giver with internal management by this process by the speaker himself. In this case, the mechanism of auditory control is formed in the activity itself. It is also important that auditory control regulates the correct implementation of all stages of the formation and formulation of thoughts through a foreign language. Thus, it is obvious that when teaching speaking in foreign language, the teacher cannot help but form this mechanism common to all speaking activities, purposefully moving from external educational control over students’ speech actions to their own internal auditory self-control.

The formation of objective self-esteem in the structure of activity is similar to self-control. A.V. Zakharova noted in this process important feature- the transition of self-esteem into quality, characteristics of the subject of activity - his self-esteem. This determines another position of the importance of control (self-control), assessment (self-assessment) for the general structure of educational activities. Accordingly, it is determined by the fact that it is in these components that the connection between the activity and the personal is focused, it is in them that the objective procedural action turns into a personal, subjective quality, property. This situation once again demonstrates the internal continuity of the two components of the personal-activity approach to the educational process, its feasibility and realism.

Educational activity, which is the main form of inclusion in social life of people aged 6-7 to 22-23 years, is characterized by the specificity of subject content and external structure, in which a special place is occupied by the educational task and educational actions to solve it.

Literature

Ball G.A. The theory of educational tasks: psychological and pedagogical aspect. M., 1990.

Davydov V.V., Lompsher I., Markova A.K. Formation of schoolchildren's educational activities. M., 1982.

Davydov V.V. Problems of developmental education. M., 1986.

Ilyasov I.I. Structure of the learning process. M., 1986.

Talyzina N.F. Pedagogical psychology. M., 1998.

Talyzina N.F. Theoretical problems of programmed training. M., 1969.

Shadrikov V.D. Psychology of human activity and abilities. M., 1996.

Yakunin V.A. Psychology of educational activity of students. M., 1994.

5.1. Learning activity concept

5.1.1. Interpretations of the concept of "learning activity"

In the general theory of teaching, the foundations of which, as noted above, were laid by Ya.A. Komensky, I.G. Pestalozzi, A. Distverweg, in our country - K.D. Ushinsky, P.F. Kapterev, S.T. Shatskiy, P.P. Nechaev, M.Ya. Basov, P.P. Blonsky, L.S. Vygotsky, as well as the largest representatives of domestic and foreign educational psychology of the mid-20th century - D.B. Elkonin, V.V. Davydov, I. Lingart, I. Lompscher and other scientists, the actual psychological theory of educational activity was formed, the priority in the scientific development of which belongs to Russia. Its developers are A.K. Markova, N.F. Talyzina and others (see the website of the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education).
“Learning activity” (AL) is a rather ambiguous concept. We can distinguish three main interpretations of this concept, accepted both in psychology and in pedagogy (see Fig. 1).
1. Sometimes UD is considered as a synonym for learning, teaching, learning.
2. In “classical” Soviet psychology and pedagogy, UD is defined as the leading type of activity in primary school age. It is understood as a special form of social activity, manifesting itself through objective and cognitive actions.
3. In the interpretation of the direction by D.B. Elkonina - V.V. Davydova educational activities- this is one of the types of activities of schoolchildren and students, aimed at their assimilation through dialogues (polylogues) and discussions of theoretical knowledge and related skills in such spheres of social consciousness as science, art, morality, law and religion(; see group of psychology of education and development of junior schoolchildren PI RAO).
Below we consider the interpretation of educational activities according to Elkonin - Davydov.

5.1.2. The essence of educational activities

The concept of educational activity is one of the approaches to the learning process in psychology, implementing the position about the socio-historical conditionality of mental development (Vygotsky L.S., 1996; abstract). It was formed on the basis of the fundamental Dialectics (from the Greek dialektikê - the art of conversation, argument) is a philosophical doctrine about the formation and development of being and knowledge and a method of thinking based on this doctrine.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);"> dialectical-materialist principle psychology - the principle of the unity of the psyche and activity (Rubinstein S.L. 1999; abstract;) in the context psychological activity(A.N. Leontyev) and in close connection with the Theory of the gradual formation of mental actions - the doctrine of complex multifaceted changes associated with the formation of new actions, images and concepts in a person, put forward by P.Ya. Galperin.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);"> theory of the gradual formation of mental activity and types of teaching (P.Ya. Galperin, N.F. Talyzina) (see Fig. 2) (see Khrest.5.1). (; see Department of Pedagogy and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University), (; see Department of Developmental Psychology, Moscow State University)..

• How should training be organized to solve two main problems:
  • provision of cognition;
  • ensuring mental development?

This problem faced L.S. at one time. Vygotsky, who defined it as “the relationship between learning and development.” However, the scientist only outlined ways to solve it. This problem is most fully developed in the concept of educational activity (Davydov V.V., 1986; abstract; Elkonin D.B., 2001) (see Khrest. 5.2; 5.3).
Remaining within the framework of the cognitive paradigm, the authors of this concept developed the idea of ​​a reference UD as a cognitive one, built according to a theoretical type. Its implementation is achieved through the formation of theoretical thinking in students through the special construction of an academic subject and the special organization of educational learning.

• According to this concept, the student as a subject of cognition should be able to ():
  • master scientific concepts organized by theoretical type;
  • reproduce the logic of scientific knowledge in one’s own activities;
  • to ascend from Abstraction (from Latin abstractio - distraction) is one of the main operations of thinking, consisting in the fact that the subject, isolating any signs of the object being studied, is distracted from the rest. The result of this process is the construction of a mental product (concept, model, theory, classification, etc.), which is also denoted by the term "onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">abstract to concrete.

In other words, the student’s subjectivity is manifested in his ability to reproduce the content, path, method of theoretical (scientific) knowledge.
The concept of educational learning (as opposed to didactic concepts) contains the prerequisites for understanding the student as a subject of cognition. Myself educational process is interpreted not as the transmission of scientific knowledge, its assimilation, reproduction, but as the development of cognitive abilities, basic mental formations. It is not knowledge itself that develops, but its special construction, which models the content of a scientific field and the methods of its knowledge.
An educational subject not only contains a system of knowledge, but in a special way (through the construction of subject content) organizes the child’s knowledge of the genetically original, theoretically essential properties and relationships of objects, the conditions of their origin and transformations. The student’s subjective activity (its direction, the nature of its manifestation) is determined by the way of organizing cognitive activity, as if from the outside. The main source of the formation and development of cognitive activity is not the student himself, but organized training. The student is assigned the role of exploring the world in conditions specially organized for this. The better the learning conditions are created, the more optimally the student will develop. Recognizing the student's right to be a subject of knowledge, the authors of this concept essentially transfer the implementation of this right to the organizers of learning, who determine all forms of cognitive activity.
Organization of training based on a theoretical type, according to the opinion. V.V. Davydov and his followers, is most favorable for the mental development of the child, therefore the authors of such training called developing (Davydov V.V., 1986; abstract). The source of this development lies outside the child himself - in training, which is specially designed for these purposes.

• Indicators characterizing theoretical thinking are taken as the standard of development:
  • Reflex is a reaction to the excitation of receptors, a natural response of the body to a stimulus mediated by the nervous system.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">reflexivity, goal setting, planning;
  • the ability to act internally;
  • the ability to exchange products of knowledge (see article by A.V. Brushlinsky “On the development of V.V. Davydov’s theory of mental development”).

In the concept, the purpose of education is presented more broadly, and most importantly, more psychologically. This is not just knowledge of the surrounding world, which exists according to its own objective laws, but the student’s appropriation of socio-historical experience accumulated by previous generations of people, the reproduction of educational culture, which includes not only knowledge, but also socially developed values, standards, and socially significant guidelines.
The formation of basic concepts of an educational subject in students in the process of educational activities is built as spiral movement from center to periphery, where in the center there is an abstract general idea of ​​the concept being formed, and on the periphery this general idea is concretized, enriched with private ideas and thereby turns into a genuine scientific and theoretical concept.
This structuring of educational material is fundamentally different from the usually used linear method (inductive), when learning proceeds from the consideration of particular facts and phenomena to their subsequent empirical generalization at the final stage of studying a particular concept. This general idea, which appears at the final stage, does not guide or help him in the study of particular ideas and concepts, and, moreover, it cannot be developed and enriched, since it appears at the end of the learning process (; see the group for constructing school textbooks )..
Otherwise, the learning process occurs through learning activities. Introduced at the initial stage of studying a fundamental concept, an abstract-general idea of ​​this concept in further training is enriched and concretized by particular facts and knowledge, serves as a guide for students throughout the entire process of studying this concept and helps to comprehend all particular concepts introduced in the future from the point of view of existing general idea.
The essence of UD is that its result is a change in the student himself, and the content of UD is the mastery of generalized methods of action in the field of scientific concepts. This theory received further development as a result of many years experimental research, carried out under the guidance of D.B. Elkonin and V.V. Davydov, who proved that the capabilities of younger schoolchildren in mastering scientific and theoretical knowledge were underestimated, and that such knowledge was quite accessible to them. Therefore, the main content of training should be scientific, not empirical knowledge; training should be aimed at developing theoretical thinking in students.
The systematic implementation of educational activities contributes to the intensive development of its subjects Theoretical thinking - knowledge and discovery of laws, principles.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);"> theoretical thinking, the main components of which are meaningful Abstraction (from the Latin abstractio - distraction) is one of the main operations of thinking, consisting in the fact that the subject, isolating any signs of the object being studied, is distracted from the rest. The result of this process is the construction of a mental product (concept, model, theory, classification, etc.), which is also denoted by the term "onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">abstractions, generalizations, analysis , planning and reflection. Educational activity cannot be identified with those processes of learning and assimilation that are included in any other types of activity (game, work, sports, etc.). Educational activity involves the assimilation of theoretical knowledge through discussions carried out by schoolchildren and students with the help of teachers and instructors. UD is implemented in those educational institutions (schools, institutes, universities) that are capable of providing their graduates with a fairly comprehensive education and that are aimed at developing their abilities to navigate various fields social consciousness (learning education is still poorly represented in many Russian educational institutions) (see animation) (; see centers for developmental education of the International public organization- Association "Developmental Training").

5.1.3. Features of educational activities

According to, who was one of the first to develop the theory of UD,

• learning activity is ():
  • public in its content(in it the assimilation of all the riches of culture and science accumulated by humanity takes place);
  • public in its meaning(it is socially significant and publicly valued);
  • public in the form of its implementation(it is carried out in accordance with socially developed norms).

Educational activity is, first of all, an activity that results in changes in the student himself. This is an activity of self-change, that is, the product is those changes that occurred during its implementation in the subject himself (see Fig. 4).
Educational activity, as already indicated, is a directed activity, which has as its content the mastery of generalized methods of action in the sphere of scientific concepts. It must be stimulated by adequate motive (from the Latin movere - to set in motion, to push) - 1) motivation for activity related to meeting the needs of the subject; 2) object-oriented activity of a certain strength; 3) the object (material or ideal) that motivates and determines the choice of direction of activity, for the sake of which it is carried out; 4) the conscious reason underlying the choice of actions and actions of the individual.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">motives . They can only be motives directly related to its content, i.e. motives for acquiring generalized methods of action, or, more simply, motives for one’s own growth, one’s own improvement. Personal success and personal improvement thereby acquire a deep social meaning ().
It is known that a person will acquire knowledge, skills and abilities not only at school and not only as a result of educational activities, but also by independently reading books, magazines, from radio and television programs, by watching films and visiting the theater, from the stories of parents and peers, and also in play and work activities. Consequently, it is legitimate to raise the question of what knowledge, in what way and under what conditions should be acquired by a child at school, under the guidance of a teacher organizing educational activities.
The assimilation of knowledge, skills and abilities within the educational system has a number of characteristic features.
Firstly, the content of UD consists of scientific concepts and laws, universal methods of solving cognitive problems corresponding to them.
Secondly, the assimilation of such content acts as the main goal and main result of the activity (in other types of activity, the assimilation of knowledge and skills acts as a by-product).
Third, in the process of educational learning, a change occurs in the student himself as its subject, the mental development of the child occurs due to the acquisition of such a basic new formation as a theoretical attitude to reality. The product of educational activity is the changes that occurred in the subject itself during its implementation (see Fig. 5).

The task of the school is not just to develop the mental activity of schoolchildren, but to educate them to such a level. Thinking is the most generalized and indirect form of mental reflection, establishing connections and relationships between cognizable objects. Thinking is the highest level of human knowledge. Allows you to obtain knowledge about such objects, properties and relationships of the real world that cannot be directly perceived at the sensory level of cognition. The forms and laws of thinking are studied by logic, the mechanisms of its flow - by psychology and neurophysiology. Cybernetics analyzes thinking in connection with the tasks of modeling certain mental functions.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">thinking, which most contributes to a person’s orientation in modern forms consciousness. This requirement corresponds to the theoretical level of thinking. The latter is not ensured in traditional education, when students learn only individual ways of solving specific problems and when for this they are given a ready-made sum of private knowledge. Schoolchildren’s thinking rises to the theoretical level during the formation of their educational activities, as it is understood in the concept Educational activity is one of the main types of human activity, aimed at acquiring theoretical knowledge in the process of solving educational problems.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">UD. This activity, aimed at solving an educational task, has its own special needs and motives, its own special structure, in which the most important place belongs to specific educational tasks and actions.

5.2. Structure of educational activities

5.2.1. Determining the structure of educational activities

The structure of the management system is determined by the nature of the interaction of its elements. There is still no consensus in educational psychology regarding the main structural elements of UD. Below are some points of view.

• At the end of the 50s. XX century () put forward a general hypothesis about the structure of the UD, about its significance in the mental development of the child. In his opinion, the structure of the management system includes:
  • learning goal;
  • learning activities;
  • actions to control the assimilation process;
  • actions to assess the degree of assimilation.
• believed that the structure of UD includes:
  • learning situations (or tasks);
  • learning activities;
  • actions of control and evaluation (Davydov, 1986; abstract) ().

Let us dwell in more detail on the point of view of V.V. Davydova. In his opinion, one of the most important components of educational activities is student’s understanding of educational tasks (UZ). An educational task is a type of problem in which students, through educational actions, discover and master the general method (principle) of solving a whole class of homogeneous particular problems.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">Learning task is closely related to substantive (theoretical) generalization; it leads the student to mastering generalized relationships in the field of knowledge being studied, to mastering new methods of action. Schoolchildren’s acceptance of learning “for themselves” and independent implementation are closely related to the motivation of learning, to the transformation of the child into a subject of activity. The next component is implementation of educational activities by the student. With the correct organization of teaching, the student’s educational actions are aimed at identifying universal relations, leading principles, key ideas of a given field of knowledge, at modeling these relations, at mastering methods of transition from universal relations to their specification and back, methods of transition from model to object and back, etc. .d.
No less important, according to V.V. Davydova, has performance of control and evaluation actions by the student himself. The control part monitors the progress of the action, compares the results obtained with given samples and, if necessary, provides correction of both the indicative and executive parts of the action.

5.2.2. Characteristics of UD components

By need UD is the desire of students to master theoretical knowledge from a particular subject area (this knowledge reflects the patterns of the origin, formation and development of objects in the corresponding field; empirical-utilitarian knowledge, unlike theoretical knowledge, records only the characteristics of already established objects).
Learning task . The specificity of an educational task is that when solving it, students, through educational actions, discover and master the general method (principle) of solving a whole class of homogeneous particular problems. To set a learning task for students means to introduce them into a problem situation that requires orientation towards a meaningfully general way of solving it in all possible particular and specific conditions.
An educational task is a type of problem in which students, through educational actions, discover and master the general method (principle) of solving a whole class of homogeneous particular problems.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">Learning task- not just a task that a student completes in class or at home, it is a goal for mastering generalized methods of action, a task that is set before students in the form of a problem. An educational task differs from a specific practical task in that the goal of the second is to obtain a result-answer, and the goal of the first is for the student to master a general method of solving all problems of a given type.
Students' work on solving educational problems is carried out with the help of special educational tasks that require students to explicitly conduct research, analysis, independent study of some phenomena, construct some methods of studying or recording the results in the form of models of these phenomena and methods of studying them. The work of students on these tasks is theoretical in nature and thereby introduces them to the laboratory of scientific thought, helps them gain the experience of truly creative thinking and at the same time brings them the joy of learning, emotional satisfaction from overcoming all the difficulties that they encountered along the way these tasks.
Motives for educational activities. The motives for educational actions specify the need for learning, when the general desire of students to master theoretical knowledge is aimed at mastering a well-defined general method of solving a certain class of particular problems.
Learning activities , with the help of which educational tasks are solved, are carried out using many different educational operations. In order for students to master the methods of performing educational actions, it is necessary to first perform these actions with the full deployment of all operations included in this action. Moreover, these operations must first be performed either materially with the help of some objects, or materialized with the help of their symbolic substitutes, images. Only gradually, as certain operations are practiced, the process of performing an action is curtailed and, in the end, is performed immediately as a single action.
Let's consider the essence of educational actions in more detail.

5.2.3. Learning activities

• The fourth component of the structure of educational activities is educational actions, with the help of which schoolchildren solve educational problems.
  I. Lompsher and A. Kossakowski (Psychological..., 1981; abstract) identify the following educational actions in the structure of educational activities:
  • perception of messages (listening to the teacher or students, conversation between the teacher and students, reading and assimilating the text of a textbook or other source of information);
  • observations organized during lessons in or outside of school;
  • collection and preparation of materials on the topic proposed by the teacher or student;
  • subject-based practical actions;
  • oral or written presentation of learned material;
  • linguistic, subject-practical or any other embodiment of situations that reveal the content of a particular educational task or problem;
  • preparation, conduct and evaluation of experiments, nomination and verification Hypothesis (foundation, assumption) - a scientific assumption in the form of a statement, the truth or falsity of which is unknown, but can be verified experimentally (empirically). In psychology, a component of the thinking process that directs the search for a solution to a problem through the tentative addition (extrapolation) of subjectively missing information, without which the result of the solution cannot be obtained. Hypotheses may relate to the outcome itself or to the conditions on which it depends. Important integral part solutions to the problem are Hypotheses regarding the principle (" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">hypotheses;
  • performance various tasks and exercises;
  • assessment of the quality of an action, event, behavior.
• The training activities include:
  • acceptance by students or their independent formulation of a learning task;
  • transformation of the conditions of the educational task in order to discover some general relationship of the subject being studied;
  • modeling of the selected relation;
  • transforming the model of this relationship to study its properties “in its pure” form;
  • building a system of particular problems solved in a general way;
  • control over the implementation of previous actions;
  • assessment of mastering the general method as a result of solving a learning task.

• The training operations included in the action correspond to the specific conditions for solving individual subject problems. Such learning activities are:
  1. action of identifying a problem ( educational goal) from the assigned educational task;
  2. the action of identifying a general way to solve a problem based on an analysis of general relationships in the educational material being studied, i.e. a general method for solving problems of this type;
  3. the action of modeling general relationships of educational material and general ways of solving educational problems;
  4. the action of concretizing and enriching general relationships and general modes of action with particular manifestations;
  5. the action of monitoring the progress and results of educational activities;
  6. the action of assessing the compliance of the progress and results of students’ activities with the learning task assigned to them.

5.3. Psychological and pedagogical features of the formation of educational activities

5.3.1. Features of the formation of UD

Analysis of any type of activity involves isolating and describing the relationship of the following structural components - needs, motives, tasks, actions and operations. At the same time, psychology has established the following patterns of formation and functioning of various types of activities (Davydov V.V., 1986; abstract):
Firstly, there is a process of emergence, formation and collapse of any specific type of activity (for example, educational).
Secondly, its structural components constantly change their functions, turning into each other (for example, needs are specified in motives, an action can become an operation and vice versa).
Third, various private activities are interconnected with each other in a single stream of human behavior (therefore, for example, a true understanding of educational activity involves revealing its relationship with play and work, with sports and social and organizational activities, etc.).
Fourth, each type of activity initially arises and develops in its external form as a network of expanded relationships between people using various material and materialized means of organizing their communication and sharing experience; only on this basis are the internal forms of activity of an individual formed, folded in their structure and based on images and concepts.

• To develop educational activity in students, it is necessary to:
  • so that they master the learning activities mentioned above;
  • so that their activity becomes an activity to solve educational problems and at the same time they realize that they are not just completing the teacher’s tasks, not just writing, drawing, counting, but rather solving the next educational problem. “The most important thing in the formation of educational activity,” noted D.B. Elkonin, “is to transfer the student from focusing on obtaining the correct result when solving a specific problem to focusing on the correct application of the learned general method of action” ().
  • and finally, it is necessary to structure the educational process in such a way, to organize it, that gradually the elements of self-study, amateur performance, self-development, self-education begin to occupy more and more of a place in this process. To do this, from the first days of classes, the educational process should be built on the principle of role-playing participation of schoolchildren in its organization and conduct. This means that gradually many of the teacher's functions must be transferred student government. “The formation of educational activity,” wrote D.B. Elkonin, “is the process of gradually transferring the implementation of individual elements of this activity to the student himself for independent implementation without the intervention of a teacher.” And further: “There is reason to think that it is most rational to start with the formation of independent control. Children, first of all, must learn to control each other and themselves” (Ibid. p. 49).

An activity that should be handed over to the students themselves to perform independently is assessment, i.e. “establishing whether this or that educational action has been mastered or not yet mastered” () (see the article by G.A. Tsukerman “Experience of typological analysis of junior schoolchildren as subjects of educational activity”).

• Formation of UD - This:
• Formation of UD there is management by an adult (teacher, parent, psychologist) of the process of developing a student’s educational attainment.
  Full management of the learning process always involves:
  • interrelation of UD components;
• The formation and formation of educational institutions go through several stages, each of which corresponds to certain stages of education. When moving from stage to stage, its main characteristics change:
  • specific content;
  • forms of organizing interaction between its participants;
  • features of their communication;
  • the nature of psychological neoplasms.

Therefore, the maturity levels of educational learning as a whole and its individual components are important qualities that characterize the effectiveness of the work of teachers and students.
The extensive process of teaching complex educational actions is also applied to teaching actions to solve a class of specific problems. This method of teaching actions allows for monitoring the correctness and completeness of the operations included in the actions. But we will specifically consider the issue of monitoring and assessing students’ academic work in the next section (see Moscow Secondary School No. 91).

5.3.2. Age-related features of the formation of UD

At the first stage corresponding to primary education, the main components of the structure arise and are formed Educational activity is one of the main types of human activity, aimed at acquiring theoretical knowledge in the process of solving educational problems.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">UD(preschoolers have only their prerequisites). At primary school age, UD is the main and leading activity among other activities. The systematic implementation of UD by junior schoolchildren contributes to the emergence and development of their main psychological new formations of this age.
Already in the 1st grade, it is necessary to introduce elementary theoretical knowledge into the content of educational activities - the concepts of number and words, which were absent in the experience of children’s preschool life, as well as the concept of composition, which is important for children’s subsequent mastery of the basics visual arts. The assimilation of these and other concepts in the process of collective solving educational problems contributes to the entry of children into the system of educational activities, allows them to master the methods and norms of participation in disputes and discussions, and to show initiative in inviting peers and teachers to educational dialogue. Throughout primary education, in conditions of a full-fledged and expanded educational system, it remains collectively distributed, but at the same time, the majority of junior schoolchildren develop Skill is the ability to consciously perform a certain action.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">skills on their own initiative, pose various meaningful questions to peers and teachers, the ability not only to participate in discussions, but also to be their initiators and even organizers. Children develop stable and generalized educational and cognitive motives (from the Latin movere - to set in motion, to push) - 1) motivations for activity related to meeting the needs of the subject; 2) object-oriented activity of a certain strength; 3) the object (material or ideal) that motivates and determines the choice of direction of activity, for the sake of which it is carried out; 4) the conscious reason underlying the choice of actions and actions of the individual.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">motives (the main indicator of this is the children’s orientation not to the result of solving a problem, but to the general method of obtaining it), which indicates the formation of the very need for UD. By the end of primary education, children acquire the ability to consciously control their educational activities and critically evaluate their results (see the article by G.A. Tsukerman “What does the educational activity of younger schoolchildren develop and what does not develop?”)

At the second stage formation of educational activities (grades 6-9) loses its leading character, but retains significant importance in the development of students’ theoretical thinking, which occurs in the process of reflective assimilation, etc., allowing them, along with teachers, to take a certain part in organizing their educational activities peers. At this age, the content of educational activities becomes more complex - the subject of assimilation becomes integral systems of theoretical concepts, presented in abstract language using graphs, tables, and models. The presence of a sufficiently high level of theoretical thinking, achieved by teenagers in the lower grades, contributes to their mastery of complex material. There are significant changes in the implementation of educational activities. In grades 5-7, students still collectively solve educational problems and at the same time master various symbolic models of fixing their conditions and orientation in them, in order to subsequently use these models independently, for individual solution tasks. In grades 8-9, students gradually begin to independently set educational tasks and independently evaluate their solutions. Each student becomes an individual subject of learning. His Educational activity is one of the main types of human activity, aimed at acquiring theoretical knowledge in the process of solving educational problems.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);"> educational activities takes the form of an internal dialogue with the authors of the educational material, and the discussion of the results in the class becomes a discussion in which each participant can make adjustments to the proposed understanding of the educational task and to the ways of solving it.
In the process of internalization of educational activities in adolescents, when they assimilate theoretical material, all educational actions are practiced and polished (control and evaluation, which turn into self-control and self-esteem, are of particular importance) and all meaningful mental actions functioning in them are developed, among which Reflection acquires a special role ( from Late Latin reflexio - backward-facing) - 1) reflection, introspection, self-knowledge; 2) the process of self-knowledge by the subject of internal mental acts and states; 3) as a mechanism of mutual understanding - the subject’s understanding of by what means and why he made this or that impression on his communication partner; 4) (philosophical) a form of theoretical human activity aimed at understanding one’s own actions and their laws.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">reflection . Thus, in adolescence, the process of development of theoretical thinking, which began in the elementary grades, continues. At this age, the UD loses its leading character; main role In the mental development of adolescents, socially significant activities of all types (artistic, sports, labor) acquire. But in the field of mental development in adolescence, it is UD that plays a decisive role.

Third stage. At high school age, the UD again becomes the leader, but with a professional bias, allowing high school students to carry out vocational guidance and outline their life path.
During the student years, educational activities acquire a truly research character and can be called an educational and cognitive activity. The assimilation of already accumulated theoretical knowledge is woven into the process of independently formulating the results of individual or collective research, design and construction, produced in accordance with the requirements of various forms of knowledge, which leads students to clarify scientific concepts, improve artistic images, deepen moral values, etc. . UD for students becomes the basis for the development of predictive and research theoretical thinking (see laboratory for the study of mental development in adolescence and youth).

(; see laboratory of teaching psychology of PI RAO).

5.4. Educational activity as the leading activity in primary school age

5.4.1. The concept of leading activity

The mental development of a person at all age levels is carried out in the process of various types of activities. It is in activity that he masters the social and historical experience accumulated by humanity - he assimilates Knowledge - the reflection in the child’s head of the properties of objects, phenomena of the surrounding world (knowledge of facts, concepts, terms, definitions, laws, theories) and ways of acting with them (rules, techniques, methods, methods, instructions).");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">knowledge , Skill is the ability to consciously perform a certain action.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">skills And A skill is a way of performing actions that has become automated as a result of exercises.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">skills and acquires the mental properties and abilities characteristic of a person. However, not all activities have the same importance for mental development. As indicated, activity as a whole does not consist mechanically of individual types of activity. Some types of activities at this stage play a major role in development, others are subordinate and play a secondary role (Leontyev A.N., 2001; abstract).
The main type of human activity that determines the very emergence and historical development of a person, the formation of his consciousness is labor; it represents an activity aimed at the production of certain socially useful (or at least consumed by society) products - material or ideal. Other types of activities, such as play, learning, and communication, arose in the course of history in close connection with labor, partly as serving labor, partly as forms of preparation for it. IN modern society, along with work, the main activities are play and Teaching is the activity of a student in acquiring new knowledge and mastering methods of acquiring knowledge.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">teaching.
These basic types of activity do not exhaust, however, all its wealth and do not have the same importance at all age levels. Labor in its mature forms is inaccessible to a child; as for play and learning, each of these types of activity acts as a leader only at a certain age level, while at other age levels other types of activity are leading.
Leading activity is an activity, the implementation of which determines the emergence and formation of the basic psychological new formations of a person at a given stage of development of his personality.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);"> Leading activity, as defined by A.N. Leontiev, is not just the activity that is most common at a given stage of development, the activity to which a person devotes the most time. It is characterized by three main features (Leontyev A.N., 2001; abstract).
1. Within the leading activity, other, new types of activity appear and develop, which themselves can acquire leading importance in the future, at the next age level. Thus, learning initially appears in the form of play: the child begins to learn by playing.
2. In leading activity, individual mental processes are formed and developed. In particular, imaginative thinking and active imagination are developed in the game, and abstract logical thinking in learning.
3. The formation of the child’s personality and its main changes in a given period depend on the leading activity. For example, it is in play that a preschooler, on the one hand, masters social functions and the corresponding norms of behavior of adults (“what a worker, a teacher, etc. is like”) and, on the other hand, learns to establish relationships with peers, to coordinate his own actions (- see the work of D. B. Elkonin “On the historical emergence role playing game"(Chapter 2 from the book "Psychology of Game").
At the beginning of its formation Educational activity is one of the main types of human activity, aimed at acquiring theoretical knowledge in the process of solving educational problems.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);"> educational activities is possible only on the basis of setting educational tasks for teachers, who also carry out the functions of control and evaluation. Developed forms Educational activity is one of the main types of human activity, aimed at acquiring theoretical knowledge in the process of solving educational problems.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">UD imply the transition of control and assessment into self-control and self-assessment, independent specification of goals set from outside.

5.4.2. The leading nature of educational activities in primary school age

The structure of UD is formed in children of primary school age (preschoolers have only its prerequisites, one of which is preschool cognitive interest). At this age, UD is the main and leading activity among other types of activities (artistic, gaming, sports, etc.).

• The systematic implementation of UD by junior schoolchildren determines the emergence and development of their psychological new formations of a given age:
  • the subject of this activity;
  • fundamentals of theoretical thinking;
  • arbitrariness of educational and cognitive actions.

• The primary form of UD is its collectively distributed implementation by the entire class or its individual groups. In progress Interiorization is the process of transforming external, objective actions into internal, mental ones.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">interiorization an individual UD is formed, the indicators of which are:
  • the ability of its subject to proactively and independently distinguish between known and unknown theoretical knowledge in the subject being mastered;
  • the ability to ask meaningful questions to peers and teachers;
  • the ability not only to constantly participate in discussions, but also to be their initiator and organizer.

Psychological and pedagogical research shows that when existing system of primary education in Russia, by the time of graduation from primary school (i.e., by the age of 9-10 years of a child’s life), UD has not yet acquired a truly individual form. The problem arises of prolonging it for one to two years so that at the end of primary school age the child develops the desire and ability to learn, i.e. the need for UD and the possibility of its individual implementation.
In subsequent ages, which correspond to certain stages of education (adolescence - primary school; early adolescence - high school; adolescence - graduate School), UD undergoes qualitative changes by the content of theoretical knowledge acquired by students, by the nature of its implementation by them, by the methods of organizing learning activities by teachers and professors, by the role in the formation of psychological formations inherent in each age (; see the article by A.O. Prokhorov, G.N. Gening “Features mental states of younger schoolchildren in educational activities").

5.4.3. Diagnostics of educational activities

• A.K. Markova, to study the level of development of students’ learning skills, singled out the following aspects its diagnostics (Markova, 1990; abstract):
• State of the learning task and indicative basis:
  • the student’s understanding of the teacher’s task, understanding the meaning of the activity and active acceptance of the educational task for himself;
  • independent setting of educational tasks by the student;
  • independent choice of action guidelines in new educational material.
• Status of training activities:
  • what educational actions the student performs (change, comparison, modeling, etc.);
  • in what form he performs them (material, materialized, loud-speech, mental plane), expanded (in the full range of operations) or collapsed, independently or after promptings from an adult;
  • whether individual actions are combined into larger blocks - methods, techniques, techniques; does the student distinguish between the method and the result of actions;
  • whether the student knows several techniques to achieve one result;
• State of self-control and self-esteem:
  • whether the student knows how to check himself after finishing work (final self-control);
  • can he check himself in the middle and during work (step-by-step self-control);
  • is he able to plan work before it begins (planning self-control);
  • whether the student has adequate self-esteem;
  • is differentiated self-assessment of individual parts of his work available to him or is he able to assess himself only in general terms;
• What is the result of the educational activity:
  • objective (correctness of the solution, number of actions to achieve the result, time spent, solving problems of varying difficulty);
  • subjective (significance, meaning of this educational work for the student himself, subjective satisfaction, psychological cost - expenditure of time and effort, contribution of personal efforts) ().

When diagnosing the educational activity of schoolchildren, it is important to look at the integrity of this activity (or are there only fragmented links and operations), and whether there is a pronounced individuality in its implementation. Free and independent implementation of educational activities indicates a certain important level of mental development - the formation of cognitive activity as the basis of thinking. In school practice, it is proposed to take into account, when assessing learning results, not only knowledge, but also the activities of students that ensure it. Thus, the requirements for learning outcomes include: a system of knowledge and skills; types of activities in which the subject content of training is mastered; quality features students’ mastery of the subject and activity content of learning (Markova, 1990. P. 9; abstract) (; see the article by V.V. Repkin, G.V. Repkina, E.V. Zaiki “On the system of psychological and pedagogical monitoring in the construction of educational activities").
The state of a student’s activities can be identified by criterion-oriented tests, activity tests, long-term observation, as well as during a psychologically thoughtful oral survey and in writing. tests(; see Center for Psychological and Career Guidance Testing "Humanitarian Technologies").

Summary

• “Learning activity” (AL) is a rather ambiguous concept. We can distinguish three main interpretations of this concept, accepted both in psychology and in pedagogy: as a synonym for learning, teaching, learning; as the leading type of activity in primary school age; as one of the activities of schoolchildren.
  • The concept of educational activity is one of the approaches to the learning process in psychology, implementing the position about the socio-historical conditionality of mental development. It developed on the basis of the fundamental dialectical-materialist principle of psychology - the principle of the unity of the psyche and activity in the context of psychological activity (A.N. Leontyev) and in close connection with the theory of the gradual formation of mental activity and types of learning (P.Ya. Galperin, N.F. .Talyzin).
  • The concept of educational learning (as opposed to didactic concepts) contains the prerequisites for understanding the student as a subject of cognition. The educational process itself is interpreted not as the transmission of scientific knowledge, its assimilation, reproduction, but as the development of cognitive abilities and basic mental formations.
• Organization of training based on a theoretical type, according to the opinion. V.V. Davydov and his followers, is most favorable for the mental development of the child, therefore the authors call such training developmental.
  • According to D.B. Elkonin, who was one of the first to develop the theory of UD, educational activity is: social in its content; public in its meaning; social in the form of its implementation.
  • Educational activity is, first of all, an activity that results in changes in the student himself. This is an activity of self-change, i.e. its product is the changes that occurred during its implementation in the subject himself.
• The structure of the management system is determined by the nature of the interaction of its elements. There is still no consensus regarding the main structural elements of educational psychology in educational psychology. According to V.V. Davydov, the structure of educational learning includes: learning situations (or tasks); learning activities; control and evaluation activities.
• Becoming a UD is:
  • improvement of each component of the management system, their relationship and mutual transitions;
  • improving the motivational and operational aspects of learning;
  • turning the student into a subject of the educational process he carries out;
  • the need for developmental and educational effects of UD.
• The formation of UD is the management of an adult (teacher, parent, psychologist) in the process of developing a student’s UD. Full management of the learning process always involves:
  • training the student in each component of learning achievement;
  • interrelation of UD components;
  • gradual transfer of individual components of this activity to the student himself for independent implementation without the help of a teacher.
• The structure of UD is formed in children of primary school age. At this age, UD is the main and leading activity among other types of activities (artistic, gaming, sports, etc.).
• The state of a student’s activities can be identified by criterion-oriented tests, activity tests, long-term observation, as well as during a psychologically thoughtful oral survey and written tests.

Glossary of terms

1. Leading activity
2. Action of monitoring and evaluation
3. Activity
4. Educational activities
5. Learning task
6. Training operation
7. Learning action
8. Educational motive

Self-test questions

1. What interpretations of the concept of “learning activity” exist?
2. How is educational activity in the Elkonin-Davydov direction interpreted?
3. What is the essence of educational activity?
4. Name the authors of the concept of educational activity.
5. How is the concept of “subject of activity” interpreted in the concept of educational activity?
6. Name the main features of educational activities.
7. Name the characteristic features of assimilation of knowledge and skills within the educational system.
8. How does V.V. determine the structure of educational activities? Repkin?
9. Compare the points of view on the structure of UD V.V. Repkin and A.U. Vardanyan.
10. What components of UD were identified by D.B. Elkonin and V.V. Davydov?
11. What is the specificity of the learning task?
12. What educational activities in the structure of educational learning are identified by I. Lompscher and A. Kossakowski?
13. Name the patterns of formation and functioning of various types of activities according to V.V. Davydov.
14. What is meant by the formation of UD?
15. How does the formation of UD differ from its formation?
16. Name the main age-related features of the formation of UD.
17. What is characteristic of the formation of UD in early adolescence?
18. What is leading activity?
19. At what age is educational activity the leading activity?
20. What is the leading nature of educational activity at primary school age?
21. Name the main aspects of diagnosing educational activities.
22. What signs can be used to study the degree of formation of educational actions?

Bibliography

1. Vardanyan A.U., Vardanyan G.A. The essence of educational activity in the formation of creative thinking of students // Formation of creative thinking of schoolchildren in educational activities. Ufa, 1985.
2. Vygotsky L.S. Pedagogical psychology. M., 1996.
3. Gabay T.V. Educational activity and its means. M., 1988.
4. Galperin P.Ya. Teaching methods and mental development of the child. M., 1985.
5. Davydov V.V. Problems of developmental training: Experience of theoretical and experimental psychological research. M., 1986.
6. Davydov V.V. Developmental learning theory. M., 1996.
7. Ilyasov I.I. Structure of the learning process. M., 1986.
8. Leontyev A.N. Lectures on general psychology. M., 2001.
9. Markova A.K., Matis T.A., Orlov A.B. Formation of learning motivation. M., 1990.
10. Psychological features of personality formation in pedagogical process/ Ed. A. Kossakowski, I. Lompshera et al.: Trans. with him. M., 1981.
11. Repkin V.V., Repkina N.V. Developmental education: theory and practice. Tomsk, 1997.
12. Rubinstein S. L. Fundamentals of general psychology. St. Petersburg, 1999.
13. Selevko G.K. Modern educational technologies: Textbook. allowance. M., 1998.
14. Formation of educational activities of schoolchildren / Ed. V.V. Davydova. M., 1982.
15. Elkonin D.B. Psychology of teaching primary schoolchildren. M., 1974.
16. Elkonin D.B. Developmental psychology: Textbook. aid for students higher textbook establishments. M., 2001.

Topics of term papers and essays

1. Educational activity in the Elkonin-Davydov concept.
2. The essence of educational activity.
3. Main features of educational activities.
4. Structure of educational activities.
5. Learning actions in the structure of learning activities.
6. Regularities of formation and functioning of educational activities.
7. The main age-related features of the formation of UD.
8. The leading nature of educational activity in primary school age.
9. Basic aspects of diagnostics of educational activities.

§ 3. External structure of educational activities Component composition external structure of educational activities

Learning activities have an external structure consisting of such main components as motivation; educational tasks in certain situations in various forms of tasks; learning activities; control turning into self-control; assessment that turns into self-esteem. Each of the components of the structure of this activity has its own characteristics. At the same time, being an intellectual activity by nature, educational activity is characterized by the same structure as any other intellectual act, namely: the presence of a motive, a plan (intention, program), execution (implementation) and control (K. Pribram, Yu Galanter, J. Miller, A.A. Leontiev).

Describing the structural organization of educational activities in the general context of the theory of D.B. Elkonina-V.V. Davydova, I.I. Ilyasov notes that “...learning situations and tasks are characterized by the fact that here the student receives a task to master a general method of action and the purpose of its mastery, as well as samples and instructions for finding general ways to solve problems of a certain class. Learning activities- These 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 generalizing the results of one’s educational actions with given samples. Assessment actions record the final quality of assimilation of specified scientific knowledge and general methods of solving problems.”.

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

Motivation - first component structures educational activities

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

Educational task V structure educational activities

The second, but essentially the main component of the structure of educational activity is the educational task. It is offered to the student as a specific educational task (the formulation of which is extremely important for its solution and result) in a certain educational situation, the totality of which represents the educational process itself as a whole.

The concept of “task” has a long history of development in science. In psychological terms, one of the first researchers in Russian science to consider the category of task was M.Ya. Basov (1892-1931). Analyzing the child’s activity, he noted that for a wide variety of educational and life situations, the moment of the task as such is common. This general point is related to the need for a person to discover what he does not yet know and what cannot simply be seen in an object; To do this, he will need a certain action with this item. In his works, he substantiated the expediency of using the concept of task in psychology simultaneously with the terms “action”, “goal” and “task”.

Subsequently, in the works of S.L. Rubinstein, the concept of a task received a broader interpretation in relation to the concept of action and in the general context of goal setting. According to S.L. Rubinstein, "the so-called voluntary action of a person- it is the fulfillment of a goal. Before you act, you mustrealize the goalto achieve which the action is taken. However, no matter how significant the goal, awareness of the goal is not enough. In order to implement it, it is necessarytake into account the conditions in which the action must take place. The relationship between the goal and the conditions determines the task that must be resolved by the action. Conscious human action- it is a more or less conscious solution to a problem. But to perform an action, it is not enough for the task to be the subjectunderstood; she must be accepted by him". Note that, according to A.N. Leontiev, a task is a goal given under certain conditions.

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

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

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

General characteristic educational tasks

An educational task, like any other, is currently considered as a systemic education (G.A. Ball), in which two components are required: the subject of the task in the initial state and a model of the required state of the subject of the task. The composition of the problem as “given and sought”, “known and unknown”, “condition and requirement” is presented simultaneously in the form of an initial state and a “model of the required future” (N.A. Bernstein, P.K. Anokhin) as a result of resolving the relationship between components of this composition. This interpretation of the problem includes prediction of the result and its model representation. A task is considered as a complex system of information about some phenomenon, object, process, in which only part of the information is clearly defined, and the rest is unknown. It can only be found on the basis of solving a problem or information formulated in such a way that there is inconsistency and contradiction between individual concepts and provisions, requiring a search for new knowledge, proof, transformation, coordination, etc.

The composition of the educational task is discussed in detail in the works of L.M. Fridman, E.I. Mashbitsa. In any task, including an educational one, a goal (requirement), objects that are part of the task conditions, and their functions are identified. Some problems indicate methods and means of solution (they are given in explicit or, more often, in hidden form).

In the interpretation of L.M. Friedman, any task includes the same parts:

Subject area - the class of fixed designated objects in question;

The relationships that connect these objects;

The requirement of the task is an indication of the purpose of solving the problem, i.e. what needs to be established during the decision;

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

Way solutions tasks

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

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

Peculiarities educational tasks

E.I. Mashbits identifies the essential features of the educational task from the perspective of managing educational activities. Following D. B. Elkonin, he considers its first and most significant feature to be its focus on the subject, because its solution presupposes changes not in the “task structure” itself, but in the subject solving it. Changes in the task are important not in themselves, but as a means of changing the subject. In other words, a learning task is a means of achieving learning goals. From this point of view, it is not they themselves that are important, but the student’s assimilation of a certain method of action.

The second feature of a learning task is that it is ambiguous or uncertain. Students may attach a slightly different meaning to the task than the teaching one. This phenomenon, called E.I. Mashbits “refinement of the task” occurs for various reasons: due to the inability to understand the requirements of the task, confusion of various relations. Often this depends on the motivation of the subject.

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

Psychological requirements To educational tasks

The main requirements for a learning task as a learning impact are determined by the uniqueness of its place in learning activities and the relationship between learning tasks and learning goals (E.I. Mashbits). It is proposed to consider the relationship between a task and a goal in the “set of tasks - set of goals” system, since in educational activities the same goal requires solving a number of problems, and the same task serves to achieve several goals (the total number of tasks in the academic subject close to 100,000). Hence, according to E.I. Mashbitsu, a number of requirements follow.

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

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

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

4. “The educational task must be designed in such a way that the appropriate means of activity, the assimilation of which is provided for in the process of solving problems, act as a direct product of training”. As many researchers have found, what is included in the direct product of students’ actions is better absorbed by them. In most educational tasks, according to the author, the executive part acts as a direct product, and orientation and control parts act as by-products. The implementation of the fourth requirement also involves the use of tasks for students to understand their actions, i.e. reflection. These types of tasks help students generalize their actions to further solve educational problems. And here one cannot but agree with E.I. Mashbits that although scientists pay great attention to the issues of reflection, in practice the teacher does not have the means of regulating students’ reflection in solving problems. The following is also noted: in order for students, when solving educational problems, to consciously carry out and control their actions, they must have a clear understanding of the structure and means of solving the problem. They should receive such information from the teacher in the form of a coherent system of orientation.

Educational task Andproblematic situation

In the process of learning activity, a learning task is given (exists) in a certain learning situation. (In our interpretation, the learning situation acts as a unit of an integral educational process.) The learning situation can be cooperative or conflicting. Moreover, if there is a substantive conflict, i.e. the collision of different positions, relationships, points of view regarding the academic subject contributes to the assimilation, then interpersonal, i.e. the conflict between the schoolchildren themselves as people, individuals, prevents it.

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

Creating a problematic situation, a problem in learning, poses a significant pedagogical difficulty. Let us consider in more detail the reason for this difficulty. First of all, let us recall the general didactic definition of problem-based learning given by M.I. Makhmutov: “...this is a type of developmental education that combines systematic independent search activity of students with their assimilation of ready-made scientific conclusions, and the system of methods is built taking into account goal setting and the principle of problem-solving; the process of interaction between teaching and learning is focused on the formation of the scientific... worldview of students, their cognitive independence, stable motives for learning and mental (including creative) abilities in the course of their assimilation of scientific concepts and methods of activity, determined by a system of problem situations". A psychologically problematic situation means that a person faces problems and tasks that need to be solved. According to P.P. Blonsky and S.L. Rubinstein, in certain problematic situations, human thinking arises. “The formulation of the problem itself is an act of thinking, which often requires large and complex mental work”.

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

Problematic situations can differ in the degree of problematicity itself (see the description of the theory of problem-based learning given earlier). The highest degree of problematic nature is inherent in such a learning situation in which a person himself formulates a problem (task), finds its solution himself, decides and self-monitors the correctness of this solution. The problem is expressed to the least extent in the case when the student implements only the third component of this process, namely the solution. Everything else is done by the teacher. Determining problem levels is also approached from other positions, for example, measures of productivity in solving a problem, cooperation, etc. Obviously, when organizing the educational process, the teacher must develop a sequence of predicted difficulties in solving problems, regardless of what underlies the determination of their gradation.

Noting the difference between the problematic task and any other, A.M. Matyushkin emphasizes that she “represents not just a description of some situation, including a description of the data that makes up the conditions of the problem and indications of the unknown that should be disclosed on the basis of these conditions. In a problematic task, the subject himself is included in the task situation.”. Wherein “the main condition for the emergence of a problem situation is a person’s need for a new relationship, property or method of action to be revealed”.

The creation of an educational problem situation is a prerequisite and form of presenting an educational task to the student. All educational activities consist of a systematic and consistent presentation of problem situations by the teacher and their “resolution” by students by solving problems through educational actions. Almost all educational activities should be presented as a system of educational tasks, set in certain educational situations and involving certain educational actions. It should be noted here that the concept of “task” is often incorrectly used along with the concept of “problem situation”. It is necessary to clearly distinguish between these two concepts: a problematic situation means that in the course of activity a person came across something incomprehensible, unknown, i.e. An objective situation appears when a problem that has arisen requires some kind of effort and action from a person, first mental, and then, possibly, practical. At the moment when thinking “turns on” in a person’s activity, the problematic situation develops into a task - “a problem arises from a problem situation of any type, is closely related to it, but differs significantly from it”. The task arises as a consequence of the problem situation as a result of its analysis. (If the subject does not accept the problem situation for certain reasons, it cannot develop into a task.) In other words, the task can be considered as "problem situation model"(L.M. Friedman), constructed and, therefore, accepted by the subject solving it.

Stages solutions tasks V problematic situations

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

Second phase -“acceptance” of the task by the student, he must solve it for himself, it must be personally significant, and therefore understood and accepted for solution.

Third stage is connected with the fact that solving a problem should cause an emotional experience (better satisfaction than annoyance, dissatisfaction with oneself) and the desire to set and solve one’s own problem. Here it is important to note the role of the formulation of the task for the correct understanding of the task. So, if the task is formulated in the form of a task “analyze”, “explain why”, “what, in your opinion, is the reason”, then the student identifies hidden, latent connections, builds a certain logical sequence for solving the problem. If the task is given in the form “describe”, “tell”, then the student

can limit itself to presenting only what is explicitly given and necessary for solving, understanding and accepting the problem (K. Dunker, S.L. Rubinshtein, A.N. Leontyev, N.S. Mansurov). As was shown in the study conducted by V.A. Malakhova’s research shows that forms of tasks such as “explain” and “describe” are, in fact, different tasks that direct the child’s thinking and his speech expression along a certain path. At the same time, in different age groups the influence of the imperative and non-imperative forms of the task turned out to be significantly different.

Actions V structure educational activities

One of the important structural components of activity is action - the morphological unit of any activity. This is the most important “formative” of human activity. “Human activity does not exist except in the form of an action or a chain of actions, ... activity is usually carried out by some set of actions subordinateprivate goals that can stand out from the general goal". According to A.N. Leontiev, "action- this is a process whose motive does not coincide with its subject (i.e., with what it is aimed at), but lies in the activity in which this action is included. Wherein “the object of an action is nothing more than its conscious immediate goal”. In other words, if the motive is correlated with the activity as a whole, then the actions correspond to a specific goal. Due to the fact that the activity itself is represented by actions, it is both motivated and goal-oriented (goal-oriented), while actions correspond only to the goal.

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

Actions And operations V structure educational activities

Essential for the analysis of educational actions is the moment of their transition to the level of operations. According to A.N. Leontiev, operations are methods of action that meet certain conditions in which its goal is given. A conscious, purposeful action in learning, repeated many times and included in other more complex actions, gradually ceases to be the object of the student’s conscious control, becoming a way of performing this more complex action. These are the so-called conscious operations, former conscious actions turned into operations. Thus, when mastering a foreign language, the action of pronouncing (articulating) a sound unusual for the native language (for the Russian language, for example, guttural, nasal sounds, etc.) is quite intense. It is purposeful, consciously controlled by the method and place of implementation, and requires the student’s volitional effort. As this action is practiced, the pronounced sound is included in a syllable, word, phrase. The action of pronouncing it is automated, not controlled by consciousness, which is aimed at other, higher levels of activity, and moves to the level of “background automatism” (N.A. Bernstein), turning into a way of performing other actions.

A strengthened action becomes a condition for performing another, more complex one and moves to the level of operation, i.e. like techniques for performing speech activity. In this case, operations are controlled by its background levels. According to N.A. Bernstein, the process of switching technical components of movement to lower, background conditions is what is usually called automation of movements in the process of developing new motor skills and which is inevitably associated with switching to other afferentations and unloading of active attention. Let us note that the transition from the level of action to operations is the basis for the technologization of learning.

Along with “conscious” operations in activity, there are operations that were not previously recognized as purposeful actions. They arose as a result of “adjustment” to certain living conditions. A.A. Leontyev illustrates these operations with examples of a child’s linguistic development - his intuitive “adjustment” of the methods of grammatical formatting of statements to the norms of speech communication of adults. The child is not aware of these actions, which is why they cannot be defined as such. Consequently, they are self-forming, intuitively formed operations as a result of imitation, his internal, intellectual actions. They can be the result of either internalized external objective conscious actions (J. Piaget, P.Ya. Galperin) arising in development or learning, or represent the operational side of mental processes: thinking, memory, perception. According to S.L. Rubinstein, “the system of operations that determines the structure of mental activity and determines its course is itself formed, transformed and consolidated in the process of this activity”, and onwards “...to solve the problem facing it, thinking proceeds through diverse operations that make up various interconnected and transitional aspects of the thought process”. For such operations S.L. Rubinstein includes comparison, analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization. Let us note here that the corresponding internal mental operations determine the structure of perception (V.P. Zinchenko), memory (P.P. Blonsky, A.A. Smirnov, V.Ya. Lyaudis) and other mental processes.

Various kinds educational actions

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

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

From the perspective of the subject of educational activity, transformative, research actions are highlighted. In terms of educational activities (D.B. Elkonin, V.V. Davydov, A.K. Markova), educational actions are generally constructed as “active transformations of an object by a child to reveal the properties of the subject of acquisition.” At the same time, as the researchers note, these actions can be of two plans: “1) educational actions to detect a universal, genetically original relationship in particular (special) material and 2) educational actions to establish the degrees of specificity of a previously identified universal relationship”.

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

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

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

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

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

Analysis of the actions and operations included in the educational activity allows us to present it as a multi-object space for managing their development, where each of the objects acts for the student as an independent subject of mastery and control.

Control ( self-control ), grade ( self-esteem ) V structure educational activities

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

In the general scheme of a functional system, the main link where the comparison of the “model of the required future” (according to N.A. Bernstein) or the “image of the result of an action” (P.K. Anokhin) and information about its actual implementation occurs is defined as the “action acceptor” (P.K. Anokhin). The result of comparing what was supposed to be obtained and what is obtained is the basis for continuing the action (in case of coincidence) or correction (in case of mismatch). Thus, it can be argued that control involves three links: 1) a model, an image of the required, desired result of an action; 2) the process of comparing this image and the real action and 3) making a decision to continue or correct the action. These three links represent the structure of internal control of the subject of activity over its implementation. Each link of activity, each of its actions is internally controlled through numerous channels, feedback loops. This is precisely what allows us to say, following I.P. Pavlov, about a person as a self-regulating, self-learning, self-improving machine. In the works of O.A. Konopkina, A.K. Osnitsky and others, the problem of control (self-control) is included in the general problems of personal and subject self-regulation.

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

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

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

It should be noted that the first two levels are characterized by the external controlling influence of the teacher, which determines the formation of internal auditory feedback, the next two levels are characterized by the absence of such influence when correcting errors. These levels are, as it were, transitional from the stage of consciously controlled performance of speech action in a foreign language to the stage of unconscious control over the speech implementation of the language program, i.e. to the stage of speech automatism.

The very formation of auditory feedback as a regulator of the speaking process in the process of teaching a foreign language emphasizes the connection between the external control influence of teaching and