The relevance of the chosen topic is determined by the decrease in the efficiency of students and the definition pedagogical conditions, the correct alternation of mental and physical loads and the preservation of the possible level of working capacity, sufficient for studying and consolidating educational material during the school day.
Purpose: to identify the features of the dynamics and levels of performance in junior students school age during the school day.
In the psychological and pedagogical literature, physical education is considered as a means of correction (Voronkova, Aksenova, Barkov). Physical education is an integral part of the complex system of educational work, which is aimed at solving educational, educational and medical and health problems. Numerous studies testify to the paramount role of movements in the development of the child's mental functions and the presence of a close relationship between indicators of physical and mental qualities in children. junior schoolchildren. Everyday physical activity is a natural need of a growing organism and an indispensable condition for physical development, health promotion and increasing the body's resistance. Skillful use of specially selected and properly dosed physical exercises during the period of development helps to stimulate the ordering of the relevant processes, to achieve a significant increase in working capacity.
Efficiency is understood as the level of functional capabilities of the body, characterized by the efficiency of work performed over a certain period of time.
During schoolwork, schoolchildren quickly develop fatigue, and sometimes overwork.
Fatigue is a temporary loss of working capacity caused by intense and complex mental work).
An important condition that determines the effectiveness of the educational process is high level mental and physical performance in the process of learning activities. When teaching children, it is necessary to properly organize studying proccess which should include physical education.
The study of the working capacity of schoolchildren is carried out on the basis of a study of quantitative and qualitative parameters of the implementation of activities (speed of information processing, productivity, accuracy).
To achieve this goal, we used the following methods:
Correction test of the Landolt ring in the interpretation of Sysoev.
Correction test of the alphabetic tables of Bourdon - Anfimov.
Methodology for the study of mental performance account according to Kraepelin.
Schoolchildren with attention deficit have an average level of performance. This suggests that children with this level, as a rule, quickly start the task, but after a short amount of time they begin to make mistakes due to the low level of productivity, stability and concentration. After the resulting fatigue, they become restless, interest in work decreases, the tension of mental and physiological functions increases, volitional efforts increase to maintain the necessary productivity and quality of activity. If you continue to work in this state, the number of tasks performed decreases, errors appear and your mood deteriorates. Some students have an above average performance score, which means that the level of productivity and attention span is high. Children can concentrate on the proposed task, perform it at an average speed, while allowing a small number of errors. A low level of performance is high fatigue, increased distractibility and lack of interest in work. An analysis of the dynamics of mental performance showed that the factors of fatigue, first of all, include the order, the number of the lesson, because indicators of mental performance of students are subject to change during the school day. Most children have two pronounced increases in working capacity: the first - from 8 to 11 hours, the second - at 16-17 hours.
The most productive work takes place in the third lesson and worsens by the fifth.
An analysis of the literature and the data we obtained in the course of the ascertaining experiment made it possible to formulate recommendations for the normalization of working capacity in the classroom.
The conditions for increasing the efficiency of students in the classroom were highlighted.
In overcoming the difficulties caused by the decrease in working capacity, the importance of physical culture pauses is great.
Students need regular physical education sessions in the classroom. The use of physical education minutes is necessary in all lessons at school. The effectiveness of the use of physical education minutes is to relieve fatigue, gain peace, strengthen the spine, feet, hands, prevent myopia, form a beautiful posture, relieve congestion caused by long sitting at a desk, increase mental performance, etc. The widespread use of physical education sessions in the classroom increases the efficiency and effectiveness of mastering new knowledge of school students.
Efficiency is the ability of a person to develop maximum energy and, spending it economically, achieve the goal with quality performance mental or physical work. This is ensured by the optimal state of various physiological systems of the body with their synchronous, coordinated activity. Mental and muscular (physical) performance is closely related to age: all indicators of mental performance increase with the growth and development of children. For equal work time, children aged 6–8 can complete 39–53% of the volume of tasks performed by 15–17 year old students. At the same time, the quality of work of the former is 45–64% lower than that of the latter.
The rate of increase in the speed and accuracy of mental work increases unevenly with increasing age, similar to the change in other quantitative and qualitative characteristics that reflect the growth and development of the organism. Annual rates of increase in mental performance indicators from 6 to 15 years range from 2 to 53%.
At all ages, students with disabilities in the state of health have a lower level of mental performance compared to healthy children and the class team as a whole.
In healthy children of 6–7 years old who enter school with insufficient readiness of the body for systematic training in terms of a number of morphological and functional indicators, working capacity also turns out to be lower and shows less stability compared to children who are ready for learning, quickly adapting to it and successfully coping with emerging difficulties. . However, the stability of working capacity in these children, in contrast to weakened schoolchildren, usually increases by the end of the first noon.
The phases of working capacity and its daily periodicity: in any work, including mental, the human body, and especially the child, does not immediately turn on. It takes some time to get into the work, or work it out. This is the first phase of performance. During this phase, quantitative (volume of work, speed) and qualitative (number of errors - accuracy) performance indicators often improve and deteriorate asynchronously before each of them reaches its optimum. Such fluctuations - the body's search for the most economical level for work (mental activity) - is a manifestation of a self-regulating system.
The development phase is followed by the phase of optimal performance, when relatively high levels of quantitative and quality indicators are consistent with each other and change synchronously. Positive changes in higher nervous activity correlate with indicators that reflect a favorable functional state of other physiological systems.
After some time, less for students aged 6–10 years and more for adolescents, boys and girls, fatigue begins to develop and the third phase of working capacity appears. Fatigue manifests itself first in an insignificant, and then in a sharp decrease in working capacity. This spike in performance decline points to the limit effective work and is a signal to stop it. The drop in performance at its first stage is expressed again in the mismatch of quantitative and qualitative indicators: the amount of work is high, and the accuracy is low. At the second stage of the decline in performance, both indicators deteriorate in a coordinated manner. At the first stage of the decrease in working capacity, an imbalance of the excitatory and inhibitory processes is recorded in the direction of the predominance of the excitatory process (motor restlessness) over active internal inhibition.
At the stage of a sharp decrease in working capacity, the functional state of the central nervous system: protective inhibition develops, which outwardly manifests itself in children and adolescents in lethargy, drowsiness, loss of interest in work and refusal to continue it, often in inadequate behavior.
Developing fatigue is a natural reaction of the body to a more or less prolonged and intense load. Fatigue loading is necessary. Without this, the development of children and adolescents, their training, adaptation to mental and physical activity. But the planning and distribution of these loads must be carried out in a qualified manner, taking into account the age-sex, morphological and functional characteristics of schoolchildren.
In order for younger students to develop less fatigue, it is necessary to regularly train your body with physical activity. The fundamental means of physical development is morning exercises.
WEEKLY PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS
In preparing for the lesson, the performance of students should be taken into account. Here is a table reflecting the dynamics of the weekly performance of middle school students.
days weeks | 1 lesson | 2 lesson | 3 lesson | 4 lesson | Lesson 5 | 6 lesson | Lesson 7 |
Monday | |||||||
Tuesday | |||||||
Wednesday | |||||||
Thursday | |||||||
Friday |
Here, in means high performance of children, this is a favorable zone, FROM - average working capacity, satisfactory zone, H - low efficiency, unsatisfactory zone.
With reduced performance, there is a decrease in the mental functions of the student - perception, attention, memory, interest, will, etc. At the same time, physiological functions are also disturbed - the pulse rate changes, blood pressure rises, respiratory rate, body temperature, perspiration, etc. increase.
The most important factor in increasing the effectiveness of the lesson is to maintain a high level of student performance. What are the ways to improve the performance of children in satisfactory and even in unsatisfactory areas? Let's imagine how fatigue occurs. Each activity is controlled by a specific area of the cerebral cortex. Prolonged engagement in homogeneous activity causes inhibition in the corresponding area, which captures neighboring areas. There is a protective, or transcendent, inhibition of nerve cells, their functioning stops, that is, the ability to respond to stimuli. Tiredness is also caused by light, monotonous, long-term work. Fatigue quickly sets in when doing uninteresting work.
If it is reasonable to switch students from one type of activity to another, then in the sixth lesson their performance may even increase. So, it is recommended to change activities up to 3-5 times in zone B, up to 5-7 times in zone C, up to 9 times in zone H.
How can this change take place? The teacher's story (5-7 minutes), accompanied, if possible, by a demonstration of clarity, is replaced by the work of students with a book (reading the text, working with reference material, with drawings, answering questions at the end of a paragraph, etc.), drawing up tasks, solving them , selection of examples, etc.
Such situations should be avoided when the teacher changes teaching methods, and the activities of the students are of the same type. In middle classes, the duration of continuous speaking of the teacher should not exceed 10-15 minutes.
You need to think about the place and duration independent work students in the lesson. If at the beginning of the lesson you give independent work for 18-20 minutes, then this adversely affects the performance of children: it is difficult for them to concentrate on learning new material.
A person works due to two of his properties: the ability to form a purposeful activity and the efficiency in which this activity is realized.
. performance - characteristics of existing or potential an individual to perform a goal-oriented activity at a given level of efficiency for a certain time
depending on the forms of labor activity, physical and mental performance are distinguished . Physical activity requires application of significant efforts of the body mental - characterized by a significantly smaller, often insignificant and irregular use of the motor apparatus, contributes to slowing down metabolic processes, congestion, especially in the muscles of the legs, will worsen. Anna brain oxygen, etc. (Constituting 1.2-1.5% of body weight, the brain needs more than 20% of its energy resources.
The performance of students is influenced by personal and organizational factors. To personal factors belong to the type of nervous activity, age, gender, state of health, emotional state, fitness, motivation. The conditions of training, the organization of the workplace and working posture, the compliance of teaching aids with ergonomic requirements, the mode of work and rest are organizational factors
Psychophysiological characteristics of children aged 6-10 significantly affect the changes in their physical performance during the lesson, day, week and academic year. The younger schoolchildren, the more noticeable fluctuations in dynamics and their performance, this should not be taken into account when planning educational work. The performance of students during the day or lesson is unstable, it is characterized by phase development: entry, optimal performance and fatigue. The dynamics of students' performance can be depicted as a normal distribution curve (Fig. 21 2.1).
. Entry phase covers the functional preparation of the nervous and humoral mechanisms for controlling the future type of activity, the gradual adjustment to the desired dynamic stereotype, the achievement of the required level of vegetative functions of the body; its duration depends on the nature of the activity. They consider it energetically intense work, temm in short there is this phase. So, with heavy physical work, it lasts 20-25 minutes, and for mental work 1.5-2.5 hours. In students, compared with adults, this phase is much shorter, which is explained by the greater excitability and functional national mobility of the nervous system of young children.
. Optimal sustained performance phase in terms of physiological characteristics, it is fundamentally different from the entry phase. During this period, the necessary working dynamic stereotype, effective motor or mental activity is carried out, accompanied by a stable sufficient level of vegetative functions and optimal results of activity. The duration of this period also depends on the age, state of health, nature and intensity of work. Under favorable conditions, the period of optimal stable performance can last 70-75% of the working time.
As a certain activity is performed, the body's performance begins to gradually decline. Begins phase of fatigue (decreased performance), which characterized by a decrease in performance indicators of the work performed, a deterioration in the functional state of the body and the development of fatigue (the last 5-10 minutes of a lesson in elementary school)
By types of activity, in addition to the named phases, it turns out that there is also a tn phase of the final impulse
. End impulse phase occurs when work ends in the optimal performance phase or at its completion. It is characterized by an urgent mobilization through the motivational sphere of additional forces of the body, emotions and a slight rise, a feeling of fatigue and an increase in working capacity. The stronger the incentives for activity, the more pronounced is the phase of the final impulse. In this case, the nature of the natural dynamics of working capacity changes significantly.
So, the curve of the dynamics of students' working capacity during the lesson has certain features. The entry phase lasts 5-10 minutes and requires relatively little effort. During the period of optimal stable performance, which lasts 20-30 minutes, the load should be maximum (feeding new material, fixing it, doing independent work, etc.). The last 5-10 minutes of the lesson belong to the phase of slowing down, so the load must be reduced (Figure 21 2.1).
The performance of students also varies throughout the day. So, in the majority of younger schoolchildren in the first half of the school day, working capacity remains at a relatively high level. The increase in working capacity is feared after the first lesson and continues until the third lesson. At the end of the third lesson, the performance indicators decrease, and at the fourth and fifth lessons they become very low. So, in the first lesson, varto study relatively easy subjects, in the second or third lesson, complex ones, and then again easy ones.
The regulation of the teaching load is closely related to the question of the degree of complexity of the subject for the perception of the student. This indicator depends on the content of a particular lesson, teaching methods, inclinations, abilities and level of knowledge of students, their emotional perception of the subject, age, skill and personality of the teacher, etc. Based on numerous studies of hygienists, subjects were classified according to herd; The classification criterion was the presence of objective signs of fatigue that appeared after a certain lesson. For practical use proposed such a distribution of subjects according to the degree of complexity in the order of its decrease: mathematics, foreign language, physics, chemistry, history, native language, literature, natural science, geography, physical education, labor training, drawing, drawing, singing. There are academic subjects with which children meet for the first time (for example, for students in grade 2 - natural science). At primary school age, a reading lesson is tedious, since the process of forming a reading habit is complex and tedious. However, when reading at the second lesson (the period of optimal body capabilities), the daily dynamics of working capacity is better and more effective (54.1%) than under other conditions (18.3% 18.3%).
According to the peculiarities of the dynamics of daily performance, there are tons of “pigeons”, “larks” and “owls”, “blue”, an inherent two-peak curve of the dynamics of performance: the first peak occurs at about 10–11 o’clock, at 14–15 o’clock the performance decreases, at 17– 18 hour grows again, decreasing in the evening "Owls" work most productively in the evening hours, and "larks" - in the morning they work in the evening, and "larks" - at the rankings.
The performance of students also changes during the week. On Monday, it is somewhat reduced due to the beginning of the weekly phase of entry into educational activities. For junior schoolchildren, the peaks of working capacity fall on Tuesday and Thursday. On Friday, this figure gradually decreases due to fatigue. Some studies show that on Friday, younger students experience an increase in working capacity, due to the usual expectations of rest days. Behind such principles, the working capacity of children also changes during the educational rock-rock.
The dynamics of working capacity is considered typical for the majority of healthy students who are successful in educational activities. However, the typological and age characteristics of the organism of children of a certain degree can change the dynamics of working capacity. In addition, the younger the student, the lower the level of his working capacity and the short period of optimal stable working capacity.
The educational opportunities and academic success of children of primary school age largely depend on their mental performance. Younger schoolchildren with a high level of efficiency study well, get sick less and miss classes less often. In addition, high mental performance allows children to master various skills and abilities without stress, and also ensures their moral and volitional development. Upon reaching a high level of working capacity, the child manages to achieve significant success in the development of cognitive abilities, attention, memory, imagination and volitional qualities.
Today in the world there are contradictions between doctors and psychologists on the one hand and teachers on the other about what time is optimal for starting lessons for children of primary school age. The first ones are sure that the optimal time to start lessons in elementary school is at 10-12 am, since it is at this time that the peak of activity of mental performance of younger students is observed. The second ones say that the differences in fluctuations in the mental performance of younger students are not significant, so there is no urgent need to start classes a few hours later.
In the most general sense of the word, mental performance refers to the ability of a person to perceive information and process it. Mental performance can be considered as the potential ability of a person to perform tasks for a given time and with a certain efficiency. maximum amount tasks. Mental performance can also be understood as the ability of a person's thinking to work in a given mode.
In more detail, mental performance is considered as a state of a person, determined by the capabilities of his mental functions, which characterizes his ability to perform a certain number of mental tasks for a specific period of time. Thus, mental performance is the ability of thinking to effectively perform tasks in a given situation.
Mental performance has features of dynamics - changes in the ability of thinking to the efficiency of performing tasks during any time period (day, week, month, year, etc.).
For the first time the term "mental performance" was introduced into psychology by E. Kraepelin in 1898. E. Kraepelin not only described the concept of "mental performance", but also identified its main stages. By mental performance, he understood the ability of an individual to perform a purposeful activity at a given level of efficiency for a certain time. He referred to the main stages of mental performance:
- 1) working out - orientation of a person in a situation;
- 2) optimal performance - the maximum mental activity of an individual to perform a given job;
- 3) fatigue - a sharp decrease in the mental performance of the individual;
- 4) the final impulse - the minimum ability of the individual to perform activities.
In the 30s. 20th century a model of psychology as a science of behavior emerges. E. L. Thorndike and J. B. Watson begin to consider thinking as a set of skills and motor reactions of the body in response to external stimuli. Thinking is formed by learning. Mental performance refers to a person's ability to control their behavior and master new skills.
In the middle of the XX century. cognitive psychology begins to develop as an independent science. The problem of human mental performance is considered in the context of the psychology of thinking. So, T. Kelly attributed to the main factors that determine a person's ability to think productively, spatial thinking, computational abilities and verbal abilities, as well as memory, concentration and stability of attention.
In domestic psychology, the mental performance of a person was considered as a problem of mental activity, i.e. as the ability for effective mental work. Representatives of this approach relied on the fact that a person's mental performance is the most important indicator of the functional state of the psyche. This indicator reflects the ability of a person to successfully adapt to specific environmental conditions. Ultimately, a person's mental performance determines the degree of his inner comfort and life status.
V. M. Bekhterev wrote that “labor (its conditions, content) is an essential social factor in human development. Mental labor acts as a condition for social progress.” A student of V. M. Bekhterev, A. F. Lazursky, carried out a number of studies devoted to the study of mental performance and human fatigue. He experimentally established the phenomenon of a decrease in the originality of associations during mental fatigue. Mental fatigue was also studied under the guidance of I. M. Sechenov, which is described in his article "On the Question of the Influence of a Sensory Nerve Stimulus on Human Muscular Work" . It was found that the ratio of time of mental activity and time of rest is important in mental and physical work.
According to the definition of R. M. Baevsky, mental performance is a certain amount of work performed without reducing the level of functioning of the organism that is optimal for a given individual. The possibility of fluctuations in the volume of mental work performed by each subject is assumed, i.e. the presence of high, medium or low performance in different periods of time.
The structure of mental actions, from the position of P. K. Anokhin, includes decision-making, goal setting and achievement of the final useful result.
According to A. A. Ukhtomsky, interrelated processes - motivation and memory - cause a pre-working state. From a physiological standpoint, the pre-working state corresponds to the dominant, which is based on the excitation of certain nerve centers. The principle of self-regulation inherent in mental performance is carried out due to the constant receipt of information about the final result through the flow of afferent information.
In educational psychology, mental performance was considered as the ability of a student to effectively complete educational tasks within a given time. So, P. Kapterev studied the problem of mental performance of students through the directed formation of the foundations of their ability to work. He identified defects that lead to impaired mental performance. He attributed laziness to such defects.
Within the framework of the concept of subject-activity psychology, S. L. Rubinshtein characterized mental performance as a complex indicator on which a person’s success in educational activities and mental work depends.
In the context of the psychology of age-related giftedness, N. S. Leites understood mental performance as mental abilities that characterize the possibilities of theoretical knowledge and practical activity of the child.
In modern Russian psychology, the mental performance of schoolchildren is considered in two aspects:
- 1) mental performance as an indicator of the functional state and capacity of younger students;
- 2) mental performance - one of the criteria for adaptation to the school load and an indicator of the body's resistance to fatigue.
Proponents of the first (physiological) approach understand the potential ability of a person to perform the maximum number of tasks for a given time and with a certain efficiency by working capacity. Mental performance depends on biological seasonal rhythms and is determined by the physiological characteristics of the child. Research by R. G. Sapozhnikova shows that fatigue increases by the end of the school day, school week and school year. She found negative changes in the indicators of higher nervous activity, deterioration in the functions of visual and auditory analyzers, a decrease in the level of oxygen saturation in the blood, an increase in distraction from work, a decrease in working capacity and other physiological indicators. P. D. Belous understands mental performance as such a resolution of psychophysiological processes, in which it is possible to achieve high quantitative and qualitative indicators of mental activity at maximum physiological costs. I. S. Kondor and V. S. Rotenberg propose to combine the physiological and psycho-emotional indicators of the body to determine mental performance. Under mental performance, they understand the strength of the subject's motivation, his level of wakefulness, focus and stability of attention.
Proponents of the second (psychological-pedagogical) approach understand mental performance as a characteristic of a child's current or potential abilities to carry out mental activity at a given level for a certain time. Mental performance integrates the basic states of the child's psyche: perception, attention, memory, thinking. A high level of mental performance is one of the indicators of a child's psychological health. Most often, the authors of this approach are engaged in the study of any one factor that characterizes mental performance, and use various methods. So, G. A. Berulava notes that when assessing the mental development of a child, both the level of the child’s actual development and the level of his possible development should be taken into account. M. V. Antropova considers attention as the most significant indicator of the mental performance of children of primary school age. In her research, she found that the stability of attention of students in grades 1-3 increases in the first two days of school. And on Friday, on the contrary, the lowest attention span is recorded. T. V. Vorobyeva notes that the mental performance of younger students changes during the school year - by the end of it, the level of mental development of students increases by 25.5% compared to the beginning of the school year. N. K. Korsakova proposes to study the mental performance of students primary school, based on the analysis of the characteristics of auditory, visual and speech memory and visual-figurative thinking of the child. In the study by E. N. Dzyatkovskaya, the mental performance of children aged 7–9 years is also considered through the integration of several indicators. For a comprehensive assessment of the mental performance of children of primary school age, the author proposes to study the indicators of memory, attention and thinking.
The level of mental performance of a junior schoolchild is decisive for his psychological and pedagogical status. Mental performance includes:
- 1) the main characteristics of attention (activity, focus, stability);
- 2) perception as the basis of mental functions;
- 3) memory ( different kinds memory, speed of consolidation, preservation of the ability to perceive);
- 4) thinking as an indirect form of reflection processes;
- 5) special abilities;
- 6) personality traits that influence the child's behavior and determine the effectiveness of his activities.
Mental performance is some integral property cognitive activity child, consisting of three main components:
- - cognitive (features of the processes of perception, memory and thinking of the child);
- - creative (general and special abilities of the child - originality and flexibility of thinking);
- - personal (character traits that affect the behavior of the child and determine the effectiveness of his activities).
In the age aspect, the data describing the dynamics of the mental performance of schoolchildren are very contradictory. Most scientists note a natural increase in the mental performance of children in connection with their growth and development. This is due to the improvement of higher nervous activity, an increase in the lability of nervous processes, the qualitative and quantitative formation of new temporary connections, which indicates the dependence of mental performance and its stability on the level of physical development. It was found that schoolchildren with a higher level of growth and development have the highest mental performance.
The mental performance of a student changes during the day, week and year. During the school year, the dynamics of the mental performance of schoolchildren is considered in quarters. Efficiency, as a rule, decreases by the end of the second quarter, this is due to a decrease in the functional capabilities of the body. Rest during the winter holidays contributes to the restoration of students' working capacity. During the second half of the year, mental performance remains fairly stable, but decreases by the fourth quarter. It is believed that favorable hours for human mental activity fall at 10–12 am and 6–8 pm. By 14-16 hours, mental performance, as a rule, is greatly reduced.
The problem of disruption of the dynamics of mental activity was noted by L. S. Vygotsky in his doctrine of fatigue, saying that the reason for the violation of the dynamics of mental activity of students is systematic fatigue, which can lead to persistent school failure of the child. Educational activity requires the simultaneous joint activity of a number of bodies. As a result, general nervous fatigue may occur. "In this case, three basic concepts should be distinguished: fatigue, fatigue and overwork. We will call fatigue that nervous state that can occur even when there are no physiological grounds for the onset of fatigue. Fatigue can also be after good night, and suggested, and due to lack of interest and boredom from the processes taking place before us. In normal cases, fatigue is for us a signal of the onset of fatigue. Fatigue - pure physiological factor..." Thus, fatigue is a subjective reaction, and fatigue is an objective state of the body. "Overfatigue means such an abnormal loss of strength, when their full recovery is no longer possible. Then there is some minus, an irreplaceable expenditure of energy, which threatens with painful consequences for the body.
Violation of mental performance of younger schoolchildren can be attributed to one of the main groups of causes that cause the syndrome of persistent school maladaptation. The main manifestations of impaired mental performance of children of primary school age are:
- 1) frequent headaches during the school day;
- 2) motor disinhibition - some hyperactivity;
- 3) general fatigue;
- 4) insufficient concentration of attention for learning;
- 5) intolerance to sensory stimuli, including loud noise or other children's conversations;
- 6) incapacity for prolonged mental stress;
- 7) slowing down the pace of assimilation of educational material;
- 8) weak switching from one educational task to another;
- 9) difficulties in memorizing educational material.
As a result, children with mental disabilities do not fully assimilate the educational material, while the process of mastering educational skills is significantly disrupted, and acute school uncertainty is rapidly growing.
As a rule, in children with impaired mental performance, mood swings are noted from capriciousness, instability, erratic activity to lethargy, lethargy and passivity.
Teachers and psychologists working with children of primary school age need to remember that fatigue is a necessary physiological process preserving the integrity of the child's body. But especially strong fatigue can lead to a violation of the mental performance of younger students. When organizing educational and correctional-developing classes, it is necessary to use various forms of activity, try to switch the attention of children from one object to another. It is important to leave time for the rest of the children. Including, if possible, a little physical activity of the child during the lesson is necessary.
When studying the weekly dynamics of mental performance of younger schoolchildren, conducted by Yu. V. Baskakova under the guidance of A. S. Obukhov, it was found that the average value of mental performance tends to increase at the beginning of the week, on Wednesday it reaches its maximum value and by the end of the week falls. On Friday, the level of mental performance of younger students is lower than on Monday. The peak of mental activity of primary school students falls in the middle - the second third of the school week (Wednesday - Thursday).
When compiling an educational schedule for children of primary school age and planning classroom and school-wide activities, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of their mental performance, including its dynamics throughout the school week. The readiness of the child to participate in classroom and school-wide activities reaches its maximum only by the middle of the school week. It is at this time that the child is most active and receptive to gaining new knowledge and mastering new forms of activity.
With regard to the daily dynamics of mental performance of younger schoolchildren, it was revealed that the majority of children are the most active and capable of mental work and best perception study material in the middle of the school day. During the 1st-2nd lessons, there is an increase in the level of mental performance. At the 3rd and 4th lessons, the level of mental performance is stabilized. At the 5th lesson, there is a sharp jump in the level of mental performance (mental activity of students decreases markedly). After the 6th lesson, a sharp decline in the level of mental performance of younger students begins. As a rule, by the end of the school day, the mental performance of students elementary school becomes even lower than the level at which it was at the beginning of the 1st lesson. It must be remembered that after the end of the lessons, the younger student needs a rest from mental work.
Maximum activity, the ability to perceive material and master new forms of activity occurs in a child of primary school age at the 3rd-4th lessons on Wednesday and Thursday, a sharp decrease in the level of mental performance occurs on the 4th, 5th and 6th lessons on Friday.
Individual features of the weekly dynamics of the mental performance of elementary school students were also revealed. Seven types of weekly dynamics of mental performance of children of primary school age have been identified - one main (dominant) and six individually typical.
- 1. Mental performance increases by the middle of the week and decreases towards its end - This type of mental performance dynamics includes most of the younger schoolchildren (about 80%). These children are most active towards the middle of the school week. By the end of the week, their mental performance drops noticeably.
- 2. Mental performance increases by the middle of the week and remains unchanged until its end.– this type of weekly dynamics of mental performance includes an insignificant part of younger schoolchildren (approximately 5%). These children are often quiet until about the middle of the week. Then their activity increases and remains at the same level until the end of the school week.
- 3. Mental performance is unchanged until the middle of the school week and decreases sharply by the end of it - this type of weekly dynamics of mental performance is characteristic of a few junior schoolchildren (about 1.5–2%). These kids are different. good mood and a high level of mental activity from the beginning to the middle of the school week, but by the end of it, the child's mood drops sharply, the level of activity decreases, the desire to engage in mental work disappears, and the time to concentrate decreases.
- 4. Mental performance continuously increases by the end of the school week- this type of weekly dynamics of mental performance is characteristic of approximately 6-7% of younger students. The level of mental activity of such children rises sharply by the end of the school week.
- 5. Mental performance decreases by the middle of the school week and increases towards its end - Approximately 3% of younger schoolchildren belong to this type of weekly dynamics of mental performance. Children tend to be very tired by the middle of the week. As a rule, this is accompanied by a decrease in the mood and level of mental activity of the child. But by the end of the week, the activity and mood of the child are restored.
- 6. Mental performance decreases by the middle of the school week and does not change until its end.- Approximately 1.5–2% of primary school students belong to this type. Such children tend to be somewhat tired by the middle of the school week. This is associated with a decrease in mood and mental activity levels. But there are no trends towards a further decrease in the level of mental performance.
- 7. Mental performance is unchanged during the week - approximately 1.5–2% of students also belong to this type of weekly dynamics of mental performance. There are no visible changes in mood and mental activity during the school week.
Younger schoolchildren with a high level of working capacity study well, get sick less and miss classes. In addition, high mental performance allows this category of children to master various skills and abilities without stress, and also ensures their moral and volitional development.