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SUMMARIES
A. M. Matyushkin, N. V. Kuzmina
Results
of studies in educational, developmental and child psychology have been
reviewed, and the tasks which have their source in decisions of the June 1983
Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU are stated. The following can be
named among major achievements of phychologists:
elaboration of psychological aspects of education in group, study of
psycho-physiological prerequisites of individual differences (particularly of
abilities in children), elaboration of methods of diagnosis of mental
development in children, organization of the psychological consultation service
for the school and family, advancements in understanding of psychological bases
of the education of 6-year-olds, etc. However there still exist weak points as
well—in the theoretical sphere the nesessity is
particularly noted to restrict the concept of object activity and to promote
studies of such forms of children's activity as play and communication which
possess a structure of their own and specific psychological regularities of
development. It is also very important to further work out diagnostical
tools in the field of mental development and improve existing experimental
methods. The most fundamental aim of all these efforts consists in formulation
of laws governing man's psychological development at all stages of his life.
PSYCHOLOGY
AND PRACTICAL WORK IN AUTOMATED INSTRUCTION
V. Ya. Liaudis, Î. Ê. Tikhomirov
A few
problems which evolved in practical work concerning development and application
of automated teaching systems (ATS) are considered with particular emphasis on
main trends in establishment of contacts between psychology and automated instruction.
Some purely psychological aspects in the study of the following lines of using
computers in education have been set forth: provision of adequate attitude to
the computerization of the instructional work, comparative estimation of the
efficiency of instruction with and without a computer, comparative estimation
of the principles to be used in design of the data banks for ATS's, estimation of new dimensions in the teacher's
behavior provided by the computer-mediated system of teacher-student interactions,
statement of requirements to the organization of groups comprising ATS
development engineers, programmers, teachers, didactics experts, and
psychologists.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
PECULIARITIES OF THE LABOUR ACTIVITY IN SENIOR SCHOOL-CHILDREN
F. I. Ivashchenko
By its
functions and psychological contents (goals, motivation, etc.) the labour activity in senior schoolchildren occupies an intermediate
place between learning and typical adult-type work. Ability to produce real
consumer's goods is both a means to develop in schoolchildren psychological
readiness for work and a way of general education of them. Since the activity
in question takes place before actual selection of a profession for himself, the schoolchild can not get completely involved
into it. This contradiction is to be overcome by special emphasis in
corresponding programs on scientific fundamentals of the modern industry, on
development in children of general-type habits, skills, and abilities, of
traits and qualities typical of the go ahead workers.
PERSONAL
MEANING OF LEARNING FACTORS FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN
A. I. Lipkina
Three
factors mostly reflect a schoolchild's position in relation to his school work:
1) time spent, 2) general attitude (conscientiousness, diligence), 3) intellectual efforts. Conscious investment of mind's
work into learning is governed by particular motivation which is intrinsically
connected with the needs for self-actualization and self-assertion through
obtaining of personally meaningful results in one's own activity. On the other
hand such results obtain their meaningfulness through reference to opinions of
meaningful others which—when explicitly shown or stated—provide a child with
the feeling of competence and self-assuredness.
INDICES OF
INTELLECTUAL SCHOOL READINESS OF 6 YEARS OLD CHILDREN
P. Kees
The
concept of school readiness, and its most important aspect—the intellectual
school readiness are defined. School readiness without any doubt is a complex
concept, and its specific attributes are interrelated and constitute a single
dialectical whole. Factors determining school readines
are discussed. Five collective non-verbal school readiness tests standardized
on 1919 children aged
EXPERIMENTAL
ORGANIZATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL-PEDAGOGICAL CONSULTATION IN SCHOOL
E. D. Bozhovich
Experience
of practical collaboration of a psychologist-pedagogue with the teachers'
collective is reported. The work was organized as
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psychological-pedagogical
consultation of the psychological service type. It has been found out that
looking for psychological cause of difficulties in teaching and education as
well as for corresponding pedagogical means of correction acquires real
significance for teachers only if they themselves directly participated in
survey under general control of a psychologist. In such cases examination—of
"difficult" classes in particular—enables the members of the
consultation group to set forth psychologically sound objectives for the
consequent educational work with those classes.
DEVELOPMENT
OF METHODS OF COMMUNICATION IN STUDENTS AND INSTRUCTORS
N. D. Tvorogova
Different
forms of communication used by students of high school and their instructors at
different levels of curriculum and extra-curriculum activity have been
systematically studied with the view to establish reliable correlations between
the' level of development of an individual's communicative skill and
corresponding motivation, adequacy of social perception, status aspirations,
level of general adaptation, learning and professional efficiency, etc. Some
conditions facilitating spontaneous appearance and intentional cultivation of
better communicational techniques are suggested.
EFFECT OF
THE PERSONALITY SETS ON PERCEPTION OF OTHERS
S. I. Kuryachy
An
assumption has been made that perception of the other is controlled by sets of
two levels—pertaining to meaning and to operations. Meaning sets determine
actualization of operational sets—suppressing those which do not correspond to
them. An experimental study is reported where senior schoolchildren asked to
perceive pictures of familiar and strange teachers manifested influence of sets
of both types: whenever meanings were actualized in the process of perceiving
others they determined specificity of perception—particularly they subjugated
the images being formed to themselves and distorted
them irrespective of objective characteristics of the perceived personality. In
cases when actualization of meaning sets did not take place perception was
determined by operational sets of different degree of fixedness with the result
that the image development process was heavily influenced by perception
stereotypes.
ON DEVELOPMENT
OF A SUBJECTIVE STANDARD AS A FUNCTIONAL COMPONENT IN THE SYSTEM OF ACTIVITY SELF-REGULATION
O. A. Konopkin,
The
process of developing a standard to be used for subjective estimation of activity
has been studied. Subjects were asked to go on assessing the size of an
experimental object until they were completely sure of the correctness of assessment.
It has been found out that in the process subjects first develop an orienting,
standard, than a preliminary standard, and in the long run a final standard
with which every single measurement is compared. During performance of the task
the standard can be modified following the dynamics of the subjective idea of
the "real" size. The data obtained makes it possible to conclude that
consecutive results of an assessment series are standard-dependent and do not merely
represent random oscillation round a certain mean value, which must not be
ignored in professional estimation-practice.
INTER-HEMISPHERIC
COOPERATION DURING SPEECH IN BILINGUALS
B. S. Kotik
Theoretical
problems of neuropsychology of bilinguism
are considered and dichotic experimental data on Spanish-Russian and Vietnameesse-Russian bilinguals are presented. Emphasis on
the process of language acquisition permits to differentiate developmental
stages of bilingualism and correspondent patterns of inter-hemispheric
cooperation: tendency to right-hemispheric dominance at the very begining stages of second language acquisition, later much
stronger than in vernacular left hemispheric dominance, and similar patterns of
lateralization for both languages in balanced bilinguals.
ACTIVITY:
STRUCTURE, GENESIS, ANALYTICAL UNITS
L. A. Radzikhovsky
One
aspect in the relationship between the problems of communication and activity
consists in the fact that within the theory of activity there is no place for
the analysis of activity's social means and tools — and particularly semiotic
tools. Proceeding from L.S. Vygotsky's
and M.M. Bakhtin's works the author suggests a
structural-genetical unit of activity: the social
(common) act of an individual. At every moment a social act is directed to a
material object (object-bound). At the same time a social act performed by an
individual finishes not at the moment of acquisition of the corresponding
object, but at the start of a correlated act of some other individual.
Ontogenetically the social act is a point of departure. It certainly includes
both communication and signs since it is directed at an "other", and
has therefore to contain a sygnal for this other. In
the process of interiorization the structure of the
social act is getting curtailed and as a result of corresponding
transformations produces fundamental social structures determining development
of the whole totality of psychic processes. Finally the social act is a
universal element of both individual and common activity being activity and
communication to the same extent.