6 main questions about the Elkonin-Davydov system

Excluded from the list of those recommended by the Federal State Educational Standard for use in schools. It turned out that for four years now the only approved developmental program has been the Elkonin-Davydov system. It has been around for over 50 years, but it still raises a lot of questions. For parents ready to experiment, we have answered the most common ones.

For those who are preparing for the main school exam

1. Who are Elkonin and Davydov?

Daniil Elkonin - Soviet scientist, author of the theory of the study of childhood, corresponding member of the Academy of Psychological Sciences. He began his work at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute. Together with the outstanding psychologist Lev Vygotsky, he dealt with the problems of children's play. In 1978, his monograph "The Psychology of Play" was published, which still remains the basis for child psychology and pedagogy.

But Elkonin's greatest contribution to Soviet and world pedagogy was the development and implementation of a new system of so-called developmental education. The term was introduced by Vasily Davydov - a student of Elkonin, a Soviet teacher, psychologist, vice-president of the USSR APS. Programs and teaching aids in mathematics, the Russian language, chemistry, geography and other subjects were developed according to his theories.

Daniil Borisovich Elkonin (1904–1984) and Vasily Vasilyevich Davydov (1930–1998)

The ideas of the educational system of developmental education began to take shape as early as the late 1950s. At that time, the content and methods of traditional education were actively criticized in the pedagogical and psychological community, and the main problem was the lack of connection between education and the psychological development of children.

In 1959, a laboratory was formed at Moscow School No. 91, where, under the leadership of Elkonin and Davydov, they studied the capabilities of younger students. In 1963, it received the status of an experimental educational institution of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR. Today it is an ordinary general education school, but it continues to be the main platform for developing education. Unlike other schools (and in Moscow there are about a dozen of them), here they teach according to the Elkonin-Davydov system, not only from grades 1 to 4.

2. What is the essence of the system?

The main difference between the Elkonin-Davydov system and the rest is the content of training. It is based on the fact that each subject studied has its own history of development and the child must go through all the stages.

To create something new, a child must first master everything that was developed, learned, invented before him. The system of developmental education is aimed at ensuring that he receives this cultural baggage.

“A school subject in the Elkonin-Davydov system is not just a set of rules, it is a cultural activity of a person, which has its own history and basic concepts. If a child wants to come to cultural activities, then this is the way. Regardless of parents’ illusions about “humanitarians”, “techies”, “visuals” and “left-brained” - everyone who goes this way will be interested in looking at the world through the eyes of a chemist, biologist, linguist, ”anastasia Lobanova, a methodologist, explains the essence School No. 2101, where training is conducted according to the Elkonin-Davydov system.

3. How is it different from a regular elementary school?

Most often, knowledge in school is transmitted in finished form. In the Elkonin-Davydov system, teachers offer children tasks that allow them to independently understand the basic principles of the subject they are studying. “We strive to give students the opportunity to feel like creators when they discover, for example, the principle of constructing a multiplication table or an artistic composition,” this is how the essence of the system is explained to parents who decided to send their child to the 91st school.

A lot of developmental learning is designed for the fact that tasks are done in pairs, in a group. This is one of the main reasons why it is difficult for children from ordinary schools to integrate into the Elkonin-Davydov system. They often turn out to be unprepared for joint work, they do not know how to work in a group without the constant supervision of a teacher, they perceive group work as an opportunity to relax. It happens that they are afraid to be wrong, to show that they do not know something.

It can also be difficult for children who have begun to study according to the Elkonin-Davydov system to move to a traditional school. The primary school curriculum is very different from the regular one. For example, in the first grade there is a very long "pre-letter" period in the study of the Russian language and a long "pre-numerical" period in the study of mathematics. When “ordinary” children add and subtract within ten and have finished the primer, students of the Elkonin-Davydov system still compare “more-less” and learn letters.

The Elkonin-Davydov system does not instill unconditional trust in texts and judgments in children. She teaches every opinion to analyze, asking questions: “Is it always so? Are there any exceptions to this rule? Could it be otherwise?" Texts in textbooks are complex, unadapted.

Among the tasks in textbooks and workbooks there are "traps" - intentionally made mistakes

They are needed in order to train the child's vigilance and not allow him to solve problems on the knurled. The system teaches him to see other people's, and then his own mistakes.

Teachers are faced with the task of developing the ability to reflect in elementary school graduates. It is she who is considered the basis of theoretical thinking, which consists in the ability to distinguish the known from the unknown, understanding what knowledge is not enough to solve the problem, and the ability to evaluate one's actions and thoughts from the outside. Teachers strive to explain to children that their point of view cannot be the only correct one.

If a child has mastered this, it means that he has an important skill - he knows how to learn.

4. Is it true that no grades are given in the Elkonin-Davydov system?

At school No. 91, until the fifth grade, children really do not get grades in the usual sense. They are in a different form - it can be a percentage, a hundred-point scale or other systems. The ratings themselves are not needed to give feedback. “The assessment system can be different, depending on the school and teachers. But the main thing is that the criteria must be clear to the child, he must know why he received this or that mark. It doesn't matter how many points you have. If the children run to the teacher with the question: “Did I do the right thing?” It means that they cannot evaluate themselves and this is not very Davydovian,” explains Dmitry Chumachenko, a mathematics teacher at school No. 2101.

The system teaches the child to independently evaluate their work, to see the improvements that occur day by day. He is not focused on the “troika” or “five”, but on the fact that today he began to do something better than the day before yesterday. Parents also learn this, who need to make an effort to stop thinking in the classic five-point scale. By the way, all flags, asterisks or ducklings, which are sometimes put together with digital marks in elementary school, also belong to it. A sad face along with the usual "deuce" does not make the system non-judgmental.

Although students are not given grades up to grade 5, it is still possible to transfer to a regular school. In this case, the teacher simply puts marks in the diary, guided by the accepted criteria.

5. Who is it suitable for?

The motto of the Elkonin-Davydov system is "we must teach everyone." Pyotr Galperin, with whom Davydov studied, believed that the teacher should create special conditions for learning. Those in which the child cannot but acquire the necessary skills and knowledge. Therefore, no one selects children in the first grade according to their ability, but teachers try to meet and communicate with their parents. After all, the values ​​that underlie the Elkonin-Davydov system may diverge from the values ​​of the family.

The educational system is aimed at any child, but not at any adult

“Parents sometimes come, based on common illusions, and are not ready for the fact that everything is not the way they are used to. We definitely hold open days, master classes, a lesson for parents, - says Anastasia Lobanova. - We may not get to know the children at all, sometimes I see them for the first time on September 1st. But I have to look at the parents, make sure that they correctly understand how and why developmental education is built. A mismatch between family and school values ​​can make learning impossible.”

It is believed that schoolchildren who studied according to the Elkonin-Davydov system act better in a non-standard situation. They can find the best way to solve a problem, get the right knowledge, predict the development of the situation more often and faster than students from traditional schools. But in those areas that are associated only with perseverance, memory and long work, they often show average results.

6. Why is she criticized?

The complexity (and at the same time strength) of the Elkonin-Davydov system lies in the fact that it is based on serious psychological and philosophical foundations. In addition to the works of its authors, it relies on the works of Lev Vygotsky, Alexei Leontiev, Pyotr Galperin, as well as Hegel's dialectic and Marxism.

Teachers who are accustomed to working according to the traditional system must be completely retrained, and most importantly, they must revise established values ​​and priorities.

It is difficult for teachers to be not the ultimate truth, but only to guide

Their task is to help in the search, really strive to teach the child to understand, and not just meet the formal requirements.

It is also difficult for parents, they have to change their views. For example, many modern mothers and fathers want their child to study without straining too much, so that he would be interested. If this does not happen, the parents blame the teacher. In the system of developmental education, they believe that the child should understand the value of learning.

“Modern impulses of parents to the fact that the child must be constantly shown tricks lead to the fact that children are not ready for the real scientific method. Studying is not only beautiful experiences when everything explodes and sparkles. This is a thoughtful reading of the text, active work of thought. It can be interesting from the very beginning, but most often it will become interesting only at the moment when the child sees the subject through the eyes of a cultured adult,” explains methodologist Anastasia Lobanova.

Another challenge for parents is homework. They try to help and cannot - they were taught differently. But in the Elkonin-Davydov system, children have to do their homework themselves, this is their area of ​​responsibility. Many parents need to be specially taught this.

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