О. Kruze-Brooks
Novgorod State University of Yaroslav’ Mudruy
Development
of Social Competency of Primary Children: a Discussion of Pedagogical Model.
Children start to develop social skills from their early
years before preschool, in preschool, and even more in elementary school. These
become the necessary skills for development of social competency in the
community. The development of social competency is understood as
interdependence of two processes: individualization and cooperation, where in
the end the personality of a child with the adequate social skills is
born.
Individualization is the opposite of cooperation and the
compromises between the two leads to the development of a socially active
personality that values the ideas and morals of other people. (1). Societal
competency of elementary children consists of mastering social skills needed at
different stages and in different forms of inter-personal interaction. It also
consists of a child mastering basic ethics that serve as a basis for construction
and regulation of personal social relationship abilities. With the purpose to
develop social competency of young children, we will examine its components:
Communicative, Motive and Purpose, Action, and Reflection.
The Communicative
Component includes:the child's ability to form and develop relationships with different
social groups and persons; the child's ability to assume social roles in
different situations (pupil in school, team player on the field, etc);.the
child's ability to listen to and take into consideration the views of others,
to make an agreement to be involved or not involved in the common actions
of a group; the child's ability to initiate dialogue and freely present his/her
point of view; the child's ability to adapt his/her communicative style to a
given situation.
The Motive and
Purpose Component includes: the child's realization
that communication with other people is important to coordinate between his/her
desires and those of others; the child's interest in communication; coordination
between the child's purpose of action with purposes of the members of the
communication process; development of a system of ethics and morals; an
internal and external motivation to be involved in communication.
The Action
Component includes: the child's ability to
determine the purpose for communication in educational and non-educational
environments; the child's ability to be organized and serious during individual
and group work; the child's ability to resolve problems without conflicts, or
to resolve conflict when necessary; the child's ability to work in a group
according to the established rules, discussed purposes, and values.
The Reflection
Component includes: the ability to reflect on
certain actions and review the results accordingly; the ability to reflect on
the results of individual or joint effort; the ability to make corrective
action according to the purpose or desired result; the ability to voice and
express personal feelings, needs, and desires; the ability to identify
information necessary for cooperative learning.
The process to form social competency of elementary
children can be done with the usage of specially organized pedagogical models. The
method of models is widely used in pedagogical research. Models show
pedagogical technologies using tables and correlation between educators and the
educational process.
Different educators and researchers understand
pedagogical models differently, and two main approaches to the understanding by
the educator of these models have surfaced:
1. The educational system demands certain standards from the
educator.
2. Students are put forward and this model is developed with keeping
students' needs in mind. In practice these two approaches go hand in hand in
developing the pedagogical model. Our model for developing social competency of
elementary children is presented below and includes the following: the purpose
of education, the content, methods, materials, evaluation, results, the role of the educator, student involvement, and overall
organization.
Methods of education: discussions, evristic
conversation, work with the textbook, projects, creative homework, analyses
and synthesis of information, Student Teams- Achievement Division (STAD), Teams-Games-
Tournament (TGD), JIG Jigsaw,
Learning Together (LT), Group Investigation (GI)
methods: group formation based on students’ motives
and abilities, creating of problem situations, integration based on the
type of activities, the role of a teacher as a facilitator, differentiation
and individualization in the process of forming social competency
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Social competency of elementary children consists
of mastering social skills needed at different stages and in different
forms of social interaction. It also consists of a child mastering basic
ethics that serve as a basis for construction and regulation of personal
and inter-personal social relationships.
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Purpose: the formation of components of societal competency of
elementary school children рмирование компонентов социальной компетентности у
учащихся младшего школьного возраста
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Evaluation:
tests, questionnaire, teacher’s bservation,
pop quizzes
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The principles of
education:
- The freedom of choice and
responsibility
- Cooperation and active
learning
- Subject-to-subject
interaction
- Communicative interaction
- The benefit of knowledge
gained from communication
- Reflection on the process and
results of educational cooperation
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Means
of education: teacher
creates different learning communicative situations, the development of
group tasks, differentiated work in a group setting.
Didactic
(pedagogical) steps that the teacher and student have to make to create the
atmosphere of cooperation, such as: the realization of the main principles of cooperative learning;
the student’s ability to communicate in a normal manner (using a calm voice),
the use of “constructive criticism”, etc; the creation by the teacher of
different communicative situations and group tasks, and the teacher’s
continued support of student
involvement.
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Pedagogical
model to form social competency of elementary students
As we mentioned before, societal competency of
elementary school children consists of mastering social skills needed at
different stages and in different forms of inter-personal interaction. It also
consists of a child mastering basic ethics that serve as a basis for
construction and regulation of personal social relationship abilities. Mastering
social skills needed at different stages and in different forms of
inter-personal interaction is happening through group interaction with all of
the processes of group dynamics. Ethical relationships are being formed through
respect at home and in class.
Literature
1.
Beloborodov N.V. Students’ Societal Creativity as a Way to Build Person’s Self
Esteem: Monographic story, Moscow, 2004.-134 pages. (Белобородов Н.В. Социальное творчество учащихся как фактор успешной самореализации
личности: Монография.- М.: изд-во АПКиПРО, 2004.- 134 с.)
2.
Miheyev V.I. Models and methods to evaluate in pedagogical theory, Moscow, 1987, 198 pages (Михеев
В.И. Моделирование и методы теории измерeний в педагогике.- М.: Высшая Школа, 1987. – 198 с.)
3.
Fedotova G.A. Creative self-development of teachers at Vel’skiy
school. Monographic story, Velikiy Novgorod, University of Yaroslav Mudruy, 2004. – 192 pages. (Федотова
Г.А. Творческое саморазвитие учителей Вельской школы: Монография. – Великий Новгород: НовГУ им. Яр. Мудрого, 2004. – 192 с.).