Ready for schooling – a set of morphophysiological and psychological characteristics older child up to school age, ensuring a successful transition to systematically organized schooling (“school maturity”). It is caused by the maturation of the child’s body, in particular his nervous system, degree of formed personality, level of development mental processes etc. Can be characterized as general and special readiness for communication and learning at school.
Psychological approach
As L. S. Vygotsky noted, the complexity of the transition period from preschool to school childhood lies in the fact that the child already has the basic prerequisites for learning - voluntariness, methods of cognitive activity, motivation, communication skills, etc. However, he is, in essence, “still a preschooler who, crossing the threshold of school, “carries with him ideas about the bright, interesting world"The famous psychologist D.B. Elkonin pointed out that preschoolers and primary schoolchildren differ little from each other. The most interesting thing is that students primary classes They cannot yet completely move away from play activities: they master learning activities as the main one only by the age of ten, i.e. by the end of primary education, therefore it is believed that children of preschool and primary school age belong to a peculiar single period- childhood.
At the same time, a feature of the changing social situation of a child’s development during the transition from preschool to school childhood is, according to the research of L. I. Bozhovich, the preschooler’s conscious attitude to the place that he occupies and wants to occupy. He wants to “be an adult,” as D. B. Elkonin said, and carry out “socially significant activities,” and not just model them in a game. The problem is that for a preschool child, at the stage of preschool childhood, ideas about the main vectors of human relationships in role-playing play were formed.
Meanwhile, at the stage of school childhood, the child must become “above them,” i.e. learn to look at and analyze the formation of one’s relationships with others and situations of moral choice “from the outside,” finding a compromise between one’s own assessment of current events, the opinion of the team and the first social authority of the teacher. A child in a school life situation learns not to be someone else, but learns to be himself. Therefore, this stage of personality development is referred to by many psychologists (L. I. Bozhovich, D. B. Feldstein, etc.) as the stage of socialization, and not adaptation, as before, at the stage of preschool childhood. The child acquires the social position “I am in society.” This presupposes the formation in a preschooler of readiness to accept a new social position - the position of a schoolchild who has a range of important responsibilities and rights, who occupies a different, special position in society compared to preschoolers. “The internal position of a schoolchild” is “a fusion of cognitive needs and the need to communicate with adults” (L. I. Bozhovich), which is expressed in the child’s desire to perform socially significant and assessed activities (educational). This internal position generally characterizes the child’s psychological readiness for school.
The general psychological readiness of children for school (“school maturity”) includes the following components:
Pedagogical approach
The pedagogical approach also highlights general and special readiness for school.
The first is defined by the “Concept of the content of lifelong education” (preschool and primary level), according to which the development of curiosity as the basis of cognitive activity is the basis for the continuity of the content of the stages of preschool and primary education; development of the child’s abilities as the key to success; formation creative imagination as directions of intellectual and personal development; development of communication. Therefore, the formation of these abilities and personality traits is an indicator of the child’s overall readiness preschool age for school. It is formed due to the fact that at home and in kindergarten, from the age of 5-6, children begin to prepare for school, which includes two main tasks: the comprehensive education of the child (physical, mental, moral, aesthetic); special preparation for mastering the subjects that he will study at school.
From the point of view of special readiness, a child who is ready for schooling, from a pedagogical point of view, has special skills associated with the following levels:
In addition, he must have the prerequisites for educational activities - in the form of interest in learning, individual educational skills (planning, organizing and monitoring actions and activities in general).
An important component of school readiness is the skill of voluntariness: it is thanks to it that a child can control his behavior, attention, and memory. It is enough to imagine a child running around the classroom during a lesson, and a teacher who cannot cope with him by any means. In such a situation, everyone is sad: the child who received a bad mark, the parents are offended because they received a reprimand for the child’s bad manners, and the teacher who could not give required material. Meanwhile, the child is not at all to blame for such a situation, he does not do this on purpose, he really simply cannot sit still, and even listen carefully to complex material. That is why, in the process of conducting games and activities in a preparatory group for school, it is very important to pay attention to the formation of the skill of arbitrariness in the process of interaction with children.
There are the following methods of interaction with children.
At the beginning of work with future kindergarten graduates, in April - May, it is recommended to conduct a series of focused conversations that would talk about the school and the existing procedures in it, about the relationship between the teacher and students. This is necessary in order to broaden the horizons of children, clarify children’s ideas about the work of a teacher, about the interaction between a teacher and students.
Conversations with children about school may include the following questions (you can use some of them the first time, some the second time).
The conversation takes place immediately with the entire group of children in the form of a dialogue.
Pupils are given the opportunity to first answer questions on their own, listen to the additions of other children, clarify their answer or correct it, and then generalize. For example, difficulties are usually caused by the question of when children’s school life begins, as well as “how can you guess that you are near a school building?” Therefore, it is recommended to ask additional questions: “Who goes to school? What do they take with them? What can you hear around the school?” etc. In this case, you can use the technique of verbal drawing collective picture: "What would you draw near the school? In front of it? Behind it? How would you draw it? What poses are the children in? Show me. How are they dressed? What are they holding in their hands?" etc.
Then it becomes clear what ideas children have about the premises at school. You can use the same technique of verbal drawing using clarifying questions (“Where do schoolchildren eat?”, “Where do they do physical education, music,” etc.). On at this stage During conversations, the teacher can sketch out the content of children's statements on the board. At the same time, it becomes clear how the subject-developmental and spatial environment of these premises is similar to the environment of a kindergarten. Therefore, it is advisable to formulate questions through “trying on” traditional forms of children’s activity to an imaginary situation (“What can be done here? What can’t be done? Why? Where can this be done? When?”) and lead them to the idea that there is no places where “you can’t do everything that was possible in kindergarten.”
After this, the children's attention is transferred to the classroom. To the question: “What kind of teacher do you imagine?” – preschoolers usually answer quite monotonously. Therefore, their imagination should be activated through the following questions: “What does he want? What is he thinking? What is he feeling?” Here you can see the corresponding plot picture depicting the teacher and students. Questions: “How does a teacher evaluate children’s answers and why does he give grades?”, “What do students need for school?” – do not cause difficulties for children. Almost everyone answers correctly (a “five” is given for a correct answer, a “two” is given to someone who doesn’t know anything or who answers poorly). Then you can ask the children to act out (each on their own behalf) dialogues between the characters depicted in the picture: teacher - student (when working from the spot);
As you play out the imaginary situation, it is recommended to find out from the children how they feel about the attributes of school and how they answer the question about the purpose of various school supplies. Here you can discuss various problem situations that may arise in connection with the “possession” of a desk, backpack, pencil case, pen and eraser and outline ways to solve them. Situations of this kind can be partially dramatized, i.e. the adult tells the beginning, and the children, after consulting, come up with a continuation and act it out. It emphasizes the importance of the following skills: jointly deciding conflict situations;
During the interaction, it is necessary to conclude that children only have general idea about school, they know what a student needs to have, why, they know that the teacher teaches and the students learn.
Last question: “Why do you need to study? Do you want to study? Why?” - is the most voluminous and requires preschoolers to express a personal opinion (“To know a lot”, “To be smart - that’s what mom says”). If the children cannot justify the answer, the teacher uses the technique of comparison with fairy-tale hero, who was in a learning situation: “Do you want to study like Buratino or like Malvina? Why?” etc.). At this time, you should not emphasize the “correctness” or “incorrectness” of the child’s behavior and his attitude towards school. You can ask the children to draw a story about how Pinocchio, Pierrot, Artemon (or other characters chosen by the children - Dunno, Button, Donut, etc.) were transported in a time machine and began to study in modern school(on large sheet Whatman paper). At the same time, you can play out the casual, absurd situations that arise with the characters due to the fact that they do not understand what it means to “learn” and “teach”, how it could be useful to them in everyday life, and therefore “explanatory work” is needed from the children. Students can be asked to write letters to the characters with “recommendations” on how best to act in a given situation. Next time, you can organize the receipt of a “parcel” with gifts from the grateful heroes of fairy tales and organize a discussion about why they sent school supplies (and who they could belong to) and why there were small dolls, cars, transformers, etc.
In subsequent conversations, you can organize a discussion of the problems of educational cooperation between the characters of fairy tales using a director's game, when the teacher, using symbols, models on the board a learning situation in classes on teaching writing and reading, mathematics, etc. It is emphasized that the heroes must complete the task, either alone, then in pairs, or all together (“These are the rules of the game”). Together with the children, the teacher finds out what questions the teacher can and cannot ask (“the same as a kindergarten teacher or others”). Some tasks are given in a humorous manner.
For example:
In Russian language lesson:
In a science lesson:
In a math lesson:
From such conversations with children, we can conclude that no one knows how to play school correctly, so you need to go visit there and find out what and how is happening there (especially if you can visit someone’s older sister or brother).
Preschoolers, with the permission of the teacher and the head teacher of primary classes, should have the opportunity to walk around the school, see different classes and other rooms in which students are located. In the classroom, children can observe the teacher at work and examine the attributes of the classroom. The teacher encourages them to ask a lot of questions (“Then later it will be interesting to play school in kindergarten”). Then they talk about what they saw on the excursion and exchange impressions.
To consolidate knowledge, children can once again look at paintings, illustrations and postcards depicting teachers, schoolchildren, and a class, but at the same time be given the opportunity to correlate their content with the emotional and cognitive experience of children. At this time you can start reading the children's fiction on this topic and ask children what they would do in the place of the heroes of “Deniska’s stories”, etc.
Almost immediately after focused conversations about school and excursions, children have a desire to play real “School”.
At the first stage, the main content of the game is objective actions that are social in orientation. Two types of role-playing games are used: an adult plays a leading role and directs game situation; the adult is a passive observer, children perform all roles.
At the initial stages of the development of a role-playing game, the adult takes direct part in the game. For example, an adult is a school principal. Through this role, he manages all the children’s activities in the game, advises, helps children develop the plot, and resolves questions and conflicts that arise during the game.
Then the leadership functions are gradually transferred to the children. The fact is that although children for the most part know that the teacher teaches children, but “... only having taken the position of a teacher, the child faces the need to find and highlight the teacher’s relationships with children, and with other teachers, to establish the functions of different people and their connections with each other" (D. B. Elkonin). In role-playing games, children learn to observe the “internal logic of the relationship” between the “teacher” and the “student.” If at the beginning of such games children do not listen well to the “teacher”, jump up from their seats, and may move to another place, then after some time the same child begins to move and speak differently depending on who he is at the moment - “teacher” or “student”: “I am a teacher and I know better what to do,” “You must obey the teacher,” “School is for learning, not fooling around.”
The development of a role-playing game requires not one, but several lessons, since each child must experience the role of both a “teacher” and a “student”. Usually, at the beginning of organizing games, almost all children want to play a leading role. Almost no one wants to be in the role of a “student” or “student”. This is largely due to the fact that children are attracted to external techniques and actions characteristic of the role of a “teacher” (giving grades, ringing the bell). However, it is necessary to provide for the expansion of the role repertoire due to the appearance of different teachers (physical education, music, etc.) and specialists (psychologists, speech therapists, barmaids, firefighters, etc.), parents of students, etc.
Often, after a series of such games, children continue them at home with dolls. In this case, the game moves to the stage of director's play, when the child acts on behalf of several characters at once, modeling their relationships with each other and with the teacher. This circumstance allows us to conclude that children develop a motive associated specifically with educational activities. This fact is confirmed by the fact that children devote as much time as possible to the lesson, and breaks in the game are reduced to a minimum. Creativity comes into play.
At the second stage, it is important to include in the content of the plots being played out exercises to develop attention, perception, thinking, memory and imagination. In real classes conducted by a teacher in a group, children take turns being given the opportunity to act as a teacher, offering tasks to their peers and monitoring their mistakes. It is important to consider the following requirements.
After the child has formed an idea of what he wants and can do at school, diagnostics of children’s motivational readiness for school should be used, for example, the “Study of Motives for Learning” technique.
The purpose of the methodology: to determine the most popular teaching motives. Material: 6 cards with schematic images of figures.
Children are individually offered a short story in which each of the studied motives acts as a personal position of one of the characters. After reading each paragraph, a schematic drawing corresponding to the content is laid out in front of the child - an external support for memorization.
Children are invited to listen to the story.
“The boys (girls) were talking about school. The first boy said: “I go to school because my mother forces me. And if it weren’t for my mother, I would not go to school.”
Card 1 is laid out on the table: a female figure leaning forward with a pointing gesture; in front of her is the figure of a child with a briefcase in his hands (external motive).
“The second boy said: “I go to school because I like to study, I like to do my homework. Even if there was no school, I would still study.”
Card 2 is laid out: the figure of a child standing at the board (educational motive).
"The third boy said, 'I go to school because it's fun and there are a lot of kids to play with.'"
Card 3 is laid out: figures of two guys playing with cubes (game motif).
"The fourth boy said, 'I go to school because I want to be big. When I'm at school, I feel like an adult, but before school I was small.'"
Card 4: the child is sitting at the table, there are books in front of him, he is doing his homework reluctantly, there is a fishing rod and net behind him (positional motive).
“The fifth boy said: “I go to school because I need to study. Without studying, you can’t do anything, but if you learn, you can become whatever you want.”
Card 5: the figure of a child with a briefcase is heading towards the building (social motive).
"The sixth boy said, 'I go to school because I get straight A's.'
Card 6: figures of children raising their hand when answering.
After reading the story, the teacher asks the child questions: “Which of them do you think is right? Why? Which of them would you like to play with? Why? Which of them would you like to study with? Why?” Children make three choices sequentially.
During the diagnostics, we can conclude that the characteristics and degree of development of the motivational sphere of six- and seven-year-old children differ significantly from each other. At the same time, the majority of six-year-old children cannot be considered sufficiently prepared in personal terms for school education: in the motivational sphere of six-year-olds, despite special work on the formation of children’s psychological readiness for school, the motives of play behavior still dominate, while at the age of seven Motives associated with educational activities begin to play a leading role.
The very structure of the motivational basis for the learning of six- and seven-year-old children also differs significantly from each other. At the age of six, the leading position in it is occupied by motives external to educational activity. This circumstance also indicates the insufficient personal readiness of six-year-olds for schooling conducted in the traditional form. On the contrary, in the motivational basis of learning for seven-year-old children, the dominant position is occupied by internal motives of educational activity (both cognitive and social). The desire for seven-year-olds to go to school, in contrast to six-year-olds, is mainly associated with the desire to learn and engage in a socially significant and functionally attractive form of activity. Based on these criteria, one can evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation in practice of the proposals proposed above. methodological recommendations for educators.
The problem of readiness for activity and the identification of its main components is one of the most significant in modern science. Psychological aspects The contents of the concept of readiness for activity are the subject of consideration by researchers O.V. Bordenyuk, A.A. Derkach, M.I. Dyachenko, T.V. Ivanova, L.A. Kandybovich, N.V. Kuzmina, N.V. Nizhegorodtseva, Yu.P. Povarenkov, V.A. Slastenin, V.D. Shadrikov and others.
The concept of “readiness” for any type of activity in the scientific literature has an ambiguous psychological and pedagogical interpretation. Different interpretations of psychological readiness are due to different approaches to defining its essence: some authors consider readiness for activity on a personal background, others - on a functional one, that is, they take the state of a person’s mental functions as a basis.
Soviet psychologists began to comprehensively study the problem of psychological readiness for various types of activities from the late 50s - early 60s. The psychology of work, sports, social, engineering, pedagogical and military psychology contains a lot of materials that directly or indirectly characterize a person’s readiness to perform a certain activity.
In domestic science, considerable attention has been paid to specific forms of readiness: attitude (D.N. Uznadze and others), individual readiness to labor activity(N.D. Levitov, K.K. Platonov, L.A. Kandybovich, etc.), pre-start state in sports (A.I. Puni, F. Genov, A.D. Ganyushkin, etc.), readiness for fulfillment of a combat mission (M.I. Dyachenko, A.M. Smolyarenko, etc.), the state of vigilance of the operator (V.N. Pushkin, etc.), readiness for training (N.V. Nizhegorodtseva, etc.), readiness of schoolchildren to educational activities (T.M. Krasnyanskaya), students to pedagogical activity(M.A. Krasnova, E.N. Frantseva, etc.).
Some scientists (T.V. Lavrikova, N.K. Shelyakhovskaya) define readiness as a condition for the successful performance of an activity, as a selective activity that sets the individual up for future activity, as the primary fundamental condition for the successful performance of any activity; others (Yu.K. Vasiliev, M.I. Dyachenko, Yu.V. Enotovskaya, L.A. Kandybovich, B.F. Lomov, V.A. Ponomarenko, D.I. Uznadze) - as an essential prerequisite purposeful activities, its regulation, stability and effectiveness, as a special psychological state that helps a person to successfully perform his duties, correctly use knowledge, experience, personal qualities, maintain self-control and rebuild his activities when unforeseen obstacles arise. Some scientists (Yu.V. Yanotovskaya) understand readiness not only as a prerequisite, but also as a regulator of activity.
Meanwhile, in pedagogical theory, readiness for various types of activities has been comprehensively studied since the late 50s of the last century (V.S. Ilyin, V.F. Raisky, S.A. Rubinshtein, N.K. Sergeev, V.V. Serikov and others) and to today Extensive material has been accumulated that reveals its essence and structure. “Professional readiness” is considered one of the essential conditions for effectiveness professional activity specialist (M.I. Dyachenko, V.S. Merlin, V.N. Myasishchev, K.K. Platonov, etc.). O.A. also relies on the results of the above studies. Abdullina, K.M. Durai-Novakova, V.S. Ilyin, N.V. Kuzmina, N.K. Sergeev, V.V. Serikov, V.A. Slastenin and others, considering the problems of a teacher’s readiness to perform professional activities. However, in these works the problems of training in the special education system in the direction of culture and art are not considered. Consequently, the specifics of training a director-teacher have not been comprehended in the scientific literature.
The leading and most complex aspect (component) of readiness for activity is psychological readiness.
When considering the problem of readiness for teaching activity, scientists place the main emphasis on determining the necessary and sufficient amount of professional knowledge, pedagogical skills and personality traits both for carrying out teaching activity in general and for a specific teaching profession.
Speaking about psychological readiness for teaching activities, researchers use different terminology: professional readiness of the specialist’s psyche (V.A. Slastenin, Yu.V. Proshunina), readiness to perceive and solve pedagogical problems (N.V. Kuzmina), psychological readiness for pedagogical activities (O.V. Bordenyuk, T.V. Ivanova), socio-psychological readiness to solve various types pedagogical tasks (A.A. Derkach).
In line with the new paradigm of education, based on the idea of creating conditions for the holistic manifestation and development of personal functions of the subjects of the pedagogical process, the main requirement for the preparation of a future teacher is the formation of his readiness for professional activity. Analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature on this issue (G.A. Alferova, S.I. Arkhangelsky, O.V. Gosse, K.M. Durai-Novakova, M.I. Dyachenko, N.I. Ilyasov, L.A. Kandybovich, T.V. Lavrikova, N.I. Lifintseva, V.Ya. Makashov, A.I. Mishchenko, O.A. Onufrienko, A.I. Piskunov, etc.) showed that the readiness of a specialist for teaching activities is to assimilate special knowledge, social relations, in the formation of professional qualities of the individual.
The work of K.M. is devoted to the problem of determining the essence of students’ professional readiness for future teaching activities. Durai-Novakova, T.D. Kalistratova, V.Ya. Makashova, G.K. Parinova, V.N. Sayapina, V.A. Slastenina, N.A. Sorokina. The broadest interpretation of professional readiness is given in the works of K.M. Durai-Novakova: on the one hand, it is considered as a personality quality and includes a positive attitude towards the profession, abilities, knowledge, skills, abilities, stable professionally important qualities (memory, thinking and others); on the other hand, as a current psychological state, as a regulator of pedagogical activity.
We find a different understanding of readiness for professional activity in the works of V.A. Slastenin, N.A. Sorokin: they define it as emotional-volitional stability, endurance, pedagogical tact, professional and pedagogical thinking, which allows one to analyze one’s activities and anticipate the results of work; psychological observation, the ability to identify oneself with others, dynamic personality qualities, such as energy, initiative.
V.A. Slastenin emphasizes the role of pedagogical action as the initial component of mastering special skills: observing and evaluating pedagogical phenomena in the conditions of the learning process, their prospects; analyze the facts of pedagogical activity, their individual content in relationships with other elements; develop the ability to adapt to certain operating conditions in changing circumstances; master the art of professional expressiveness as one of the components of pedagogical technique.
According to S.I. Arkhangelsky, the teacher’s readiness is reflected “in the ability to teach his subject well, masterfully, to present his subject in an accessible and profound way.” educational information, to captivate with the need for knowledge, to arouse in them (students) hard work and perseverance, the desire to independently find solutions to scientific problems, to develop the breadth of their views and flexibility of thinking.” An analysis of the study of the problem of professional and pedagogical readiness allows us to conclude that the concept of “readiness” is multifaceted and includes both mental states, personality traits, and the actual activity expressed in professional skills.
In the psychological and pedagogical literature devoted to the problems of learning (V.S. Grekhnev, V.A. Kan-Kalik, A.A. Leontyev, A.A. Bodalev and others), there is no precise definition of the concept under study. But, based on the fact that learning acts as a specific form of activity, we can conditionally interpret readiness to implement EP as a complex holistic education, the center of which is the teacher’s conscientious attitude towards teaching, sustainable motives for teaching, professionally significant personality qualities, professional knowledge and skills.
Goals of modern higher education are increasingly associated with the development of professional and personal qualities of a graduate, the formation of his professional competence as a set of certain competencies and which is the most important characteristic of a specialist’s theoretical and practical readiness to carry out teaching activities.
Consequently, “the traditional set of “knowledge and skills” must be supplemented by the graduate’s readiness to implement them in his professional activity.”
Modern pedagogy of vocational education introduces the concept of professional competence to determine professional readiness (A.K. Markova, V.I. Kashnitsky, L.A. Petrovskaya, V.A. Slastenin, etc.). The concept of a teacher’s professional competence expresses the unity of his theoretical and practical readiness to carry out teaching activities and characterizes his professionalism.
The following functional blocks are identified in the structure of readiness for professional teaching activities:
Each block includes a list of professional important qualities, which have a significant impact on the effectiveness of professional teaching activities.
A teacher’s psychological readiness for professional activity is manifested by:
Preparing children for school is a multifaceted task, covering all areas of a child’s life. Psychological readiness for school is only one aspect of this task, although it is extremely important and significant.
The article examines the psychological and physiological readiness of a child for schooling as a pedagogical problem and
conditions for the successful formation of a child’s psychological readiness for school.
Psychological and pedagogical problems of a child’s readiness for school.
Psychological and pedagogical readiness for schooling is formed in a child gradually from the moment of birth - in communication with adults and peers, in play, feasible work and preschool education. We do not say about a person entering school that he is a ready student, we are talking about his psychological readiness or unpreparedness for a new life at school.
What is the manifestation of unpreparedness for schooling?
The reasons for unpreparedness for schooling can be divided into organic and educational.
Organic causes are various deviations in the physical and neuropsychic development of the child; slowdown in development, delay in formation individual functions, poor health.
Educational reasons are associated with ineffective tactics of the pedagogical approach to children in early preschool age. Experience shows that often the reason for unpreparedness for school and low performance is the pedagogical neglect of children in insufficient prosperous families. Unfavorable upbringing conditions and the presence of psychotraumatic situations lead to a decrease in the level of development of the child.
However, even fairly prosperous families do not always take advantage of the opportunities to fully prepare their children for school. This is largely explained by parents’ misunderstanding of the essence of preparation for school. In some families, real “little schools” are set up, in which parents try to teach their children to write, read, and count. The logic of the reasoning is simple: if you teach a child in advance what he will encounter at school, he will study successfully.
Therefore, the main task of the kindergarten and family is to create conditions for the most complete general development child, taking into account his age characteristics and needs. In the process of various types of active activity, the emergence of the most important “new formations” of development occurs, preparing for the implementation of new tasks. It is necessary to create conditions for the development of cognitive activity, independence, and creativity of each child.
Psychological preparation of a child for school is an important step in the upbringing and education of a preschooler in kindergarten and family. Its content is determined by the system of requirements that the school places on the child. These requirements include the need for a responsible attitude towards school and learning, voluntary control of one’s behavior, performance of mental work that ensures the conscious assimilation of knowledge, and the establishment of relationships with adults and peers determined by joint activities.
Psychology has established that any mental properties and abilities develop only in the course of the activity for which they are necessary. Therefore, the qualities required by a schoolchild cannot be developed outside the process of schooling. Consequently, psychological readiness for school does not consist in the fact that these qualities themselves are formed in the child, but in the fact that he masters the prerequisites for their subsequent assimilation. The task of identifying the content of psychological readiness for school is the task of establishing the prerequisites for the actual “school” psychological qualities that can and should be formed in a child by the time he enters school.
The first condition for a child’s successful education in primary school is the presence of appropriate motives for learning: treating it as an important, socially significant matter, the desire to acquire knowledge, interest in certain academic subjects. Cognitive interest in any object and phenomenon develops in the process of active activity of the children themselves, then children acquire the necessary experience and ideas. The presence of experience and ideas contributes to the desire for knowledge in children. Only the presence of sufficiently strong and stable motives for learning can motivate a child to systematically and conscientiously fulfill the duties imposed on him by school. The prerequisites for the emergence of these motives are, on the one hand, the general desire of children that forms towards the end of preschool childhood to go to school, to acquire an honorable position as a schoolchild in the eyes of the child and, on the other hand, the development of curiosity, mental activity, which is revealed in a keen interest in the environment, in the desire learn new things.
Repeated surveys of children in kindergarten preparatory groups have shown that almost all children want to go to school, although they give different reasons for this desire. Some children are attracted to school life by acquiring knowledge, and some refer to external accessories: having a briefcase, calls, breaks, etc. This, however, does not mean that motivationally similar children are not ready for school: a positive attitude towards it is decisive. creating favorable conditions for the subsequent formation of deeper, actual educational motivation.
The emergence of educational motivation is facilitated by the formation and development of curiosity and mental activity, directly related to the identification of cognitive tasks that initially do not appear as independent tasks for the child, being intertwined with the implementation of practical activities. Of great importance in the identification and acceptance of cognitive tasks by children is training in kindergarten classes, where there is a transition from performing tasks in the form of a game or one of the productive activities, to performing tasks of a purely cognitive nature, directing children to consciously perform mental work.
The next condition for successful learning is sufficient arbitrariness and controllability of behavior, ensuring the implementation of the child’s learning motives. The arbitrariness of external motor behavior provides the child with the opportunity to maintain the school regime, in particular, to behave in an organized manner in class.
The main prerequisite for mastering voluntary behavior is the formation of a system of motives, their subordination, which comes to the end of preschool age, as a result of which some motives come to the fore, while others become less important.
All this, however, does not mean that the behavior of a child entering school can and should be marked by a high degree of arbitrariness, but what is important is that in preschool age a mechanism of behavior develops that ensures the transition to a new type of behavior as a whole.
The works of D. B. Elkonin, S. L. Rubinshtein and others are devoted to identifying a single psychological new formation that lies at the origins of educational activity.
IN last years More and more attention is being paid to the problem of readiness for schooling abroad. This problem was solved not only by teachers and psychologists, but also by doctors and anthropologists. The largest number of studies are devoted to establishing relationships between various mental and physical indicators, their influence and relationship with school performance (Ströbel, Jirasek J., Kern).
According to these authors, a child entering school must have certain characteristics of a schoolchild: be mature mentally, emotionally and socially. The authors include the mental area as the child’s ability to differentiated perception, voluntary attention, analytical thinking, etc. By emotional maturity they understand emotional stability and the almost complete absence of the child’s impulsive reaction. They associate social maturity with the child’s need to communicate with children, with the ability to obey the interests and accepted conventions of the children’s group, as well as with the ability to take on social role schoolchild in the social situation of schooling.
As a result of the research, it was revealed that at the turn of senior preschool and primary school age, new type communication, which is essential for the successful subsequent education of children at school.
By the end of the preschool period, communication acquires a new feature - arbitrariness. The content and structure of communication by the end of preschool age begins to be characterized not only by the immediacy of the objective situation and relationships with others, but also by consciously accepted tasks, rules, requirements, i.e., a specific context.
A test for changing the form of communication of children in older preschool age was developed by L. S. Vygotsky. He investigated the influence of changed forms of communication on the development of school maturity. The test he presented, “Don’t answer yes and no,” is conducted in the form of a conversation in which an adult asks questions and the child answers. Questions often prompt a child to give unambiguous yes or no answers, however, the essence of the test is for children to be able to quickly navigate the search for an answer, remembering that prohibited words cannot be used when answering.
As a result of the test, it becomes possible to study some forms of communication between preschoolers and adults in connection with the problem of psychological preparation of children for school, and a number of conclusions can be formulated:
Thus, conditions under which the child begins to see the duality of the position and maintain the contextuality of communication contribute to an increase in the level of arbitrariness of communication with adults.
The described experiment allows us to identify a form of communication between a child and adults that develops at the end of preschool age, such as contextual communication, which is of no small importance for the problem of studying the psychological preparation of children for school, i.e., the success of school education is closely related to the emergence in children of a specific ability for contextual communication. communication with adults.
Summing up the results of studying the role of contextual communication in the psychological preparation of children in school, we formulate the following conclusions:
We found that contextual communication creates favorable conditions for children to accept and highlight learning tasks. At the same time, an analysis of the problem of children’s psychological readiness for school suggests that a child’s communication with adults does not cover all aspects of the problem being solved, and along with the child’s relationship with an adult, it is also necessary to consider children’s relationships with their peers.
Important results on this problem were obtained in the psychology of educational activity (V.V. Davydov, R.Ya. Guzman, V.V. Rubtsov, G.A. Tsukerman, etc.). These works provide convincing data indicating that children’s communication significantly affects the effectiveness of learning and the usefulness of the acquired school knowledge. Children who are well prepared for school have a high level of communication with peers, while students who are not ready for school are at a very low stage of communication.
Having studied the role of communication with peers in the psychological preparation of children for school, we can draw the following conclusions:
In older preschool age, children emerge and intensively develop a new type of communication with peers, which is similar in nature to communication with adults and is significantly related to the success of children’s studies at school.
So, children’s communication with adults and peers is heterogeneous and takes different forms in its development. These forms are connected by genetic and logical continuity, which must be taken into account when teaching and raising preschool children and preparing them for school.
Psychological readiness for schooling is one of the most important problems of child and educational psychology. Its solution determines both the construction of an optimal program for the education and training of preschool children, and the formation of full-fledged educational activities among primary school students. Many foreign authors dealing with the problem of their maturity (Goetzen, Kern, Strebel) point to the absence of impulsive reactions as the most important criterion psychological preparedness of children for school.
The most important aspect of psychological readiness for schooling is the level of gross development of the child, participation in general activities, and the ability to accept the system of requirements imposed by the school and the teacher.
The process of collaboration in primary school is largely based on the implementation of children’s own work with various types of material under the guidance of the teacher. Therefore, when a child enters school, he must also be able to systematically examine objects, highlight their various properties, i.e., have sufficiently accurate and dissected perception.
Determines the child’s readiness for schooling and the level of development of his speech - the ability to coherently and consistently describe objects, pictures, events; convey a train of thought, explain this or that phenomenon, rule. Good orientation of the child in space and time is of great importance.
The formation of the qualities necessary for a future schoolchild is helped by a system of pedagogical influences based on the correct orientation of children's activities and the pedagogical process as a whole.
However, with the abundance of diverse and accessible theoretical literature on the issues of preparing children for school, in practice we often encounter the fact that children go to school unprepared or insufficiently prepared, despite the fact that both parents and educators are aware of the need to prepare the child for school . But teaching preschoolers requires special knowledge.
Before you start training, you need to prepare for it. It is better not to teach at all than to teach incorrectly and then re-teach. Therefore, the issue of preparation for school should be approached carefully and considered as a complex task for the comprehensive development of the child during preschool childhood.
The study of theoretical literature allows us to formulate criteria based on which we can judge whether a child is ready or not ready to enter school. A child with a sufficiently high level of development of physical, psychological, moral and mental activity. In activity, all achievements of development are brought into focus - the state of motor skills, perception, thinking, memory, attention, will.
When we talk about a child’s physical readiness for school, we mean a positive change in physical development, showing the child’s biological maturity necessary to start school. The child must be quite well physically developed (that is, all parameters of his development do not have negative deviations from the norm and are sometimes even somewhat ahead of it). It should also be noted the success in mastering movements, the emergence of useful motor qualities (dexterity, speed, accuracy, etc.), the development of the chest, small muscles of the fingers. This serves as a guarantee of mastery of writing. Yes, thanks proper education By the end of preschool age, the child develops a general physical readiness for school, without which he cannot successfully cope with new academic loads.
The concept of emotional-volitional readiness for school includes: the child’s desire to learn; the ability to overcome obstacles and manage one’s behavior; the child’s correct attitude towards adults and friends; formation of such qualities as hard work, independence, perseverance, perseverance.
A child’s psychological readiness for school presupposes the formation of voluntariness (memory, attention, thinking), the formation of the main components of educational activity, mental and cognitive skills: differentiated perception, cognitive activity, cognitive interests.
Thus, only those children who meet the established criteria can be considered ready for school. However, according to the observations of primary school teachers, children going to school do not have all the qualities necessary for a future schoolchild, that is, they are not ready for school. Most often, this is due to the fact that in preschool childhood all the child’s inclinations are not realized and he remains underdeveloped as a result of adults’ misunderstanding of the issue of upbringing and development of preschoolers in order to prepare them for school. Therefore, the problem is to prepare the child for learning correctly and in a timely manner. And only the combined efforts of educators, teachers, and parents can ensure the comprehensive development of a child and his proper preparation for school. The family is the first and most important environment for a child’s development, however, preschool institution The child’s personality is formed and develops, so we cannot single out what is more important: kindergarten or family, just as we cannot prefer one upbringing to another. The unity of influence between family and kindergarten has the best effect on a child’s development.
Conditions for the formation of a child’s psychological readiness for school.
Psychological readiness for schooling presupposes a multicomponent education.
Not only kindergarten teachers, but also parents, his first and most important educators, can do a lot for a child in this regard.
A child of preschool age has truly enormous developmental opportunities and cognitive abilities. It contains the instinct of knowledge and exploration of the world. It is important to help the child develop and realize his or her potential. Do not regret the time spent. It will pay for itself many times over. Then the child will cross the threshold of school with confidence, learning will not be a difficult duty for him, but a joy, and parents will have no reason to be upset about his progress.
For your efforts to be effective, it is advisable to adhere to the following tips:
1. The child should not be bored during class. If a child has fun studying, he learns better. Interest is the best of motivations; it makes children truly creative individuals and gives them the opportunity to experience satisfaction from intellectual activities!
2. It is advisable to repeat the exercises several times. The development of a child's mental abilities is determined by time and practice. If an exercise doesn’t work out, you need to take a break and return to it later or offer the child an easier option.
3. There is no need to show excessive anxiety about insufficient success and insufficient progress or even some regression.
4. You need to be patient, do not rush, and do not give your child tasks that exceed his intellectual capabilities.
5. When working with a child, moderation is needed. There is no need to force a child to do an exercise if he is fidgety, tired, or upset; better to do something else. It is advisable to try to determine the limits of the child’s endurance and increase the duration of classes each time for a very short time. Give your child the opportunity to sometimes do something he likes.
6. Preschool children do not perceive strictly regulated, repetitive, monotonous activities well. Therefore, when conducting classes, it is better to choose a game form.
7. It is necessary to develop communication skills, the spirit of cooperation and collectivism in the child; teach the child to live on friendly terms with other children, to share successes and failures with them: all this will be useful to him in the socially complex atmosphere of a comprehensive school.
8. It is advisable to avoid disapproving assessments. You need to find words of support, often praise the child for his patience, perseverance, etc. Never emphasize his weaknesses in comparison with other children. Build his confidence in his abilities.
And most importantly, try not to perceive activities with a child as hard work and remember that joint activities with a child are a great opportunity to make friends with him.
One of the most important tasks of preschool education is preparing children for school. Teaching experience and special studies indicate that the success of his school education largely depends on the preparation of a child in the preschool years.
Psychophysiologically, a child’s readiness for school cannot be reduced only to his mastery of the sum of any individual knowledge and skills. It represents an integral system of properties and qualities that characterizes the child’s achievement of a new, higher stage of general physical, mental, moral and aesthetic development. Thus, it presupposes a certain level of morphofunctional maturation of the child’s entire organism and nervous system, which ensures an increase in his mental and physical performance (M.V. Antropova, N.T. Terekhova). Along with this, the stock of elementary knowledge acquired by children about the environment, as well as the simplest skills of practical and mental work, the level of development of thinking and speech they have achieved, as well as cognitive interests, the degree of formation of social motives of behavior and the moral and volitional qualities necessary for in order to successfully engage in socially significant educational activities aimed at mastering the school course of fundamentals of science (JI.I. Bozhovich, R.S. Bure, JI.A. Wenger, etc.).
By the end of preschool age favorable conditions life and appropriate upbringing, as noted by JI.S. Vygotsky and after him D.B. Elkonin, profound changes are taking place in the child’s personality. He begins to show the ability to judge observed phenomena and evaluate their moral meaning not only from the point of view of subjective impressions and desires, but also from a more objective position, taking into account both what they seem and what they really are, and in accordance with the meaning that they have not only for him personally, but also for the people around him, that is, from the point of view of their social value. In close connection with this kind of new attitudes, the initial formation of moral authorities regulating children's behavior occurs, and at the same time, a general outline of the future worldview is formed, characterized by the integration of individual ideas about the surrounding reality into a certain holistic system.
System analysis the requirements that the school places on the child, and the psychophysiological qualities that he must acquire in order to fulfill these requirements, indicates the need for an integrated approach to determining the content, forms and methods of preparing preschoolers for school education. Pedagogical experience and special research of A.M. Leushina, T.V. Taruntaeva, F.A. Sokhina et al. say that the main importance for preparing for school is not so much special classes and exercises aimed at developing in children any knowledge and skills, but primarily the entire holistic system of physical, mental, moral and aesthetic education preschoolers in all age groups of kindergarten, aimed at the comprehensive harmonious development of the child’s personality.
Preparing children for school should be carried out consistently throughout preschool age and end at preparatory groups e kindergarten, where she needs to be given Special attention.
Preparing children for school presupposes, on the one hand, such an organization of educational work in kindergarten that ensures a high level of general, comprehensive development of preschoolers, and, on the other hand, special preparation of children for mastering those academic subjects that they will master in the primary grades of school. In this regard, in the psychological and pedagogical literature (A.V. Zaporozhets, L.A. Wenger, G.M. Lyamina, G.G. Petrochenko, T.V. Taruntaeva, etc.) the concept of readiness is defined as multifaceted personal development child and is considered in two interrelated aspects: as “general, psychological readiness” and as “special readiness” for learning at school.
General readiness for school acts as the most important result of the long-term, purposeful educational work of the kindergarten for the comprehensive education of preschoolers.
General readiness for school is expressed in the child’s achievement by the time he enters school of such a level of mental, moral, volitional, aesthetic and physical development that creates the necessary basis for the child’s active entry into the new conditions of school education and conscious assimilation educational material. General readiness is characterized by a certain level of mental development that a child achieves by the time he transitions to school.
The concept of psychological readiness summarizes the most important qualitative indicators of the mental development of a child entering first grade from the standpoint of successful schooling. Psychological readiness for schooling includes motivational readiness, which is manifested in the child’s desire to learn, in the desire to be a schoolchild, a sufficiently high level of cognitive activity and mental operations, the child’s mastery of elements of educational activity, a certain level of volitional and social development. All components of a child’s psychological readiness for school provide the psychological prerequisites for the child’s inclusion in the class team, conscious, active learning of educational material at school, and performance of a wide range of school responsibilities.
Special readiness for school is a supplement to the child’s general, psychological readiness for school. It is determined by the child’s special knowledge, skills and abilities that are necessary for studying academic subjects such as mathematics and the Russian language. Intensive work carried out in kindergarten to develop children's elementary mathematical concepts, speech development and preparation for mastering literacy provides the necessary level of special readiness for children to study at school.
A child entering school must be prepared for a new way of life, new system relationships with people, to active mental activity. He must reach a certain level of physical development in order to cope with new serious responsibilities.
Moral and volitional readiness to study at school is expressed in the child’s achievement by the end of preschool childhood of such a level of development of moral behavior, will, moral feelings and consciousness that allows him to actively accept a new social position and build his relationships with the teacher and peers in the class on a moral basis. The content of moral and volitional readiness for school is determined by those requirements for the child’s personality and behavior that are determined by the student’s position. From the first days of school, these requirements confront the student with the need to independently and responsibly fulfill educational responsibilities, be organized and disciplined, manage his behavior and activities, observe the rules of cultural behavior in relationships with the teacher and peers, and handle school supplies carefully and carefully. Preparing to do these high requirements promisingly carried out in the process of long-term, targeted educational work with preschoolers in kindergarten and family.
Moral and volitional readiness is manifested in a certain level of development of the personal behavior of an older preschooler. Indicative in this regard is the child’s ability to control his behavior, which develops throughout preschool age: the ability to consciously follow the rules or requirements of the teacher, inhibit affective impulses, show persistence in achieving a goal, the ability to complete the right job, contrary to an attractive, but distracting goal, etc. The basis for the development of arbitrary behavior of a future schoolchild is the hierarchy of motives that forms by the end of preschool age, their subordination. The subordination of motives is associated with volitional effort, with the conscious overcoming by the older preschooler of his momentary desires for the sake of a morally significant goal. Naturally, in preschool age, the child’s behavior is not yet characterized by a constantly high degree of voluntariness, but it is important that during this period a mechanism of voluntary behavior develops, which ensures the transition to a new type of behavior at school.
Significant for the development of moral and volitional readiness for school are also such traits of personal behavior of an older preschooler as independence, organization and discipline.
Evidence of the successful formation of independence in an older preschooler is the habit of following the rules of behavior without reminders or the help of a teacher, the ability to use the correct habitual methods of action in new conditions, the desire to take initiative, and the readiness to come to the rescue. Closely related to independence, organization and discipline of behavior are expressed in the purposefulness of the child’s behavior, in the ability to consciously organize his activities in accordance with the rules adopted in kindergarten, in the ability to achieve results from activities and control them, to coordinate his behavior with the actions of other children, and to feel personal responsibility for your actions. The presence of these traits in the behavior of older preschoolers serves as confirmation of the formation of moral and volitional readiness for school.
Another important component of moral and volitional readiness for school is the child’s ability to build his relationships with adults and peers in accordance with the rules. Experience shows that adaptation to the learning conditions at school is directly dependent on how successfully the child’s “social” qualities have been developed over the previous years: a friendly, respectful attitude towards peers, organizational skills, sociability, willingness to show empathy, and provide mutual assistance. The presence of such a complex of collectivistic traits in a child’s behavior is an indicator of his moral and volitional readiness for school and creates an emotionally positive tone of communication with peers in the new team.
At school, the child’s relationship with the teacher is built on a new, business-like basis. The teacher's assessment becomes an objective criterion for the quality of the student's knowledge and the fulfillment of his educational duties. Mastering a new style of relationship with a teacher is possible only in school conditions. Nevertheless, the habit of strict compliance with the requirements of an adult, respect for him, knowledge and implementation of the rules of cultural behavior in relation to elders, brought up in preschool age, constitute the necessary moral basis for schoolchildren to “accept” a new style of relationship with the teacher and successfully adapt to the conditions of the school.
Moral-volitional readiness for school is also characterized by a certain level of development of the child’s moral feelings and consciousness. The most indicative in this regard are children’s understanding of the social significance of moral behavior, the development of the ability to self-assess their actions, the formation of a sense of responsibility, justice, the foundations of humanistic and elements of civic feelings. Developing moral feelings and elements of moral self-awareness ensure the child’s emotional “acceptance” of the student’s new socio-psychological position and understanding of the importance of fulfilling educational responsibilities.
Moral-volitional readiness also includes a set of qualities that express the preschooler’s attitude to work. This is the desire to work, a feeling of satisfaction from work well and accurately done, respect for the work of others, and mastery of the necessary work skills. Thus, the child’s moral-volitional readiness for school acts as a certain result of his moral-volitional development in the preschool years. It covers the most important personality and behavior traits of a child from the perspective of school education, which together constitute the necessary prerequisites for the child’s adaptation to school conditions, responsible performance of new responsibilities, and the formation of a moral attitude towards the teacher and peers. Moral and volitional readiness is inextricably linked with the child’s intellectual and physical readiness for schooling.
The importance of children's intellectual readiness for school is determined by the leading activity of the student - learning, which requires intense mental work from students, activation of mental abilities and cognitive activity. Intellectual readiness for school consists of several interrelated components.
An important component of intellectual readiness for school is the presence of a sufficiently wide stock of knowledge about the world around the child entering school. This fund of knowledge is the necessary foundation on which the teacher begins to build his work.
The knowledge of children entering school must be sufficiently differentiated. An older preschooler should highlight both relatively large areas of reality (living and inanimate nature, different spheres human activity and relationships, the world of things, etc.), as well as individual aspects of objects, phenomena and one’s own activities.
Essential for intellectual readiness for school is the quality of children’s knowledge acquisition. An indicator of the quality of knowledge is, first of all, a sufficient degree of its comprehension by children: the accuracy and differentiation of ideas; completeness of content and scope of elementary concepts; children’s ability to independently operate with knowledge when solving accessible educational and practical problems; systematicity, i.e. the ability of preschoolers to reflect accessible, significant connections and relationships between objects and phenomena (functional, spatiotemporal, cause-and-effect, etc.).
A component of intellectual readiness for school is a certain level of development of the child’s cognitive activity.
Of particular importance is, firstly, the growing arbitrariness of cognitive processes: the ability for arbitrary semantic memorization and reproduction of material, planned perception of objects and phenomena, purposeful solution of assigned cognitive and practical tasks, etc.; secondly, improving the quality of cognitive processes: accuracy of sensations, completeness and differentiation of perception, speed and accuracy of memorization and reproduction; thirdly, the child has a cognitive attitude towards the world around him, a desire to gain knowledge and study at school.
Domestic psychologists L.I. Bozhovich, L.S. Slavina, N.G. Morozova, A.A. Lyublinskaya, L.A. Wenger emphasized that nurturing in preschool children curiosity, interest in knowledge, desire to learn and follow school rules, the formation of a positive attitude towards school, and interest in books are an important prerequisite for creating stable learning interests in students and a responsible attitude towards learning at school.
A significant role in the formation of intellectual readiness for school is played by the general level of mental activity of the future schoolchild.
In the conditions of systematic, purposeful work of a kindergarten on mental education, children develop such valuable features of mental activity as the ability to multilaterally analyze objects, the ability to use socially developed sensory standards to examine the properties and qualities of objects and phenomena, the ability to make elementary generalization based on identifying the main connections, dependencies, characteristics in objects and phenomena, the ability to compare objects based on the consistent identification of signs of similarity and difference. Future schoolchildren develop elementary independence of mental activity: the ability to independently plan their practical activities and carry them out in accordance with the plan, the ability to pose a simple cognitive problem and solve it, etc.
It should be noted that the listed features of cognitive activity for the most part in preschool children are in the stage of initial formation; Their most complete development occurs in the process of schooling. But taken together, they constitute the most important prerequisite for the future student’s conscious and active assimilation of educational material at school.
Intellectual readiness for school also includes children’s mastery of elements of educational activity.
By the end of preschool childhood, in the conditions of systematic education, children must master the main components of educational activity: the ability to accept an accessible educational task, understand and accurately follow the instructions of the teacher, achieve results in work using the methods indicated by adults for its implementation, the ability to exercise control over their actions, behavior, the quality of completing a task, the ability to give a critical assessment of one’s own work and the work of other children. A special role in preparing children for school is played by developing the ability to consciously subordinate their activities and behavior to certain requirements and rules put forward by the teacher.
A necessary component of a child’s intellectual readiness for school is a fairly high level of speech development. Clear sound pronunciation, a variety of vocabulary, the ability to express one’s thoughts coherently and grammatically correctly, a culture of verbal communication - all this is a prerequisite for successful schooling.
The content of intellectual readiness also includes a fairly wide range of knowledge, skills and abilities in the field of elementary mathematical concepts, native language, the first foundations of literacy. This knowledge, abilities and skills create the necessary readiness of children to master the relevant academic subjects in the first grade. It should be emphasized that the significance of “special” knowledge, skills and abilities for school education largely depends on the basis on which they are built and how correctly they are formed. As many researchers emphasize (A.V. Zaporozhets, A.M. Leushina, D.B. Elkonin, J.I.E. Zhurova, N.I. Nepomnyashchaya, etc.), initial teaching of literacy and mathematics in preschool institutions should develop children orientation in the world of quantities and in the world of sounds of language, thereby creating the basis for the transition to subject learning.
Thus, intellectual readiness for learning at school consists of many interrelated components of children’s mental and speech development. Unity general level cognitive activity, cognitive interests, methods of children's thinking, a fairly wide supply of meaningful, systematized ideas and elementary concepts about the world around them, speech and elementary educational activities create mental readiness in children to master educational material at school.
Child’s physical readiness for school is essential for successful learning. The restructuring of a child’s lifestyle associated with entering school, changes in routine, serious academic work, and the length of lessons require significant physical stress from him. Physical readiness for school includes many components. This is, first of all, the child’s good health, hardening, a certain endurance and performance of the body, and a high degree of resistance to diseases. This is the harmonious physical and neuropsychic development of the child, the correspondence of morphological and physiological development to age indicators (or some advance of them), a high level of motor development. A special role in preparing children for school is played by the development of small muscles of the hand - a prerequisite for successful mastery of writing. Physical readiness for school also presupposes that the child masters cultural and hygienic skills and develops the habit of observing the rules of personal hygiene.
Physical readiness is a necessary component of a child’s development school maturity.
To identify “school maturity”, a multifactor analysis is used, which involves assessing the state of health and biological maturity of the child’s body (anthropometric indicators, development of the skeletal, muscular, respiratory and cardiovascular systems), assessing functional readiness for school as the main indicator of “school maturity” and, above all, the level development of a number of physiological functions. These include: developing the ability to brake, necessary for sitting at a desk for a sufficiently long time; good coordination of movements, in particular fine finger movements, necessary to perform graphic tasks associated with writing and drawing; relatively rapid formation and strengthening of conditioned connections of a positive and inhibitory nature and sufficient development of the second signaling system.
To determine the “school maturity” of children, hygienists use the Kern-Irasek test, methods developed by domestic researchers (M.V. Antropova, M.M. Koltsova, T.S. Sorokina, etc.). Surveys of children have revealed the possibility of them going to school from the age of six.
Daily routine, hardening procedures, regular physical education, a variety of outdoor games and physical exercises, active motor mode are necessary conditions ensuring children's physical readiness for school.
A comprehensive diagnosis of a child’s readiness to study at school is carried out in two stages and provides for the improvement of preschool children’s health and the correction of school-necessary functions. The first examination of children is carried out in September of the year before entering school. A medical examination is performed in a kindergarten by a pediatrician, otolaryngologist, ophthalmologist, psychoneurologist, dentist, or orthopedic surgeon if the child attends a child care facility. The medical examination is monitored by the doctor (nurse) of the preschool institution. A psychological and pedagogical examination is carried out by a teacher-psychologist, teacher of a preschool institution. Data from medical and psychological-pedagogical examinations, as well as recommendations, are entered into the medical-pedagogical examination card, which is presented to parents. The medical and pedagogical examination card is kept by the doctor (nurse) of the preschool institution.
At the first stage, children are identified who constitute a “risk group of unpreparedness” for school education due to health conditions and the level of development of prerequisites for educational activities. Children with health problems are prescribed a set of therapeutic and recreational measures. For preschoolers who have been identified to have a delay in the development of school-necessary functions, a set of game tasks for their correction is recommended. Recommended therapeutic and health measures are carried out by specialist doctors at the children's clinic. Classes to eliminate defects in sound pronunciation are conducted by a speech therapist. Psychological and pedagogical correction is carried out by a teacher-psychologist, kindergarten teachers and parents.
Children are re-examined before entering school (April-May) by the same specialists according to a similar scheme. At the end of the examination, the completed card is submitted to the medical-psychological-pedagogical commission (MPC) by the day of the scheduled meeting. The MPC gives a final conclusion based on the results of the first and second examinations recorded in the card of the child’s medical and pedagogical readiness for school.
For children who are not ready for school due to health reasons or psychological and pedagogical indicators, it is advisable to provide a temporary deferment for entering school and recommend training in preparatory groups of kindergartens. If such children are admitted to school, special attention should be paid to conducting with them the classes provided for in the program to develop school-necessary functions. As an exception, an additional medical or psychological-pedagogical examination of children may be carried out immediately before the start of the school year.-
Psychological and pedagogical examination can be carried out in two versions:
1. Approximate definition of school maturity.
2. In-depth study of psychophysiological prerequisites for educational activities.
The second version of the survey should be carried out only after receiving the results of an indicative assessment of the level of school maturity.
Based on the results of an in-depth examination, more accurate and complete recommendations should be developed for the upbringing and development of the child’s personality traits necessary for successful adaptation to the school community and academic workload.
One should remember the ethical side of psychological and pedagogical examination. It is necessary to show maximum tact and attention, not to “stick a label” of inferiority on children and to correctly inform parents about the results of the examination in order to involve them in joint educational work, placing more emphasis on recommendations. When giving a conclusion, we should not forget that an accurate psychological and pedagogical diagnosis can be made only on the basis of an analysis of all the data from a comprehensive study. In psychology, many methods have been developed to determine the development of individual aspects and functions of the psyche - attention, memory, thinking, imagination, etc.
There are 2 groups of criteria for children’s readiness to study at school: medical and psychological-pedagogical.
Medical criteria for children's readiness to go to school include:
1. Level of physical development.
2. State of health.
When assessing physical development, three main indicators are determined: body length (sitting and standing height), body weight and chest circumference.
Psychological and pedagogical criteria for children’s readiness to study at school include:
Methods for indicative assessment of school maturity:
1. Degree of psychosocial maturity.
2. Level of school maturity according to the Kern-Irasek test.
3. Purity of phonemic perception.
Methods for in-depth study of psychophysiological prerequisites for educational activities:
1. Determination of motor asymmetry.
2. Determination of mental performance.
3. Study of short-term mechanical memory.
4. Research on the productivity of intentional memorization.
5. Diagnostics of the degree of mastery of the actions of visual-figurative thinking.
6. Determination of the maturity of logical thinking actions.
7. Study of the arbitrariness of mental processes.
8. Study of the cognitive interests of a preschooler.
9. Diagnosis of children's self-esteem.
10. Study of communication and the nature of interpersonal relationships.
Features of the organization of educational work with children of the 7th year of life. Preparing children for school is carried out by the entire system of the educational process in a modern preschool institution. Senior preschool age takes special place in the system of preparing children for schooling. It ends preschool childhood and is a transitional stage to school education. It is during this period that the active formation of behavioral traits of children and activities related to their intellectual, moral-volitional and emotional spheres that are important for subsequent learning occurs.
The main attention of the teacher of children of senior preschool age is directed to ensuring that they all fully master the content provided for by the kindergarten program, since this is prerequisite preparation for schooling.
The task of raising children of senior preschool age is to create a new psychological position for children in kindergarten. Its peculiarity lies in the emergence of a significant prospect for future enrollment in school for all children. This perspective creates a unity of experiences, interests, and aspirations of children, which educators use to unite the children’s team based on common goal- prepare well for school.
The transition to the preparatory group creates in children a feeling of “adulthood”, based on their awareness of their new position as the oldest among kindergarten students. Organizing educational work Based on significant complex motives (the desire to become schoolchildren, pride in their position as elders in kindergarten), the teacher ensures that children consciously accept new requirements for their activities and behavior that are important for preparing for school, and forms a sense of responsibility for their actions.
A distinctive feature of the position of older preschoolers is also the expansion of the zone of their social contacts. It becomes traditional for older children to take care of children in kindergarten: preparing concerts for younger groups; making gifts for them, repairing toys and books; cleaning the junior group's area; friendly, playful communication with kids. Systematic “bossing” work has great importance for future schoolchildren: enriches their moral experience, forms humanistic personality traits - goodwill, caring, attention to others. It unites the children's team, strengthens friendships, and fosters the habit of responsibly performing the assigned task. Preschoolers also communicate with older children. This communication strengthens children’s desire to enter school and stimulates the formation of psychological readiness for schooling.
Thus, in the psychological position of older children, great opportunities are hidden for the formation of the moral qualities of future schoolchildren.
Pedagogical process in older groups, due to the tasks of preparing children for school, is unique. This originality does not consist in copying the educational work of the school, but in the special organization of the activities and behavior of children, aimed at steadily developing in them the qualities necessary for successful learning at school. This is manifested in the complication of the content of all types of children's activities, in children's mastery of more complex ways of carrying them out, in the development of new forms of cooperation in the process of activity, in the development of the collectivistic orientation of children's activities and behavior, in the promotion of socially useful motivation for children's activities, etc. The pedagogical process is characterized by a steady increase in requirements for the behavior and activities of children, taking into account their emerging capabilities and future school responsibilities. In first place in terms of importance are the requirements for children’s independence, their organization, quality and effectiveness of basic activities: play, learning, work.
The time for children to perform certain routine processes (washing, dressing, eating) is gradually reduced, the transition from one activity to another is made faster, and the requirements for the pace of activity and self-organization of children increase. The teacher’s style of communication with children changes, acquiring some features characteristic of the teacher’s relationship with students (higher demands on children, greater reliance on children’s independence).
In older groups of kindergarten, class time increases. The classes are conducted intensive work to further expand children’s ideas about various areas of reality and form a correct understanding of the world. The most important task is to further generalize and systematize children’s knowledge based on identifying the main, essential features and relationships in the objects or phenomena being studied. The ability to generalize and differentiate objects and phenomena of the surrounding world in appropriate categories is one of the significant aspects of children’s readiness to study at school. Mastering any academic subject presupposes that the child must have the ability to identify and make the object of his knowledge those phenomena of reality that are considered in this academic subject. This requires a certain development of the ability to systematize, generalize, and analyze.
The task is to, with the help of knowledge organized in a certain system that reveals essential dependencies, ensure the formation in children of such generalized ideas and elementary concepts that will contribute to the formation of the foundations of a theoretical approach to these issues in school.
Modern scientific research shows that the basis for systematizing children’s knowledge about nature in the preparatory group should be the connection of the body with the conditions of existence: for example, the dependence of the structure of the animal’s body on the conditions of existence (habitat, means of protection, nutrition). In the formation of children's knowledge about the work of adults, the basis for systematization is the understanding of the connection between the transformation of the subject of labor into a product of labor to satisfy people's needs.
Much attention in classes is paid to improving children's special readiness for school. Intensive work is being done to prepare children for mastering mathematics and literacy at school. Children's knowledge in mathematics and their native language rises to a new, higher level. Mastering the mathematics program leads to children’s awareness of the important things for their future mathematical development provisions on the laws of the natural series of numbers, on measuring activity as a new way for children to understand the quantitative side of reality, on the functional dependencies between part and whole, measure and dimension, etc. All this ensures the conscious, active development by children of the content of mathematical knowledge in the first grade .
In classes in their native language, children begin to master the foundations of a new linguistic attitude towards speech as a linguistic reality. There is an elementary awareness by children of the structure of speech, its verbal and sound composition, and an initial idea of the word as a linguistic reality is formed. Children master the appropriate terminology: sentences, sounds, syllables, letters, word composition. This work is essential for mastering literacy and learning the native language at school.
Constant attention in classes is paid to the development of children's analytical and synthetic activities, improving methods of analysis, generalization, comparison, and classification. In this process, the transfer of children from direct to indirect knowledge of reality plays an important role. Children in the seventh year of life learn to establish quantitative relationships between quantities using measurement, to use observation schemes when examining or comparing objects, to apply socially developed standards in assessing the properties and qualities of objects, etc.
Developing children's independence, the teacher consistently teaches them how to plan. This skill is formed in all types of activities. Children learn to act first ready plan, then draw up a plan together with the teacher, and after that independently plan your activities. The requirements for the effectiveness of children's activities are increasing. Persistently ensuring that each child completes the task in full, the teacher approaches the assessment of work results from several positions: the accuracy of the task, its quality, the ability to maintain the required pace of work, and self-control are assessed. The teacher develops self-control actions gradually from control by result to control over the method of action in the process of completing a task and then to elementary actions of anticipatory control. In the classroom, children are purposefully developing skills in learning activities and organized behavior. Evidence of the effectiveness of this work is the ability of children to accept a learning task, act in accordance with the explanation and instructions of the teacher, maintain interest, concentration and attention to the content of classes throughout their entire duration, the ability to complete the work, evaluate the progress of the task and its result in accordance with assignment, the ability to answer the teacher’s questions loudly and coherently, and to express one’s thoughts clearly and competently.
In the senior and preparatory groups, intensive work is carried out to further develop children’s cognitive interests and desire for knowledge. The passivity of individual children is persistently overcome, since scientific research data and work experience show that among the unsuccessful students most often are intellectually passive children who, despite generally normal mental development, do not have the habit of active mental work.
The area of social phenomena with which the teacher introduces children is expanding significantly. Children gain knowledge about the country, about the life and work of people of different nationalities, etc. Together with the teacher, they discuss important current events in the life of our country. This work develops children's interest in social events and forms the foundations of civic feelings: patriotism, respect for the Working Man. The knowledge and skills acquired in classes are associated with the practical activities of children. Children use measurement methods in play and work activities, they use knowledge about plants and caring for them while on duty in a corner of nature, knowledge about properties and qualities various materials preschoolers implement it in a variety of playful and constructive activities, etc.
Participation in activities shapes the personality of a preschooler. Further improvement of all types of active activities and the formation on this basis of valuable moral qualities: independence, organization, collectivism - is one of the central tasks of educating older preschoolers. The teacher’s guidance is aimed at further enriching the content of the activity and the methods of its implementation, at developing the ability to collectively plan activities, cooperate in its process, and achieve certain results through common efforts. Indicators of children’s successful mastery of play activities, and in particular creative play, are the following skills: to reflect in games the positive phenomena of the social environment, to agree on a game, to jointly determine the plot, to fairly distribute roles, to independently prepare the play environment, to actively develop the plot, to achieve mutual understanding in the game , maintain friendly relations, fully implement the game plan, put away toys and materials without reminders. In games with rules, which are especially common among children of the seventh year of life, the development of gaming skills is manifested in the ability of children to follow the rules of the game and establish friendly, fair relationships between the players.
The teacher uses the work activities of children to develop their independence, perseverance, organization and responsibility. He puts forward a requirement for children: to perform well permanent work duties (self-care, duty, maintaining the workplace in order). In assessing duty, the teacher relies on public opinion groups: the quality and result of the work is assessed, as well as the responsible attitude of those on duty to their duties, the ability to fairly distribute responsibilities among themselves, work together, and observe the rules of cultural behavior.
The maintenance and organization of collective work of children is becoming more complicated. Children work in units, and within a unit the work is often carried out as joint labor. Indicators of students’ successful mastery of the basics of collective work activity, the formation of independence and organization in work are the ability of children to understand the purpose of work (or put forward it independently), and plan stages together with the teacher labor process and present its result, select necessary equipment and materials, distribute responsibilities among themselves with the help of a teacher (or independently), mastery of basic work skills and abilities in accordance with the “Program of Education and Training in Kindergarten”, the ability to work at a general pace, show kindness to peers and provide mutual assistance, the ability to achieve positive results and correctly evaluate the quality of work. By supervising work, the teacher achieves from children productivity, thoroughness in work, greater dexterity and dexterity in mastering materials and tools.
The work corner must contain everything necessary for children to engage in independent work in all available types of work. They develop a sense of responsibility for maintaining equipment, toys, manuals, and for order in the group. To this end, children participate weekly in the collective cleaning of the group’s premises, systematically repair manuals and books, stay on duty, participate in the design of a book corner, exhibitions of children’s works, and in decorating the group for the holidays. In this work, children’s aesthetic senses also develop: they learn to appreciate the aesthetics of the environment, take care of its preservation, and show creativity in the design of the group.
The teacher of the senior and preparatory groups carries out a wide program of physical education: maintains an active motor mode in the group, improves all types of movements, involves children in a variety of sports exercises, organizes sports entertainment and competitions, constantly monitors children’s posture, and uses a variety of hardening methods. Properly delivered physical education is the key to children’s active performance at school.
An important task is to instill in children an active interest and desire to learn at school. The solution to this problem is facilitated by the general focus of the kindergarten’s work on developing children’s readiness for school, as well as special work: excursions to school, meetings with first-graders, conversations with the teacher, presence at educational activities. The work carried out in this way forms in children by the end of preschool age a persistent desire to enter school, to a new, honorable in their eyes, position as a schoolchild.
Thus, the entire system of educational work with children is aimed at a gradual restructuring of the consciousness, behavior, activity and personality of the older preschooler, at the formation of active, comprehensive readiness of children for the new conditions of school education.
