One of the fundamental concepts in Soviet educational psychology is the theory of the gradual formation of mental actions (TPFUD). Its author is the largest scientist Pyotr Yakovlevich Halperin, who created this theory as one of the highest achievements of Russian psychology in the mid-20th century. His views are confirmed today, and the theory continues to serve as the basis for the creation of modern concepts of education.
Mental actions (UD) is a special kind of mental actions of a person. They are carried out within the mind; they cannot be observed directly. UDs do not require outside help - for example, in the form of loud speech.
Other types of human actions - for example, physical ones - cannot be carried out without external support.
Using UD, they solve various psychological problems: cognitive - in the field of thinking and memory, emotional - in the field of feelings.
The most important psychological and pedagogical significance of TPFUD is the ability to endow the created UD with predetermined properties and control the process of their creation. At the same time, even the most complex actions - such as oral mathematical calculations or instant analysis of partner behavior during communication - are formed in a guaranteed way.
Speaking in the language of modern science, Halperin's theory allows you to program the process of creating UD.
P. Ya. Halperin discovered and experimentally proved that the student’s action will not be able to acquire the mental form if its formation does not go through successively through six stages:
- introduction to learning and motivation;
- the construction of an indicative framework of action (OOD);
- the formation of material action;
- speech action (loud speech);
- speech action (to oneself);
- mental action (inner speech).
Stage 1. Introduction to Learning and Motivation
In order to arouse the student’s interest in future action, the teacher uses a number of techniques and methods.
It is recommended to use moral stimulation - to set the student as an example to peers, praise, approve. The teacher should, observing the child, notice what forms of stimulation he reacts to and use them.
It is important that rewards be used only with real success. Otherwise, the student will not learn to properly respond to failures, they will unduly upset him.
The competitive spirit in discussing problems greatly enhances motivation.
Effective use of role-playing games and various forms of group learning. However, in this work it is important to adequately distribute the roles so that children do not have envy, resentment, jealousy and other negative emotions.
The most effective and important training motivator is problem tasks in which the child can show his search and creative activity. Their difficulty should be moderately high, but in essence they should be solvable. Different levels of difficulty of problem tasks should be selected for different groups of students and even individually for children who do not fit into groups.
Finally, joy in the learning process is the most important factor in motivation.
Stage 2. Construction of a scheme of OOD
This is not the execution of an action, but only the preparation for it. The student must learn and implement a special type of instruction on the implementation of the UD, which would help him to operate accurately and with a guarantee of results.
For this, the student builds an indicative basis of action (OOD). It is a systematic reference and guidance, information, revealing all the components of the action. The data on operations, the composition and the order of their execution, on the product, means and subject matter are considered.
The theory of the gradual formation of mental actions distinguishes three types of training, each of which is more perfect than the previous one. The classification is based on three different models of OOD.
- Landmarks are incomplete. They are distinguished by the subject of training (student) independently, through trial and error. Such an OOD does not allow generalizing an action to the level of a class of actions; it remains a single example.
- Landmarks are complete. A description is given of all conditions under which the action will be performed correctly. But the subject does not participate in the creation of the rules, but only blindly obeys them. His personality is not involved in the performance of activities, and therefore it (performance) is initially uncreative. The experience resulting from such an action, remains “one-time” and helps the subject only for a short time. In addition, OOD is still a single example of an action, without generalization. It cannot be applied to other actions of the same class.
- Landmarks are exhaustively complete. They are generalized for diverse, and in the limit - for all classes of action. The subject makes OOD itself, relying on the methodological basis received from the teacher.
It is easy to see that the phased formation of mental actions can be carried out only on the basis of the third type of training. At the same time, success is guaranteed in only one case (and this is the central position of TPFUD). The action must be worked out to complete success at each of the six stages of its creation. Any loss of an intermediate result will destroy the final product.
Stage 3. Formation of a material or materialized action
The action in material form is performed externally, as practical. Objects and material supports are real objects.
The action in a materialized form is performed with objects that have already been converted: diagrams, schemes, graphs, drawings. Materialized objects are depicted on special orientation cards.
Each operation is slow. This gives the student the opportunity to control all operations and the action as a whole.
At this stage, each operation is spoken out loud. This allows the subject to distinguish between the actual action (it is described in speech) and its objects (they are transformed materially).
When the task starts to turn out faster, without errors and stops, cards and material carriers of the action are removed. Only the speech description remains.
Stage 4. Speech action. Loud speech
An action equipped with material supports is no longer available to the student. Now he can analyze the material only with the help of loud explanatory speech addressed to the interlocutor, i.e., socialized. There is a coincidence of speech action and messages about it.
The requirement for speech action is detailed and detailed, for communication is comprehensibility for the interlocutor who controls the study.
This stage contains the most important qualitative leap in the formation of UD: the external action goes on to think about it. It is already being generalized, but still not collapsed or automated.
Stage 5. Speech action. External speech to oneself
The form of action is the same as in step 4, but speaking and even whispering are not allowed. The teacher controls the sequence of operations or the result of a particular operation. The completion of the stage is when each operation, as well as the entire action, is performed quickly and accurately.
Step 6. Action in inner speech is a mental action. Pure thought
From the student solving the problem, only the final answer is reported. Properties of the action - abbreviation, coagulation, automatism. Despite the complicating factor of the student’s speed of execution, the action is unmistakable. If errors still appear, you need to move to the position of the previous stages.
At this stage, the formation of mental action occurs, independent of any external and internal auxiliary factors. Such an action is called pure thought.
Only with the training of the third type (with the complete construction of OOD) it becomes possible to deploy a complete algorithm for the phased formation of UD. This is the only type of training in which all students in a class (group) are reasonably confident in the successful achievement of learning outcomes based on their full competence.
The theory of the gradual formation of mental actions is an instruction to the teacher on how to build the educational process so that the formation of knowledge and actions using the main didactics tool - OOD - is effective.
Universal Learning Operations (UUD)
One of the problems of modern education is changing the world with an ever-increasing speed. The knowledge gained at school becomes outdated before the student has time to finish it.
In addition, in the processes of training and education, the student depends on the teacher, because he does not know how to develop independently.
Further ignoring these facts will lead (and already leads) to the complete inefficiency of the education system.
The only way out of the problem situation is to change the direction in the priorities of education from obtaining subject knowledge, abilities and skills to personal and meta-subject (over-subject) universal educational actions (UUD).
The didactic predecessor of these actions was previously actions based on general educational skills.
The term "UUD" means that:
- the subject (student) is capable of self-development and self-improvement, actively and consciously appropriating new social experience;
- the subject is capable of independently assimilating new knowledge and skills, including the ability to organize the process of obtaining knowledge and its assimilation;
- the subject independently learns to be culturally identical, socially competent, tolerant.
Currently, the main school in Russia (from 5 to 9 grades) is moving to the new federal state educational standard. At its core is the creation of an UDD for children of this age.
The formation of UUD in primary school
This process is built in the logic “from action to thought”. Thus, it coincides with the logical basis of the concept of P. Ya. Halperin.
Moreover, the theory of the gradual formation of mental actions becomes, along with the methodological theory of activity and thinking, the fundamental basis for the creation of UUD.
In fact, TPFUD in its form is nothing more than a technology for abstracting actions - from material to mental. UUD is the highest and final result of this abstraction: mental actions in the world of self-governing, self-moving thinking.
Even 25 years ago, such mental ability as the goal of education was not even discussed. Today it meets the requirements of our time.
For Russian education, the need to rely on the most progressive theory and methodology finally became apparent. This is possible due to the experience of more than half a century of system-active development in pedagogy (GP Shchedrovitsky, OS Anisimov, etc.). They have a unique mechanism for the continuous generation of a theory and at the same time its implementation, taking into account equally continuous updates.