Prognostically oriented diagnostic tasks and introspection.

To study the degree of development of cognitive and praxiological

components of readiness the teachers were offered a set of multilevel

prognostically oriented diagnostic tasks. The results for the cognitive

component are presented in table 1.

Table 1. Development degree of cognitive component of readiness for realization of

prognostic activity

Knowledge

Complete

knowledge (%)

Incomplete

knowledge (%)

Superficial

knowledge (%)

Essence of

prognostic activity 9.2% 66.5% 24.3%

Stages of prognostic

activity

5.4% 43.1% 51.5%

Structure of

prognostic activity

7.3% 41.9% 50.8%

Types of pedagogic

prognoses

3.5% 22.7% 73.8%

Source: the author

Qualitative analyses of the received data indicated that in general

teachers have difficulties with defining the essence of prognostic activity, its

structure, the types of pedagogic prognoses.

To estimate the level of development of the praxiological component

of readiness the teachers were asked to name the stages of prognostic

activity. We received the following results: 11.5% of the teachers fulfilled the

task; 66.9% partially fulfilled the task; 15.8% of the teachers failed to fulfil

the task; 5.8% of the teachers refused to fulfil the task.

Tatyana A. SULTANOVA

65

After the diagnostic tasks the teachers were offered to introspect

about the realized prognostic activity. According to the results 10.2% of the

respondents think that they have a high level of knowledge and skills in

prognostication; 30.7% think that they a have a medium level; 51.1% – a low

level; 8% are sure that they have no such knowledge and skills. Thus, the

majority of teachers have medium and low levels of development of

prognostication skills and knowledge.

Defining the general level of readiness of teachers for

realization of prognostic activity. Having estimated the level of axiological,

cognitive, praxiological and reflective components of readiness, we were able

to define the general level of readiness of school teachers for realization of

prognostic activity. The received data comprised the basis for implementing

formal data interpretation method.12 The essence of the method is in

appropriating some conventional number to certain qualities and relations.

The level of development of each component was estimated on a four-point

grading scale. The initial level was defined by calculating the average point by

four components (axiological, cognitive, praxiological and reflective). On the

basis of the received data we made a conclusion about the low level of

teachers’ readiness for realization of prognostic activity

Conclusion

The results received from the monitoring proved that the problem of

training school teachers for realization of prognostic activity has theoretical

and practical value. The research that we conducted helped to define the

factors which obstruct prognostication in teacher’s work. These factors were

the starting point for the further research of theoretic, methodological and

technical aspects of the problem. Integration of theoretic and practical results

helped us to determine the pedagogic conditions of training teachers for

prognostication. These conditions are: differentiated scientific and

methodological instruction of teachers in the sphere of educational

prognostication with the use of different forms of active teaching; step-bystep

development of prognostic skills with the help of professionally oriented

tasks; formation of instrumental, methodological, didactic, technological

resources of prognostic activity. These conditions allow to define perspective

trends in the development of this problem. Preparing teachers for realization

of prognostication in their professional activity conducted according to these

conditions will contribute to development of unified systematic approach to

the prognostic activity and the teacher as its active agent.

    Задание 2.1. Выполнить реферативный перевод текста.

    Задание 3. Изучающее чтение с извлечением полной информации для реализации определённой задачи.

Yury P. AVERIN, Valentina A. SUSHKO

 

Students` Behaviour in Relation to Learning and Factors Shaping it

in the Modern Russia Conditions*

Yury P. AVERIN, Valentina A. SUSHKO

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

Abstract. The paper’s objective is to define a theoretical approach to building a

conceptual model of empiric research into behaviour of students in relation to learning and factors

shaping it, variables and indicators of this model, present the results of the nationwide study

revealing the behaviour of students in relation to learning and the content of learning reinforcement

in the context of the present-day Russia. As an empirical research method the questionnaire survey

was used. Based on the analysis of empirical data the nature of changes in academic performance of

students depending on the grade was demonstrated, the role of external and internal factors fostering

learning and the mechanism of their impact was described. High significance of interest and

motivation as factors driving students’ academic performance was determined and the probabilistic

performance model was built.

Keywords: behaviour in relation to learning, motives, interest,

reinforcement.

Introduction

The behavior of secondary school students in relation to learning is

of great importance for the students themselves, for their parents and for the

society in general. The behavior of students within the frames of the learning

process impacts the outcome of learning. Significance of this behavior

extends beyond the learning process itself and the school as it shapes the

future behavior of students, affects perception by parents and students of

their life prospects and consequently underlies their life strategy.

What is driving the students’ behavior towards learning? To which

extent is it preconditioned by objective reasons and the social environment

where students live, and to which extent is it driven by personal and

subjective reasons, i.e. the inner motives and interests? Answers to these

questions have special importance for Russia. A system of school education

in the 21st century, especially in the first decade, has been undergoing

continuous transformation. In 2001 the Unified State Examination and

school education profiling were introduced. Requirements to the content of

learning process, work of teachers, assessment of schoolchildren

performance were modified. It was important to trace how these changes

affected the behavior of students towards the learning and their academic

performance immediately after these changes were finalized in 2013.

After 2013 the school education process in Russia remained virtually

unchanged and the results of its impact on behavior of students towards

learning preserve a steady and long-lasting nature. Since 2013 they remain

essentially the same. This was confirmed by sociological research on behavior

of students in relation to learning undertaken by the Federal Service for

Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) in 2015.

They reveal existence of the same problems caused by changes in the content

and organization of the educational process in the Russian secondary school.

Literature review

Empirical study on the nature and results of behaviour of students in

relation to learning involves definition of theoretical approaches and a

paradigm helping to describe and explain the impact of social environment,

motives and interests on the behaviour of students based on the study

findings. The immediate circle around the students includes teaches and

social and organizational environment in school. They act as a stimulus

which determined the behaviour of students with regard to learning.

B.F. Skinner writes about perception of the surrounding environment as a

stimulus. A stimulus generates a response. While “something like inner human

anyway should have been invented for translating a stimulus into a response...”

1 An entirety of motives that impel a person to behave in a certain way may

be validly regarded as one of the characteristics of “the inner human”. The

behaviour is induced and driven “by the motive, i.e. something through

which this or that need is concretized.”2 The absence of motive leads to

inaction.

The inner need of a student inducing him to search for a satisfaction

of this need in the learning process is a need for knowledge. This need is not

self-sufficient. Its satisfaction is essential for satisfaction of other needs, for

example, a need for security, self-respect or self-fulfilment. The role of the

said needs is increasing with age. The process of learning in school and the

knowledge obtained there can be regarded as objects which provide a

possibility to satisfy other needs of a student. The attributes of learning and

school knowledge are those inducing motives that determine the student’s

attitude to learning. These motives are external to the process of learning in

school, since the significance of knowledge obtained there extends beyond

the school. Their content may be related to the parents’ requirement to study

well, a desire to enter the university or both at the same time.

So that a child could chose learning and school knowledge as objects,

within which he may satisfy his need for knowledge, he shall discover and

find in learning and school knowledge the attributes serving as the inducing

motive and encouraging him for a certain line of behaviour towards learning.

If this search leads to negative outcomes, the learning and school knowledge

will not act as such objects and will be largely replaced by other objects

which may also relate to satisfaction of needs for knowledge, for example,

cinema, computer games, books, which are not related to learning, or may

have relation to satisfaction of other needs, for example, communication

with friends or physiological needs.

The motives inducing a student to behave in a certain manner as

concerns the learning are not the learning and the obtained knowledge as the

holistic phenomena/objects, but rather their attributes regarded as subjects

of these objects. Nevertheless, a student’s need for knowledge gets satisfied

through the learning process. Therefore, detection of these attributes gives

rise to a certain attitude towards an object possessing such attribute, i.e. to

the learning process, focusing the behaviour on learning and obtaining the

school knowledge. This attitude takes a form of student’s interest to learning

as one of the forms of personal orientation3.

The interest in learning is a generalizing characteristic of “the inner

human”. It appears as a result of the student’s inner motivation for learning,

perception of learning as an activity target shaping his behaviour. A strong

impact on emergence or non-emergence of sense-making motives in

students, interest in learning and school knowledge as objects of satisfaction

of the need for knowledge is made by teachers, social and organizational

environment in school and parents acting as stimuli. These stimuli may play a

role of reinforcement making the student’s motives stronger or weaker.4

The student eager to make efforts in order to obtain knowledge on a

certain subject assesses his own capabilities and the capabilities of the school,

i.e. qualification of teachers, school curriculum, strictness of requirements to

the level of knowledge on the subject, quality of textbooks, support from

parents, etc. Based on this assessment a student either expects or not that his

efforts will yield a desired result, namely obtainment of necessary knowledge

on the subject. Further on a student expects some reward for the achieved

results - high mark for his knowledge from the teacher, high score on the

Unified State Examination, admission to university, high praise of his school

performance by parents. If the student’s efforts are rarely rewarded or not

rewarded at all, his expectations may not be met. If the expectations are not

met, the intensity of the above motives of a student drops down and his

behaviour towards learning changes - he will try to avoid inputting

substantial efforts for obtaining knowledge, will show indifference to lessons

at school and will skip lessons. If the obtaining of school knowledge, high

mark of a teacher, high score on Unified State Examination, admission to the

university, high praise of school performance by parents do not bear any

special importance for the student, the intensity of the above motives will be

reducing, his behaviour towards learning will be poorly affected by the

reinforcing impact of teachers, parents and social and organizational

environment in school.

In order to explain the impact of the reinforcement on emergence of

sense-making motives in the student and his behaviour towards learning the

mechanism of this impact shall be understood. This problem was explored

by the researchers within the frames of the learning theory.5 In accordance

with this theory the impact of reinforcement occurs through message and

transmission of affect.6

The role of a message as the reinforcing factor is determined by two

components: message content and message source. With regard to a student

the material delivered by a teacher at the lesson or contained in the book

shall be compelling and comprehensible. In order to act as the reinforcement

a teacher shall possess certain qualities. Firstly, a teacher shall inspire

confidence as a good specialist. Secondly, a student shall perceive a teacher as

a reliable and unbiased person not pursuing any personal interests

contradicting the student’s interests. For example, a teacher shall objectively

evaluate the student’s knowledge regardless of personal attitude to the

student or his parents. Thirdly, the teacher as a source of message shall

produce pleasant impression. If a teacher is rude with students, the distaste

for the teacher and negative feelings towards the teacher are carried over by

the students to the knowledge delivered by the teacher.

Based on the presented analysis a conceptual model was developed

which describes factors shaping the students’ behaviour in relation to

learning. Among the components of this model are firstly the content of the

students’ behaviour in relation to learning, which is directly expressed

through the externally observed actions of the student and indirectly in

school marks; and secondly, the interest of the student to the learning and its

impact on his behaviour.