*110644*

V.V. Nikolaeva, M. Gaichenya

Karaganda State University named after E.A. Buketov

Methods of identification of the first formers’ school adjustment

For many children entering the school can be a serious ordeal. At the early stages of studying pupils often face the problems with the necessity of obeying the new rules and demands, disability of controlling their behavior and problems caused by difficulties in peer and teacher contact establishment [1]. If these problems are not got over quickly enough they might cause serious complications in studying process. That’s why it is very important to carry out work in order to create efficient conditions of school adjustment from the very first days of studying.

To achieve success in school adjustment the participation and collaboration of many specialists are required i.e. elementary classroom teacher, teacher-psychologist, teacher-speech pathologist, social pedagogue and other experts. However the dominant role belongs to the teacher as he spends the most of time with pupils, and also has considerable authority with first-graders.

Every elementary classroom teacher has faced a problem of supporting pupils with safe conditions of school adjustment. The further progress of the schoolchild and his emotional relation to study in many respects depends on competent actions of the teacher at the initial stages of school adaptation.

Successful study of the pupil demands presence of a certain level of development of thinking, communicative skills and ability to any regulation of the activity and behavior. In this case the aim of the teacher is rendering assistance in development of necessary qualities and abilities of a child.

One of the important purposes of the teacher’s activity in adaptation of first-graders is easing of difficulties in adaptation process, the help in acceptance and development of a new social position. M.R.Bitjanova considers this purpose to be reached when consecutive decisions of following problems are made by the teacher:

1. Revealing of features of the psychoeducational status of each schoolboy for the purpose of timely preventive maintenance and the effective solution of the problems appeared in the training process, communication and a mental condition.

2. Creation of a system of the psychoeducational support of all first-graders in their primary school adaptation allowing them not only to adapt to school requirements, but also comprehensively to develop and be improved in various spheres of communication and activity.

3. Creation of the special pedagogical and socially-psychological conditions, allowing to carry out developing, remedial and formative work with children suffering from various psychologically-pedagogical difficulties [2].

According to opinion of researchers (M.R.Bitjanova, N.I.Gutkin, Z.L.Shintar and others) to create conditions for school adaptation of first-graders within the limits of work it is necessary to do the following :

1. The psychoeducational diagnostics directed to revealing of features of the status of schoolchildren. Teachers and psychologists recommend conducting this diagnostics two times within the first year of studying: firstly at a stage of entrance (acceptance) of the child to school and secondly in the middle of the first class.

2. Developing psychological and pedagogical work. It is carried out within all year and filled with the concrete maintenance depending on problems of this or that stage of work.

3. Advisory work with teachers and parents. It is carried out by the psychologist and connected, basically, with the discussion of the results of made diagnostics, concrete request of the teacher or the parent in connection with problems of training, social communication or mental state of health.

4. The methodical work directed at perfection of a technique and updating of the maintenance of training. It is carried out by teachers, together with administration of school based on the results of the analysis of the psychoeducational status of first-graders.

5. The psychocorrectional work focused on rendering assistance to children, experiencing difficulties in school adaptation. Rendering assistance is carried out in the form of group and individual psychocorrectional work.

6. Organizational-advisory work with the school administration, directed to managerial improvement of educational process, creation of the social and pedagogical school conditions stimulating successful adaptation [3].

The special attention in the article will be given to psychoeducational diagnostics as to a source of data on level of the first-graders’ school adjustment and special features of adaptable process. There will be given the most effective characteristic of methods for studying school adaptation.

Psychoeducational diagnostics in the first class is directed at revealing of pupils’ level of school adjustment. According to L.M.Kovalevoj and N.N.Tarasenko the purpose of diagnostic work at the given stage can be defined as reception of the necessary information of first-graders’ psychoeducational status to prevent and overcome difficulties of adaptation period to school training. They consider that to achieve this purpose it is necessary to solve the following problems:

1. To define the level of the first-graders’ psychoeducational adaptation.

2. To identify groups of schoolchildren experiencing difficulties in adaptation and to define type and the nature of difficulties in each case.

3. To define ways of rendering assistance to children experiencing difficulties in the process of adaptation.

4. To define the ways and methods of psychoeducational support of the schoolchildren who have successfully adapted to school environment [4].

For definition of level of school adaptation the following techniques more often are used: the test of school uneasiness of T.Filips, N.G.Luskanova's questionnaire to estimate the level of school motivation. It is considered to be very important to use such methods as supervision, conversation with children, their parents, teachers, studying schoolchildren’s products of activity and others. The combination of these methods allows to receive clear and full enough picture of the level of school adjustment of the first-grader. It is necessary to pay attention to special features of these methods for their most effective use.

In the most widespread value supervision is understood as systematic, purposeful perception of the phenomena which results are fixed by the observer in this or that form [5, с.86]. Possibility of use of this method in psychology is based on a methodological principle of unity of consciousness and activity. As the mentality of the child is formed and shown in its activity, there is a possibility on the basis of these external displays to judge internal mental processes and conditions.

One of the basic features of the supervision as a method of psychological research is that a researcher does not interfere in a course of mental displays of children being tested and they proceed naturally. To conduct the supervision its correct management is important. First of all, it is necessary to formulate accurately the purpose of supervision following from the research problems. Besides, supervision should be regular and systematic.

The plan of the supervision which is made after preliminary studying of an object and a subject of scientific investigation plays an important role as well. The results are entered in the minutes, and then processed [6].

To J.L.Kolominsky and E.A.Panko offer the plan of the supervision which can be applied to studying of children’s behaviour during their joint activity [6, с.30].

On the basis of the similar plan the psychologist develops the report form in which the fact of display of this or that reaction or behaviour is brought.

In order to specify the results of supervision they offer a scale on which the intensity of the course of this or that mental phenomenon [6] is marked.

One more effective method of the level of school adjustment’s identification is a conversation (Kolominsky, Panko) which can be held with pupils, their parents and teachers. This method as well as many other methods of research demands the presence of a purpose formulated beforehand, object, a plan to conduct the conversation and thought-out questions [6, с.37].

On the basis of the given program the teacher can make a plan of the conversation, modify and supplement questions depending on a situation.

Diagnostic conversation with parents of the first-grader is conducted according to a prepared plan and includes questions concerning the structure of a family, living conditions of the child in a family, features of physical and mental development of the child from a birth and before receipt in school, a state of health of the schoolchild. Also there should be questions about the way the child was brought up and whether he or she visited any preschool centre. Besides, it is necessary to ask questions about the character of a child, features of his behaviour and interpersonal relations, the level of various skills being developed, difficulties in education, about activity and independence level, etc.

Conversation with a teacher is considered to be a source of data about child’s behaviour at a lesson and during a break, about his progress in studying, how neat, active, organized, diligent he is. Teacher informs about pupil’s displays of uneasiness or fears, about the emotional relation to a studying process and relationship with schoolmates.

The analysis of the products of pupil’s activity provides with the valuable information about the inner world of the child, his attitude to the social environment, about specific features of his nature. Use of this method is based on a methodological principle of unity of consciousness and activity. Copybooks, diaries, drawings and various hand-made articles of the schoolchild are exposed to the analysis because they enrich the data about a child considerably.

When this method is used different indications are analyzed. Thus when a pupil’s copybook is analyzed it is necessary to pay attention to the features of his handwriting, to the degree of accuracy and attentiveness while writing and to many others. When children's drawings are investigated their plot, composition, content, colour range, the way the lines are drawn are analyzed.

In order to diagnose the level of pupils’ adjustment to school specially developed tests and questionnaires are used. One of these techniques is the test of school uneasiness of T.Filips directed to investigate the level and nature of uneasiness of young learners and middle school pupils caused by school. It gives opportunity to define the level of school uneasiness based on eight factors, and according to its results the full information about each pupil is given [3].

To diagnose the level of school adaptation N.G.Luskanova's questionnaire (estimation of the level of school motivation) [7] is also practised. The purpose of this questionnaire is to define first-graders’ school motivation. The testing of pupils’ level of school motivation is conducted individually with each child with the questionnaire consisting of 10 questions which reflect in the best way children’s relation to school and educational process, emotional reaction to a school situation. N.G.Luskanova notices that such kind of motive as obeying all the demands required by school and demonstrating only good sides of his nature forces the pupil to be active in selection and storing of the necessary information. As a result of identification of distinctions between the allocated groups of children 5 basic levels of school motivation have been established.

Having considered research methods we have come to a conclusion that their adequate use allows to reveal features of the first-graders school adjustment and according to the received results to build effectively the further correctional, developing, advisory and methodical work on creation of psychologically-pedagogical conditions of successful adaptation of first-graders to school.

Литература

1 Бугрименко Е.А., Цукерман Г.А. Учимся читать и писать. – М.: Знание, 1994. – 85с.

2 Битянова М.Г. Организация психологической работы в школе. - М., 1997. – 268с.

3 Диагностическая и коррекционная работа школьного психолога / Под ред. И.В. Дубровиной. М., 1998. – 348с.

4 Ковалева Л.М., Тарасенко Н.Н. Психологический анализ особенностей адаптации первоклассников к школе // Начальная школа. – 1996. - №7. – С.17-22.

5 Психологическая диагностика: Учебник для вузов / Под ред. М.К. Акимовой, К.М. Гуревича. – СПб.: Питер, 2008. – 652 с.

6 Коломинский Я.Л., Панько Е.А. Учителю о психологии детей шестилетнего возраста: Кн. для учителя. - М.: Просвещение, 1988. - 190 с.

7 Овчарова Р.В. Практическая психология в начальной школе. – М.: ТЦ «Сфера», 1996. – 240с.