An example of a formative experiment in educational psychology. See what "Formative Experiment" is in other dictionaries

Formative experiment as the main method of educational psychology

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2. Purpose and main stages of the formative experiment

A formative experiment is a method used in developmental and educational psychology to trace changes in the child's psyche in the process of the researcher's active influence on the subject.

The formative experiment is widely used in domestic psychology when studying specific ways of shaping a child's personality, providing a combination of psychological research with pedagogical search and designing the most effective forms of the educational process.

Synonyms for formative experiment:

transformative,

Creative,

educator,

educational,

Method of active formation of the psyche.

According to the goals, the ascertaining and forming experiments are distinguished.

The purpose of the ascertaining experiment is to measure the current level of development (for example, the level of development of abstract thinking, the moral-volitional qualities of a person, etc.). Thus, the primary material for organizing a formative experiment is obtained.

The shaping (transforming, teaching) experiment aims not to simply state the level of formation of this or that activity, the development of certain aspects of the psyche, but their active formation or upbringing. In this case, a special experimental situation is created, which allows not only to identify the conditions necessary for organizing the required behavior, but also to experimentally carry out the purposeful development of new types of activity, complex mental functions and to reveal their structure more deeply. The basis of the formative experiment is the experimental genetic method for studying mental development.

The theoretical basis of the formative experiment is the concept of the leading role of training and education in mental development.

The formative experiment has a number of stages. At the first stage, through observation, ascertaining experiments and other methods, the actual state and level of that mental process, property, attribute, which we are going to influence in the future, is established. In other words, psychological diagnostics of one or another side of mental development is carried out. Based on the data obtained, the researcher, based on theoretical ideas about the nature and driving forces of the development of this side of the psyche, develops a plan for active psychological and pedagogical influence, i.e., predicts the path of development of this phenomenon.

At the second stage, the active formation of the studied property is carried out in the process of specially organized experimental training and education. In this case, it differs from the usual educational process in strictly defined changes in the content, organization, and methods of pedagogical influences. At the same time, a specific impact can be tested in each individual study.

At the final stage and during the study itself, diagnostic experiments are carried out, as a result of which we control the course of the ongoing changes and measure the results.

To make sure that the changes recorded after the formative experiments occurred precisely from their impact, it is necessary to compare the results obtained not only with the initial level, but also with the results in groups where the experiment was not conducted. Such groups, in contrast to the studied, experimental, are called control. At the same time, both rows of groups should be the same in terms of age, volume, and level of development of children. It is desirable that the same teacher-experimenter conducts work in them. In other words, it is necessary to observe all the rules of psychological experimentation and especially the principle of maintaining equal conditions of experience.

Let's take an example. In studies conducted under the guidance of A.V. Zaporozhets, the formative experiment was used to test the hypothesis that under certain conditions it is possible to raise the processes of perception to a new level, to develop certain aspects of the child's sensory. It turned out that it is difficult for children to distinguish sounds by pitch. For the development of pitch hearing, a formative experiment was developed, in which objects were introduced, the spatial properties and relationships of which, as it were, “modeled” pitch relationships. Dramatization scenes were played out in front of the children, in which a large “daddy bear” made low sounds, a “mother bear”, which was smaller and made higher sounds, and a very small “bear son”, made even higher sounds, took part. . Then the experimenter, together with the children, acted out scenes from the life of these characters: the "bears" were hiding in different places, and the child had to find them by their voice. It turned out that after such training, even younger children (2-4 years old) begin not only to easily distinguish by the height of the voices emitted by toy animals, but also more successfully differentiate any sounds that they meet for the first time and are completely unrelated to any known to them. items. Here is an example of a formative experiment from another area of child psychology.

formative experiment didactic learning

Correction and development of attention in children of senior preschool age

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The problem of development in developmental psychology

Psychological and pedagogical conditions for the development of attention in children 5-6 years old with speech impairment

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Development of creative thinking of younger schoolchildren in the process of art and design activities

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The role of the activities of younger students in the development of perception

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Formative experiment as the main method of educational psychology

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Experiment as a method of psychological research

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Experiment as the main method of psychological research

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Introduction

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The search for the objectivity of the results of psychological research is historically associated with the introduction of the experiment. Moreover, different types of experiment are traditionally used in different psychological disciplines, the choice of which is determined by the subject under study and the research hypothesis. In those branches of psychology where the subject field includes phenomena that reveal the relationship between the macro- and microsocial environment and the psyche, which include social, economic, environmental, ethnic, political, etc., the importance of a natural experiment increases. The formative experiment is a significant restructuring of psychological and pedagogical practice. It is this type of research methods of various branches of psychology that reveals the reserves of mental development and at the same time constructs and creates new psychological characteristics of the subjects. Therefore, formative and educational experiments are included in a special category of methods of psychological research and influence. They allow you to directionally form the features of such mental processes as perception, attention, memory, thinking.

The object of research is a formative experiment. The subject of the research is a formative experiment as the main method of educational psychology.

The purpose of the work is to explore the features of the formative experiment as the main method of educational psychology.

To achieve this goal, the following tasks were solved:

consider the development and place of the method of formative experiment in the system of methods.

identify the purpose and main stages of the formative experiment

analyze experiential learning as a kind of formative experiment.

1. Method of formative experiment: development and place in the system of methods

The problem of the validity of the application of the experimental method in socio-psychological research is a topic of heated discussions in the first half of the last century, but even today it continues to excite researchers. So, emphasizing that "social psychology has become an experimental science", S. Moscovici focuses on the laboratory experiment, downplaying the role of the natural, and D. Myers specifies that out of every three experiments in American social psychology of the second half of the 20th century, two are laboratory experiments. . The reason for the research preferences is due to the low control of internal validity factors in natural experiment. A significant step in changing the situation in favor of increasing the reliability of the results of natural socio-psychological experiments was made by D. Campbell, who described the specifics of the main models and plans for experimental and quasi-experimental studies. As a result, in the logic of modern socio-psychological works using a natural experiment, argumentation of conclusions began to appear, supported by an analysis of the degree of implementation of plans and methods of collecting data, the use of hypothetical constructs, etc.

Developing the experimental direction, social psychologists traditionally focus on expanding the procedures of a laboratory experiment, one of the significant shortcomings of which, along with the already known ones (methods of control, the influence of the subject and the experimenter, etc.), can be considered the manifestation in its results of the so-called "subjective factors", which, on the one hand, should be of interest to the researcher, and on the other hand, "do not give the opportunity to conduct it according to the strict canons of a natural science experiment."

B. F. Lomov saw a way out of this situation in the emerging experiment, “which, for understanding the determinations of mental phenomena, can give more than an experiment that simply fixes the states, as if proceeding independently of it” (Lomov, 1984, p. 42). He considered the main development of the experiment in a systematic approach through the possibilities of analyzing mental, socio-psychological and other phenomena not in terms of individual indicators, but in their interconnection, in their system.

One of the problems associated with the understanding and, accordingly, the application of the method is to determine its place in a number of other methods that are similar in content. Comparing "natural experiment" with "field experiment" and "social experiment", they usually point not to their similarity, but to mutual overlap (Kornilova, 1997; Klimov, 1998; etc.). So, from the point of view of E.A. Klimov, "the narrow meaning of the" natural experiment correlates with the same concept "social experiment which includes assumptions about the impact of changing social conditions on a person’s life ... ”(Klimov, 1998, p. 54), but only if it uses the forms and means of scientific control over the conclusion about the truth of judgments. In other cases, the "social experiment" is not an experiment in the full sense of the word as a diagnostic and research method, since its main goal is to introduce new forms of social organization and improve the management of society.

Concerning the very term "formative experiment" there are also different opinions. The addition "forming" to the dyad "natural experiment" indicates the purposefulness, activity of the experimenter's actions, focused on the creation, transformation, change of mental functions and personality traits, characteristics of the group and individuals included in it, etc. It is important to emphasize that in the future we will consider the type of experimentation in natural conditions, which is traditionally focused on testing causal hypotheses, and not structural-functional ones, which were used in the works of L.S. Vygotsky (method of "double stimulation") and P.Ya. Galperin (the method of "stage-by-stage formation of mental actions and concepts") and included "components of diagnostics (internal structures of basic processes) and a greater range for the manifestation of self-regulation (or its complete cutting off) in the "experimental activity of the subjects." These types of studies, according to T.V. Kornilova, can only conditionally be classified as experimental and should be singled out as special types of research. However, their application in social psychology is not so common.

Taking into account the advantages of the method under study, however, it should be noted that the subject field of social psychology is limited for its application. With the help of this method, the following are studied: conditions and socio-psychological technologies of influencing the professional, economic, moral and other types of self-awareness of the individual; some aspects of the formation of social intelligence, organizational and communication skills, leadership, helping behavior; socio-psychological dynamics (value orientations, attitudes, attitudes, ideas) of the individual in labor, educational and gaming activities; labor productivity factors and various categories of relations in production teams, etc. Most of them act as dependent variables. Independent variables in this type of experiment are usually various types of social impact, carried out in different forms: education (social, economic, professional, etc.), upbringing (in the family and outside the family), work, leisure, communication, games, trainings, discussions, meetings, etc. Thus, we can say that the natural formative experiment gives us the main preference, which is considered as its main advantage - the identification of not only causes and consequences (or effects), but also the consideration of the system of determination of the causal connection.

2. Purpose and main stages of the formative experiment

A formative experiment is a method used in developmental and educational psychology to trace changes in the child's psyche in the process of the researcher's active influence on the subject.

Synonyms for formative experiment:

transformative,

creative,

educating,

educational,

method of active formation of the psyche.

According to the goals, the ascertaining and forming experiments are distinguished.

The theoretical basis of the formative experiment is the concept of the leading role of training and education in mental development.

At the final stage and during the study itself, diagnostic experiments are carried out, as a result of which we control the course of the ongoing changes and measure the results.

formative experiment didactic learning

3. Experiential learning as a formative experiment

Experimental learning is one of the modern methods for studying psychological and didactic problems. There are two types of experiential learning:

individual teaching experiment, already firmly established in science;

collective experimental training, which began to be widely used in psychology and pedagogy only in the 60s. 20th century

An individual experiment allows not only to ascertain the already established features of mental processes in a person, but also purposefully form them, reaching a certain level and quality. Thanks to this, it is possible to experimentally study the genesis of perception, attention, memory, thinking and other mental processes through the educational process. The theory of mental abilities as in vivo developing functional systems of the brain (A.N. Leontiev), the theory of the phased formation of mental actions (P.Ya. Galperin) and a number of other theories created in Russian psychology were based on data obtained mainly with the help of teaching experiments .

Collective experimental training is carried out on the scale of entire kindergarten groups, school classes, student groups, etc. The organization of such research is primarily related to the needs of pedagogy and psychology in an in-depth study of the impact of education on a person’s mental development, in particular, in studying the age-related possibilities for the development of the psyche a person under different conditions of his activity (studies by L.V. Zankov, G.S. Kostyuk, A.A. Lyublinskaya, B.I. Khachapuridze, D.B. Elkonin, etc.).

Previously, these problems were developed on the basis of mass material in relation to the system of conditions that spontaneously develop and dominate in given concrete historical circumstances. The information obtained in this way about the peculiarities of a person's mental development was often absolutized, and the sources of the development of this process were sometimes seen only in the more or less constant psychological nature of the individual himself.

The main task of experimental learning is to significantly change and vary the content and forms of human learning activity in order to determine the impact of these changes on the pace and characteristics of mental (in particular, mental) development, on the pace and characteristics of the formation of his perception, attention, memory, thinking, will etc. Thanks to this, it is possible to investigate the internal links that exist between learning and development, to describe the different types of these links, and also to find the conditions of educational activity that are most conducive to mental development at a particular age. In the process of experimental teaching, it is possible to form, for example, such a level of a child's intellectual activity that cannot be observed in him under the usual teaching system.

Conducting experimental training in teams (groups, classes or their complexes) ensures the regularity, systematicity and continuity of the necessary training influences, and also provides a variety of mass material for further statistical processing.

Experiential learning proper must satisfy certain specific requirements arising from the need to respect the basic vital interests of the subjects. These studies should not harm the spiritual and moral health of the people participating in them. In experimental groups, classes and schools, the most favorable conditions for learning activities are created and maintained.

The experiential learning methodology has the following main features:

details of the process and learning outcomes are recorded in detail and in a timely manner;

with the help of special systems of tasks, both the level of assimilation of educational material and the level of mental development of the subjects at different stages of experimental training are regularly determined;

these data are compared with those obtained during the survey of control groups and classes (engaged in conditions that are accepted as normal).

In combination with an individual teaching experiment, collective experimental teaching is increasingly being used in psychology and didactics as a special method for studying the complex processes of a person's mental development.

Advantages of the formative experiment:

orientation to the development of the student in the educational process;

theoretical validity of the experimental model of the organization of this process;

Among the main results of the application of the formative experiment in educational psychology are the following:

The patterns of development of cognitive abilities in preschoolers were established. The features and conditions of the transition from the preschool period to school education have been established (research by E.E. Shuleshko and others). The possibility and expediency of the formation of the foundations of scientific and theoretical thinking among junior schoolchildren and the decisive importance in this of the content and teaching methods (research by V.V. Davydov, D.B. Elkonin, etc.) and others have been proved.

Conclusion

Based on the results of the work performed, the following conclusions were made.

In educational psychology, all the methods that are in general, age and many other branches of psychology are used: observation, oral and written survey, method of analyzing products of activity, content analysis, experiment, etc., but only here they are used taking into account the age of children. and those psychological and pedagogical problems in the context of which there is a need to address them.

The formative psychological and pedagogical experiment as a method appeared thanks to the theory of activity (A.N. Leontiev, D.B. Elkonin, etc.), which affirms the idea of the primacy of activity in relation to mental development. During the formative experiment, active actions are performed by both the subjects and the experimenter. On the part of the experimenter, a high degree of intervention and control over the underlying variables is required. This distinguishes experiment from observation or examination.

A formative experiment means that a person or a group of people participate in the training organized by the experimenters and the formation of certain qualities and skills. And if the result is formed, we do not need to guess what led to this result: it was this technique that led to the result. There is no need to guess what the skill level of a particular person is - as far as you taught him the skill in the experiment, so he owns it. If you want a more sustainable skill, keep building.

In such an experiment, two groups usually participate: experimental and control. The participants of the experimental group are offered a certain task, which (according to the experimenters) will contribute to the formation of a given quality.

The control group of subjects is not given this task. At the end of the experiment, the two groups are compared with each other to evaluate the results.

Bibliography

1.Asmontas B.B. Pedagogical psychology // #"justify">2. Drobysheva T.V. Natural formative experiment in socio-psychological research: advantages and difficulties of application // Experimental psychology in Russia: Traditions and perspectives. - C. 32-37.

.Zhukov Yu.M., Grzhegorzhevskaya I.A. Experiment in social psychology: problems and prospects // Methodology and methods of social psychology / Ed. ed. E.V. Shorokhov. M.: Nauka, 1997. S. 44-54.

.Zimnyaya I.A. Pedagogical psychology. M.: Prior, 2006. 312 p.

.Klimov E.A. "Natural" and "social" experiments in psychological research // Methods of research in psychology: quasi-experiment / Ed. T.V. Kornilova. M.: Publishing house. group "Forum" - "Infra-M", 1998. S. 54-75.

An experiment in psychology is the main method of scientific knowledge. With its help, changes in the behavior of a person (or a group of persons) are studied in a situation of systematic management of those factors that determine it. To achieve the goal, the researcher needs to create specific conditions for their appearance.

An essential feature of the experiment is a clear and rigid selection of a specific factor under study. A prerequisite is the registration of emerging changes.

But in psychology, of course, it is impossible to achieve absolute isolation. That is why the selection of the factor is carried out only by selection, as well as by comparing and studying two groups of respondents, two situations, and so on.

Types of experiments

Several parameters can be distinguished, on the basis of which different types of this psychological and pedagogical method are distinguished.

First, the natural and laboratory experiment is distinguished by the form of organization. The second type is usually carried out under artificial conditions, which are designed to ensure the exceptional purity of the results obtained.

A natural experiment is carried out, as a rule, under normal, standard conditions for the test subject. Its essential disadvantage is the obligatory presence of uncontrollable factors. But their influence cannot be established, nor can it be quantified.

Secondly, according to the goals, a formative and ascertaining experiment is distinguished. Let's try to understand the main nuances of their separation.

An ascertaining experiment is one that establishes the existence of a certain and obligatory phenomenon or fact. But to achieve this goal, it must meet certain requirements. Thus, an experiment can become ascertaining only if the researcher is faced with the task of identifying the existing state, as well as the level of formation of a certain property, or the factor being studied. Consequently, the current level in the development of the selected parameter in the respondent, or in the group of subjects, becomes a priority for study. This is what defines this method. The ascertaining experiment has the following purpose: measuring the existing level of development, as well as obtaining initial material for organizing further research, a formative experiment.

This method is also called teaching and transforming, which aims at the active formation of certain parameters in the mental development of a person, levels of activity, and so on. Formative experiment is usually used in the study of certain paths. This is provided by the complex sciences. So, for example, when raising a child, a synthesis of psychological knowledge with pedagogical searches will be necessary.

The purpose of the formative experiment is: teaching knowledge and skills; development of skills and certain personality traits.

But in order for it to have a positive result, specific requirements will be imposed on the experimenter and the method itself:

A theoretical development of ideas about the psychological parameters identified in the study, which, in fact, will be formed, is necessary.
The course and program of the experiment must be clearly planned.
In the process of work, it is necessary to fully take into account the existing factors in real learning that influence the formation of the studied phenomena in the psyche.

A scientist must be able to choose the right method in accordance with the method that he needs: a stating experiment, laboratory, formative, or natural.

Main directions of experimental research

Topic 4.1. Features of the experimental method in pedagogy

Features of the application of the experimental method in psychological and pedagogical research.

There are the following areas of experimental research in educational psychology:

Study of the problem of the relationship between learning and mental development;
Study of the structure, functioning and conditions for the development of educational activities at different stages of education;
Comparative psychological and pedagogical analysis of traditional and innovative teaching strategies;
Psychology of learning and personality development in the learning process;
Study of the problem of the correlation of education, upbringing and development;
Study of the problem of taking into account sensitive periods of development in the educational process;
Study of the problem of identifying and teaching gifted children;
Study of the problem of development and implementation of innovative technologies in the educational process (including developmental learning systems);
Study of the problem of correlation of cognitive personal development of students in the learning process;
Problems of psychodiagnostics of the cognitive and personal level of development of students in the educational process;
Study of the problem of psychological preparation of teachers, etc.

The formative experiment is used in developmental and educational psychology, the main essence of which is that it is a way to track changes in the child's psyche in the process of the researcher's active influence on the subject. The formative experiment allows not to be limited to the registration of revealed facts, but through the creation of special situations to reveal patterns, mechanisms, dynamics, tendencies of mental development, personality formation, determining the possibilities for optimizing this process.

The synonyms of the formative experiment are such concepts as transforming, creative, educating, teaching, genetic-modeling experiment, method of active formation, etc.

The formative experiment is used in the study of the conditions, principles, ways of forming the child's personality, providing a combination of psychological research with pedagogical search and design of the most effective forms of the educational process. Also, the use of a formative experiment is associated with the restructuring of certain characteristics of the educational process and the identification of the influence of this restructuring on the age, intellectual and characterological characteristics of the subjects. In essence, this research method acts as a means of creating a broad experimental context for the use of other methods.

A formative experiment is often used to compare the impact of different training programs on the mental development of the subjects. It is a mass experiment, i.e. statistical significance is achieved at the expense of a large area - a school, a teaching staff, etc., besides, this is a long, prolonged experiment, an experiment not for the sake of experiment, but for the sake of implementing one or another general theoretical concept in a certain area of psychology. This is a complex experiment that requires the joint efforts of theoretical psychologists, practical psychologists, research psychologists, didactics, methodologists, etc.

Thus, the formative experiment is a significant restructuring of psychological and pedagogical practice (as a joint activity of the researcher and the subject) and, first of all, a restructuring of its content and methods, leading to significant modifications in the course of mental development and characterological characteristics of the subjects. It is precisely because of these characteristics that this formative experiment reveals the reserves of mental development and at the same time constructs, creates new psychological characteristics of the subjects. Therefore, shaping and teaching experiments make it possible to directionally form the features of such mental processes as perception, attention, memory, thinking, etc.

In general, the following general characteristics of the formative experiment can be distinguished ö :

It involves the construction or generation of an object within its structure, after which it becomes the subject of study;
It is complex and multidisciplinary and involves either the use of several idealizations at the same time, or the construction of a new idealization based on the principles of configuration;
In addition to the study includes design elements;
Efficiency is evaluated in terms of the feasibility of the project idea and the analysis of consequences;
Along with the research position, it provides co-organization and communication of managers, teachers, students, methodologists, parents.

A special case of a formative experiment will be considered on the example of the method of phased formation of the concept by P.Ya. Galperin.

EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

1) Validity: internal, external and operational.

The validity of the technique is a measure of the compliance of the diagnostic technique with the subject of diagnosis. The validity of the experimental study methodology is essential in the study. Reliability - a characteristic of the repeatability of results after a certain time. The validity of a psychological experiment is a qualitative characteristic of a psychological study in terms of the correctness of its organization. Validity is affected by the sample (i.e., how representative it is).

The concept of a natural experiment was introduced by A.F. Lazursky.

3.3.1. Types of validity in a psychological experimental study

There are the following types of validity of psychological experimental research:

Internal validity - represents a specific version of an ideal experiment without the disadvantages inherent in a true experimental study;
External validity (environmental);
operational validity;
construct validity.

An ideal experiment is an experiment in which the influence of side variables is excluded. This is a speculative construction, the possibility of which, however, cannot be ruled out (for example, a development factor).

The independent variable affects the dependent variable. But there are also side variables. If the influence of side variables is very significant, then you can get a shift in the graphs. Thus, it is clear that one should strive to exclude

Internal validity– A measure of the correspondence between a real experiment and an ideal one. The ratio of the influence of NP and side variables on the RFP. The more NPs, the higher the Validity. To increase it, you need to identify third-party variables and eliminate or average. High internal validity will make it possible to consider the conclusions about dependence as reliable.

External validity– portability of the obtained results to the real world. "Full compliance experiment" - absolute portability.

operational validity- compliance of the methodology and experimental plan with the hypothesis being tested (correspondence of what we are looking for with what we are testing)

Construct validity is the measure of correspondence between the interpretation of the experimental data and the theory. Characterizes the correct designation of cause and effect using terms.

FORMATIVE EXPERIMENT IN CHILD AND PEDAGOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Formation as an experimental genetic method

The requirement to objectively investigate the development of mental processes can be realized by at least two different methods. Thanks to one of them, psychic phenomena are studied in the form in which they appear before us in their more or less established forms. This path has been planned for a long time and is so widespread that it seems at first glance the only possible one. Usually there is no doubt about its value. Its history has many different forms: from the first attempts at an objective study of mental processes, begun by Wundt, Ebbinghaus and others, to modern methods of research, which are enriched by numerous methods of mathematical data processing. Since its inception, the research method has already established forms of the psyche not only spread to the study of various mental processes, but also acquired new properties. He became genetic. Gradually, a new field of science was formed - genetic psychology. This term should not be confused with another - psychogenetics. Genetic psychology in the sense is research genesis, i.e., the development and formation of the studied psychological reality. Researchers began to realize that seeing things unfold is the best way to explain them. The research methods of psychology have changed in a similar way to the methods of any natural science. So, for example, while studying botany, Goethe said that the works of nature can be known only by studying them in their formation, and when they are ripe and ready, they cannot be understood. However, having become genetic, the method of psychology continued to be a method of studying already established forms at different age stages of the development of the mental process. The most striking example of this path of research is the method and theory of the intellectual development of the child, created by J. Piaget.

Another method of studying psychic phenomena, which is gaining more and more recognition, is the active, controlled formation of new mental processes. The difference in understanding how governance and formation is carried out requires a distinction between the formative method and the experimental one (in the narrower sense of the term, when the control of the independent variable is implied). Forming method new process is generally characteristic of the life sciences. So, protein synthesis - the creation of living things - allows us to solve many questions about the origin of life, about the very process of life. And how many laws of brain physiology were discovered by IP Pavlov with the help of the method of forming new neural connections! We owe the introduction to child psychology of the strategy of formation to L. S. Vygotsky. He applied his theory of the indirect structure of higher mental functions to form his own ability to remember. According to eyewitnesses, L. S. Vygotsky could demonstrate to a large audience the memorization of about 400 randomly named words. For this purpose, he used auxiliary means: he connected each named word with one of the cities in the Volga river basin. Then, following the river mentally, he could reproduce each word in the city associated with it.

The method named by L. S. Vygotsky experimental genetic, makes it possible to reveal the qualitative features of the structure of higher mental functions, their difference from natural processes. The author wrote: "... the method used by us can be called an experimental genetic method in the sense that it artificially causes and genetically creates the process of mental development." And further: “The main task in this case is the return of the process to its initial stage, or, in other words, the transformation of a thing into a process. The attempt of such an experiment is to melt each frozen and petrified psychological form, to turn it into a moving, flowing stream of separate, replacing each other moments. In short, the task of such an analysis is to present experimentally any higher form of behavior not as a thing, but as a process, to take it in motion. To go not from a thing to its parts, but from a process to its individual moments” (Vygotsky, 1983, p. 95).

The experimental genetic method makes it possible artificially, under laboratory conditions, to evoke and create the genetic process of psychological development. Strategy formation mental processes, outlined by L. S. Vygotsky, has become widely known in Russian psychology and has become widespread. Today, there are several ideas for implementing this strategy, which can be summarized as follows. In the cultural and historical concept of L. S. Vygotsky himself, the experimental genetic method was used to study the development of attention, memory, and scientific concepts. However, the author and [his collaborators failed to reveal the full path the transformation of external objective activity into a proper mental process, unravel the mystery of the "rotation of the sign." According to activity theory A. N. Leontiev, in the course of development, an expanded activity turns into a conscious action, then acts as an operation, and as it forms, it becomes a function. In this case, the movement is carried out from top to bottom - from activity to function. The theory of the formation of the psyche in deaf-blind-mute children, known as the "theory of initial humanization", developed by I. A. Sokolyansky and A.I. Meshcheryakov, allows you to reveal some important patterns of general psychology. Referring to the psychology of the deaf-blind-mute, S. L. Rubinshtein wrote that the study of pathological phenomena is of particular importance in cases where violations are not only ascertained, but also corrected. Therefore, "of exceptional interest for general psychology should be the study of deaf-blind-mutes who are included in the pedagogical process, which opens up opportunities for normal general mental development" (Rubinshtein, 1973, p. 132). The most surprising thing in this pedagogical process was noted by A. N. Leontiev. He said: “They formed reflexes, but they got a soul.”

The method of formation of mental actions and concepts in the concept of P. Ya. Galperin

Theory phased-planned formation of mental actions, proposed by P. Ya. Galperin, is the most theoretically substantiated and developed the concept of a formative experiment. According to this theory, in order for the psyche to fulfill its vital function - orienting the subject's behavior, its structure must necessarily include images and ideal actions with the objects represented in them. In the images before us open objects that make up the field of our action. However, mental life, limited by the presence of images alone, would be useless for behavior. In reality, objects exist not only by themselves. The subject always makes certain changes with them, transformations carried out with the help of material action. This means that actions are also possible with objects that are revealed in images as forms of mental reflection of the external world. But they will be ideal: for example, trying on former ways of behavior in order to adapt them most appropriately to the situation. That's why perfect action and there is that decisive element without which images cannot fulfill their purpose. However, this is only one side of the matter. Another is the most important fact (long noted in psychology) that the images themselves are built only on the basis of action. That is why the formation of new ideal actions in the subject is of particular importance for testing and protecting the method of studying mental processes through experimentally induced genesis. The difficulty of solving this problem is obvious, because we never start the formation of a mental process from scratch. The subject before our experiment, of course, already has images; and he knows how to perform some perfect actions. Therefore, the experimenter is obliged to first check the available knowledge and skills of the subject in order to make sure on what basis he begins the formation of a new process. The greatest difficulty, however, lies in the fact that under special learning conditions it is necessary to obtain a new ideal action. Usually, researchers believe that it is only necessary to develop existing ones. P. Ya. Galperin and his followers do not proceed from ready-made mental actions to their development in some particular, concrete case. They begin with new forms of objective action and only then transform them into ideal actions, into new mental processes. How does the transformation of some objective process into the actual mental action of a person take place? Any action is an objective process of transforming the source material into a certain (given) product. That's why The content of the action and his quality always presented objectively. Every time there is either a pattern for performing an action, or certain requirements for it are put forward in accordance with the task that is solved with its help. That's why you can set the desired action properties in advance.

Action properties

empirically established primary and secondary action properties. The primary properties include: the level of its performance (material, in terms of loud speech, mental), differentiation (separation of the constant from the variable), temporal and power characteristics of the action, a measure of the completeness of the operations that make up this action. Secondary properties are formed from a certain combination of primary properties. This is the rationality of the action, its consciousness, criticality and arbitrariness, as well as the measure of mastery of the action itself (Galperin, 1965). Method systematic and phased formation mental actions requires that all properties of the action be foreseen in advance by the experimenter and the conditions that ensure their formation are established. What does it mean?

According to the theory of P. Ya. Galperin, two main parts are distinguished in the action of the subject - indicative and executive. The quality of the action depends on the first. Therefore, the main task in the formation of an action is the creation of its indicative part. It is the controlling mechanism of action, and it is the true subject of psychology.

Control mechanism of action, i.e. its indicative part, inextricably linked with the executive part. Firstly, because the indicative part itself is built taking into account the quality of the future performance of the action. Secondly, the productivity of the action as a whole depends on the quality of the indicative part. In the indicative part, the structure of the object, the pattern of action are presented separately, and the way of its execution is outlined. Thanks to the planned landmarks, control over the course of action is ensured. The executive part is the implementation of this path and obtaining the desired result.

Forming a new ideal action, the psychologist tries, first of all, to create for him a complete reference base: a system of guidelines that provides the subject with the correct and error-free performance of the action the first time and then always. A complete orienting base opens a person to "a free and successful movement towards a clearly set goal." With such an attitude, each error of the subject poses a task for the experimenter: to find a guideline that allows the subject to avoid this error in the future. Therefore, in order to work on this method, in order to first clarify the very orienting basis of the action, weak students are especially important. If it is possible to form a new objective action in such subjects, and then the same new ideal action, it turns out to be possible to find out what a given mental process is, for it was created by us, it arose before our eyes. The mistakes of the subjects serve for us as evidence of the incompleteness of the orienting basis of the action. Conversely, their absence in weak subjects is an important indicator of the completeness of the orienting basis of the new action. Stages of formation of mental actions

Drawing up an indicative framework is the first stage in preparing the procedure for forming an ideal action. Next, the subject performs a material action with real objects (or a materialized action with their substitutes). At the third stage, the action is performed in a loud socialized speech. When such an action becomes quick and unmistakable, the subject begins to perform it with the help of "external speech to himself." Here action first becomes mental. But the process of forming an ideal action does not end there. Mental action undergoes further changes. According to P. Ya. Galperin, speech, sound images of words, as it were, “leave” consciousness, in which only the meanings of words are preserved. The process now appears for the subject as a thought about action.

Such a course of the psychological evolution of an action—from a detailed action with objects to an action that is carried out on an ideal plane with objects presented in images, and eventually turns into a thought—is inevitable and has been verified by many studies. The planned stages make it possible to control the formation of a mental action with given properties. They make it possible to build a psychic phenomenon. Formative Research Examples

Actions and concepts that are usually taught in school served as experimental material for the study of mental phenomena with the help of the method of stage-by-stage planned formation of mental actions. First of all, this is an account, sound analysis of a word, initial mathematical and grammatical concepts. With the help of this method, images of perception, attention, memory and motor skills were formed. It was applied to the analysis of Piagetian phenomena and to the formation of productivity in solving divergent problems.

Work according to the method of P. Ya. Galperin is a study that allows you to reveal new aspects of the mental process under study and supplement the initial ideas about the structure of the method itself. Using the example of the formation of a simple system of scientific concepts in children, let us consider the logic of the very process of building new knowledge in relation to solving problems.

Example . The specific object of this study was the concept of "pressure of solids".

According to the theory of P. Ya. Galperin, a concept is an abstract, abstract image of an object. Its formation is carried out due to the action of research and, in particular, the recognition of the object. Such an action should be armed with appropriate criteria - signs of the concept being formed, which are highlighted and immediately clearly and clearly written down on the work card. Thanks to the action of correlating conceptual features with the proposed task, the belonging of objects to this concept is established.

In this study, concepts were used not only to recognize phenomena, but also to solve problems. To solve specific problems on the pressure of solids, it is not enough to establish that the phenomenon belongs to one of the concepts - you need to build a relationship between them; only the formula of this relation P =F/ S, linking concepts F, S, Rv one simple system, allows you to go to a computational operation or to the corresponding conclusion. Therefore, the main issue of this study was to find out what new actions involve the application of a simple system of concepts to solve problems.

For the formation procedure, just as it was in all other works of P. Ya. Galperin and his collaborators, a card was needed. The signs of the concept are recorded on it, and due to this they do not need to be memorized in advance. However, in the conditions of the formation of several concepts at the same time, its content becomes wider, since the card includes their definitions. The concepts on the card are arranged in the sequence of their logical clarification, and thus the whole system of concepts as a whole is in front of the child.

The card, thanks to the features of concepts recorded in it, performs the function of a tool with which the student approaches the analysis of the problem. It expresses the position of the student in relation to the task, which was originally given to him in an external materialized form. Only through a series of well-known successive stages does this externally presented position turn into a “direct vision” of the relations between things. The tasks in which the subject used the concept of "pressure of solid bodies" were carefully selected. Among them were: simple tasks for calculation; simple tasks, similar to examples, with the absence of one of the conditions; tasks are simple, but having extra conditions; tasks are compound, but either with a full set of conditions, or with the presence of extra conditions, or with the absence of one of the necessary conditions; the subjects were also offered tasks in which the conditions were expressed in a latent form.

In the experiment, a stage-by-stage working out of actions with concepts was carried out, and at each stage, the subjects solved problems of all the listed types. At the beginning of the experiment, it was assumed that it was enough to have precise definitions of concepts written in the card, so that then, applying them to the text of the problem, without errors, find the corresponding data in it. Experience has shown that this is not enough to solve problems with a complex subject situation. The subject, guided by the card, turned to numbers, instead of analyzing the situation referred to in the task. From this it became clear that in order to solve it, the subject must not only have the essential features of the formula, which he correlates with the material, but also be able to see a specific situation in the content of the task presented.

Therefore, in the further course of the experiment, the subjects were required to restore the actual situation according to the text of the problem, depicting it in the figure. Only after that, the students had to analyze it using the system of concepts recorded in the card. It turned out that, firstly, the image is conditional; then the drawing is schematic and expresses a ready answer, while the analysis of the problem itself has been carried out in the mind. Secondly, the image is formal; in this case, only a separate, directly indicated condition of the problem materializes, and not the entire reality to which this condition belongs; such a formal representation cannot lead to a correct solution of the problem. Thirdly, for an error-free solution, it is necessary that the image restore all the essential features of the situation; To do this, the subject must first, using vertical lines, divide the text of the problem into semantic parts, each of which expresses one message, and then depict them sequentially. The finished image should be of such quality that you can work with it without referring to the text of the problem.

When the children learned to completely restore the object of the action - the physical situation of the task - and analyze it using the concepts indicated on the card, a new problem arose - to translate the action into a plan of loud speech without an image.

Is it possible, without depicting the situation of the problem in the picture, just to talk about it? For weak students, the story follows the text of the problem, but the structure of the situation is not highlighted in it. To solve the problem, you have to return the subject to the image of the situation again. The introduction of a logical solution plan (What question is posed in the problem? What do you need to know to answer the question? What is indicated in the problem for this? How to solve the solution?) also did not provide a solution to all problems without relying on the image of the situation.

Analysis of the results of the formative experiment shows that in the process of applying the features of the concept to the image of the situation, their concretization spontaneously occurs. However, only a few subjects attempted to express in words this particular meaning of the concepts. During subsequent sessions, subjects were specifically asked to change the rule (definition F, 5, R), by entering specific information.

The action with the attributes of the concept was to consist not only in referring the definition to a particular case, but also in a new expression of the general rule in accordance with this case. At first, the course of the analysis repeated the order of the card and often distracted the subjects from the main question of the problem. In subsequent experiments, the analysis began with the item on the card that directly answered the question of the task. However, moving to the verbal and further to the mental plan for performing the action, the subjects again began to make mistakes, which they confidently corrected by referring to the image.

Thus, neither the story about the graphic representation of the situation, nor the logical plan, nor the indicated additions to the methodology provided a solution to the problem in the speech plan without relying on the image. For these subjects, some essential link was missing when switching to the "loud speech without objects" plan.

As observations of the course of solving problems have shown, a student who has a correct drawing in front of him highlights the points in it that are essential for answering the question. When the subject is faced with the text of the problem, he again acts only with the conditions directly indicated in it and does not take into account the objective reality that is mentioned there. Hence, it can be assumed that the action performed by the subject on the basis of the image and not transferred by him to the plane of "loud speech without objects" consists in the fact that all aspects of objective reality that are essential for solving the problem are distinguished.

Therefore, it is necessary to teach the subject to take into account all the important aspects of the problem situation, both with and without its graphic representation. To do this, in a new experiment at the stage of action with the image, the subjects were taught to consciously highlight and externally materialize all the features of the situation that are essential for the solution.

The subjects were offered the following technique: “Showing in the figure all the objects that exert a pressure force, combine its components and draw a circle around them.” In the same way: “Showing the area of \u200b\u200bthe support, put a large dot on the image at each place of support. Redraw the resulting circle with dots next to it and fill it with the initial data. Indicate the direction of pressure with an arrow.

Thus, a scheme was created that expressed the content of the problem and, at the same time, the order of its study, the general, essential moments of the situation corresponding to the formula. The scheme was an object of analysis in a transformed form: it brought together the scattered places of support; the pressure force, consisting of individual components, combined. With the creation of such a scheme, all components of the task were fully materialized and clearly identified.

After schematization, the problem was solved very quickly. This scheme turned out to be common for performing all tasks on this topic. It made it possible to transfer the action from the materialized plane to the plane of “loud speech without an image”, and from the plane of loud speech the action, together with its schematized object, was transferred into. the plane of "external speech to oneself", i.e., already in the proper mental plane.

From this study it follows that in the process of applying concepts to solving problems, it is necessary to highlight the following points in addition to the already known about the process of forming concepts.

1. The features of a concept do not exhaust its content. The true object of the concept is the function that the corresponding objects perform, and the features of the concept belong precisely to it.

2. Things and their functions are much richer than the content that becomes the object of the concept. However, this content must necessarily be singled out, separated from things in the form of a spatial scheme expressing the relations of objects that correspond to this concept.

3. The scheme always stands between the subject and the concept, without its construction it is impossible to form full-fledged concepts. It serves as a tool for our
orientation in relation to any objects of the corresponding area.

4. When solving problems, it is necessary to restore the objective situation in its essential features for solving.

5. Schematization of this situation is required, thanks to which it becomes available for transfer to the speech and further mental plane.

6. In connection with this, it is necessary to divide the stage of materialized action into two successive parts - the usual image and the image of the scheme.

7. Change the course of the analysis of the problem, which should go from the question of the problem to the system of concepts, from it to the restoration of the objective situation, then to the selection of its essential features (schematization), then to filling in the elements of this scheme based on the specific data of the problem and, finally, to the solution of the problem by the formula. Thus, when applying a system of concepts to solving problems, the order of work becomes more complicated, but this does not cancel the established sequence of phased development of a new action.

The analyzed variant of using the method of systematically phased formation of new knowledge for the student shows that the main condition for the successful application of this method is change in the position of the researcher. The experimenter, constructing a new mental process using this method, is not limited to simply observing the result of the subject performing this or that task, as is the case when performing sectional studies.

From ascertaining the various phenomena of mental life, he must move on to identifying and creating conditions that ensure the formation of

mental process with given properties. The concept of such a complete process is not determined by the subjective desire of the experimenter. On the contrary, it is due to certain objective requirements of the system of tasks that the subject must solve with the help of the mental process being formed. The strength of this method lies primarily in the development of an objective system of requirements for a specific mental process and a system of conditions that ensure the fulfillment of these requirements.

Working with this method is painstaking, difficult, but exciting. It leads to new discoveries.

Portal for the student. Self-training

Formative experiment as the main method of educational psychology

2. Purpose and main stages of the formative experiment

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