The participation of Russia in the Bologna Process demands further democratization of the system of education that is directly connected with the upbringing perfection and its strategy determination. The integration into the world´s educational space sets lots of problems before our society. In particular, let us note that the idea of "upbringing" itself is mainly indicative of the native pedagogy and practice. If we want to keep our originality, it is necessary to understand (and act in accordance with this understanding) how important and worthful is to preserve Russian traditions and accumulated experience of higher school in the formation of the student´s personality evolution, in particular [2, p. 44].
The teacher´s activity should be clearly planned, in the center of his work there should be the personality of a child and favourable conditions for its becoming and self-development. The personal-professional self-development will help the teacher therein. This self-development can be considered as an active qualitative transformation of his inner world promoting his original creative self-realization in the profession by himself. Only a pronounced ability of the teacher to active transformation of intrinsic and extrinsic motives of his activity affords an opportunity to read them as a prerequisite to the personal and professional self-development. The acting force of this self-development can be an ambition to unlock one´s creativity, search for new opportunities for self-realization, and comprehend one´s possible talents [3, 66].
The evolution of a personality is also exercised in a collective, that is why the pedagogical problem of the primary school-aged children collective development needs for continuative attention. It should be born in mind that without the collective´s self-management the real personality development in it is impossible. Therefore, we consider the role of a collective in the process of self-management as an example.
The pupils´ self-management - is a form of learners´ collective life activity organization providing the development of their independency in making decisions and decisions´ realization for the achievement of socially meaningful objectives [4, 206].
Among the variety of organizational-pedagogical problems, which have to be solved at modern school, the class collective organization problem is a top-ranked one. The teacher should be involved into the mutual relationship in a children´s collective, organize professional intercourse with the pupils, cultivating humanity-oriented values. Approval or condemnation, support or rejection of any view points by the collective form a public opinion, which is not only a collective´s characteristic, but is also used as one of the methods of pedagogical interaction. The public opinion method consists in the attraction of educatees to the development and specifying socially and morally valuable requirements to each other, setting and realization of socially and personally meaningful prospects, exercises a dominant influence on the encouragement and punishment efficiency. The public opinion method purpose consists in the promotion of everything positive in the collective´s life and negative developments and tendencies negotiation. However, selfhood, personalism and irresponsibility manifestations are still seen in school children in practice. It is not infrequent that junior school learners share school accessories with each other unwillingly, are ill-disposed to their equals in age, show their obduracy, indifference to those, who miss lessons because of illness, are not gratified by their mates successes [6, 4].
Effective conditions for the psychological climate creation in a pupils´ collective are good relations between the group members. The problem of the pupils´ collective formation is topical nowadays and demands to be studied deeply and seriously. A purposeful organization of the psychological climate in a pupils´ collective consists in changing the character of official and non-official structures interconnection at various stages of the collective´s development. The interaction of official and non-official systems of school children interrelations at various stages of the class collective´s development is very important. Without knowing the informal system of the group interaction the teacher cannot manage the collective´s development. When analyzing the psychological climate of a pupils´ collective it is necessary to know: what interrelations between the groupings are; if there are groupings poisoning their minds against pedagogical requirements in the class; what the officially working core group´s members represent; if the core group is a real one, i.e. determining norms; what the position of every child in the collective is.
The teacher should take all these aspects into account in his work with pupils´ collectives, as every one of them is important enough to develop a positive psychological climate. On the opinion of the pedagogue Anikeyeva N.P., all groups take their special place in a collective on two hierarchies: 1. The hierarchy of groups according to authoritativeness. The reputable groups define collective ones; 2. The hierarchy of groupings according to their values and interests [1, 204].
The teacher´s task - is to achieve the coincidence of these kinds of hierarchy, so that the groupings with the highest values became the most authoritative in the group.
At every stage of a collective´s development it is necessary to see not only who the requirements are specified by; but also how the attitude of the children to the activity is being changed; which role the self-management in the collective plays; which changes are taking place in the activities and behavior motives of every member of the children´s collective; which corrections are possible to be made, depending on the junior school teacher´s professional knowledge and skills.
At the first stage the teacher deals with a formal union of children. In his classification A.N. Lutoshkin compared such a collective to a sand deposit. Indeed, like sand grains in a handful, the children are united by nothing. The teacher should take the organizational function upon himself, specify the requirements, set the rules and norms of the relationships, and - the name of the game - kindle the children´s interest in modern activities [5, 73].
The second stage is defined by the fact that the core group takes part of the organizational functions upon itself. It is like a "twinkling lighthouse", and the teacher, like the light-keeper, should take care of it, i.e. take the organizational, communicative and correctional functions upon himself.
At the third stage a harmonic combination of submission and leadership, all members of a collective show mutual insistence on high standards, interest in teamwork, live out the successes and failures of the collective. Both adults and children are contributors to a common deal. There appears a real protection of a personality in the collective; conditions for personal self-realization are created. The collective successfully carries out its activity. It is a "scarlet sail", which symbolizes a dream that came true and a sense of joy. In an analogous classification there is one more metaphor: such a collective is a "burning torch", as it becomes an example for others.
The process of development of a collective is very complicated, and in real life it is most often impossible to see clear bounds between the stages of its development.
A children´s collective is the most important factor of purposeful socialization, personality upbringing. Its influence on a personality depends largely on how seriously the purposes and intents of the collective are realized by its members and understood by them as their personal ones.
Collectivity is a sense of sympathy with the group, understanding of oneself as its part, readiness to act to the good of the group and society. The upbringing of collectivity in a school collective is achieved in a variety of ways and by various means: the organization of collaboration and mutual aid in studies, labour, extracurricular activities; joint participation of school children in cultural and sport events; setting perspectives (activities objectives) before learners and joint participation in their implementation; children´s and teenagers´ voluntary societies´ work activation.
Realizing that the teamwork organization most important method is self-management, we defined the kinds of activity according to children´s missions: the participation of children in planning, development, carrying out and analysis of crucial actions of the collective; implementation of collective, group and individual missions; creative duties in the class, organization of creative breaks. That is why there were 6 groups formed for the realization of the purposes. Every pupil was in one or another group (3-4 persons in every one).
The backbone of teaching self-management of the class in our investigation was the voyage-game "Merry Train" representing a complex program of junior school children´s activity organization and promoting the development of every one of them. The pupils set forth their travels in dillies. The passengers chose and had been implementing one of the 6 alternating missions for a month.
Every group of children received its name: scouts, amusements organizers, youth correspondents, letter carriers, wiser heads and lifeguards. The pieces of advice - hints stated in specially developed check lists for the junior school children - helped the travelers to fulfil their missions actively, creatively and in good faith.
Afterwards we started watching how the children behave in various situations and whether they gather in groups after their hours. The watching plan included registering the interaction between the children: how they settle among themselves; how often they quarrel; how they carry out their common deals; whether they help each other, why and where in; whether they are organized or not. How the children behaved fulfilling their traditional missions in groups and how they proved themselves during the intercourse hour when they reported on the charged affairs was taken into consideration.
On the trip the passengers of the "Merry train" took part in various competitions of cognitive and creative character, fulfilled collectively of several offered assignments (it was given in a colorfully painted ticket for every dilly). After monthly being on the way the train makes a stop destined for the analysis and summarizing the work of the whole team of every dilly and every passenger. "Where we succeeded? Where we failed? What should we take into account and make in the future?" - these questions were to be answered individually and collectively. Who was the best was decided by the whole class. During the stop a change of collective missions took place in the passenger body. The course and results of the voyage-game reflected in the class hour. The use and importance of efforts of every child and the class as a whole became apparent at the made train model inspection. The walls of the dillies were decorated with pockets for assignments, and windows - with the pockets for passengers´ photos. In the "Mood Screen" near the surnames of the pupils the tickets of the fulfilled assignments were placed. The travel participants collected 7 tickets got an opportunity to canvass a picture the "Mode of Transport". The most active pupils were awarded with the medals "The best scout", "The best amusements organizer", "The best youth correspondent", "The best letter carrier", "The best wiser head" and "The best lifeguard" at the year-end.
At the end of every month the children narrated about their impressions, about what they succeeded and failed in. Thus, the educational measures carried out by us allowed evoking the wish to act in a body, collectively in the children. Every member of the collective differed with a high personal responsibility for the joint activity result.
By the end of our investigation we had noticed that the children in the groups started enjoying the companionship of each other and communicate with each other. They learned how to settle and make arrangements with each other; quarreled much more seldom; started carrying out common missions hand in hand; became able to see, who needed a help; helped each other. Disagreements started taking place much more seldom, a common opinion on the problem being discussed formed quickly during the discussion. Therefore we can speak about the teacher´s self-development in the process of application of educational measures, which improve the development of a collective by means of pupils´ self-management. The results comparison showed that the level of junior school children collective development in the experimental class grew generally, and in the control class this growing was insignificant. For a sound growing of this level a further work over the development of the collective is required.
References:
- Anikeyeva N.P. Psychological climate in collective [Text] / Anikeyeva N.P. - M.: Prosveshchenie, 1989 - p. 254.
- Laricheva V.V. Some aspects of teacher´s personal and professional self-development [Text] / Laricheva V.V. // Pedagogical Science and Education. Under the editorship of Dr. Sc. (Pedagogy) Pr. Pasyukov P.N. - Chelyabinsk: Publishing Center of UralSUPC, 2007 - p. 155.
- Rozhkov M.I. Organization of educational process at school [Text] / Rozhkov M.I., Baiborodova L.V. - M.: Humanitarian Publishing Center VLADOS, 2000 - p. 261.