Akimova M. K., Kozlova V. T. Underachieving children

(Akimova M.K., Kozlova V.T. Poor children // Working book school psychologist/ Ed. I.V. Dubrovina. M., 1991. - S. 189 - 196.)

Why does the child study poorly?

This issue worries both the family and the school. He can't bebypassed in the work of the school psychologist. We will consider theNew psychological causes of school failurementally healthy children, and also dwell on the descriptionthe help that a school psychologist can providein overcoming them. We will talk about persistent poor progress, and not about those individual cases when, for some reason (bothillness, domestic circumstances, etc.) the student did not learnsome section academic discipline and got dissatisfiedcritical assessment. We will also refer to the underachievers as "triples", poor quality, superficially and with a gap we learn the school curriculum.

So, what are the causes of student failure?shy? Why underachieving children are an "eternal" problemschools? Educators-scientists see the root cause of failuremost of all in the imperfection of teaching methods.One cannot but agree with this. Experience of teachersTorov V.N. Shatalova, S.N. Lysenkova and others confirmThere is no validity to this point of view. Meanwhile, many teachers tend to attribute weak academic performance to a lack of will.exit and some moral qualities children, absencediligence and diligence. Hence the frequently used relativeagainst lagging behind Schoolchildren such repressive measures, like "working through", calling parents, etc.

In order not to oversimplify the problem of student underachievement,note that it is based on not one reason, but several,and quite often they act in combination. It also happens,that the primary reason for the failure of the student onnew, secondary causes are stratified as a result of backwardnesslearning. These reasons can also be varied, because students react differently to their academic failure. In the early stages of education in junior school age curiosity, direct interest in the environment,on the one hand, and the desire to fulfill socially significantmy activity - on the other hand, they determine the positive fromwearing to study and related emotional experiencesniya about the received estimates. Lagging behind in learningThese assessments are most often acutely experienced by children to tears.

Teenagers are giving training sessions already much lessno attention. The scope of their life activity is noticeably expandingetsya: they participate in various circles, engage in disputesthat they devote a lot of time to games and entertainment. In filingFor the most part, teenagers have a pretty good attitude towards learning.indifferent, and performance in middle grades tends to decline huddles.

High school students tend to differentiatebathroom attitude to academic subjects depending on theirprofessional intentions. This explains the usualdifferent attitude to the estimates obtained for individualmetam. If an unsatisfactory grade is obtained in a subject that is not included in the scope of future professionalinterests of the student, then the attitude towards it will be calmer than towards the assessment in the subject of interest to him.

In addition, the attitude to assessment depends on the student's personal characteristics, such as motivation, mutuallycommunication with teachers, parents, students, the nature of self ratings, etc.

Unable to differentiate well enoughunderachievement, teachers usually use very meagerand a far from perfect set of tools to help those who are lagging behindstudents. All types of pedagogical assistance are practically possiblebut reduced to two: the organization of additional classes, onwhich apply traditional (same as in the lesson)teaching methods, and the provision of various measures of pressure onNika. All these means are not only ineffective, but oftenwhich turn out to be harmful, since they do not affect the causesWell, they allow you to start the "disease" of poor progress.

Psychological causes underlying failurecapacity, we combined into two groups, to the first of which fromcarried limitations cognitive activity in broadsense of the word, and to the second - developmental deficiencies motive rational sphere children.

Analyzing the causes of the first group, we will talk aboutabout those cases when the student does not understand well, is not able tomaster school subjects with high quality, does not know how to properlyperform at a nominal level learning activities. Among the psychological causes of the first group, we single out the following three: 1. unformed techniques learning activities; 2. deficiencies in the development of mental processes, mainly at once the mental sphere of the child; 3. the child's inadequate use of his or her individualbut-typological features manifested in cognition body activity.

Consider the features of underachieving schoolchildren, differentilooking forward to the lack of formation of the correct methods of studynoah activity. It can be said about these students that they do not know how to really learn. Learning activities, ka!and any other, requires the possession of certain skillsand tricks). Accounting in the mind, writing off letters according to the model, memorizing poems by heart - even such, from the point of view ofan adult, simple actions can be performedone but several different ways. Not all of them willcorrect and equally effective. child, postdrinking to school and faced with the need to fulfillto take on a new learning activity, often not being able tonii independently find adequate ways of working. If ait is not taught specifically necessary skills and techniqueshe will intuitively find them himself, and not always these will be correct and effective skills and techniques). It's fairlivo not only in relation to junior schoolchildren, but alsoolder students. Only the methods of educational work that they have not mastered will be somewhat different. than in elementary grades.

Among the most common incorrect and maeffective methods of educational work can be attributed tosuch as memorization without preliminary logical processingki material, performance various exercises without prepreliminary assimilation of the relevant rules, disadvantagescontrolling activity, etc. Inadequate methods of educational activity can be more individualized.forged character. So, the psychologist K. V. Bardin describes maa lazy first-grader who, when writing off a letter bythe sample was guided by the previous letter, and not by the image zetz made by the teacher.

There are also cases when the student formally learnslearns teaching techniques, adopting from the teacher only the externalside of their implementation. Often underachieving studentsin the process of mastering educational skills, they also simplify the vulgariziruyut them. For example, they can isolate the main partstext by paragraphs, and not by semantic connections, correlate conround map with the main one along the squares formed by the parallelleli and meridians, transferring conventions withouttaking into account the conditions of the task. There are students who do nothave sustainable ways of working and use random,techniques that do not correspond to the nature of the tasks.

Underachievement associated with inadequate methodsacademic work, can wear a pronounced voterny character and manifest itself only in relation to a separateacademic subjects or even sections of the school programgrams. But she can have more general character and developingto lie in the gaps and shortcomings of the assimilation of many or all academic disciplines.

If you do not specifically pay attention to the wrongskills and techniques of academic work, they can be fixed orcause students to fall behind in their studies. Postecontribute to the foamy consolidation of their educational activitiesits features, such as, firstly, the relative easeeducational work at the beginning of training, allowing for the firsttime to use ineffective methods without noticeablelagging behind in studies, and, secondly, the lack of real controlon the part of the teacher for the ways of the student's educational work.

How to teach the right way educational work

It is clear that this can be done by replacing the wrongsoby and techniques are correct. But discover on your ownthe fallacy of their methods and to replace them with moreeffective schoolboy can not. He needs help from an adult. It is unlikely that a teacher can provide this assistance. Indeed, in order to reveal the shortcomings of the student's educational work, he must carefully observe the student himself.the process of this work, and not evaluate it by the end resultthe way it is usually done. The teacher is simply not able to carefully observe each student if the class30-40 people. Additional lessons with such underachievers in consolidating the educational material will not lead to;the desired effect, since they are not aimed at eliminating reasons for failure.

A school psychologist in individual work with a student, observing him in the educational process and when performing special experimental tasks, talking about how heperforms a particular educational task, can detectmistakes and mistakes of the student, draw his attention to them and the attention of his parents, teach the correct methods of work, and parents - ways to control their use. Often the task of a psychologist is not to fullydestroy undesirable ways of working and form butyou, and rebuild those that the unsuccessful really haverunning student. It must be remembered that simply rejectthe old way and replacing it with a new one is not always advisable. If it is possible to improve this method, then it is necessary todo it together with the child, observing correctness and not depriving the child of the right to individualize his work (ED Bozhovich).

For example, it is well known that many students, yesthe same senior classes, when mastering the text of the textbook, useuse such a way of working as repeated readingthis text. Meanwhile, in order to learn what you read, you needuse such rational methods of semantic imagebotki, as a grouping of material, highlighting strong points, drawing up a plan, theses, logic diagram readfoot, wording main idea etc.

These techniques can be gradually introduced into the activities ofnickname, without depriving him of his usual way of working, concludinggosya in repeated rereading of the text. So, if the first read will serve as a general acquaintance withkeeping the text, then at the second reading it is possible oncebeating it with small pauses into separate, logicalski related passages. On the third reading, you can force the student to highlight in each of the gapkov the main idea, and after reading, say these mainpositions in the form of a logical diagram of what was read, etc.

Therefore, solving the problem of correcting training methods of work,the school psychologist should first try to findand preserve their positive aspects, and secondly, to grope andanalyze the causes of weak or negative ron of individual tricks.

Sometimes correcting inadequate ways of working cancause discontent and a certain resistance of the student,explained by the reluctance to change the usual forms of actionness. To overcome such difficulties, psychologist E. D. Božović advises giving children 2-3 weeksfollow (at least by marks) the results of your educationallabor on the basis of the old familiar system, and then a new, rerecommended by a psychologist. If the student does not accept theseadvice, you can recommend the teacher to give him individualdual tasks that inevitably require new ways of working. Such tasks will not cause protest from the student.present, because they are perceived by him out of connection with the willingness to change your habits.

A child who is difficult to teach

Now consider another type of underachieving student,characterized by insufficient formation of waspsnew mental processes. This psychological reasonon academic failure is more hidden and less obviousnoah for the observer. For this reason, it's difficult for youapparent errors and blunders of students, and they are more oftenonly to thinking methods and ways of working, as well as to memory and attention.

It is obvious to every teacher that not all students can be taught equally easily. With any teaching method, the best of its organization, some students will advance more successful, others slower and with with great difficulty. Aloneseek high achievements, great success without specialbattle the expenditure of forces, in a relatively short time, others withall desire can not rise as quickly to the same level. In this regard, they usually talk about the different abilities of students, or rather, about different learning abilities. Psychologist 3. I. Kalmykova developed a special concept of “trainingfrequency" as receptivity to learning. Learnability forhanging from intellectual features person influencingother equal conditions on learning success. Amongcomponents of learning are marked by the generalization of the thinkeractivity, economy of thinking, independentmentality, flexibility of thought processes, etc. Is studies confirmed the existence of a common learning ( general ability to training), and speciallearnability (the ability to study some educational subject).

Thinking is the most important among the mental processes that affect the learning ability of a student. It is underdostatki in the development of thinking, and not memory and attention, as it iscommonly believed in school, are a common psychological cause of school failure. PsychologistN.I. Murachkovsky conducted experiments to study the memory and attention of underachieving students. He setwhat low-achieving children give nice results at forcommemoration of words, numbers, accessible to them by the content of the text, close to their life experience. However, when rememberingmore complex texts, where you already need to use more logicalskuyu, mediated memory, closely related to the process of thinking, they give worse results compared toother children in the same class. The underachieving studentshave rational memorization techniques; but these shortcomingsmemory is inextricably linked to developmental deficiencies in mice leniya.

Similarly, when executing special assignments on theattention (correction test) poor students yesproduce results no worse than those obtained by their comrades in class. Their low concentration of attention is due to the fact that, due to the peculiarities of their thinking, they are not involved chenny in active educational work, it is difficult for them to participate in it. Therefore, in the classroom, they are often distracted by extraneous conversations, the teacher's questions take them by surprise.

So, not memory and attention, but the specificity of mentalactivity is the primary source of difficulties for significant body part of underachieving children.

When characterizing psychological characteristics mouseunderperformers should be given special attentionon the age features children, especially those whorye enter into a certain contradiction (especially at the firststage of education) with the requirements of the school, do not correspond to thosequalities of cognitive activity that students need. Of course, age characteristics in themselves cannot be the causes of academic failure, but they are to a certain extentexplain those individual psychological traits thatrye are formed in adverse conditions training andeducation. What are these age-related features of thinking, on the basis of which difficulties and backwardness may arise? learning?

The child, having come to school, has a concrete, visualthinking. The younger the children, the more their concepts of the world reflect those of its features that are perceiveddirectly. The child's speech is underdeveloped. By notto which sources, the weakness of speech development is one of thereasons for the failure of children in primary school.

Schooling requires the child to be able to abstractto analyze and generalize, and this, especially at first, is difficult. So, for example, elementary school students, when studying grammar, often call verbal sunouns, i.e. nouns denotingaction such as "running", "walking", "reading". They don't know howabstract from the real meaning of the word and focus on those of its properties that characterize it as a part of speech.In the study of mathematics, difficulties arise when summingtask under general form. It is difficult for a child to find commona concept that combines several particular concepts.

It is not easy for students to single out the main, essential, fromthrow inconsequential, unnecessary details that are observedin retelling, in preparation oral lessons, when compilingnii plan of presentation and oral response, etc. Mastering the concepttiya, children do not distinguish between essential and non-essential signs and strive to equally remember both those and othersgie. Therefore, the new concept turns out to be weakly related inmemory with a different concept, semantic relation. ZabyEssential and non-essential features are equally easily identified. Distracting from the inessential is often more difficult than isolating the essential. These are specialnews mental activity children create unfavorable favorable conditions for the acquisition of knowledge.

Another feature children's thinking- inability to consider an object or situation from different angles, inability tooperate simultaneously with all the necessary solutionstasks with data, the inability to simultaneously complete all threebuoyed rules of action. For example, when highlighting direct speech in a sentence, one or another punctuation mark is forgotten, in an oral answer one thought develops and is lost.another, etc. In such a complex activity as settingcause-and-effect relationships, children, considering the phenomenona nye that has several causes is usually called only onewell, from them, and if several traces follow from one reasonactions, then not all are also indicated, but most often only one.So, for example, in geometry, considering an equilateraltriangle, children often forget that, in addition to equal sides, it has equal angles; in history, when characterizing handicraft production, they speak of the manual nature of laborand miss its low performance, etc.

Often, when solving educational problems, a child is required tothe ability to see something in a new way, on the other hand, refusingmove away from fixing the usual properties and including the object of the racelooking into unusual connections and relationships. This is what happens whensolving problems for ingenuity, when answering such questions of the teacher, when it is required not only to master the latest material, but also to correlate it with the information received earlier. Mindto overcome the “unilinearity” of thinking, to find newdirections of search, turns of thought in solving educational problems - the most important feature creative thinking. laborfeatures that arise when changing strategies, hypotheses, when transferringlook at the established habitual, patterned ways of workingyou, show inflexibility of thinking; they don't meet only in children, but also in adults.

The noted features of the mental activity of children are the reasons for the failure of a certain part ofstudents. The inability to overcome the resulting laborness in teaching sometimes leads to the rejection of active thoughtsolid work. Students begin to use differentinadequate techniques and methods for performing educational taskswhich psychologists call "detours." To theirnumber includes the mechanical memorization of material without itsunderstanding. Children reproduce the text almost by heart, verbatimbut, but at the same time they cannot answer questions on the text. Moreone workaround - executing a new task with the samethe way some task was performed before. In addition, students with deficiencies in the thought process use a hint when answering verbally, try to sleep sit with comrades, etc.

The inability and unwillingness to think actively is the hallmark ofspecific features of the considered group of underachieving studentsactive, sometimes called "intellectually passive"(L.S. Slavina). Psychologists consider the intellectualnew passivity as a result of improper upbringing andlearning, when a child has not gone through a certain path of mental development before school, has not learned notrequired intellectual skills and abilities.

Presentation at the parent lecture

“Underachieving children are difficult. Is it so?

Prepared by Eremia L.V., classroom teacher 7th grade MBOU "Nizhnegorsk School-Gymnasium"

First, I propose to understand what we mean by the terms “difficult” and “poor”.

What is failure?

Underachievement is a lag in learning, in which, in the allotted time, the student does not master at a satisfactory level the knowledge provided for curriculum, as well as the whole range of problems that a child may have in connection with systematic training (both in a group and individually).

Difficult children - who are they? In modern conditionstroubled teenagers name those children whose behavior differs sharply from generally accepted norms and hinders a full-fledged upbringing. Difficult people behave with feigned independence, speak openly about their unwillingness to learn, they have no respectful attitude to teachers, the authority of peers is won with the help of physical strength. It is these teenagers who most often take the path of delinquency, as they are most often rejected by a group of classmates. In such cases, the teenager "leaves" the school, he moves closer to other "outcasts". Rudeness, cynicism, recklessness of difficult people are often a disguise of feelings own inferiority, infringement, childishness.One of the most characteristic features of difficult children is mental immaturity, lagging behind age norms. Increased suggestibility, inability to correlate their actions with the norms of behavior, weakness logical thinking describe these guys. They are rarely tormented by choice, accept own solutions often act too childishly, impulsively. Boys are often quick-tempered, excitable. They easily get into fights, can become vindictive, vindictive, and cruel. Girls are prone to posturing, do not tolerate indifference to themselves, are theatrical. They can react to the smallest grievances with sobs.

So, we do not classify underachieving children as difficult. But no one says that it is easy with underachievers.

Find out the reasons for the failure.

External and internal causes of failure.

Notable psychologists Yu.K. Babansky and V.S. Tsetlin identifies two groups of reasons for academic failure: external and internal.

To external reasons can be attributed primarily to social, i.e., the decline in the value of education in society, the instability of the existing educational system. "The purposeful work of the school to prevent underachievement can only bear proper fruit with a general improvement in social conditions."

Among the external reasons, one should also include the imperfection of the organization. educational process in the field (uninteresting lessons, lack of an individual approach, overload of students, unformed methods of educational activities, gaps in knowledge, etc.).

It should also be noted bad influence from the outside - streets, families, etc. In times of active educational work, this reason receded into the background. But now it is more relevant than ever, because we have lost the ways to deal with it, and it is very difficult to create them again.

One of the most important internal causes poor progress today are defects in the health of schoolchildren caused by sharp deterioration the level of material well-being of families. Medical institutions note that every fourth child has serious problems health from birth. This must be taken into account when organizing the educational process, because a person suffering from certain ailments is not able to endure colossal training loads.

For internal causes should also be attributed low development intellect, which should also find timely reflection in the preparation of programs and the creation of new textbooks. Educational material should be feasible for most students.

Internal reasons include lack of motivation teachings: the child has an incorrectly formed attitude to education, he does not understand its social significance and does not strive to be successful in educational activities.

And finally, the problem underdevelopment volitional sphere at students. By the way, the last reason is rarely paid attention to. Although K.D. wrote about this. Ushinsky: "Teaching based only on interest does not make it possible to strengthen the will of the student, because not everything in the teaching is interesting, and much will have to be taken by force of will."

It is possible to identify the causes of poor progress with the help of diagnostic techniques that allow to establish the presence and nature of the educational and cognitive abilities and interests of students and determine optimal conditions their learning.

We will try to find out the reasons for the failure to make it easier to solve this problem.

The positions of students, teachers and parents in determining the causes of poor progress diverge, which reduces the effectiveness of their efforts.

Students explain their failure:

presence bad memory, poor attention, inability to concentrate, i.e. individual characteristics;

the complexity of the curriculum of individual subjects of the school course;

professional incompetence of teachers.

Teachers believe that:

schoolchildren are irresponsible, lazy, inattentive, etc.;

parents do not help children in school;

training programs are too complex.

Parents cite the following reasons:

unavailability of the program, its complexity;

high demands placed by teachers on students;

insufficient abilities of children, more precisely, their absence.

Here's what psychologists say about it:

Causes and nature of the manifestation of failure

Low level of development learning motivation(nothing encourages learning). This is influenced by: the circumstances of the child's life in the family; relationships with other adults.

Incorrectly formed attitude to teaching, misunderstanding of its social significance. There is no desire to be successful in educational activities (there is no interest in getting good grades, satisfactory ones are quite satisfied).

Intellectual passivity as a result of wrong education. Intellectually passive students are those who have not had any right conditions for mental development, nor sufficient practice intellectual activity, they lack intellectual skills, knowledge and skills, on the basis of which the teacher builds training. While doing learning task requiring active mental work, there is no desire to understand and comprehend it.

Instead of active thinking - the use of various workarounds: memorization, cheating, tips from comrades, guessing correct options response. Intellectual passivity can manifest itself both selectively in relation to academic subjects, and in all educational work. Outside of the classroom, many of these students are smarter, more active and quick-witted than in the classroom.

Incorrect study skills. Students do not know how to study, they do not know how to work independently, because they use ineffective methods of educational work that require them to spend a lot of extra time and work: they memorize the text without highlighting logical parts; begin to fulfill practical tasks before they learn the rule for the application of which these tasks are given; do not check their work or do not know how to check; work at a slow pace.

Incorrectly formed attitude to educational work: gaps in education (there are no permanent work duties, they are not accustomed to perform them carefully, there were no strict requirements for the quality of work; spoiled, unorganized students);

Incorrect organization of educational activities in the educational institution. Unwillingness to perform a task that is not very interesting, boring, difficult, time-consuming.

Negligence and dishonesty in the performance of educational duties.

Unfinished or partially completed homework assignments.

How do our children respond to their learning problems?

At the first stages of education at primary school age, curiosity, direct interest in the environment, on the one hand, and the desire to perform socially significant activities, on the other, determine positive attitude to education and related emotional experiences about the ratings. Lag in learning bad marks most often acutely, to tears, are experienced by children.

Teenagers pay much less attention to their studies. The sphere of their life activities is noticeably expanding: they participate in various circles, go in for sports, devote a lot of time to games and entertainment. The vast majority of teenagers are rather indifferent to their studies, and performance in the middle classes usually declines.

High school students tend to have a differentiated attitude to academic subjects, depending on their professional intentions. This also explains the usually different attitude to the marks obtained in individual subjects. If an unsatisfactory grade is obtained in a subject that is not within the scope of future professional interests student, then the attitude towards it will be calmer than towards the assessment in the subject of interest to him.

In order to avoid failure, the main thing is to pay attention to emerging problems in time. SOMETIMES it all starts with seemingly insignificant things; slow pace work, difficulty remembering letters, inability to concentrate. Something is attributed to age - they say, not used to it, still small; something - on the shortcomings of education; something - on unwillingness to work. But at this point, the difficulties are still relatively easy to detect, they are quite easy to correct. But then the problems grow like a snowball - one difficulty pulls another, forming a terrible and vicious circle. Constant failure discourages the child so much that difficulties “crawl” from one subject to another. The child gives up: he begins to consider himself helpless, incapable, and all his efforts are useless. Psychologists are convinced that learning outcomes depend not only on whether a person is able or not able to solve the problem assigned to him, but also on how confident he is that he can solve this problem. If failures follow one after another, then, naturally, there comes a moment when the child says to himself: “No, I will never succeed in this.” Since "never", then there is no need to try! Thrown by mom or dad, among other things: “Well, what a stupid you are!” - only "adds fuel to the fire." And not only a word, but also just an attitude that you demonstrate with a reproachful look, intonation, gesture, sometimes tells the child more big words.

Given all of the above, I draw your attention to the following recommendations to prevent falling behind in school.

1) Observe the daily routine, the child should have enough time for sleep and for walks.

2) Do not forget about moderate physical activity: recommended to practice those sports that practically exclude head injuries (swimming, gymnastics).

3) Reduce the overall workload of the child, avoid excessive overload. Encourage games and activities that require attention and patience.

4) Give the child a choice in certain situations.

5) Use Positive Appraisal: Look for positive things in your child.
quality, change, advance success.

6) Organize your child's leisure activities according to their interests. Encourage his hobbies. Try to form his own interests in the environment.

7) Help in overcoming educational difficulties, both with the help of your own strength, and with the help of teachers, tutors (if possible), but do not (!) Do homework for him.

8) In case of difficulties, consult with specialists (teachers, psychologists, doctors).

9) Communicate with children on their age level.
10) Talk to your child, discuss books, movies and everything interesting events teaching as little as possible, correcting him.
11) Play board games, developing memory, attention, thinking, imagination, speech.
12) Offer help to the child not in the form of a ready-made answer, but in the form of a judgment that the child must complete by making a conclusion.
13) Develop cognitive activity child: answer all his questions, ask for advice.

15) Teach the techniques and methods of educational activities, teach the child to use dictionaries, books, explain the need to know the rules well, develop the skills to apply them; promote the development of mental abilities and cognitive processes(memory, attention, thinking, imagination, speech, etc.).

1. Try to create conditions that make it easier for the child to study:

household: good food, sparing mode, good sleep, calm environment, cozy and convenient place for classes, etc.;

emotional: show faith in the child's abilities, do not lose hope for success, rejoice at the smallest achievements, show love and patience in anticipation of success, do not insult him in case of failure, etc.;

cultural: provide the child with reference books, dictionaries, manuals, atlases, books on the school curriculum, disks; use a tape recorder for study sessions, watch educational and educational programs on TV together, discuss what they see, etc.

2. Listen to your child: let him retell what needs to be memorized, memorized, periodically dictate texts for recording, ask questions from the textbook.

3. Regularly get acquainted with the schedule of lessons, electives, circles, additional classes for control and provision of possible assistance.

4. Share knowledge with children in a field in which you excel.

5. Remember that not only grades should be the focus of parents, but knowledge itself, even if it is not possible to use it today. Therefore, think about the future and explain to the children where and when it will be possible to use the knowledge gained.

6. Help make free time child meaningful, take part in its implementation.

7. Do not compare your child with other children and their success, it is better to compare it with yourself.

8. In middle school, teens can work together homework. This increases responsibility - after all, tasks are done not only for themselves, but also for others. Be patient when they are on the phone: clarify, discuss, argue.

9. Let your child feel that you love him regardless of academic performance, notice cognitive activity.

10. Remember that according to the norms for the completion of all homework, students in grades 5-6 should work up to 2.5 hours, in grades 7-8 - up to 3 hours, in grades 8-9 - up to 4 hours. follow the recommendations: it is important for health, mental balance and good attitude of the child to learning.

11. Create family traditions and rituals that will stimulate children's learning activities. Use positive experience your parents, friends.

What can parents do if school difficulties still appear?

Reminder for parents.

First - do not consider the school difficulties that have arisen as a personal tragedy, but Do not despair and, most importantly, try not to show your grief and discontent. Remember: your the main task- help the child.

Second - tune in and get ready for the fact that you have to work together for a long time with your child(he can not cope with his problems alone).

Third is your main help: to maintain his self-confidence, try to relieve him of the feeling of tension and guilt for failures. If you are busy with your own affairs and snatch a moment to ask how you are doing or scold - this is not help, but the basis for new problems.

Fourth - forget the sacramental phrase: "What did you get today?"

Don't demand that your child immediately talk about his school affairs, especially if he is upset or upset. Leave him alone, he will tell you everything if he is sure of your support.

Fifth - do not discuss the problems of the child with the teacher in his presence.

It's better to do it without him. Never reproach, do not scold the child if his classmates or friends are nearby. Do not emphasize the successes of other children, admire them.

Sixth - you should be interested in doing homework only when you constantly help him.

Be patient when working together. After all, the work of overcoming school difficulties is very tiring and requires the ability to restrain oneself. Typical parental complaints: “I don’t have any strength ... I exhausted all my nerves ...” Do you understand what's the matter? An adult cannot restrain himself, but the child is to blame. For some reason, parents think: if there are difficulties in writing, you need to write more; if he does not read well, read more; if badly considers - more to solve examples. But these tedious, unsatisfying activities kill the joy of the work itself! Therefore, do not overload the child with what he does not succeed. It is very important that nothing interferes with you during classes, so that the child feels that you are with him and for him. Do not watch “even with one eye” TV, do not be distracted, do not interrupt classes to make phone calls or run to the kitchen.
It is equally important to decide with which of the adults it is better for the child to do homework. Moms are usually softer, but they often lack patience, and emotions overflow ... Dads are tougher, but calmer. Try to avoid such situations when one of the adults, losing patience, calls for a change and "for reprisal" of another.

Keep in mind that a child with school problems will only rarely fully know what they have to do at home. And there is no malice: the fact is that homework is almost always given at the end of the lesson, when the class is already noisy, and your “lagging behind” is tired and hardly hears the teacher. Therefore, at home, he can quite sincerely say: “they didn’t ask anything.” In this case, ask your classmates about homework.

When preparing homework, the total duration of continuous work should not exceed 20–30 minutes. Pauses after such work are required!
Do not strive at any cost and “sparing no time” to do all your homework at once.

Seventh - do not consider it shameful to ask the teacher: ask the child only when he himself is called, do not show everyone his mistakes, do not emphasize failures.

Try to find contact with the teacher, because the child needs help and support from both sides.

Eighth - work only on "positive reinforcement".

In case of failures, cheer, support, and emphasize any, even the smallest success. The most important thing in helping a child is remuneration for his work, and not only in words. If this is not done, the child, starting to work, may think: “There is no point in trying, no one will notice my success.” A reward is obligatory: it can be a joint walk, a trip to the zoo, to the theater ...

Ninth - but very important! - children with school problems you need a measured and clear regime of the day.

We must not forget: such children are usually restless, unassembled, which means that it is not at all easy for them to follow the regime. If the child has difficulty getting up, do not jerk him, do not rush him, do not push him again: it is better to set the alarm clock half an hour earlier. Perhaps the most hard time- evening, when it is time to go to bed. Parents strive to put the student to bed as soon as possible, and he, as best he can, is playing for time. Often this ends in a quarrel, tears, reproaches. And then the child cannot calm down and fall asleep for a long time ... You can also give him some freedom (allowing him to go to bed not exactly at nine, but from nine to half past ten).

Tenth and last - the timeliness and correctness of the measures taken significantly increase the chances of success.

Therefore, if you have the opportunity, be sure to consult the child with specialists (doctors, speech therapists, neuropsychiatrists, teachers). And follow all the recommendations!

December, 2015.

“This is a terrible danger - idleness at the desk;

idleness six hours a day, idleness for months and years.

It's corrupting."

V.A. Sukhomlinsky

Each of us dreams in life to achieve some heights, to take place as a person, in general, to become successful. What is success? In my opinion, success is a combination of elements, such as public recognition, a good family, etc. If you try to build a logical chain of achieving success in life, in particular, getting an interesting and prestigious job, it may look like this: - To get a profession, you need to enter and succeed in college. - For admission, knowledge and skills to apply them are needed.

BUT good knowledge can be obtained if you study hard and successfully in school. It would seem that a simple chain is obtained. But only a few follow this chain. But what about the rest? Why do they study poorly? What is it connected with? With the fact that they do not want to learn or cannot? Or maybe something else matters?

The problem of poor progress worries everyone: both adults and children. Obviously, there is not a single mentally healthy child in the world who would like to study poorly. When dreams of successful school years break on the first "deuces", the child first loses the desire to learn, and then he just skips classes or becomes a "difficult" student, which most often leads to new negative manifestations and in behavior. Underachieving students begin to look for people around whom they will not feel insignificant. So they find themselves in yard companies, replenishing the army of hooligans, drug addicts.

What is failure?

underachievement - this is a lag in learning, in which, in the allotted time, the student does not master at a satisfactory level the knowledge provided for by the curriculum, as well as the whole range of problems that a child may have in connection with systematic training (both in a group and individually).

In order to find a means to overcome failure, one must know the causes that give rise to it. There are two groups of reasons for failure: external and internal

to external causes.

Social, i.e., a decrease in the value of education in society, the instability of the existing educational system.

2. Imperfection in the organization of the educational process in the field(uninteresting lessons, lack of an individual approach, overload of students, unformed methods of educational activities, gaps in knowledge

3. Outside influence– streets, families, etc.

to external causes.

The main internal reason for underachievement today is becoming health defects of schoolchildren caused by a sharp deterioration in the level of material well-being of families. Medical institutions note that every fourth child has serious health problems from the moment of birth. This must be taken into account when organizing the educational process, because a person suffering from certain ailments is not able to endure colossal training loads.

Low development of intelligence, which should also find timely reflection in the preparation of programs and the creation of new textbooks. Educational material should be feasible for most students.

Internal reasons include lack of motivation to learn: the child has an incorrectly formed attitude to education, he does not understand its social significance and does not strive to be successful in educational activities.

And finally the problem poor development of the volitional sphere in students.

K.D. Ushinsky: "Teaching based only on interest does not make it possible to strengthen the will of the student, because not everything in the teaching is interesting, and much will have to be taken by force of will."

The main signs of student failure are:

gaps in factual knowledge and special skills for this subject, which do not allow to characterize the essential elements of the studied concepts, laws, theories, as well as to carry out the necessary practical actions;

gaps in the skills of educational and cognitive activity, reducing the pace of work so much that the student cannot master the necessary amount of knowledge, skills and abilities in the allotted time;

insufficient level of development and education personal qualities, which does not allow the student to show independence, perseverance, organization and other properties necessary for successful learning;

the student cannot reproduce the definitions of concepts, formulas, proofs, cannot, while presenting a system of concepts, deviate from the finished text; does not understand the text built on the studied system of concepts. These signs appear when students ask appropriate questions.

difficulties of a teenager, manifested in the form of lagging behind in studies, emotional instability.

Among the main ways to detect student backlogs are:

observing students' reactions to difficulties in work, to successes and failures;

questions of the teacher and his requirements to formulate this or that position;

educational independent work in class. When they are carried out, the teacher receives material for judgment, both about the results of the activity and about the course of its course. He observes the work of students, listens and answers their questions, sometimes helps.

Great help in identifying motivated children and development creativity students are provided with a psychological service of the school. Psychological support is carried out as follows:

testing students to identify existing knowledge, skills (monitoring);

diagnosis of achievement motivation and the presence of creative potential in students;

diagnostics individual abilities students; testing self-assessment of their abilities.

The world school has accumulated only two approaches to solving this problem. The first is the transfer of unsuccessful schoolchildren to next class, where training is carried out according to programs with low requirements. The second is the re-study of the course for the past year, that is, repetition, which, as has long been shown, does not justify itself either in the economic, or in the psychological, or in the pedagogical sense. Therefore, it is very important to identify the causes of failure in a timely manner and eliminate them. If in the lower grades the child did not develop the skills and desire to learn, then every year the difficulties in learning will grow like a snowball.

Contrary to popular belief, the failure of schoolchildren is not always due to low mental faculties or unwillingness to learn. In pedagogical practice, in the absence of a correct differentiation of the causes of failure, a meager and imperfect set of means is used for lagging students: these are either additional classes using traditional teaching methods, or various forms of disciplinary pressure on the student. These remedies, as a rule, turn out to be not only ineffective, but also harmful, because they do not eliminate real reasons underachievement. And these reasons may be different; Underachievement may be based on several interrelated reasons, which, in turn, give rise to secondary violations in educational activities.

The failure of schoolchildren is naturally associated with their individual characteristics and with the conditions in which their development takes place. The study of the composition of poor progress and the justification of the means of preventing it require the use of two terms: "poor progress" and "lagging behind."

A backlog is a failure to meet the requirements (or one of them) that occurs at one of the intermediate stages within that segment of the educational process that serves as a time frame for determining progress. The word "backlog" denotes both the process of accumulation of non-compliance with requirements, and each individual case of such non-compliance, i.e., one of the moments of this process.

Failure and backwardness are interrelated. In poor progress as a product, individual lags are synthesized; it is the result of the lag process, i.e. diverse lags, if they are not overcome, grow, intertwine with each other, and ultimately form poor progress.

Knowing the causes of student failure helps the teacher to eliminate some of them already in preparation for the lesson. It is incomparably easier to prevent students from lagging behind than to deal later with problems in their knowledge.

One of the most common internal causes of academic failure - insufficient development of thinking and other cognitive processes in schoolchildren, the unpreparedness of these children for intense intellectual work in the learning process (mental retardation from their peers).

For about every fifth underachieving student, this is the main reason for poor knowledge, and it is sometimes very difficult to eliminate it. However, with the proper individual approach, many of them school program quite accessible.

This category includes children with retarded mental development. What to hide: you have to work with such children in a regular class. But these children are excitable, easily injured. They get tired quickly. Therefore, it is necessary to create such a microclimate in the classroom so that both they and their comrades do not feel a big difference in their mental development, to exclude any humiliation and contempt for them.

Other subjective the reason why some of our students do not have time is low level schoolchildren's educational work skills ( inattention in the classroom, misunderstanding until the end of the material presented). So, if we conditionally divide all those who are lagging behind into systematically and episodically underachieving, then it turns out that for every second episodically underachieving student, it is precisely the lack of the necessary skills of educational work, disorganization that is the main reason for twos.

In the work to prevent the failure of such students, special attention is paid to the development of habits for educational work. The purposeful work of all teachers, the coordination of their individual work plans for specific students and, of course, the help of parents are especially important here.

Another common reason for failure- the unwillingness of the student to learn due to the lack of sufficiently strong positive incentives for the learning process itself. This reluctance to learn can arise due to various reasons. They all come down to the difficulties of learning. For example, a student does not know how, cannot force himself to study. Sometimes, a reluctance to learn is born the objective difficulty of the subject for the student.

Notations, punishments, complaints to parents often only complicate the situation..

Student reluctance to learn can be caused by student's lack of interest in this subject . A student can be capable, it is easy for him to learn if he wants to, he could do well, but he is indifferent to this particular subject. So another loser appears. Here one should look for and find an approach that would rediscover for this student all the virtues of the subject.

Sometimes there are students for whom doctrine has lost almost all meaning. But even this category of underachievers is not hopeless. If the teacher constantly scolds and shames them at work in front of the whole class, often calls the parents who punish him, then the results will be minimal. It is better to attract such guys to help in the subject room, to involve them in extracurricular work etc. In a word, we need a well-thought-out system of measures in the fight first for interest in the subject, and then for the progress of this student.

Lots of sick leave.

For some underachievers, the main reason for learning difficulties is poor health.

Such students quickly get tired and do not perceive the educational material well. From behind the teacher's table, all children seem, as a rule, healthy, if you do not pay special attention to this issue. These kids need to be known.

A common cause of persistent underachievement is indiscipline of individual students, their number fluctuates widely depending on age, reaching a maximum in grades 8-9. But, the experience of working with such students shows that if you find a feasible and interesting job for them, both in the classroom and outside the classroom, then they gradually improve.

The number of subjective reasons for poor progress includes the sometimes occurring personal dislike of the student to the teacher. Persistent dislike, disrespect for the teacher greatly interfere with the mobilization of the student's efforts, giving rise to poor progress. Any insincerity only worsens the relationship, the sincerity and understanding of the teacher, ultimately, will generate sincerity and relationship on the part of any student.

Consider the objective reasons for failure.

Among them, the most common poor quality work of the subject teacher due to poor knowledge of the subject and methods of teaching it. Of course, the majority of teachers are workaholics. But there is another teacher. With a well-prepared teacher, many underachieving students could do well, but they are classified as lazy or incapable.

next objective reason underachievement is considered students' lack of ability in this subject. Among them there are also diligent, hard-working people who are successfully engaged in many subjects, but who are not doing well, for example, in mathematics or physics.

It is pointless for such students to constantly give bad grades. They work hard without intimidation or punishment with a deuce. For such students, a strictly individual step-by-step program is advisable, providing for feasible, gradually becoming more difficult work in order to bring them to the usual requirements.

The reason for failure is sometimes dysfunctional family. Unfortunately, there are still families where there are no normal conditions for the work of the student, his rest

Failure may be related with the street problem. Rest, outdoor games are essential. However, there are often so many temptations, and so little parental control and student diligence, that negligent students most time after school is spent in the company of street buddies.

Let's note another common reason - the so-called prophylactic deuce. Sometimes the teacher puts a deuce for the student's refusal to answer. Such an approach seems to be objective from the outside. But when such "twos" accumulate, they tend to develop into personal plan student into a new quality - a state of uncertainty, indifference to the assessment. After all, sooner or later, such students, having passed their debts, will receive a quarter of "three". But “four” is simply impossible for them to get, although many of them deserve it.

Requirements for a teacher working with problem children

create a favorable psychological climate in the classroom

do not be irritated, be patient and persistent

when demanding, take into account the real abilities of the student

to every student individual approach; dosed pace and volume of work

take into account the zones of proximal development, gradually increase and complicate the load

teach feasible methods of behavior regulation

diagnostics on all issues of studying personality development and its productivity is the key to successful learning

As a result - a parable.

An old man sits by the side of the road and looks at the road. Sees: a man is walking, and barely keeps up with him a little boy. The man stopped, ordered the child to give the old man water and a piece of bread from the stocks.

– What are you doing here, old man? asked a passerby.

– Waiting for you! the old man replied. “You were entrusted with the upbringing of this child, weren’t you?”

– Right! the man was surprised.

– So take wisdom with you:If you want to plant a tree for a person, plant a fruit tree.If you want to give a person a horse, give the best horse.But if you have been entrusted with a child for upbringing, then return him winged.

– How can I do it, old man, if I can't fly myself? the man was surprised.

– Then do not take the boy to raise! – said the old man and directed his gaze to the sky.

Years have passed.

The old man sits in the same place and looks at the sky.

He sees: a boy is flying, followed by his teacher.

They knelt before the old man and bowed to him.

– Old man, remember, you told me to return the boy with wings. I found a way... You see what wings he has grown! - said the teacher proudly and affectionately circled the wings of his pupil.

But the old man touched the teacher's wings, caressed them and whispered:

– I'm more than happy with your feathers...

Report on the topic: "Bad Children".

1. Why does the child study poorly?

This issue worries both the family and the school. Let us consider the main reasons for the school failure of healthy children, and also dwell on the description of the assistance that a teacher and parents can provide in overcoming them. We are talking about persistent underachievement, and not about those individual cases when, for some reason (illness, domestic circumstances, etc.), the student did not master some section of the academic discipline and received an unsatisfactory grade. We will also refer to the underachievers as “triple students”, who master the school curriculum poorly, superficially and with gaps.

What are the causes of student failure?

Why are underachieving children an “eternal” problem? The main reason for poor progress, first of all, is the lack of strong-willed and some moral qualities of children, the lack of diligence and diligence. At the heart of academic failure is not one reason, but several, and quite often they act in combination. It also happens that new, secondary reasons are superimposed on the initial cause of a student's failure as a result of lagging behind in school. These reasons can also be varied, because schoolchildren do not respond in the same way to their poor performance.

At the first stages of education at primary school age, curiosity, a direct interest in the environment, on the one hand, and the desire to perform socially significant activities, on the other, determine a positive attitude to learning and related emotional experiences about the grades received.

Backlog in learning, bad grades are most often acute, to tears, experienced by children.

Teenagers pay much less attention to their studies. The sphere of their life activities is noticeably expanding: they participate in various circles, go in for sports, devote a lot of time to games and entertainment. The vast majority of teenagers are rather indifferent to their studies, and performance in the middle classes usually declines.

High school students tend to have a differentiated attitude to academic subjects, depending on their professional intentions. This also explains the usually different attitude to the marks obtained in individual subjects. If an unsatisfactory grade is obtained in a subject that is not within the scope of the student's future professional interests, then the attitude towards it will be more calm than towards the grade in the subject of interest to him.

In addition, the attitude towards assessment depends on the student's personal characteristics, such as motivation, relationships with teachers, students, the nature of self-assessment, etc.

Reasons underlying failure:

2) shortcomings in the development of the motivational sphere of children.

Analyzing the causes of the first group, we are talking about when a student does not understand well, is not able to master school subjects qualitatively, does not know how to perform educational activities at the proper level (unformed methods of educational activity, shortcomings in the child’s mental sphere, improper use of his individual characteristics, manifested in cognitive activity).

2. How to teach a child the right way to study.

It is clear that this can be done by replacing the wrong methods and techniques with the right ones. Additional classes with underachievers to consolidate the educational material will not lead to the desired effect, since they are not aimed at eliminating underachievement.

Only in individual work with students it is possible to detect the student's mistakes and omissions, draw his attention and the attention of his parents to them, teach the correct methods of work, and parents - ways to control their use. It is necessary to give him individual tasks.

So, for example, it is well known that many students, even senior students, when mastering the text of a textbook, use such a method of work as reading this text multiple times. Meanwhile, in order to assimilate what has been read, it is necessary to use such rational methods of semantic processing as grouping material, highlighting strong points, drawing up a plan, theses, a logical scheme of what has been read, formulating the main idea, etc.

3. A child who is difficult to teach.

Now let's consider underachieving students, characterized by insufficient formation of basic mental processes. This psychological reason underachievement is more hidden and less obvious. For this reason, errors and blunders that are difficult to detect by students occur, and they most often relate to mental techniques and methods of work, as well as to the characteristics of memory and attention.

We all know that not all students can be taught equally easily. Some students progress more successfully, others more slowly and with great difficulty. Some achieve high achievements, great successes without much effort, others, with all their desire, cannot rise to the same level. In this regard, they talk about the different abilities of the student, about different learning abilities. Deficiencies in the development of thinking are also the cause of underachieving students. These students do not have rational memorization techniques, they do not have developed logical memory, low concentration of attention, they are not involved in active learning work, it is simply difficult for them to participate in it. Therefore, in the classroom they are often distracted by extraneous conversations the teacher's questions take them by surprise.

How can you help your child overcome self-doubt? The teacher and parents should create conditions for the student to experience success and related positive emotions. To do this, it is recommended to set before the student such tasks that will be feasible, doable, as they correspond to his capabilities or are in the zone of his proximal development. It is recommended to reinforce the child's awareness of their successes. It is useful to celebrate and encourage the slightest success of the child in educational activities, even minor changes for the better. Special attention should be given to preventing new failures from taking hold. To do this, by training the will of the child, you need to force him to bring the work he has begun to the end, set specific and clear goals for him to overcome the backlog in school. Adults (school and parents) are most often to blame for the fact that a child lags behind in school.

And again, only the joint work of the teacher and parents can help such children.

4.How to change negative attitude unsuccessful in learning.

We examined the reasons for the failure of students associated with the shortcomings of their cognitive activity. It must be taken into account that difficulties in learning very often demoralize the student and adversely affect his personality. Experiencing these difficulties and not realizing their causes, applying maximum perseverance and diligence, the child, however, does not achieve the desired effect and receives an experience of helplessness. Faith in one's own strength is gradually fading away. If such a student is not promptly assisted in overcoming difficulties and filling in existing gaps in knowledge, then he may experience self-doubt, which can become a stable characteristic of the personality. Such an insecure child is characterized by a discrepancy between his attitude to difficulties and their actual size. Under the influence of failure in solving one learning task he can perceive the rest as unbearable for himself. Interest in learning is declining. Poor progress can lead such children to isolation from the team, their social status worsens. In extreme cases, there may be an aversion to school, a refusal to attend it. These children begin to look for friendships in out-of-school companies, sometimes with a negative social orientation.

Therefore, overcoming the failure of the student should begin as early as possible, when the backlog in school has not yet led to such painful consequences. If time is lost, then the teacher, together with the parents, must establish the reason for the failure. Usually lagging behind students tend to justify their poor performance by reasons beyond their control: too difficult assignments, picky teachers, bad luck. Those who study well are responsible for their studies. What is the secret of their success? One student replied that he was "helped by a personal desire to learn."

Another pointed to the organization and good order of affairs. A third said that "it is necessary to set specific goals for yourself."

Many underachieving students say: “But I’m studying!” They sincerely think that, without looking up, they are sitting over books, but good grades for some reason they don't get it. But studies have shown that they study much less than their classmates. Lack of respect for performance homework often results in poor performance. To improve academic performance, you need to devote more time to doing homework than usual. Here, strict control by the parents is necessary, since it is the parents who are responsible for the upbringing and education of their children.

1) do not put the weak in the situation of an unexpected question and a quick answer to it; give the student enough time to think and prepare;

2) it is desirable that the answer is not oral, but in writing;

3) it is impossible to give large, varied, complex material for assimilation in a limited period of time; you need to try to break it into separate information pieces and give them gradually, as they are mastered;

4) it is best not to force such students to answer new material that has just been learned in the lesson: the survey should be postponed for the next lesson, giving the student the opportunity to study at home;

5) through the correct tactics of surveys and rewards (not only by assessment, but also by remarks such as "excellent", "well done", "clever", etc.), it is necessary to form such a student's confidence in his abilities, in his knowledge, in opportunities to learn; this confidence will help the student in extreme, stressful situations of exams, tests, tests, olympiads, etc.;

6) one should be more careful in assessing the failures of the student, because he himself is very painful about them;

7) during the preparation of the answer, time must be given to check and correct what is written;

8) you should distract him as little as possible, try not to divert his attention, create a calm, not nervous environment.

1) do not demand from them immediate inclusion in the work; their activity in performing a new type of task increases gradually;

2) it should be remembered that the inert ones cannot be highly active in performing various tasks, and some generally refuse to work in such a situation;

3) no need to demand from an inert student rapid change unsuccessful formulations, he needs time to think about a new answer; they more often follow accepted standards in their answers, avoid improvisation;

4) since inert students are hardly distracted from the previous situation (for example, from the things they were busy with during the break), they should not be interviewed at the beginning of the lesson;

5) it is necessary to avoid situations when a quick oral answer to an unexpected question is required from an inert student; the inert should be given time to think and prepare;

6) at the time of performing tasks, they should not be distracted, diverted attention to something else;

7) it is undesirable to force an inert student to answer new, just passed material; you should postpone his survey until the next time, giving you the opportunity to work out at home.

1. The best time to do homework is from 15-18 hours. Classes in the evening are ineffective.

2. The first task should be familiar, doable. This allows you to better get involved in the work, feel success, believe in yourself, and then the next difficult task will not become an insurmountable obstacle.

3. Not a single student is able to complete all the tasks in one sitting, therefore it is necessary to take a break after 30-40 minutes to rest in order to relax, change the position, and relieve eye strain. You can drink a glass of juice, eat an apple or a slice of chocolate.

4. Work should go at a good pace - from 1 hour in the second grade to 4-5 hours for high school students.

5. It is impossible for a student not to have other responsibilities in addition to studying: a person who has to do a lot of things during the day gets used to appreciating time, planning work, starting it without delay.

6. Teaching a child to correct regimen must be combined with your self-discipline, respect for the child, goodwill, interest, reasonable demands and control.

7.Lessons are best taught in calm environment so turn off the TV, radio.

8. Do not prepare lessons first on a draft, and then rewrite. This does not give a positive result, but creates additional fatigue.

9. Try not to scold the child for failures, ineptitude, it is better to find something to praise for.

1. Why they don't study well

2. What are the lagging students

3. About school maturity

4. Correction of poor progress

5. Help in regular class

6. Infantile children

Why do they study poorly?

We strictly ask from children. And if children could strictly demand from us that we faithfully fulfill our duty of education, then many special problems would be solved. Hooligans, ignoramuses grow out of kids because of our careless upbringing, because they cannot reason with adults - irresponsible educators.

Sh.A. Amonashvili

An unsuccessful student is a legendary figure both in life and in pedagogy. Among the unsuccessful were Newton, Darwin, Walter Scott, Linnaeus, Einstein, Edison, Shakespeare, Byron, Gogol, Herzen. Pushkin was the last in the mathematical class. Many, many other famous and prominent people have had difficulty in elementary school and have been classified as hopeless. These facts confirm that not everything is simple and unambiguous with a lagging, unsuccessful student.

Let's try to identify a failing student. This is a child who cannot demonstrate the level of knowledge, skills, speed of thinking and performing operations that the children studying next to him show. Does that mean he's worse than them? Probably not. Special surveys of the intellect of children who are lagging behind in their studies show that in terms of basic intellectual indicators they are not only no worse, but even better than many well-performing schoolchildren. There are many possible Einsteins among them. Teachers are often surprised: how could one or another student who was considered a hopeless loser achieve success? And there is no miracle - it was a child who did not like what was offered to him at school.

Our school is designed for the average student. Anyone else is uncomfortable with it. A non-average, non-standard child with developmental disabilities cannot make friends with such a school. And not because callous, soulless people work here. And because they are limited by general conditions and requirements, they are forced to present the results of their work at some point. The requirements are tough and ruthless: if you don’t learn to read at a given speed, then you’re bad; if you don’t know how to solve addition problems, you’re lagging behind;

We have already considered the concept of norm. And they confirmed that 80% of children drop out of it. They are non-standard, exceptional, with developmental disabilities, with deviations in behavior, thinking and performance. This means that a general school designed for the average student will not be able to satisfy them. All deviations, all difficulties, all the troubles of non-standard children are already predetermined.

non-standard we call children those whose development either advances or lags behind the age norm. Among underachieving schoolchildren there are many children whose overall development exceeds the established norm. These are children with a special worldview, their own worldview, bright, original ways of thinking. non-standard, special child sometimes it is simply incomprehensible to the teacher, his thinking is so original that it does not correlate well with school reality, and therefore is discarded by it. Among the lagging behind, there are often children with a peculiar worldview. The reason for educational misunderstandings may be non-standard perception of figurative material - not from left to right, but from right to left; description of events not in temporal, but in emotional sequence, etc. The teacher does not always act correctly in such cases: without understanding, he can put a deuce for an unlearned rule, for an original, non-standard explanation, a lesson answer. It is very bad for a non-standard child with such a teacher.

Bright, original children rarely become the object of pedagogical analysis. The school pays all its attention to the lagging behind. It is they who ultimately determine the performance indicators by which school and teacher performance is traditionally assessed. Before giving an unsatisfactory rating, think about whether you are doing the right thing. The task of correctional pedagogy is to carefully study not only the behavior of the child, but also his abilities, the ability to communicate, think outside the box, and respond. For example, let's consider some categories of children that are traditionally studied in the section of pedology of defectology.

Children with developmental delay- these are those who, for various reasons, have experienced deviations from the age norm of the formation of physical, social, moral, intellectual qualities - a common characteristic: learning lag, deviant behavior. They have a hard time completing tasks. They have very low self-esteem. Such children are more likely than others to receive comments from a teacher who punishes them. This affects the attitude of classmates towards them very significantly. They do not want to be friends with them, to sit at the same desk. The state of dissatisfaction with their position in the school pushes them to unmotivated violations of discipline: shouting in the classroom, running along the corridors, pugnacity.

Developmental delay is due to many general and individual causes. Among them are the causes of organic and inorganic, extracurricular and school, objective and subjective origin. Both those and other reasons are mainly related to the child's life in the family, his stay outside of school, and also as a result of school education. Among the reasons of organic origin unfavorable heredity. According to some data, about 20% of children are born with intellectual pathology, more than 50% with other disorders that can lead to developmental delays. For children with genetic malformations, cognitive impairments are characteristic, which are associated with a lack of memory, attention, pace and mobility of mental processes, increased exhaustion, low working capacity, and insufficient development of the cortical functions of the brain. Delay mental development in such children it is often combined with psychomotor disinhibition or, on the contrary, with lethargy and apathy, with neurotic disorders, with a delay in physical development, and a general weakening of health.

What awaits them at school age? Low level of intellectual activity, underdevelopment of voluntary regulation of behavior, immaturity of emotional and personal components of activity, inability to voluntarily focus on tasks, increased fatigue, unformed purposeful activity, as well as intellectual operations, basic concepts and ideas. Due to the uneven development of the basic mental functions, these children have uneven development of cognitive activity: with pronounced difficulties in solving verbal and logical problems, children cope relatively well with tasks of a visual-figurative and visual-effective nature, with generalizations at a visual level. Insufficient general readiness for schooling, which in most normal children takes shape by the age of 6-7, becomes the main and immediate reason for their poor progress.

Children with mental retardation have incomplete, undifferentiated, incorrect ideas about objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality. They are characterized by difficulties in practical analysis and communication, in comparing objects and phenomena according to essential features. The speech of children with mental retardation, although it satisfies the need for everyday communication and does not have gross violations of vocabulary and grammatical structure, is characterized by poor vocabulary and grammatical structures, they have insufficiently developed phonemic hearing. Such children are characterized by difficulties in understanding works of art, causal and other relationships in texts. Ideas about quantitative relations they are also underdeveloped.

Children with developmental delay are socially immature. By the beginning of schooling, they have insufficient formation of interests, the predominance of game motivation. Children cannot establish normal communication with peers. They have a poor idea of ​​the basic realities of life, their tasks. They are characterized by disorganization, impulsiveness, violation of the sequence of actions, low productivity, weakened self-control.

With a favorable environment in the family and a skillful pedagogical approach at school, children with mild developmental delay overcome their backlog and satisfactorily, albeit with difficulty, master the program in a general education school. With a significant severity of mental retardation in children, persistent poor progress is found, which forms in them a negative attitude towards learning and school in general, neuroticism, and disruptions in behavior.

Wrong family upbringing also the most common cause of out-of-school backgrounds. Children brought up in families where insufficient attention is paid to games, books, reading, leisure activities, communication, as a rule, suffer from narrowness and poverty of interests. At school, this is immediately revealed.

Among the reasons for underdevelopment are social neglect, deprivation. The child has no genetic abnormalities, capable, curious, active, but - alas! due to various life circumstances, deprived of normal conditions for self-development, by the age of 6-7, he is beyond the threshold of his potential. I could, but I couldn't. Deprived of parental love, care, affection and warmth, exactingness and support, his mental, social and moral functions developed halfway and did not reach the proper level.

Coming to school, such a child will look underdeveloped and may end up in the ranks pedagogically neglected children. (Teachers love healthy, smart, beautiful children, they even involuntarily overestimate their grades. And what can an unsympathetic, unfriendly deprivation count on? At best, on the condescension and guardianship of a soft pedagogical heart. And if it turns out to be hard and cruel?)

For a non-standard child, the school will become a stepmother. In such a school, he will feel unloved, rejected, superfluous. A syndrome of helplessness will form, inability to change anything. The American psychologist M. Seligman conducted the following experiment: a rat was placed in a cage, to which a weak electric current was connected, from which there was no escape. After a certain time, she resigned herself to her fate. She did not seek salvation even when she was transferred to another cage where she could escape with minimal effort or look for a safe place. The rat, which from childhood grew up in a cage where it could always find shelter, being transferred to a cage where there was no such place, persistently continues to look for it and does not lose hope, no matter how long it stays in this cage. The state in which the passive rat found itself, the scientist called educated helplessness.

If you look closely, then educated helplessness is typical for most underachieving first graders. Convinced that any of their efforts to cope with school difficulties are in vain, they forever lose the desire for intellectual activity.

We have repeatedly and from different angles approached the issue of the child's sensitivity to the assessment of his success. It is enough for an experienced specialist to ask a younger student one harmless question: how are you, Vitya? - in order to accurately determine who is in front of him - an excellent student, an average performer or a lagging behind. Cheerfully and briskly answer the first. The second one is a bit slow. Timidly, uncertainly, in a whisper, the problem student will inform you that he is doing well, he will shrink and try not to catch your eye anymore in order to avoid such a question.

An unsuccessful student clearly understands the insufficiency of his results. For the vast majority of those who are lagging behind, their poor progress is an inhibitory, stressful, traumatic factor. In some cases, the teacher's attempts to help them only increase anxiety and insecurity, especially when academic failure does not improve. Some children, even when a teacher approaches or addresses them, fall into a stupor. (My hands are shaking, and I forget everything. It seems to me that I am falling somewhere, and my head is empty. If the teacher comes up to me, then I tremble with fear)

What are these children afraid of? (The teacher will say that I'm stupid. Everyone will laugh. They always laugh if I say something wrong. Whatever I say, everything will be wrong, because I'm stupid. I don't know, I'm just scared that's all. )

So, underachieving children are most afraid of confirmation of their own helplessness. Their fear of failure, defeat becomes one of the main reasons for academic failure. Afraid to answer incorrectly, the child is silent. Fearing that the work will be underestimated, does not work at all.

Research shows that kids who are scared of school perform better outside the classroom. Even challenging tasks an underachieving student is good at playing extra-curricular activities and shows complete helplessness in front of them in the classroom. Smart, quick-witted home dreamers and creators literally become stupid before our eyes when they get into the classroom. And the main inhibitory factor here is the fear of defeat, the fear of low evaluation.

Against their background, unbridled, poorly thinking, but lively children appear in the classroom, who, with their cries, stupid, but quick and bold answers, create an atmosphere of class life - rapidly changing and poorly controlled.

It is vain to think that the abolition of grades can improve the situation. On the contrary, with the inept use of verbal assessment, the situation may worsen. Having separated the assessment from a specific exercise, task, answer, the teacher seemed to generalize it. The student now did not just perform poorly this and only this exercise, not decided this one and only this one task, and didn't get the job done at all. He's already clumsy, lagging behind. You can rewrite the exercise, solve the problem correctly and get a higher grade. In non-judgmental learning, the trauma of defeat is much stronger than the influence of praise.

Fear in itself is not and cannot be a significant factor or cause of underachievement. Fear in this case is already a consequence. It is defeat, the feeling of inferiority, helplessness, defenselessness, educational deprivation that pushes any normal child into the ranks of underachievers.

Fear becomes the cause of disturbing anomalies. Children with mental retardation, with insufficient school maturity more often than others fall into school neurosis. School neurosis is one of the main reasons for lagging behind in studies, born by the school. In severe cases, it can develop into a disease that requires long-term treatment. It is easy to recognize a schoolboy suppressed by a neurosis. He is afraid of the teacher, does not want to go to school, is constantly nervous, does not sleep well, often cries, skips classes at the first opportunity. The causes of school neurosis can be divided into intra-school and extra-school.

Independence, disobedience, uncontrollability, rudeness;

Non-contact, restraint, alertness, anger;

Refusal to work, ignoring comments, engaging in side affairs.

Energy, independence, ingenuity;

Help for parents, communication on an equal footing;

Activity, entrepreneurship.

As you can see, school neurosis is acquired at school. This question seems not so simple: can a school be considered a place of increased danger for a child? In many cases, we can give an affirmative answer.

Recently, it has been practiced to transfer underachieving and sick students to individual training at home. Such training, of course, has its advantages, but it also has many disadvantages. Firstly, it is expensive and not every school has the money for additional teaching positions. Secondly, the child grows and forms outside the team, will go into life without the skills of cooperation with other people, and in adulthood these qualities are not formed. The life of an individualist is difficult, full of difficulties and inconveniences. Therefore, it is necessary to look for better ways to help such children.

Of no small importance in training is such a disadvantage as infantilism, i.e. childishness, immaturity of the child. Starting imperceptibly at home, it will be aggravated by the school and will lead a completely normal child into underachieving students.

Most often, objective and subjective reasons are intricately intertwined, acting together. Any very small child is enough for a child with developmental disabilities to begin to lag behind and his relationship with the school becomes more complicated! Against the background of large ones, small, but no less dangerous factors are lost. These are predominantly subjective, poorly controllable causes.

Among them:

Insufficient readiness of the child for schooling - lack of the necessary knowledge, skills and habits;

Student's disbelief in his own strength, loser syndrome; increased conformism - the student's submission to the norms of the class, group, and not to his own aspirations;

Evaluation of achievements not by real progress in studies, but by performance in comparison with the best students in the class;

An average, general approach to assessing academic performance, which does not correctly assess the potential of each child;

The difficulty of taking into account the needs and capabilities of all children in the class;

Lack of special teaching methods for non-standard children;

The mood of the class teacher for a certain method of conducting a lesson, which may not meet the needs of many children;

The inability of many teachers to mobile restructuring depending on emerging situations.

These reasons for underachievement largely depend on the behavior of the teacher. Another teacher puts undue pressure on a student. The child cannot, but the teacher demands. Result: the student completely ceases to do what is required of him, cries, shows aggression, withdraws into himself.

If all these factors could be quickly and correctly taken into account, then school failure would have been done away with long ago. Unfortunately, it is not. If the action of objective factors can be assumed, then it is much more difficult to predict the action of subjective factors.

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A statistical study was conducted - observation of the fate of students who did not do well in the 1st grade, the results are impressive: almost 80% of children who poorly mastered the 1st grade program remained among the losers not only all the years of schooling, but also suffered their failure in adulthood. Quality of mastery basic knowledge, which gives elementary school, is of decisive importance for the future fate of a person.

Are there any chances for potentially talented but underachieving first graders to succeed in life?

How can one explain that C. Darwin or A. Einstein did not do well at school, but became outstanding people?

To summarize: there are many reasons for school failure. It is not at all necessary that they act together and at the same time, one, even the weakest, is enough. From this it becomes clear why early school failure is so poorly corrected, despite the significant efforts of teachers. Among the reasons that cause children to fall behind in school, factors of organic and inorganic, school and out-of-school origin are important. Among them are unfavorable heredity; disorders of nervous activity; general incapacity for intellectual work; physical weakness; unpreparedness for systematic educational work; school immaturity; pedagogical neglect; insufficient development of speech; insufficient formation of elementary skills - reading, writing, counting skills; cognitive passivity and indifference; fear of school, teachers; infantilism. All of these factors affect school performance and subjective reasons.