Educational activity is a specific type of human activity. IN in a broad sense , she aimed at assimilating the sociocultural experience accumulated by humanity. Educational activity is social in its essence(it is significant for the development of society, it is assessed by organized in specially created social institutions (preschool institutions, schools, universities, etc.)). It has all the characteristics of any human activity (activity, objectivity, awareness, purposefulness, subjectivity, dynamism, etc.).

Educational activities- activity aimed at the acquisition by an individual of new knowledge, abilities, skills or their change in the process of specially organized and targeted training, and thereby causing changes in the individual himself.

« Educational activities is, leading at school age because, Firstly, through it the child’s main relations with society are carried out; Secondly, it carries out the formation of both the basic qualities of the child’s personality school age, as well as individual mental processes,” emphasizes D. B. Elkonin. The attitude towards oneself, towards the world, towards society, towards other people is formed in educational activities primary schoolchild, but, most importantly, these relationships are realized mainly through her as an attitude to the content, teaching methods, teacher, class, school, etc.

So, educational activities are aimed at mastering by the subject of deep system knowledge, to comprehend generalized methods of action for their adequate and creative use in a variety of life situations. As D. B. Elkonin pointed out, educational activity is an activity “that has as its content the mastery of generalized methods of action in the field of scientific concepts.” However, an equally important characteristic of educational activities is that it causes changes in the subject itself, i.e. child.

Carrying out various learning activities (reading, drawing, problem solving, etc.), the child is focused on self-change. Self-change is conditioned "appropriation", "interiorization" ways of external and mental actions, due to which not only his cognitive sphere changes, but also various personal characteristics. Being aware of himself (reflecting), the student compares himself in a time perspective (what he was - what he became), evaluates his own achievements, on the basis of which he builds images of the future “I”. As V.S. Mukhina notes, “the most important thing in educational activities is reflection on oneself, tracking new achievements and changes that have taken place. “I couldn’t” - “I can”, “I couldn’t” - “I can”, “I was” - “I became” - key assessments of the result of in-depth reflection of one’s achievements and changes.

It is important that the child becomes for himself at the same time subject to change And subject, which carries out this change in itself. If a child receives satisfaction from reflecting on his ascent to more advanced methods of educational activity, to self-development, then this means that he is psychologically immersed in educational activity.”

Thus, content educational activity is related to what it is aimed at (what its subject is). Subject of educational activity are the assimilation of knowledge, mastery of generalized methods of action, development of techniques and methods of educational actions, as well as changes in the subject of the activity itself.

Wherein educational activities characterized by the following psychological characteristics:

1) it is specifically aimed at mastering educational material and solving educational problems;

2) in it, general methods of action and scientific concepts are mastered (in comparison with everyday ones acquired before school);

H) general methods of action precede the solution of problems;

4) educational activities lead to changes in the subject itself (as defined by D. B. Elkonin, this is the main characteristic of the activity);

Generalized characteristics of educational activities

As in any other activity, in educational activity its subject, means, methods, product, result of action, structure are distinguished.

Subject of educational activity is the assimilation of knowledge, mastery of generalized methods of action, in the process of which the learner himself develops. At the same time, the role of assimilation in the intellectual and personal change of students is indirect. The paradox of educational activity is that, while acquiring knowledge, a person does not change anything in this knowledge. The subject of changes in educational activities is the subject carrying out this activity. The most important thing in educational activities is to turn to oneself, evaluate one’s own changes, and reflect on oneself.

By means of educational activities, with the help of which it is carried out are: a) intellectual actions, mental operations (analysis, synthesis, generalization, classification, etc.); b) sign language means, in the form of which knowledge is acquired; c) background knowledge, through the inclusion of new knowledge, individual experience is structured, the student’s thesaurus.

Methods of educational activities may be varied. These are reproductive, problem-creative, research and cognitive actions. The method of educational activity is the answer to the question of how to learn, in what way to obtain knowledge. The most complete and detailed description of the method is presented by the theory of the gradual formation of mental actions.

Product of educational activities is structured and updated knowledge that underlies the ability to solve problems requiring its application in various fields of science and practice. The product is also an internal new formation of the psyche and activity in motivational, value and semantic terms. The product of educational activity, as its main organic part, is included in individual experience. Further human activity, in particular, success, largely depends on its structural organization, consistency, depth, and strength. professional activity, communication. The main product of educational activity in the proper sense of the word is the formation of theoretical thinking in the student. It is on the formation of theoretical thinking, which replaces empirical thinking, that the nature of all knowledge acquired in the course of further education depends.

Results of educational activities can manifest themselves not only at the level of achievements, abilities in various types and forms of socially useful, cognitive, theoretical and practical activities, but also in the presence or absence of the need to continue learning, interest and satisfaction with educational activities.

Structural components of educational activities

The external structure of educational activities includes the following components: 1) motivational; 2) operational, representing a set of educational tasks and educational actions; 3) operational-evaluative, including control, which turns into self-control, and evaluation, which turns into self-esteem.

Describing the structural organization of educational activities in the general context of the theory of developmental learning, I. I. Ilyasov notes: “...learning situations and tasks are characterized by the fact that here the student receives a task to master general method actions and the purpose of its assimilation, 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 fix windows - the wearable quality of assimilation of given scientific knowledge and general ways of solving problems."

Motivational component of educational activities. Characterizing it as a set of motives for educational activity, it is necessary to note the following points. On the one hand, the student’s activity is determined simultaneously by several motives, which is why they talk about multi-motivated educational activities. The hierarchy of motives, or their relationship, depends on the age of the students, the content of the academic subject, the role of the teacher and parents, as well as the reference environment. On the other hand, for educational activities the most important internal motives of the intellectual-cognitive type (conscious, understood, actually operating), which are recognized by a person as a thirst for knowledge, the need to assimilate this knowledge, as a desire to broaden horizons, deepen, systematize knowledge.

The following are the most common in the structure of educational activities: motivational types: a) cognitive motives (determine the attitude of students to the content of the study, the desire to learn and become educated);

• b) broad cognitive motives (manifested as interest in new interesting facts and patterns);
• c) educational and cognitive motives (aimed at mastering methods of acquiring knowledge); d) motives for self-education; e) social motives (the desire to be useful to society); f) positional motives (the desire to take a worthy place in the team); g) motives for social cooperation (focus on interaction with a partner).

In addition to the types of motives for educational activities, there are also three type of motivation teachings:

• 1) negative motivation those. the student’s awareness of certain inconveniences and troubles that may arise if he does not study;
• 2) positive motivation which is also associated with motives embedded outside the educational activity itself. In this regard, the following are distinguished: a) motivation, determined social aspirations (duty to parents, finding your own path in life); b) narrow personal motives – the road to personal well-being; V) practical motivation, those. the benefit that can be derived from knowledge or study. It should be noted that this type of motivation is becoming increasingly widespread among students. different levels, from school to university;
• 3) motivation inherent in the learning process itself, those. motives of cognitive interest, gaining knowledge.

When assessing the motivational sphere, it is necessary to take into account the fact that not all motives are recognized by the person himself (especially in childhood).

Operational component of educational activities. Almost all educational activities can be represented as system of educational tasks, set in certain educational situations and involving certain learning activities (subject, control and auxiliary), which are defined as ways to solve educational problems. The learning objectives require certain psychological requirements, which must be observed by the teacher if he is to be effective. Firstly, not one separate task should be constructed, but a set of tasks, i.e. system. Secondly, 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. Thirdly, educational tasks must ensure the assimilation of a system of means necessary and sufficient for the successful implementation of educational activities. Fourthly, the learning task must be designed in such a way that the direct product of learning is the means of activity that must be learned in the solution process. Such means are reflection, control, and task orientation.

As is known, educational activity begins with setting a learning task. The formulation of the task indicates what the students need to do: learn something (apply a rule, solve problems, etc.), learn some patterns, understand some rules, develop a certain skill or ability. Further deployed learning activities - elements of activity that answer the question of how to do something (read, parse, highlight, underline, find words with the same root, compare concepts, etc.). Certain types of educational actions are distinguished depending on various reasons, for example, from the position of the subject of the activity (goal-setting actions; programming actions; planning actions; performing actions; control actions (self-control); assessment actions); on the subject of educational activities (transformative and research); by the dominant involvement of mental processes (mental (logical); perceptual; mnemonic; intellectual); by degree of independence (reproductive and productive).

In the process of learning activities, it is advisable for the student to clearly set a learning task and specifically practice learning actions and operations. According to the theory of developmental learning, the educational task is solved through the following educational actions (V.V. Davydov):

• 1) acceptance or independent formulation of a learning task;
• 2) transformation of the conditions of the educational task in order to detect some general attitude the subject being studied;
• 3) modeling of the selected relationship;
• 4) transforming the model of this relationship to study its properties in its “pure form”;
• 5) construction of a system of particular problems solved in a general way;
• 6) control over the implementation of previous actions;
• 7) assessment of mastering the general method as a result of solving a learning task.

The first action, namely acceptance of the learning task, demonstrates an attitude towards the task as an educational one, or a specific one. If the learning task is accepted, they begin to analyze the text or reality; if not accepted, trial and error take the place of meaningful analysis. Among educational activities, a special place is given to modeling. It is not by chance that it is recognized as a central action in educational activities. It is during the construction of the model, solving the problem on the model and subsequent verification (correlating the result of the solution carried out on the model with the text) that those mental new formations are formed that make a child a schoolchild (theoretical thinking, arbitrariness and mastery of means).

In general, the system of educational activities includes planning, or indicative actions, presenting students with an incomplete, complete and generalized system of instructions or guidelines, and performing actions (clarification of the content of educational material presented orally or in writing; actions of practicing educational material through memorization and other exercises; actions of independent construction of knowledge). Part control actions includes: a) control of assimilation, understanding; b) control of processing. Control actions are elements of executive actions.

Operational-evaluative component of educational activities. It includes control (first with the help of the teacher, and then self-control ) for the correctness and completeness of operations, as well as grade (and then self-esteem ) how the learning task was completed, how the student mastered the general method of action, what he has already mastered, what he has not yet managed to achieve. Indicators of the development of control in educational activities include the following skills: a) before starting an activity, plan it and identify subjective difficulties; b) change the composition of actions in accordance with changed operating conditions; c) consciously alternate expanded and shortened forms of control; d) move from working with a natural object to working with its iconic-symbolic image; d) independently create systems of test tasks.

The highest stage of development of control actions is self-control. There are four stages of self-control.

• 1. Lack of self-control: control is exercised by the teacher.
• 2. Complete self-control: the student controls how completely and correctly he reproduced the material, but at the same time he does not notice all his mistakes.
• 3. Selective self-control: the student controls only the main thing. He corrects mistakes made on his own.
• 4. Internal self-control: control is carried out by the student on the basis of some personal signs. When he starts making a mistake, he immediately corrects it.

The student’s self-assessment of his actions is characterized by an understanding of such components as:

• a) awareness of the learning task (what is a task? what needs to be done to solve any problem? what needs to be done to solve a specific problem?);
• b) awareness of the purpose of the educational activity (what did you learn today? what goals did you achieve in the lesson? what could you learn by solving problems of a certain type?);
• c) assessment of methods of activity that are specific and invariant in relation to various academic subjects (clarification of general methods of action; the student’s ability to identify the general, invariant in various academic subjects, in performing various tasks; awareness of specific operations necessary to solve cognitive problems).

So, formation of educational activities is aimed primarily at the holistic development of the individual and personal properties of the student. Thus, this is primarily a process of formation subject educational activities; development personalities as a subject of educational activity. In the process of developing educational activities the most important moment is the impact simultaneously on all spheres of personality: intellectual, motivational, emotional-volitional, objective-practical, etc., which in their developed form characterize the integrity, harmoniousness of individuality, freedom and versatility of a person. His social activity depends on their development.

• Ilyasov, I. I. Structure of the learning process. – M., 1986. – P. 163.

general characteristics educational activities.

The learning process can be carried out in the form of incidental learning or in the form of targeted learning. Incidental learning occurs during activities that have a different goal. Thus, a child, performing an action with an object, simultaneously becomes acquainted with its properties - color, shape, size. Learning as an activity takes place where a person’s actions are controlled by the conscious goal of acquiring certain knowledge, skills, and abilities.

The founder of the activity theory of teaching is L.S. Vygotsky, who made fundamental changes to the theoretical ideas about this process. He considered activities aimed at learning as a specific activity in which the formation of mental new formations occurs through the appropriation of cultural and historical experience. The sources of development, therefore, lie not in the child himself, but in his learning activities aimed at mastering the methods of acquiring knowledge.

Purposeful learning is possible either in the form of educational activities or in the form independent work. Actually psychological theory educational activity was formed in the general theory of learning. Its developers include D. B. Elkonin, V. V. Davydov, P. Ya. Galperin, N. F. Talyzina, A. K. Markova. Educational activity is a special form of learning aimed at mastering generalized concepts of educational actions and self-development in the process of solving educational problems specifically set by the teacher. Educational activity can be considered as a specific type of activity. It is aimed at improving, developing, and shaping the student’s personality through a conscious, purposeful appropriation of social experience. Let us note the main characteristics of educational activity that distinguish it from other forms of learning:

1) it is specifically aimed at mastering educational material and solving educational problems;

2) it masters general methods of action and scientific concepts;

3) general methods of action precede the solution of problems (I. I. Ilyasov);

4) educational activities lead to changes in the subject himself (D. B. Elkonin, I. Lingart);

5) changes in the mental properties and behavior of the student depending on the results of his own actions (I. Lingart).

Educational activity has a certain subject (psychological) content. It highlights the subject of educational activity, means, methods, product and result. The subject of educational activity is the assimilation of knowledge, mastery of generalized methods of action, development of techniques and methods of action, their programs, algorithms, in the process of which the student himself develops. The means of educational activity are intellectual actions (signs, language, verbal means), in the form in which knowledge is acquired, as well as background knowledge with the help of which the child’s individual experience is structured. Methods of educational activity can be completely different. These include reproductive, problem-creative, research-cognitive activities. The product of educational activity is structured knowledge, new formations in the psyche. the behavior of the student, his individual experience. The result of educational activity is the need to continue it or a withdrawal from it.

D. B. Elkonin highlights the activity characteristics of this form of teaching. Educational activities are of a social nature: in content, as they are aimed at mastering the social experience accumulated by humanity; in meaning, because it is socially significant and socially assessed in form, because it corresponds to socially developed norms of communication and takes place in special public institutions. In addition, educational activity, like any other, is characterized by subjectivity, activity, objectivity, purposefulness, and awareness. It has a certain external structure.

Structure of educational activities.

The external structure of educational activities includes five main components:

Motivation;

Learning objectives presented in the form of learning assignments;

Educational activities with the help of which educational tasks are solved; ,

Actions of control that turn into self-control;

Actions of assessment that turn into self-assessment.

Let's analyze each of the components in more detail. Educational motivation is defined as a particular type of motivation included in the activity of learning. When analyzing educational motivation It is important to study the motives that encourage a child to acquire knowledge, skills and abilities. Motives for learning activities can be external or internal. If the motivators of educational activity are some external incentives (encouragement, reward, punishment), then in this case it will only be a means to achieve other goals - personal success, satisfaction of ambition, avoidance of punishment. At the same time, educational activity is to some extent forced and acts as an obstacle that must be overcome on the way to the main goal. If a student treats learning activities as his main goal, they say that he has internal motivation. In this case, educational activity can be guided by interest in the knowledge itself, methods of obtaining it, curiosity, and the desire to improve one’s educational level. Such learning situations do not contain internal conflict. Although they are also associated with overcoming difficulties and require volitional efforts, but these efforts are aimed at overcoming external obstacles, and not at fighting oneself. Such learning situations are optimal from a pedagogical point of view. In the works of L. I. Bozhovich and her colleagues, who studied the educational activities of schoolchildren, it is noted that some students are more motivated by the process of cognition itself during educational activities, while others are motivated by the relationships with people that develop within it. Accordingly, it is customary to distinguish two large groups motives for educational activities - cognitive and social.

Cognitive motives are associated with the content of educational activity and the process of its implementation. Among them are:

Broad cognitive motives, consisting of students’ orientation towards mastering new knowledge;

Educational and cognitive motives, reflecting an orientation towards mastering methods of acquiring knowledge;

Motives for self-education, consisting of a focus on independently improving the methods of acquiring knowledge.

Social motives also fall into several subgroups:

Broad social motives, reflecting the desire to gain knowledge in order to be useful to society, understanding

the need to learn, a sense of responsibility, the desire to prepare well for future profession;

Narrow social motives (positional), which manifest themselves in the desire to take a certain position in relations with others, to gain their approval;

Motives for social cooperation are associated with orientation towards other people. At the same time, the student not only wants to communicate and interact with others, but also strives to be aware of, analyze the ways of his cooperation, and constantly improve them.

All types of motives are closely related to each other and are formed in direct dependence on each other. When analyzing educational activities, it is important to take into account the entire structure of the motivational sphere of the individual.

The most important component in the structure of educational activities is the learning task. It is offered to the student as a specific educational task, the formulation of which is essential for the decision and its result. According to A. N. Leontiev, a task is a goal given under certain conditions. The main difference between a learning task and various other tasks is that its goal and result are to change the subject of learning activity himself, and not to change the objects with which he acts (D. B. Elkonin).

Almost all educational activities can 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 the implementation of appropriate educational activities - subject, control and auxiliary. The structure of any learning task must have two components (A. G. Ball):

1) the subject of the task in the initial state;

2) model of the required state of the educational task.

A procedure that provides a solution to a learning task,

is called the method of solving it (A. G. Ball). If a learning task can be solved in only one way, then the student’s goal is to find it. In other cases, when a problem can be solved in several ways, the student is faced with choosing the most concise and economical one. At the same time, a certain amount of experience in applying knowledge is accumulated, which contributes to the development of logical search techniques and the improvement of the child’s thinking abilities.

Mashbits formulated the basic psychological requirements for educational tasks:

1. Not one educational task should be designed, but a set of them.

2. When designing a system of educational tasks, it is necessary that it ensures the achievement of not only immediate, but also distant educational goals.

3. Educational tasks must ensure the assimilation of the system of means necessary for the successful implementation of educational

activities.

4. The learning task must be designed in such a way that the means of activity that need to be learned act as a direct product of learning. In most educational tasks, according to E. I. Mashbits, the executive part acts as a direct product, and the indicative control part acts as a by-product. The implementation of this requirement also involves the use of tasks for students to understand their actions, that is, to develop their reflection.

“Initially, students do not yet know how to independently set and solve educational problems, so at the beginning of their studies this function performed by the teacher.

Acceptance of a learning task by a student occurs when the teacher explains why it is necessary to complete the learning task. At this time, the student always (consciously or unconsciously) compares the learning task with the meaning of learning for himself, with his capabilities, that is, he redefines or redefines it. This stage determines the degree of readiness of the student for educational activities.

Solving a learning task is possible only with the help of learning actions, which constitute the third component of learning activity. Educational actions are the child’s active transformations of an object to reveal the properties of the subject of acquisition (D. B. Elkonin, V. V. Davydov, A. K. Markova). The assimilation of each fundamental concept in the study of any academic subject corresponds to a certain system of educational actions. The composition of educational activities is heterogeneous. A psychologist most often has to deal with insufficient or irrational use of those educational activities that are common to various educational subjects. Specific learning activities reflect the characteristics of the subject being studied and are therefore used within a given field of knowledge. Such educational activities are taught by the teacher. Examples of specific learning activities include: sound analysis words, addition, ability to read music text.

According to another classification - from the position of the subject of activity in learning - the actions of goal setting, programming, performing actions, control actions (self-control), evaluation (self-esteem) are distinguished. Each of them correlates with a certain stage of educational activity and implements it. Thus, awareness of the purpose of solving a problem as an answer to the question “why am I doing this?” refers to goal-setting actions. Performing actions are aimed at solving a problem. These include verbal practical (actions with objects or their images), mental (perceptual, mnemonic, mental).

Correlating learning activities with mental activity students allows us to identify such varieties as perceptual, mnemonic, mental, and intellectual. Each of these actions breaks down into a number of smaller ones. Perceptual actions include recognition, identification, analysis of the appearance of objects; Mnemonic involves capturing, filtering information, structuring it, storing it, updating it. Mental actions contain comparison, analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization, classification.

The set of learning actions forms a way to solve a learning task. It is precisely the formation of methods academic work is the main indicator of the maturity of educational activities.

The next component of educational activity is control (self-control) actions. These actions have a special role, since mastering them characterizes educational activity as a voluntary process controlled by the student himself (D. B. Elkonin). Control involves correlating the progress and result of a completed educational action with a model. Consequently, three parts can be distinguished in the control action:

Model desired result actions;

The process of comparing this image and real action;

Making a decision to continue or correct an action.

Initially, the teacher controls the implementation of educational activities. He divides the obtained result into certain elements, compares them with a given sample, points out possible discrepancies, and correlates them with the nature of educational actions. As you can see, comparison of the result with the sample is the main point of the control action. Gradually, as students master control, self-control develops.

P.P. Blonek considered four stages of self-control in relation to the assimilation of material. The first stage is characterized by the absence of any self-control. The student at this stage has not mastered the material and cannot control anything. The second stage is “full self-control,” at which the student checks the completeness and correctness of the reproduction of the learned material. The third stage is selective self-control, when the student controls only the main thing in questions. The fourth stage is characterized by a lack of visible self-control. The student exercises control based on past experience, on the basis of some minor details, signs.

Thus, the formation of self-control occurs

as a step-by-step process. It is prepared by the teacher’s questions, by fixing the main thing. The teacher seems to create general program such control, which will later become the basis of self-control.

Similar to the formation of self-control, assessment (self-assessment) actions develop in the structure of educational activities. Assessment makes it possible to determine to what extent the method of solving a problem has been mastered and to what extent the result of educational actions corresponds to their goal. In school practice, the assessment process appears either in the form of an expanded judgment in which the teacher justifies the mark, or in a compressed form, as a direct assessment grades. The teacher's assessment should serve as the basis for the formation of a student's self-esteem in educational activities. A. V. Zakharova notes that in the process of forming subject-based self-esteem in the structure of educational activities, self-assessment transforms into a quality, a characteristic of the subject of the activity - his self-esteem. of this component of educational activity.

Students’ assimilation of increasingly complex forms of self-control and self-esteem is the psychological basis for the formation of their independent work.

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 set of physical, practical, speech, and 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. The following elements of educational activity are distinguished: cognitive need, educational task, educational motives, training activities, 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, and abilities in the subjects 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 perceived 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 the 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 generalize the studied material of the topic, including it in the general system of their 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,

The 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, 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 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. For younger students explain that the concepts “noun”, “verb”, “adjective” have the underlying meaning: “object”, “action”, “feature”. 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 the main feature of a right triangle is the presence right angle, everyone draws this triangle, the right angle at the bottom - at the base. Some students, while identifying correctly, do not recognize 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, force and weight are 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 psychological characteristics mental activity of the student 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. The concept of 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 obvious that the strength of educational motivation and its structure have an extremely large influence 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 educational process, subjective characteristics of the student, characteristics of the teacher himself.

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

1. Negative attitude towards teaching: motives of avoiding trouble, punishment, explaining one’s failures by external reasons, self-satisfaction with oneself and the teacher, and lack of self-confidence predominate.

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 the content of educational material, causing overload or underload of the student.

Lack of mastery by the teacher modern methods training;

The teacher's inability to build relationships with students;

Personality characteristics of the teacher;

Low level 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

General path the formation of learning motivation is to facilitate the transformation of existing motives (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 educational motivation:

1. The role of educational material. Not every educational material can have a motivational influence, but only such material, the information content of which 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, show familiar objects from a new perspective.

It must be remembered that schoolchildren have a need for new impressions, for exercise. 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 success not with the success 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 clock doesn’t wake 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. Never completes teachers' assignments tests leaves - says: “What’s the point of sitting - it will still be “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) “Finished well primary school. 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 the earliest studies of 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 impact 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, whenever 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 successes and failures alternate, 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. The total number of points scored is calculated.

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

When characterizing the concept of “learning activity,” most authors usually complain about its often overly broad interpretation. In everyday speech, and often in special psychological and pedagogical publications, educational activity is interpreted very broadly and is considered as a synonym for learning, teaching, and even teaching. In addition, the term “educational activity” is usually used to designate the main regulatory activity in educational institutions. From the point of view of the activity approach, this is incorrect. Educational activity, from the standpoint of the activity approach, is considered as “a special form of personal activity aimed at assimilation (appropriation) social experience knowledge and transformation of the world, which includes mastery of cultural methods of external, objective and mental actions" (V.V. Davydov).

It is usually emphasized that educational activity should not be identified with the processes of learning and assimilation included in different types of activities (game, communication, sports, work, etc.). According to V.V. Davydov, educational activities involve the acquisition of theoretical knowledge through discussions carried out by students with the help of teachers. Educational activities, according to V.V. Davydov, are implemented in those educational institutions (schools, institutes, universities) that are capable of providing their graduates with a fairly comprehensive education and are aimed at developing their abilities that allow them to navigate in various spheres of social consciousness." The author notes that educational activities are still poorly represented in many Russian educational institutions.

D. B. Elkonin writes that “learning activity is an activity that has as its content the mastery of generalized methods of action in the field of scientific concepts.” Such activity, in his opinion, should be motivated by adequate motives. They can be motives for acquiring generalized methods of action or, more simply, motives for one’s own growth, one’s own improvement. If it is possible to form such motives in students, states D. B. Elkonin, “then this will support, filling with new content, those general motives of activity that are associated with the position of the student, with the existence of socially significant and socially valued activities.”

Educational activity can thus be considered as a specific type of activity. It is focused on the student as a subject. As a result of educational activities, improvement, development, and formation of a person as an individual occurs due to the conscious, purposeful appropriation of sociocultural experience in various types and forms of socially useful, cognitive, theoretical and practical activities (I. A. Zimnyaya).

Main characteristics of educational activities

I. I. Ilyasov identified three characteristics that distinguish educational activities from other forms of learning:

• 1. It is specifically aimed at mastering educational material and solving educational problems.
• 2. In it, general methods of action and scientific concepts are mastered (in comparison with everyday ones acquired before school).
• 3. General methods of action precede the solution of problems.

The latter, for comparison, can be compared with teaching using the “trial and error” method, when there is no preliminary general method, there is no program of action, then teaching is not an activity.

To these three characteristics I. A. Zimnyaya suggests adding two more:

• 1. Educational activity leads to changes in the subject himself.
• 2. Changes in the mental properties and behavior of the student “depending on the results of his own actions” (I. Lingart).

Assessing these five characteristics of educational activity, I. A. Zimnyaya quite rightly proposes to consider the fourth – the main one.

When characterizing educational activities, most authors emphasize its social nature. It is most significantly determined by cultural traditions and social and semantic orientations of society. A significant part of educational activity takes place in the mode of interaction with others, but D. B. Elkonin especially noted that often, being collective in form, educational activity is always individual in result.

Like any other type of activity, educational activity can be described from different points of view, such as: subjectivity, activity, objectivity, purposefulness, awareness, as well as in terms of its structure and content. Educational activity, according to the developers of this theory, has the following general structure: need - task - motives - actions - operations (V.V. Davydov, D.B. Elkonin, etc.).

The subject of educational activity, from the point of view of psychology, is what it is aimed at. In this regard, the following are distinguished: assimilation of knowledge, mastery of generalized methods of action, development of techniques and methods of action, their algorithms and programs, in the process of which the development of the “subject of activity” - the student - occurs. D. B. Elkonin especially emphasized the fundamental point that educational activity should not be identified with assimilation. Despite the fact that it (assimilation) is its main content and is itself determined by the structure and level of its development. main feature the subject of educational activity is that it is aimed at changing the subject himself; these changes (in the intellectual and personal terms) are mediated by the nature of assimilation.

Inclusion in educational activities involves the use of special means and methods. Experts in the field of activity approach to learning distinguish three groups:

• 1. The means underlying the cognitive and research functions of educational activities, intellectual actions (analysis, synthesis, generalization, classification, etc.).
• 2. Sign, linguistic, verbal means, in the form of which knowledge is absorbed, individual experience is reflected and reproduced.
• 3. Background knowledge, through the inclusion of new knowledge, individual experience is structured, the student’s thesaurus (I. A. Zimnyaya, S. L. Rubinstein, etc.).

Methods of educational activity can be different and are usually classified on a variety of grounds. For example: reproductive, problem-search, research and cognitive (V.V. Davydov, V.V. Rubtsov, etc.). This issue is being developed especially intensively in pedagogy, where many classifications of teaching methods, methods, and techniques have been created.

The problem of the product of educational activity deserves special attention. The product of educational activity should be considered personal mental new formations formed and developed under the influence of educational activity. When specifying this provision, the following components are noted:

• 1. Structured and updated knowledge that underlies the ability to solve problems in various fields of science and practice.
• 2. Internal new formations of the psyche and activity in motivational, value, and semantic terms (I. A. Zimnyaya and others).

From the structure, consistency, degrees of strength and depth obtained in educational activities experience largely determines a person’s life position, the success of any of his activities, and his socialization.

External structure of educational activities

Educational activity is traditionally viewed as a predominantly intellectual activity. In an intellectual act, the following stages have traditionally been distinguished: motive, plan (intention, program of action), execution and control (Y. Galanter, J. Miller, A. N. Leontiev, K. Pribram, etc.). The presented stages can be considered as a structural diagram, but one cannot help but notice that educational activity is not identical to a simple intellectual act. Its external structure looks slightly different.

Describing the composition of the external structure of educational activities, I. A. Zimnyaya identifies the following components:

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

During the period of active development of the activity approach in psychology, educational activity was considered primarily the lot of children and youth and was assessed as the main form of their inclusion in social life. IN modern ideas The time stage of educational activity in the life of an individual has expanded significantly, covering all ages. The civilizational functions of educational activities have now changed qualitatively. In order to survive in the modern dynamic world, a person is forced to continuously study; from a large number of “good wishes”, this position has become one of the basic, vital needs. Educational activity occupies an increasingly important place in the range of human activities, and this phenomenon should be considered as a stable trend.