are productive. The intermediate group consists of actions that, depending on conditions, can be both (for example, control actions).

The reproduction or productivity of many educational activities is determined by whether they are carried out: a) 1) according to programs, criteria, methods set by the teacher and 2) previously worked out, templated, stereotypical way or b) according to independently formed criteria, own programs, new ways, a new combination of means. Taking into account the productivity (reproductivity) of actions means that within the teaching itself as a “purposeful activity” or, even more so, teaching as the leading type of activity (D. B. Elkonin, V. V. Davydov), a teacher-controlled program of different ratios of productivity/reproductivity of educational activities can be created. students' actions.

Analysis of the educational actions and operations included in the educational activity allows us to present it as a multi-object control space. Each of these objects acts as an independent subject of mastery and control.

In the general structure of educational activities, a significant place and a significant role is given to the actions of control (self-control) and assessment (self-assessment). This is due to the fact that any action becomes arbitrary, regulated only if there is monitoring and evaluation in the structure of the activity. Control over the execution of the action is carried out by a mechanism feedback or reverse afferentation (P.K. Anokhin) in the general structure of activity as a complex functional system. Two forms of reverse afferentation (or feedback) were identified - directing and effective. The first, according to P.K. Anokhin, is carried out mainly by proprioceptive or muscle impulses, while the second is always complex and covers all afferent signs relating to the very result of the movement undertaken. PK Anokhin calls the second, effective form of feedback, in the proper sense of the word, reverse afferentation. He distinguishes between its two types depending on whether it carries information about the implementation of an intermediate or final, holistic action. The first type of reverse afferentation is stage-by-stage, the second is authorizing, or final, reverse afferentation. In any case, any information about the process or result of an action is feedback, fulfilling the role of control, regulation and management.

In the general scheme of a functional system, the main link where the comparison of the “model of the required future” (according to N.A. Bernstein), or the “image of the result of an action” (P.K. Anokhin) and information about its actual implementation occurs, is defined as the “action acceptor ”(P.K., Anokhin). The result of comparing what was supposed to be obtained and what is obtained is the basis for continuing the action (in case of coincidence) or correction (in case of mismatch). Thus, it can be argued that control involves three links: 1) a model, an image of the required, desired result of an action;

2) the process of comparing this image and the real action and 3) making a decision to continue and correct the action. All these three links are the structure of internal control of the subject of activity over its implementation. Each link of activity, each of its actions is internally controlled through numerous channels, feedback “loops”. This is precisely what allows us to speak, following I.P. Pavlov, about a person as a self-regulating, self-learning, self-improving machine. In the works of O. A. Konopkin, A. K. Osnitsky and others, the problem of control (self-control) is included in the general problems of personal and subject self-regulation.

The significance of the role of control (self-control) and assessment (self-esteem) in the structure of activity is determined, firstly, by the fact that it reveals the internal mechanism of the transition from external to internal, interpsychological to intrapsychological (L. S. Vygotsky), i.e. actions of control and teacher assessments of student self-control and self-assessment. At the same time, the psychological concept of L. S. Vygotsky, according to which every mental function appears on the stage of life twice, passing the path “from the interpsychological external, carried out in communication with other people, to the intrapsychological”, i.e. to the internal, one’s own - the concept of interiorization , - allows us to interpret the formation of our own internal control or, more precisely, self-control as a phased transition. This transition is prepared by the teacher’s questions, fixation of the most important, basic. The teacher, as it were, creates a general program of such control, which will be the basis of self-control.

It is known that P. P. Blonsky outlined four stages of self-control in relation to the assimilation of material: first stage characterized by a lack of any self-control. A student at this stage has not mastered the material and therefore cannot control anything; second- the stage of “full self-control”, at which the student checks completeness reproduction of learned material and correctness of reproduction; third characterized by P. P. Blonsky as a stage of selective self-control, in which the student controls and checks only the main issues; And fourth characterized by a lack of visible self-control, control is carried out as if on the basis of past experience, on the basis of some minor details, signs.

Let us consider the formation of self-control using the example of its inclusion in mastering foreign language speaking. In the above diagram of the formation of auditory control in teaching speaking, four levels are noted. At each of them, the speaker’s attitude to the error, the interpretation of the speaker’s intended actions, i.e., the auditory control mechanism, and the nature of the speaker’s verbal reaction to the error after making a decision about the erroneous action are assessed. The speaker's reaction can be correlated with the levels of self-control, according to P. P. Blonsky.

It should be noted that the first two levels are characterized by the external controlling influence of the teacher, which determines the formation internally! auditory feedback, the next two - the absence of such influence when correcting errors. These levels are, as it were, transitional from the stage;

consciously controlled performance of speech action on foreign language to the stage of unconscious control over the speech implementation of the language program, i.e. to the stage of speech automatism.