What determines the effectiveness of training? How to make training in professional courses as effective as possible? Changes in teaching and student teams during the implementation of informatization of the learning process
The vast majority of modern ideas focus on the factors of effectiveness of professional training for specific employees.
L. Jewell argues that "Whatever the technical capabilities, changing people's behavior in a certain direction - for example, transferring new professional knowledge and skills to them - must be based on the three most important principles of human learning, including practice, feedback and reinforcement."
M. Armstrong gives ten main conditions for the effectiveness of vocational training:
Employees must be motivated to learn. They must be aware that if they want their work to provide satisfaction to themselves and others, their current level of knowledge, skills or competence, existing attitudes and behavior must be improved. Therefore, they must be clear about what behavior they should learn.
Students should set standards for performance. Learners must clearly define goals and standards that they consider acceptable and can use to evaluate their development.
Students must have guidance. They need guidance and feedback on how they learn. Self-motivated workers can do most of this themselves, but there still needs to be a teacher to support them and help them when needed.
Students should receive satisfaction from learning. They are capable of learning under the most difficult conditions if the learning satisfies one or more of their needs. Conversely, the best training programs may fail to meet expectations if learners do not see value in them.
Learning is an active, not a passive process. It is essential that students are engaged with their teachers, fellow students, and the subject matter of the curriculum.
Suitable methods should be used. Teachers have a large supply of educational topics and teaching aids. But they must use them selectively, according to the needs of the position, the employee and the group.
Teaching methods should be varied. Using a variety of techniques, as long as they are all equally suited to specific contexts, promotes learning by maintaining student interest.
You should take time to learn new skills. New skills take time to learn, test, and accept. It should be included in the training program. Many teachers overfill their programs with new information and do not provide sufficient opportunities for its practical development.
Correct student behavior must be reinforced. Typically, learners want to know immediately whether they are doing what they are taught correctly. Long-term training programs require intermediate steps in which new skills can be reinforced.
It is important to understand that there are different levels of training and that they require different methods and take different amounts of time.
In 2010, the Moscow Career Center conducted a survey of 116 representatives of Russian organizations. They answered the question - what determines the success of training (Figure 1).
Figure 1 – What determines the success of training
As shown in Figure 1, a key factor in the success of training is the interest in training of the staff themselves (36% of respondents). It is slightly inferior to the qualifications of a trainer (31%). Management support plays a special role (18%) and, finally, the quality of educational materials determines the success of training by 15%. The importance of motivation is confirmed in other studies. Thus, in a study by V. Potrebich it is noted that an increase in sales volumes was observed only among those store employees who had a certain motivational incentive to use customer interaction techniques. In case of loss of interest in work or using successful sales methods, controlled indicators decreased.
Forming and maintaining high motivation for learning is a key factor in the effectiveness of both the organization and delivery of training. In addition, the opportunity to obtain additional education is a powerful factor stimulating work for the vast majority of current and potential employees.
The listed ideas and empirical data on the factors of the effectiveness of vocational training by N.A. Kostitsyn (PhD in Economics, business coach) classified according to the criterion of the time axis (“before”, “during” and “after”) into three groups:
Factors in effective training delivery influence future training performance by creating expectations among participants. These include taking into account individual characteristics when developing a program, choosing the right place and form of delivery, providing the educational process with the necessary resources, etc.
Factors in effectively delivering professional learning come into play during the delivery of the curriculum and depend largely on the teacher and group dynamics. These include such training principles as timely provision of complete feedback, the availability of practical exercises, etc.
Factors of effective work organization ensure the consolidation of learning results. These include management support, meaningful enrichment of work, development of performance standards, etc.
Thus, personnel training is a complex, complex, multifaceted process, in the organization of which many companies face a number of problems. To identify, solve, and improve the efficiency of the personnel training process, it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of training using the method or set of methods most suitable for a particular organization.
What determines the effectiveness of a student’s learning?
Everyone in our country studies. Everyone is obliged to study, everyone has the right to study. The grades that children receive are an assessment of their work. Sometimes it turns out that academic performance decreases compared to the previous quarter. Why is this happening? Why do children not want to study and, as a result, get bad grades?
The learning process requires attention and passion. They depend on the child’s interest and motivation. The teacher is an intermediary between the student and the world of knowledge. A teacher can introduce a child to learning, to the subject he teaches. But in order to study well, you also need to work hard at home.
The task of parents is to accustom their child to order, to the good habit of working clearly, in an organized manner, with a sense of responsibility.
Parents help their children organize their educational work in three directions:
Parents organize the daily routine of schoolchildren;
Checking homework completion;
Teach children independence.
For students of different ages, in accordance with their physiological characteristics, a certain duration of classes at home is established.
When students perform homework in accordance with SANPiN standards, the time spent on completion should not exceed (in astronomical hours): in grades 4-5 - 2 hours, in grades 6-9 - 2.5 hours. Longer mental stress leads to a decrease in the quality of tasks performed and to severe fatigue, which can adversely affect the child’s health.
It is necessary to ensure that the child sits down for lessons at the same time. Naturally, at first it is not easy, but gradually a habit is developed and then it will be much easier for the child to mobilize himself for classes.
All interference must be eliminated. Extraneous noise during classes increases the number of mistakes and strains the nervous system. It is necessary to turn off the radio, TV, and computer.
It is necessary to allocate a permanent place for preparing homework. In the same environment, attention is focused faster and lessons are prepared more successfully.
It is necessary to ensure sufficient lighting of the workplace in order to preserve vision. The light from a window or lamp should fall on textbooks and notebooks to the left of the sitting student, so that the shadow of the hand does not interfere with writing. There should be no flowers on the window and the curtains should be wide open.
To work under artificial light, you must use table lamps. The light bulb power should be 40-60 watts. A table lamp should have a lampshade that would protect from bright light and direct a beam of light rays onto the working surface of the table. Timely cleaning of lamps and light fixtures from dust is of great importance to maintain the desired level of lighting.
It is necessary to organize classes at a table that does not have a polished surface or is covered with glass, as this is harmful to vision. Rays of light falling on glass or a polished surface are reflected by it, and this creates a strong shine that has a blinding effect. When preparing homework and reading, it is advisable that the book should not lie on the horizontal surface of the table, but at an angle of 35-400 to it.
So, when planning the child’s schoolwork and other responsibilities around the house, walks and games, it is important for parents to keep in mind that a certain time should be allocated for everything. It is impossible, regardless of what the child is doing now, to distract him with errands. Depending on the type of nervous system of the child, switching to another type of activity may occur faster or slower. In order to quit one activity that he has set his mind on and start another, the child has to overcome the natural internal desire to insist on his own and not fulfill the requests of his parents. The result is general dissatisfaction and a feeling of grief. Any unreasonable switching of a child from one task to another is harmful in that the child is forced to quit the work he has started without finishing it. If this becomes part of the system, the student will develop a bad habit of not finishing things.
So, the main task of parents is to control when the child sits down for lessons, whether he has done everything, to suggest where to find the answer to the question, but not to give a ready answer, instilling independence in children. Parents' patience and friendly tone are the most important conditions for helping a child learn.
Time does not stand still, and today our state is not satisfied with the quality of Russian education. International studies have recorded a statistically significant decline in the results of our schoolchildren in mathematics, reading, and science; There was a low level of development of communication skills and abilities to work with various sources. Functional literacy is “lame”: the ability to solve practical problems, work with information, make observations, build hypotheses, etc.
To track academic skills and abilities, an external assessment is used: Unified State Examination for 11th grade students In September, monitoring examinations of students are carried out on the residual level of knowledge in most subjects for the previous grade (grades 2-7), the next. year + 4.8 grades Small Unified State Exam: conducting state final certification of secondary school graduates by independent municipal examination commissions. Testing in 1st grade (October) to assess the level of readiness for school
Changes to the Unified State Examination 2009 are mandatory by choice Russian language Mathematics Road to universities 13 subjects: Chemistry Physics Literature Computer science Geography History Social studies Biology In. languages Upon successful passing of the Unified State Exam - certificate + certificate Application before March 1
PISA Assessment of the ability of 15-year-old students to use the knowledge and skills acquired at school in the field of mathematics, science and reading (Bymovskaya secondary school in the Kungur region; Fokinskaya secondary school in the Tchaikovsky region; secondary school 3 in Osa; secondary school 1 in Solikamsk; secondary school 32 in Perm) – 125 people Goal: to answer the question: “Does a graduate of a basic school of a particular state, receiving a free education, have the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills in order to function quite successfully in modern society?” Research slogan: “Learning for Life”
The main deficits in educational skills that explain the reasons for the failures of our fifteen-year-old schoolchildren in research 1. A group of deficits associated with working with texts: 1) They can read and understand texts, but cannot give a detailed answer to the text; 2) They understand the general content of the text well, but find it difficult to formulate a specific answer to the text or a conclusion based on the text of natural and mathematical content; 3) They cannot compare individual scattered pieces of information; 4) There is no experience working with everyday, journalistic texts, etc.
Some results of the study: Math literacy: ranking Reading literacy: ranking Science literacy: ranking Problem-solving competence: ranking from 40 participating countries Only 6 countries have worse results (Thailand, Serbia, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Tunisia)
Some conclusions: Russian schools teach, but do not develop students; Possessing a large arsenal of subject knowledge and skills and being able to apply them in subject tasks (direct result of learning), our schoolchildren cannot build independent hypotheses and test them (indirect result of learning, characteristics of developed thinking), i.e. Domestic schools, while teaching, impede the normal development of students’ intellect; The modern Russian school is not effective according to the criteria accepted in the world today.
The results of student learning in U.G. Conclusions: 1. School and first-level academic performance results are declining every year. 2. The quality of training remains approximately at the same level.
The concept of modernization of Russian education for the period until 2010 determined the main directions of development of the Russian school. In the Concept of Modernization of the Russian School, a clear line is drawn from the idea that the systemic development of the school is not only a pedagogical issue. In the matter of updating Russian general education, the entire way of life of the school, the system of its management and public participation in its life are of great importance: “... all citizens of Russia, the family and the parent community, federal and regional institutions of state power, local authorities should become active subjects of educational policy self-government, professional and pedagogical community, scientific, cultural, commercial and public institutions. Therefore, we look forward to our cooperation with you.
Therefore, today not only the teacher’s teaching methodology is changing (previously the teacher was in the role of a transmitter of knowledge, a judge, but now the teacher does not claim to have a monopoly of knowledge, he is an organizer, consultant, interpreter, network administrator who guides students to independently search for information from various sources : books, reference books, encyclopedias, Internet...). Nowadays, students are not required to cram educational material, but to understand and apply it, to be independent in solving emerging difficulties, to go beyond the algorithm, i.e. solve problems of unfamiliar content based on this material.
Now self-control and self-assessment, supplemented by external expert assessment of educational activities, is important. The student’s position before: subordinate, irresponsible, object of pedagogical influence. Now he is the subject of his own development, in the learning process he takes different positions within pedagogical interaction.
Lesson: the previously traditional form is the reproductive nature of learning (multiple repetition). Knowledge and methods of action are transferred in ready-made form. Now - a lesson is one of the forms of organizing training. There is a session, a project group, work in the library, the Internet, etc.
General educational skills First stage Cognitive activity Speech activity and working with information Organization of activity Second stage Cognitive activity Information and communication activity Reflective activity
Cognitive activity Primary school Observation of objects in the surrounding world; detection of changes occurring with an object (based on the results of observations, experiments, work with information); oral description of the object of observation; correlation of results with the purpose of observation and experience (answer to the question “Did you manage to achieve your goal?”). Basic school Using various methods to understand the world around us (observation, measurement, experience, experiment, modeling, etc.); determining the structure of the object of knowledge, searching and highlighting significant functional connections and relationships between parts of the whole; the ability to divide processes into stages and links; identification of characteristic cause-and-effect relationships.
Cognitive activity Identification, through comparison, of individual features characteristic of compared objects; analysis of comparison results (answering the questions “How are they similar?”, “How are they different?”); combining objects according to a common characteristic (what is extra, who is extra, the same as...; the same as...); distinguishing between whole and part. Comparison, juxtaposition, classification, ranking of objects according to one or more proposed grounds or criteria; ability to distinguish between fact, opinion, evidence, hypothesis, axiom; combination of known activity algorithms in situations that do not involve the standard use of one of them
Cognitive activity Carrying out simple measurements in different ways; use of appropriate devices and tools to solve practical problems; work with the simplest ready-made subject, symbolic, graphic models to describe the properties and qualities of the objects being studied. Studying simple practical situations, making assumptions, understanding the need to test them in practice; the use of practical and laboratory work, simple experiments to prove the assumptions made; description of the results of this work.
Cognitive activity Ability to solve creative problems at the level of combinations, improvisations: independently draw up an action plan (intention); show originality when solving a creative problem; create creative works (messages, short essays, graphic works); act out imaginary situations. Creative solution of educational and practical problems: the ability to motivatedly refuse a model, look for original solutions; independent performance of various creative works; participation in project activities
Speech activity and working with information Working with educational, artistic, popular science texts; correct and conscious reading aloud and silently; determining the theme and main idea of the text when presented orally and in writing; constructing a monologue statement (on a proposed topic, on a given question); participation in dialogue; presentation of material in tabular form; organizing information alphabetically and numerically
Speech activity and working with information Use of the simplest logical expressions such as: “...and/or...”, “if..., then...”, “not only, but also...”; Elementary justification for the expressed judgment. Mastering the initial skills of transferring, searching, converting, storing information, and using a computer; searching (checking) the necessary information in dictionaries, library catalog Information and communication activities Speech activity and working with information
Follow instructions, strictly follow the pattern and simple algorithms; independent establishment of a sequence of actions to solve a learning task (answering the questions “Why and how to do this?”, “What and how to do to achieve the goal?”). Everywhere a child should set a goal. Independent organization of educational activities (setting goals, planning, determining the optimal ratio of goals and means, etc.); possession of skills to monitor and evaluate one’s activities, the ability to foresee the possible consequences of one’s actions; Organization of activitiesReflective activity
Determining ways to monitor and evaluate activities (answering the questions “Is this the result obtained?”, “Is this being done correctly?”); identifying the causes of difficulties that arise and ways to eliminate them; anticipation of difficulties (answering the question “What difficulties may arise and why?”); finding errors in work and correcting them; searching and eliminating the causes of difficulties; assessment of your educational achievements, behavior, personality traits, physical and emotional state; conscious determination of the sphere of one’s interests and capabilities; compliance with environmental standards and healthy lifestyle rules. Organization of activitiesReflective activity
Educational cooperation: the ability to negotiate, distribute work, evaluate one’s contribution and the overall result of activities. (Work in groups, pairs...) Possession of joint activity skills: coordination and coordination of activities with other participants; objective assessment of one’s contribution to solving the general tasks of the team; taking into account the characteristics of various role behavior (leader, subordinate, etc.). Assessing one’s activities from the point of view of moral, legal norms, and aesthetic values; exercising your rights and fulfilling your responsibilities as a citizen, a member of society and a member of the educational community. Organization of activitiesReflective activity
Learn in a new way Involve facts from real life Move away from traditional cramming Change assessment methods: introduce self-control, self-assessment, supplemented by external expert assessment. Offer a variety of different systems for explaining the world Act as a qualified consultant who facilitates the development of search systems Teach children to set their own tasks and go beyond the algorithm
The effectiveness of training is determined by internal and external criteria. The success of training and academic performance, as well as the quality of knowledge and the degree of development of skills, the level of development of the student, the level of training and learning ability are used as internal criteria.
A student's academic performance is defined as the degree of coincidence between the actual and planned results of educational activities. Academic performance is reflected in the grade. The success of training is also the effectiveness of management of the educational process, ensuring high results at minimal cost.
Learning ability is the internal readiness acquired by the student (under the influence of training and education) for various psychological adjustments and transformations in accordance with new programs and goals of further education. That is, the general ability to absorb knowledge. The most important indicator of learning ability is the amount of dosed assistance that a student needs to achieve a given result. Learning is a thesaurus, or a stock of acquired concepts and methods of activity. That is, a system of knowledge, skills and abilities that corresponds to the norm (the expected result specified in the educational standard).
The process of acquiring knowledge is carried out in stages in accordance with the following levels:
Discrimination or recognition of an object (phenomenon, event, fact);
Memorizing and reproducing the subject, understanding, applying knowledge in practice and transferring knowledge to new situations.
The quality of knowledge is assessed by such indicators as its completeness, consistency, depth, effectiveness, and strength. One of the main indicators of a student’s development prospects is the student’s ability to independently solve educational problems (close to the principle of solving in cooperation and with the help of a teacher). The following are accepted as external criteria for the effectiveness of the learning process:
The degree of adaptation of the graduate to social life and professional activities;
The growth rate of the self-education process as a prolonged effect of training;
Level of education or professional skill;
Willingness to improve education.
One of the most important indicators of the effectiveness of learning is how the child’s mental development and, in particular, the development of his thought processes are ensured during the learning process.
Pidkasisty -> 1) In reality, the creative and reproducing activities of students, replacing each other and complementing each other in all cycles of the educational process, largely increase the efficiency and quality of training.
2) In the unity of 3 goals, in accordance with the goals of the teacher and students. When goals are misaligned, the effectiveness of learning decreases.
3) The development of activity of the student subject and its maintenance in the learning process is one of the main conditions for its effectiveness.
4) Another means of modernizing the learning process besides those mentioned could be the improvement of school and university textbooks. The work already underway in this direction deserves attention. Thus, thanks to the analysis of the content of traditional textbooks, it has been established that these textbooks can be significantly improved, for example, by excluding unnecessary material from them, correcting fragments of text that are too difficult or simply incomprehensible to students, etc.
5) Improving the effectiveness of teaching is to ensure visibility in teaching using technical means. Methodologically competent use of teaching aids increases the efficiency of the educational process. Research has shown that the correct use of technical teaching aids (TTE) can improve understanding of the problem under consideration, increase the level of memorization of educational material, and reduce the time of studying the problem.
6) All teaching methods have their strengths and weaknesses, and therefore, depending on the goals, conditions, and available time, it is necessary to optimally combine them. That is why, more precisely, it is correct to say: “The learning process can be active (where the learner participates as a subject of his own learning) or passive (where the learner plays only the role of an object of influence). The main forms and methods of teaching that help improve the quality of learning are: role-playing games, business games, seminars, repeating and generalizing lessons, conferences, debates, dialogues, problem-based learning, independent work, defense of abstracts, individual work, creative essays, reports, messages; testing, programmed control, research work, etc. All of the listed teaching technologies help solve the problem of teaching quality.
To achieve effectiveness from the use of teaching methods, you need to create a psychological portrait of the group and find out which methods can be used and which cannot. Based on this, the methods can be divided into groups.
Methods that do not require special prior training (problem-based learning, performing actions according to an algorithm);
Methods that require special prior preparation (conducting independent work, independent research in class).
7) Using a test form. Many researchers emphasize that systematic testing stimulates students’ independent activity, as well as their activity and attention in the lesson, which contributes to efficiency in mastering educational material.
8) Application of a person-centered approach to learning.
9) Any activity, including educational activities, is based on certain motives and is aimed at achieving certain goals. A motive is what motivates a person to act, and a goal is what he strives to achieve as a result of the activity. The motive-goal relationship forms a kind of vector that sets the direction and intensity of activity.
10) Psychological and pedagogical preparation of teachers to work in a specialized class.
11) Improving the material and technical base, library collections, computerization.
12) Activation of s/r students.
13) The effectiveness of the learning process is related to the economics of education.
14) The teacher’s ability to form positive motivation for educational and cognitive activities.
The real basis of motive is needs. The set of needs and motives that motivate a person to act in a certain direction is called motivation. Any purposeful human activity must have motivation. Only under this condition does the actual activity of teaching manifest itself. The motivational side of the learning process includes three groups of motives: external (reward - punishment), competitive (success in comparison with someone or with oneself), internal (revealed as a field of fruitful activity of the individual); Internal motives provide the most persistent interest in learning.
Modern children spend quite a lot of time at school. In addition, they do homework six or even seven days a week. If for adults, as a rule, the working week is forty hours, then for secondary school students it can reach fifty (5 - 6 lessons at school and 2 - 3 hours of homework per day). At the same time, parents and the public often complain that “modern school doesn’t teach anything,” “schoolchildren’s horizons are very narrow, they don’t know famous names, events, dates,” “children teach, teach, invest effort and waste time, and by the end of school they don’t remember anything.” Of course, in these statements the shortcomings of training are greatly exaggerated, but nevertheless the problem exists. Why, after watching an educational TV show, does a child remember what he heard for a long time, but the knowledge acquired during the lesson is not so strong? Or why is it that a teenager, having repaired a bicycle, is able to easily repeat his actions, but at school it takes a lot of time to practice his skills?
Problem. What is the reason for the lack of performance in school education? How can you increase it?
Let's start by identifying what influences learning effectiveness. Let's consider learning factors systematically. Since this process involves at least two sides, the first group of factors will be associated with the activities of the teacher, and the second – with the activities of the student. These activities must be carried out under certain conditions using the necessary means, which allows us to identify another group of factors. And if we take into account that the result of learning is the student’s mastery of the given content, then the level of complexity and other qualities of the “task” itself - the learning content reflected in educational standards, curricula, and textbooks - must be considered significant. Thus, the effectiveness of learning depends on the activities of the teacher and student, the conditions and means of teaching and the given content.
In modern schools, as a rule, students and teachers are provided with at least the minimum conditions necessary for effective work. If we exclude from consideration individual cases of lack of educational literature, visual aids, sports equipment, etc., then we can assume that traditional schools are placed in approximately equal conditions. Of course, classrooms can always be made more comfortable, more computers and educational and laboratory equipment can be purchased, but as comparative studies show, there is no direct connection between the quality of general education and the amount of funds invested in school equipment and material and technical support for the educational process. Having accepted the conditions and means of learning as a constant, we leave three closely interrelated factors of learning effectiveness related to the content, the student and the teacher.
The problem of forming and selecting educational content is one of the enduring problems in pedagogy (see §4.4., problem 17). The formalized, artificial form of experience embedded in it has a number of features. In particular, this is subject-centrism, which involves the division of knowledge about the entire world into relatively independent subject areas, mostly formed by branches of science. Since subject programs and textbooks are developed by teachers together with scientists - representatives of the relevant science, they (the programs) are often characterized by excessive academicism. Therefore, as academician A.M. points out. Novikov, on the one hand, the student does not develop a holistic worldview in his head, but only fragmentary information remains: this is from mathematics, this is from history, this is from the theory of machines and mechanisms, etc. On the other hand, this fragmentary information, not related to the personal interests of students, their future destinies, their needs for practical activity, is quickly lost and forgotten. A student mastering such content appears as a piggy bank with information.
Can knowledge be firmly assimilated if it is not related to the child’s life experience, has no meaning for him, and does not affect his emotional sphere? Of course not. As mentioned above (see problem 1), all this leads to the fact that a large amount of knowledge seemingly acquired by the student is not “built into” the worldview, does not have a significant impact on it, and therefore is “washed out” over time from experience and does not provide an increase in education. The above comparative analysis of the natural process of cognition of reality and the artificial in the course of education (see problem 1) showed that this problem is largely objective in nature and is determined by the need to speed up the transfer of socially developed experience to the child. However, having examined the modern scientific representation of the content of training (see §4.3), we found that the content should include not only scientific knowledge, but also other components of the sociocultural experience of mankind: methods of typical and creative activity, emotional and value-based attitude towards the objects and phenomena being studied , activities, as well as personal experience (experience of understanding oneself, reflecting on one’s progress, forming and implementing one’s position, conscious choice and setting goals, etc.). Such content, mastered by the student, provides a more holistic and therefore more lasting experience. After all, it is very easy to forget a separate learned fact, event, or date. But if this fact evokes an emotional response, if it was tested, transformed or became the subject of interested discussion, if in the process of learning the student showed his creative, personal potential, then the knowledge will be acquired reliably.
The synthesis of rational and emotional components is of great importance when developing and implementing training content. Traditionally, focusing on science, rationality prevails in the content of education. It promotes the development of the child’s abilities for conceptual thinking, operating with symbols, and analysis. Rationality underlies the possibility of proof, argumentation, justification, and critical perception of information. However, not everything can be known rationally. Without sensory-imaginative comprehension of the world there will be no holistic experience. To do this, a person must be able to “feel” the problem, respond emotionally, and holistically perceive a fragment of reality, using figurative perception, semantic context, and intuitive experience. The synthesis of rational and emotional components in the content of training will contribute to the integration of new knowledge into the student’s experience, into the ideological system of knowledge, and therefore will ensure the strength of their development.
Another key issue is related to the quality of training content, such as its complexity. The elementary criteria here are: volume, content and structural complexity of content units. Structural complexity content is considered as the complexity of the system of its elements and is determined by the number of heterogeneous elements included in the content unit, their hierarchy, and the variety of their connections and relationships. Thus, a system of concepts is structurally simpler than a theory, since it consists of homogeneous elements (concepts) connected by logical relationships. Content complexity is determined by the degree of abstractness of the material and is related to whether the unit of content belongs to the empirical or theoretical levels of knowledge. The more specific and closer a unit of content is to the objects of reality, the lower its content complexity. So, the simplest in this regard will be ideas about individual objects and phenomena, then – empirical concepts and classifications that require abstraction, the most complex – units of the theoretical level of knowledge, reflecting the essence of a large area of reality. Volume measured by the number of content elements and related to structural complexity. The scope depends on which elements of the structure of science are chosen as leading units. Focusing on larger units reduces volume but increases content complexity. The volume of a content unit is determined not only by the volume of knowledge, but also by the volume of other content components (skills, attitudes).
It should be noted that the difficulty of mastering educational material depends not only on its objective characteristics (volume, structural and content complexity), but also on the degree of preparedness of students. The main source of difficulties is the inconsistency of the content with the life and cognitive experience of students. Criteria for such a discrepancy may include:
– discrepancy in the stock of knowledge – ordinary, empirical, theoretical, logical, evaluative;
- discrepancy in experience of activity - cognitive at its different levels, as well as practical;
– discrepancy in needs and interests – educational, cognitive, life.
Of course, from the point of view of ensuring learning effectiveness, the complexity of the content should correspond to the age characteristics of students and time s m parameters of the educational process. It is inappropriate to demand the impossible from students. However, as already indicated, the pedagogical process does not lend itself to complete formalization. Using existing difficulty criteria, it is impossible to calculate all quantitative indicators to find the optimal level of difficulty. In addition, the difficulty of the same task will be different for different students, as it is determined by their individual experience. Therefore, approaching the experience of students and, accordingly, reduction in difficulty can be achieved by:
· developing students’ skills to structure and integrate, to holistically cover new material;
· use of models, visual aids, bringing the abstract closer to direct perception;
· increasing interest by providing examples from life experience, involving students in practical activities, etc.
Thus, to ensure the effectiveness of training, the content must include all components (knowledge, activity, emotional-value, personal) and be developed taking into account optimal complexity and the optimal ratio of logical-epistemological and emotional-figurative elements. In order for knowledge to be formed into a system and integrated into the experience of students, it is also necessary interdisciplinary synthesis, which can be achieved by introducing both integral subjects (“Natural Science”, “Society and Nature”, “Man”, etc.) and interdisciplinary topics (for example, “Lake Baikal”, “Egypt”, “Vitamins”, “Airplanes” ), covering questions from different fields of knowledge in relation to the knowledge of a specific object. It should also be noted that from the point of view of the effectiveness of mastering the content, it is very important not only what subjects, topics, questions the student studies and what components of the content are presented in the curriculum and textbook (in §4.4. it was noted that it was impossible to fully describe the emotional-value and personal components), but also how this content is mastered: what types of activities the student is involved in, what is his attitude to the material, etc.
Having considered the learning factors associated with the content, let us move on to the question of what the role of the student in learning outcomes. Of course, the student is the main figure in this process, since it is he who is the producer and bearer of the experience that is considered as the result of learning. All other factors are essentially just opportunities, prerequisites, conditions. Only in the active activity of the student is the given content of learning transformed into individual experience: knowledge, skills, relationships.
When considering educational activities (see §4.2), it was noted that its effectiveness depends on the cognitive abilities and intellectual potential of students, their ability to manage it (self-control and self-regulation) and, most importantly, on educational motivation. The formation of internal prerequisites for successful educational activity of students occurs throughout school and university education, along with its complication. Often their formation does not correspond to the level required at this stage. For example, some students have insufficiently developed analytical skills for solving problems in algebra and physics or spatial thinking for mastering geometry and drawing, others have low educational motivation or a lack of skills to independently manage learning activities. This, on the one hand, gives the activity a developmental character (the student has to master its new elements and develop abilities), but on the other hand, it does not immediately provide the required result in mastering the learning content.
As academician A.M. points out. Novikov, educational activities are always innovative, so they are extremely difficult for students. Even in such types of creative activity as the activities of a scientist, artist, artist, teacher, there are always many routine, repeating components that have long been mastered and do not require special efforts to reproduce them. The student’s activity is constantly, day after day, aimed at mastering new experiences. The paradox of educational activity, the author writes, lies in the fact that, although it is constantly innovative, its goals are most often set from the outside - by the curriculum, program, teacher, and the freedom of choice of the student is very limited.
How then can we ensure efficiency? How can we make it easier for students to master the experience? How to increase a child’s activity and independence in learning? How to overcome the difficulties associated with lack of independence in managing educational activities? These and other problems can only be solved if the teacher has two significant objects of pedagogical management. Firstly, it is traditionally allocated process of mastering educational content, the learning activities of students in which they acquire knowledge and other elements of experience. Secondly, these are internal prerequisites for educational activities: students’ cognitive abilities, motivation and self-regulation skills. In other words, the teacher must not only teach (give new material, teach problem solving, etc.), but also take care of the development of the abilities, interests and volitional resources of students, help them understand the need for acquired experience, and develop the skills of setting and achieving goals , planning and self-control skills.
The key point in educational and any other activity is motivation. Can activities that are externally motivated and carried out under coercion be effective and developmental? No. As already noted, a person as a person develops only in those activities in which he is passionate, which is significant for him. Only then are his qualities and abilities fully actualized, and therefore can develop. In addition, internal motivation ensures interest not only in the result, but also in the process of activity, which contributes to more effective self-regulation: more careful planning, adjustment, and control of results.
In §4.2. it was indicated that educational activity is multimotivated in nature, and different types of motives were revealed: cognitive, promising, social, achievement and competition motives, formal motives based on a sense of duty and responsibility, motives for receiving a reward or avoiding punishment. It is believed that since educational activity is largely cognitive in nature, it is cognitive motives that are most relevant to it. The emotional experience of a cognitive need is educational interest. Interest anticipates the comprehension of the process of activity itself, but at the same time gives this activity an energetic impulse. In the process of becoming a student, his interests develop. Conventionally, successive stages of interest development are distinguished: curiosity, inquisitiveness, cognitive interest, theoretical interest.
The following main ones can be identified ways to maintain learning interest and development of cognitive motivation of schoolchildren:
· emotional form of presentation of educational material, use of fascinating facts and examples;
· correlation of the acquired knowledge and skills with current problems of schoolchildren, the use of questions and tasks that relate to the life experience of students and provide an opportunity to “apply” the experience gained;
· inclusion of gaming methods and multimedia in the educational process,
· creating problematic situations, confronting students with a contradiction, difficulty, mystery, activating imagination, creative thinking and active search activity, providing students with the opportunity to demonstrate mental independence.
The cognitive sphere is only one component of personality. If we look more broadly, then sustainable internal motivation for educational activities depends on consistency of this activity with the basic needs, goals and values of the individual. A person wants to live a full life, create, be useful, successful, recognized. Therefore, for the development of educational motivation, the position of students, their capabilities, rights, responsibilities, as well as the teacher’s attitude towards students, and the interpersonal context of interaction are very important.
In a number of studies, psychologists have proven that the characteristics of interpersonal relationships between people in subordinate relationships have a significant impact on the nature of motivation, the level of self-esteem, and the ability for self-regulation of individuals in a subordinate or dependent position. “The teacher’s focus on supporting students’ autonomy leads to the actualization of the latter’s internal motivation for learning activities, which is manifested in a preference for difficult tasks, curiosity, a desire for mastery and increased self-confidence and self-esteem.”
Another example, now from innovative teaching practice. At the school of academician M.P. Shchetinin has no problems with educational motivation. All children work enthusiastically in groups and engage in self-study with enviable persistence and interest. Why? Because they study not for the sake of learning and not only for themselves. These children and adolescents have significant goals in mastering specific knowledge: they solve real practical problems of transformative activity (for example, improving the heating system in a school building) or understand, prepare, develop materials so that, having received the right to be a teacher for others, they can adequately cope with business. They are given the right to be adults, independent and responsible, and they use it to develop themselves and work for the benefit of all.
Having summarized the results of psychological research and accumulated pedagogical experience, we can conclude that formation of sustainable internal motivation for educational activities schoolchildren are promoted by:
· expanding the significance of the experience acquired at school in solving current life problems of schoolchildren;
· teacher assistance in students’ understanding of learning goals through their correlation with their own future prospects, identifying the role of education in acquiring the desired profession, achieving success in life and social recognition;
· support for student autonomy and the possibility of self-realization through choice and correlation of activities performed with their interests, granting the right to the author’s interpretation of educational material, creating situations of success, etc.;
· involving students in productive socially and personally significant holistic (containing transformative, cognitive, value-oriented, communicative, aesthetic aspects) activities that require experience formed in learning.
Cognitive abilities, on the one hand, are a condition for the productivity of students’ educational activities, on the other hand, they themselves develop in it. Therefore, the teacher needs to support this process, that is, focus not only on knowledge and skills as a result of educational activities, but also on the development of the intellectual and creative potential of students, in particular on the development of sensitivity to contradictions, the ability to produce solutions in ambiguous situations, the ability to connect new information with previously acquired knowledge, the ability to wrap information into increasingly capacious symbols and abstract concepts, the ability to transfer mental actions formed in solving one problem to solve others and to switch from one method of solving a problem to another. At its core, such a teacher’s activity involves the use of problem-based teaching methods, the use of productive tasks, questions with contradictions and “open-type” tasks, when there is no one correct solution that can only be found or guessed.
Another internal prerequisite for successful educational activities is the student’s ability to effectively manage his resources to achieve educational goals. Self-regulation of educational activities– this is the student’s conscious activity in initiating, building, maintaining and managing educational activities, ensuring the achievement of his educational goals. The mechanism of self-management of educational activities is based on the fact that the student acts for himself both as a performer and as a controller and manager who designs, organizes and analyzes his own actions.
Self-regulation of educational activity, like any other, is carried out through a sequence of processes of goal setting, modeling conditions, programming activity, monitoring and evaluation, and correction. The student must, first of all, understand and accept the goal of a specific activity, which is determined, on the one hand, by the requirements of the teacher (learning task), on the other, by his own understanding and content related to the motivation of educational activity and long-term goals. Next, in accordance with the accepted goal, the student thinks through the sequence of actions and evaluates the conditions for achieving this goal. The result of these actions is a subjective model of educational activity, on the basis of which the student draws up a program of action, chooses the means and methods of its implementation. To evaluate the results of their activities, students must have data on the conditions under which it is considered successful. Therefore, they must clearly understand the criteria that teachers put forward as requirements for educational activities and results. The more adequately the subject evaluates the results of educational activities, the more accurate and targeted the educational actions performed. Monitoring and evaluating results as a component of self-regulation allows you to decide whether correction of actions is necessary or whether they can be continued in the same direction.
The targeted assistance of each teacher contributes to the improvement of students’ self-regulation system. At a minimum, it should include setting educational goals, detailed methodological recommendations for performing independent work, setting clear requirements and assessment criteria, issuing questions and tasks for students’ self-monitoring and self-assessment of the results of educational activities, instructions on the organization and possible correction of activities. In addition, it is advisable to provide special support for the process of reflection by students on how to complete tasks, their own personal resources, experience of cognitive activity, problems and difficulties, and guide them towards finding the optimal organization of educational activities.
Thus, the teacher’s focus not only on organizing the assimilation of learning content, but also on the internal prerequisites for students’ successful learning activities gives learning a developmental and personality-oriented character (see §§4.2., 4.3) and serves as the basis for its effectiveness.
Conclusion. The effectiveness of training is highest if it is related to the interests and goals of the student, if it ensures personal involvement in educational activities, and requires the creative potential and holistic experience of students. To increase effectiveness, the teacher’s activities should be aimed not only at implementing the given content of learning and ensuring its mastery by students, but also at “completing” this content (bringing closer to the individual life experience of students, expanding the emotional, value and personal components), as well as formation of internal prerequisites for schoolchildren’s educational activities. The teacher's special concern should be the development of educational interests, cognitive, perspective and social motives of students, their cognitive abilities, skills of self-control and self-regulation of educational activities.
