The psychological characteristic of the student is one of the most important documents that is used in the work of not only the school psychologist, but also the teachers working in the classroom and the class teacher. She has several functions at once. Firstly, with the help of the characteristic, an in-depth psychological portrait of a schoolboy can be compiled. Secondly, it will help new teachers to get to know students faster, to take into account the peculiarities of their character when working with them. This document can also contribute to closer work with the student's family, as a result of which it is possible to achieve more effective results in the upbringing and development of the child.
To date, there is no single form by which the psychological profile is compiled. Therefore, most often it is enough for a psychologist to follow the general recommendations for writing it, unless otherwise specified in the educational institution.
The main requirements for this document are as follows. Most of the text should describe the individual characteristics of the child, which can appear not only in the school, but also in extracurricular activities. In this case, it is desirable that there is no unnecessary information. It is better to keep the language of the document scientific, since the predominance of special terms in it can complicate the perception of information.
In order to study the student, the specialist must be well trained. This means that he is obliged to select the necessary tests aimed at the studied personality qualities.
In addition to general information about the child, information should be provided on his family (composition, social status, parenting style) and health status. For this, the psychologist needs to establish contact with the doctor of the educational institution, as well as the student’s parents. The following describes the observations of the class teacher about the student.
The psychological characteristic of the student contains information about his overall development, interests and inclinations. The document can be divided into several sections, each of which will begin with a new paragraph, which indicates the features of the cognitive processes of the student. For instance:
- attention: arbitrary, poorly developed, the child quickly becomes tired;
- verbal intelligence: dialogic speech is poorly developed, limited general outlook.
The psychological characteristic should contain information about such individual characteristics as the nature of the child’s activities, learning ability, communication with adults and peers, etc. You can also indicate how the student treats criticism in his address: hostile, indifferent, benevolent.
The general characteristic of the class team, as well as the place of the student in it, is indicated in this document. It is worth noting what moral values and beliefs a student has, that is, his ideas about friendship and decency, honor and conscience.
The psychological characteristic of the class should contain approximately the same information, only generalized, concerning the whole collective.
So, it is necessary to indicate not only the number of people, but also what nationalities children study (ethnic traditions can affect the worldview and values of students). In addition, the sociometric characteristics of the team are described, among which is cohesion, the number of "stars", "isolated", etc. Also in the document you can display the types of temperament that exist in the class, and in what relation they are. The last point is important, as it will help teachers to take into account the pace of educational activity and the personal qualities of students in their work.
At the end of the document, it is necessary to write conclusions and recommendations for teachers working with these children or one child, based on psychological research and individual characteristics of students.