Why does the teacher single out children as underachievers? Report "reasons for school failure and ways to correct it." A contradiction arises between the cognitive capabilities of the program and the requirements of the school system

Currently, experts identify a whole list of reasons that lead to academic failure among schoolchildren. By studying this chapter, students will learn:

• classification of the reasons for the failure of primary school students;
• theoretical foundations of the psychological reasons for the failure of middle and high school students;
• theoretical approaches to solving the problem of academic failure among schoolchildren.

In addition, students need to be able to:

• analyze the psychological causes of school failure, focusing on the student’s age;
• apply theoretical knowledge to solve practical problems.

You will also have to master the skills of analyzing the learning difficulties of schoolchildren at different ages. Experts agree that academic failure is a lower level of academic performance. It does not live up to what the program envisages. This level does not allow the student to master the necessary content of education.

Psychological reasons failures are quite diverse. They are in a complex relationship with various external manifestations of school difficulties. It is important to take into account that there is often no direct and unambiguous correspondence between the external manifestations of certain difficulties in learning and their psychological causes. That is, one difficulty can be based on different reasons. But the basis for different manifestations of difficulties, as a rule, is the same reason.

Classification of reasons for academic failure

The complex relationship between the manifestations of difficulties and the study of the reasons that cause them determines the need to classify the causes of academic failure. Their psychological basis lies in the shortcomings cognitive activity students or insufficient development of the motivational sphere.

The first group includes:

• deficiencies in the development of mental processes (mainly the child’s mental sphere);
• inadequate use of the child’s individual typological characteristics, which manifest themselves in the process of cognitive activity;
• unformed techniques educational activities.

In fact, thinking is the most important psychological process that determines the success of a student’s learning. It is the insufficient development of thinking, and not attention or memory, that is considered the most common psychological cause of school failure. In general, it manifests itself as a distortion of the meaning of words, misunderstanding of the figurative meaning of phrases or words, a tendency to retell the text verbatim, difficulty using capital letter, inability to highlight the essential.

For example, a schoolchild is given a task - retelling a text. As a result, the student presents all the information verbatim. On the one hand, it may seem that the student has coped with the task and fulfilled the teacher’s requirement. He reproduced the text completely and correctly. But there is a difference between meaningful and verbatim memorization and subsequent reproduction of the text. When memorizing verbatim, rote learning occurs. That is, text analysis is not performed. A plan is not drawn up, the material is not grouped according to meaning, semantic support is not considered. If in primary school don't teach a child analytical work with the text, in the middle level he can become an underachieving student. After all, large amounts of information will be difficult to memorize.

Insufficient development of mental activity leads to difficulties in formulating rules based on the analysis of examples. It is difficult for a student to remember reasoning patterns even when solving typical tasks. The basis for this is the insufficiency of a certain mental operation, called generalization. That is, it is difficult for a child to attribute something to one type. He does not know how to break away from specific properties.

Example 1

The student is given homework- decide arithmetic problem. Dad is sure that since such a problem was given home, it means that a similar one was explained in class. But the student is sure of the opposite. He proves that such problems were not explained at school. But the father still finds a task of this type in the notebook, which is described in sufficient detail. Of course, the son does not agree and argues that everything was different there. That the task was about carpenters who were building a house, and now it’s about tinsmiths making buckets. This is where the child’s inability to show specific thinking is revealed, to rise above the situation, generalizing the ready-made principle for solving each of the problems, identifying common typical elements in them.

The insufficiency of the abstraction operation may manifest itself in difficulties in moving to action. For example, when studying grammar, a student is distracted from the real meaning of a word when it is necessary to define a separate word as a part of speech. That is, the words “singing,” “running,” and “walking” are perceived as actions, but “be silent,” “sleeping,” “lying down” are not considered verbs.

When studying mathematical material, the ability to compare becomes important. But for schoolchildren with low levels of achievement, generalization works here. The student compares objects, but not mathematical expressions. It cannot establish one-to-one correspondences. The comparison operation consists of classifying phenomena and their subsequent systematization. Based on this, concepts about geometric shapes, their equality or, conversely, inequality.

Certain difficulties create individual and age characteristics mental activity of underachievers junior schoolchildren. Here they highlight:

• concreteness of thinking (makes it difficult to understand the figurative meaning of phrases and words, allegories and proverbs, the mathematical content of the problem related to its plot side);
• syncretic thinking (lack of data analysis, which leads to erroneous decisions caused by incorrect conclusions);
• insufficient generalization of thinking (difficulties arise when forming concepts that are based on identifying essential features directly in the educational material);
• unilinearity of thinking (confined to a particular aspect of the situation or object under consideration, the inability to see and hold in consciousness several sides, various signs at once, the inability to operate with several data at once, which determines only one way to solve a problem);
• inertia of mental activity (patterns of thinking are formed, stereotypical actions are formed, despite changing conditions, the transition from the direct method of influence to the reverse may be difficult, difficulties arise in translating from alphabetic to digital form).

Consequently, it is precisely the shortcomings of mental activity that provoke a whole list of shortcomings of attention and memory. Poorly performing students are deprived of rational memorization techniques. But such memory deficiencies are caused by insufficient development of thinking.

Low-achieving children can show good results by memorizing numbers and words, texts that are accessible in content and related to life experience. However, it is problematic for them to memorize text where it is necessary to use indirect logical memory, which is associated with the thinking process. They will show worse results. The basis of such difficulties for students is the inability to identify what is essential in educational material.

The same thing happens when performing attention tasks that require logical processing. Underachieving students show good results. But in other cases, their attention span is very low. This is due to the fact that, due to certain peculiarities of thinking, they are not involved in active educational work; it is simply difficult for them to take part in it. Therefore, during lessons they are distracted, pay attention to extraneous conversations, and the teacher’s questions often take them by surprise.

A striking example of the insufficient development of voluntary attention processes is manifested in schoolchildren by unfinished sentences and words, insertion of extra letters, omission of letters during copying, rearrangement of syllables in different words, and when reading - repeated reading of the line or its “loss”. Consequently, it is not memory or even attention that are the primary sources of difficulties for many underachieving children. The specifics of mental activity are to blame.

Ways to overcome the causes of academic failure

To overcome the cause of academic failure, a psychologist can offer children special diagnostic tasks. They are not always educational in nature. These may be tasks that allow us to identify the psychological reasons that provoke certain difficulties in schoolchildren. The thought process consists of operations such as analysis and synthesis, comparison and generalization, classification and abstraction. Therefore, it is necessary to highlight the mental operation that causes difficulties for the student.

After this, a correction program is developed, which is focused on the development of missing thinking operations. At this stage, based on the principle of unity of diagnosis and correction, the same tasks are used as a means of psychological correction of certain student deficiencies.

Note 1

Disadvantages of mental activity are different, therefore, each underachiever needs a special system of exercises, which is developed according to an analysis of the characteristics of his individual mental activity.

Consequently, the psychologist must work with both parents and the teacher, selecting certain psychological recommendations. As a rule, the teacher suggests using exercises in the lesson that require the use of mental operations such as comparison, abstraction, analysis and synthesis. Thanks to the individual selection of tasks for a specific underachieving student, it is possible to develop the missing components of mental activity. Parents are recommended to practice observation exercises with their children. For example, describe the schoolyard from memory, or the path from home to school. Children have seen this many times. Such descriptions are not difficult to make verbally. Then all this is correlated with reality. This allows us to compare the effectiveness of voluntary and involuntary attention, assessing the relationship between visual memory and attention.

Exercises for comparing objects are effective for developing thinking. For example, comparing well-known objects - an airplane with a train or water with milk. A more complex option is photography and painting, evening and morning, perseverance and stubbornness. It is important to highlight the grounds for comparison, the relationship between the noted signs of difference and similarity, and note the comparison criteria identified by the child. Tasks that reveal the hidden properties of objects will also be useful. For example, the properties of a ballpoint pen or ice cream. This will allow you to overcome the usual view of a particular subject and overcome stereotypes of thinking.

It is important that the child perceives the exercises as playful and performs them without coercion. Moreover, you can do this at any time, on the way to the store or home, during a break or on a walk. Over time, this will become a habit and the children themselves will begin to direct their activity directly to studying the properties of surrounding objects.

The next factor that causes defects in cognitive activity is inadequate consideration of stable individual-typological characteristics of a person that arise in the learning process. Each teacher is faced with certain individual differences in students that arise during the learning process. Difficulties may be related to the students' temperament. They reflect the originality of the natural organization of the nervous system of schoolchildren.

Reasons for student inattention

Student inattention, which often causes complaints from parents and teachers, occurs for various reasons. These include the immaturity of voluntary attention processes, the result of insufficiently developed mental activity, lack of interest in the learning process, and the presence of certain personal problems. In addition, the cause of inattention that occurs after a long period of intense mental activity may be the individual typological characteristics of the student, in particular, a weak nervous system.

Experts agree that an extreme degree of overwork in a student can be expressed in increased fussiness, increased agitation, chaotic motor activity, and a violent emotional reaction to any comments from the teacher. But there are students with the opposite external picture of behavior. They can be calm and quiet, obedient, cautious and inhibited in appearance. However, in class it is difficult for them to concentrate on tasks for a long time. Such students rarely participate in active noisy games; they do not have enough strength. Even with a minor remark, a painful reaction occurs, even to the point of tears. In each of the cases, despite the difference in the external picture, manifestations of a high level of sensitivity and weakness of the nervous system are described, which leads to increased fatigue of the child.

Among the basic properties of the nervous system, modern scientists highlight strength and mobility as the most studied human characteristics that most influence learning. Properties of the nervous system, according to modern ideas, differ in genotypic nature. They are understood as stable, practically unchangeable characteristics of a person. Some studies claim that schoolchildren who are neurodynamically inert study worse and are often classified as underachievers. The basis of the statement is the erroneous assumption that the type of higher nervous activity able to determine the effectiveness of human activity.

In fact, neither inertia nor weakness provoke academic failure. Among schoolchildren with such characteristics there are even excellent students. Psychologists recognize that some learning activities, situations, and tasks sometimes turn out to be different in complexity for students with different typological characteristics. Something is more difficult for a weak type than for a strong one, and it is more difficult for an inert type to achieve high results than for an agile one.

Example 2

During the lesson, the teacher conducts a survey at a fast pace, giving students virtually no opportunity to think about the answer. It encourages you to respond from your seat. Someone hesitated - they called someone else. Children are constantly encouraged, and an explanation of new material is included in the survey. Children listen to the teacher, answer, look at visual aids, turning to the textbook for help. They need to constantly switch attention and act at a fast pace. Such conditions are not suitable for everyone - the productivity of some students decreases. This situation is especially difficult for inert and weak children.

People with a weak nervous system cannot boast of high performance. They are unstable in relation to various extraneous stimuli. The following types of situations are identified that complicate the educational activities of children with a weak nervous system: prolonged work, for example, a complex task, a long school day, test. The student will quickly get tired and his performance will decrease. He will begin to assimilate the material more slowly and will make many mistakes.

Independent, responsible work that requires neuropsychic and emotional stress causes anxiety and concern, even with knowledge. This is a super-strong irritant that provokes extreme inhibition of the nervous system. Schoolchildren begin to rush, which leads to an undesirable result - mistakes and inhibition. Situations where the teacher asks questions at a high pace, demanding an immediate response, or harsh comments or work after an unsuccessful answer that was rated negatively - all this makes it difficult for the student to perform. Children, weak in the properties of their nervous system, are sensitive to failure. They are characterized by high emotional sensitivity to negative assessments and any comments. They find it difficult to continue working after a negative comment.

Note 2

For such students, serious difficulties arise when they need to distribute attention or switch it from one activity to another. For example, the teacher forces you to take notes in a notebook and at the same time follow the oral explanation, paying attention to maps, slides, etc. didactic material. This approach will make it difficult for some students.

It is not difficult to draw up a psychological portrait of a student characterized by the inert properties of the nervous system. This is a schoolboy who is calm in class. He is extremely slow. An exception may be his participation in noisy games during recess, when it is difficult for the child to readjust and re-enter educational process. As a result, the student achieves practically nothing. If a student is pushed, he may fall into a stupor or refuse to complete the assigned tasks. But such behavior is not stubbornness. A feature of such children is the difficulty in switching from one activity to another. It is difficult for them to endure situations that involve a lack of time.

As studies have shown, situations that cause difficulties in educational activities for schoolchildren with an inert nervous system are, in fact, those very moments of the educational process that require ease and speed of adaptation to changing conditions, speed of development, as well as breaking stereotypes at a high pace of work. Difficulties arise when you need to be frequently distracted or switch attention. When the content of the work changes, as well as when there is a significant change in actions, inert students cannot immediately get involved in the work. They need time to think, they tend to give standard answers, and they often avoid improvisation.

Inert children feel uncomfortable when work productivity is assessed already in the first stages of studying the material. They definitely need to work through the material at home. These children have better developed long-term memory.

It is important to understand that in each of the cases described above, schoolchildren find themselves in the least advantageous position and most often they are among the unsuccessful students. In the educational process of this category of children, difficulties often arise that are caused by their individual as well as typological characteristics:

underwriting of words or entire sentences, omission of letters and even syllables, slow pace of counting, reading, writing, failure to complete written assignments in full with a significant limitation of time for work, slow progress of their mental activity.

Natural basis of psychological characteristics

Thanks to the achievements of domestic psychophysiology, the question of natural foundations psychological characteristics(nervous system and temperament) is quite developed. This factor is considered not as a limiter, but as a new source of individual potential. It is also important to take into account positive characteristics younger schoolchildren with distinguished properties of the nervous system.

For example, children with an inert nervous system are characterized by labor efficiency during monotonous activities. They are good at detailed, systematic work through careful preparatory work. The material is retained for a long time, knowledge is systematized, it becomes possible to penetrate into the deep connections of the educational material, and more carefully control the completion of tasks. Activity increases slowly, but persists for a long time. Such students demonstrate a high level of independence in terms of completing assigned tasks.

The weakness of the nervous system, by analogy, is a consequence of a positive property, namely high sensitivity, therefore a weak nervous system is not considered “bad”. That is, situations that require uniformity in actions will be favorable for students. It is easier for such schoolchildren to act schematically and stereotyped; they like to work in detail, completing tasks step by step. These students thrive in situations that require rigorous, consistent work. They can also plan their upcoming activities by drawing up written plans, and using them as a means of external management of activities. Schoolchildren with a weak nervous system are characterized by control over the implementation of educational activities and verification of the results obtained.

The process of individualization and differentiation of training must necessarily take into account the capabilities of the student, the style of the teacher and the features of the teaching methods used. After all, it is precisely changing the teacher’s working methods that will partially overcome physiological limitations. As a rule, it is not easy for a teacher to recognize the individual uniqueness of a student. A whole list of questions arises that the teacher needs to answer on his own: what are individual psychological differences, how to diagnose them? How can the wide range of individual student differences be taken into account in the learning process? You can get answers to such questions from a school psychologist.

Pedagogical correction of academic failure

Psychological correction of academic failure should begin with establishing the characteristics of the student’s nervous system. The psychologist needs to bring to the attention of the teacher information about the individual typological properties of the student, and then develop an action plan. The main task will be to organize an educational process that levels out learning difficulties. The psychologist must teach the student to cope with failures. To do this, he should explain that failure is normal, although inevitable.

The teacher will recommend an individual approach, which will include the dosage of homework, choice special methods work in the classroom, methods of organizing the educational activities of a student with an inert system. For example, such students should not be put in situations of unexpected questions and quick answers. A written survey form is best. It is impossible to evaluate such students’ material that they have just mastered. The student needs time to think. For schoolchildren with an inert nervous system, independent work on a specific task is more preferable than frontal types of work.

The teacher will need to think about the time it takes to prepare children to complete certain tasks directly in the lesson. Preparatory work may refer to both oral responses and learning activities. For example, thoughtful arrangement of visual materials in the form of tables or diagrams will help increase the pace of completing tasks. The rapid fatigue of schoolchildren with a weak nervous system is compensated for by rest breaks. For this purpose, it is preferable to organize educational work, in which you can pre-prepare for the answer, think everything over carefully, draw up a clear work plan, relying on external diagrams and examples of performing such exercises. Such techniques can reduce the student’s neuro-psychic stress.

Parents need to take into account the individual characteristics of their children, creating and observing a certain daily routine. In this case, homework preparation is divided into parts, with short breaks provided. The child is allowed to take breaks on his own after completing one of the stages of work. During the rest period, it is better to prefer quiet activities. Assessing the achievements of such students requires special caution. It is important to praise the child for his efforts and efforts, instilling confidence that next time everything will work out better, given the student’s impressionability, vulnerability and lack of self-confidence.

Note 3

When organizing work, above all else, the focus is on positive sides human psychology regarding educational activities. So, for the weak it is organization and receptivity, the ability to control and plan. Inert people have long-term preservation of activity and the ability to work for a long time in monotonous conditions.

Analysis of the reasons for academic failure

Specialists pay Special attention analysis of the reasons for underachievement, which lie in the lack of formation of effective methods of educational activity. Like any activity, learning requires mastery of certain techniques and skills. Counting in your head and copying letters, memorizing poetry - all these are the simplest manipulations from the point of view of adults. They can be done in several ways. But not every method will be effective and correct.

For example, first a first-grader performs an exercise in writing, and then learns the rule for which this exercise is assigned. Of course, such an order of educational work will not be effective. Moreover, the teacher may not immediately understand why the student made a mistake. After all, he knows the rule firmly. Another example is that a second-grader cannot read a poem assigned for homework without making mistakes. It can be assumed that the problem is a low level of memory development. But, observing the process of memorization, it turns out that the girl is simply in a hurry to immediately memorize the entire text, without understanding the meaning of what she read. She repeats each quatrain again and again, starting from the beginning. The end of the poem is less memorable. And the beginning, memorized mechanically, does not provide for understanding all the words.

The result of memorization can be incorrect intonation, distorted semantic accents of the poem. The very process of memorizing does not give emotional satisfaction, it causes fear of the answer and even hatred of poetry. The reason for this is that the student does not use rational memorization techniques. She memorizes everything as a whole, does not divide the text into semantic parts, and does not understand the whole essence of the poem.

But you can structure the learning process differently. For example, introduce children to the features poetic form, paying special attention to the rhyme and rhythm of the poem, teach how to find them. Then simply offer to comprehend each of the words, compare the poet’s words with certain synonyms, and reflect on why this particular word was chosen and not another. You can teach schoolchildren to establish internal logical connections directly in developing the theme of the poem. Such techniques are classified as generalized methods of analyzing a poem as a special artistic form. Of course, such actions are first carried out with the help of the teacher, and over time the children will be able to do this on their own. After all, a general method of learning any poem by heart is acquired.

Conclusion 1

Thus, in the examples described above, it is enough to suggest to students the most productive methods of learning activities, which will improve learning outcomes.

It is important to understand that a student does not always know how to perform educational activities at the proper level. It can be said about these students that they do not know how to truly learn. The main thing is to learn to learn. Underachievement, which is associated with inadequate methods of educational work, sometimes has a pronounced selective nature. It can only manifest itself in relation to individual academic subjects, or sections of the school curriculum. However, sometimes she general character. The problem manifests itself in gaps and deficiencies in the assimilation of many or all academic disciplines. If you do not pay attention to incorrect skills and methods of academic work in a timely manner, they can become entrenched, which can lead to a persistent lag in the student’s studies.

Younger schoolchildren often cannot independently find adequate ways to study. He intuitively finds solutions that are not the most effective through trial and error. The most common incorrect, ineffective methods of educational work include: memorizing without preliminary logical processing of the material, performing various exercises without first mastering the relevant rules, repeating the material multiple times.

The specific psychological reason underlying this group of difficulties is the immaturity of self-control processes. As a rule, in practice, control over the correctness and completeness of the task is predominant based on the result, and not on the process of completing the task itself. Numerous researchers note that this group of difficulties is directly related to shortcomings in the formation of the regulatory component of computing skills, writing and reading. The consequences of insufficient self-control processes in a primary school student often include: inability to detect their own mistakes; an increase in the number of errors towards the end of the work; The teacher’s requirements are not fully met, difficulties arise with the formation of motor writing skills, and the pace of writing slows down.

Researchers are confident: the main assistance to students whose primary cause of academic failure is a reproductive, that is, reproducing approach to solving assigned problems, should be the formation of certain methods of cognitive activity. Therefore, appealing to conscience or a sense of duty, reproaching parents for laziness or lack of effort, or inviting parents to school is useless. This will not give tangible results.

Psychological correction of the identified cause of academic failure involves the targeted replacement of incorrect methods, as well as methods of educational work, with more effective ones. effective ways. The student, of course, cannot do this on his own. Here you need the help of a psychologist and a teacher.

The psychologist will observe the student’s educational process and identify mistakes that need to be corrected. Next, you need to analyze the weak or negative aspects of some techniques, try to find, and then preserve the positive aspects of the learning activity techniques used by the student.

Psychological support involves the development and implementation of a program focused on teaching highly effective methods and techniques of educational activities. Sometimes correction of inappropriate ways of working only provokes dissatisfaction and a certain resistance of the student. Therefore, it is better to invite the student to track the results of his educational work over the course of a month, based on the old familiar system of work, and then on the new one, which the psychologist recommends.

To consolidate the results, it is necessary to teach parents how to control the student’s homework. It is recommended that the teacher give educational assignments, requiring precisely new techniques for processing the relevant educational material, it is necessary to evaluate the child’s work directly in the process of completing the task, but not by the final result.

Lack of formation of the motivational sphere

Among the reasons for academic failure, special attention should be paid to the lack of development of positive student motivation for successful educational activities. As is known, such activities are multi-motivated. This question has been raised in many psychological as well as pedagogical research. But the purpose of this chapter is not to describe the motives of educational activities, therefore only the main ones, characteristic of younger children, will be listed. school age.

At present, teaching motives are divided into two categories. Researchers note that the first of them directly relates to the content of educational activities and the process of its implementation, and the second - to the broader relationship between the student and his environment. First of all, the cognitive interests of children, their need for intellectual activity, mastering new skills, knowledge, and abilities are considered. Other motives are associated with the needs for communication, evaluation and approval, as well as with the student’s desire to take a certain place directly in the system of relationships that are currently available to him.

Of course, the immaturity of the motivational sphere negatively affects the ability to assimilate knowledge. Numerous studies have found that broad social motives predominate among children who enter school. At the same time, first-graders have a certain level of development of cognitive interests. Moreover, at first, both motives provide the student with a conscientious, responsible attitude towards learning at school. But in second grade this attitude often intensifies and develops. Gradually, a positive attitude towards school is lost.

Third grade tends to be the turning point. Here, many children are already beginning to be burdened by school responsibilities, and their diligence is decreasing. The teacher's authority drops significantly. For example, when a researcher asked third-graders to talk about their most vivid memory of the past school year, they all unanimously named the flu epidemic. This was justified by the fact that it was possible to stay at home for three whole weeks. A decrease in interest in educational activities is reflected in the difference in such positions as “I want to learn” and “I need to study.”

When developing ways to overcome academic failure caused by shortcomings in the student’s motivational sphere, psychologists proposed the development of educational interests, as well as the formation of sustainable motivation to achieve success.

Psychological consultation with the teacher is of particular importance here. The formation of cognitive motivation depends on it. The task of the psychologist is to help the primary school teacher carry out highly effective work with relevant students who experience certain learning difficulties. It is important to draw the teacher’s attention to the changes that occur in the student’s personality under the influence of specific pedagogical influences. We need to work with the student’s self-esteem, targeted correction of self-doubt, and also create a situation of success.

When creating a situation of success, the teacher helps students develop a positive attitude towards the learning process itself. The teacher determines areas of activity during which the child will be able to gain recognition from his peers. It is important to consolidate the student’s awareness of existing achievements by recording the slightest successes of the student. Then the student has a desire to relive success. It is important to give the student a non-standard task. For example, create a small problem book for use in class, designing the cover and writing your name as the author of the book. If students like the problems, formally introduce the author's name. Such work will help change the student’s attitude towards the relevant subject and learning in general. It will change the social position of a student who was previously among the underachievers.

The psychologist needs to pay attention to the form and nature of both reprimand and encouragement of students, to the possibility of organizing competition between the student and himself. You can compare the following assessments of a schoolchild’s activity: “Look how undisciplined and sloppy you are, everything is crossed out, the letters are “dancing”! Your neighbor did everything better” or “Look how sloppy everything is written with you, a lot is crossed out, yesterday you did much better!” In the first case, the personality assessment is compared with the neighbor at the desk. Reproach will not create a desire to improve. The student will perceive the result: “the work was done poorly.” In the second case, the student is compared with himself yesterday and today. This form of blame opens up the opportunity to improve and achieve a better outcome.

Individual forms of training

It is necessary to understand another approach to overcoming the causes of academic failure associated with reduced cognitive motivation. When working with low-performing students, the corresponding teachers primarily use an individual form of instruction, but here are the observations and results experimental research they say that the most productive are not individual sessions, but group ones. This work, organized at different stages lesson, more effective. After all, low-performing students solve various educational problems, focusing on others. This practice allows “student teachers” to interact with their students. In additional classes, students are given the right to ask their friends, compose dictations themselves and even dictate them, checking each other’s work independently, explaining tasks to those who do not understand something.

A different method of working with underachieving students is possible. The role of the “teacher” is played by the underachieving student himself. For example, to conduct classes, unsuccessful third graders are assigned to unsuccessful fourth graders, unsuccessful third graders are assigned to second graders, and so on.

The results of experimental studies have shown that the role of “teacher” forces the student to master the educational material. After all, the student takes on the responsibility of teaching others. He masters the material in such a way that he can explain to those who are unsuccessful both the essence of the task and the methods of implementation. During such classes, changes in the personal qualities of schoolchildren were observed. These include the emergence of activity and confidence, commitment and strengthening of self-esteem. But, in fact, not only the attitude of the corresponding student towards himself changed, but also the attitude of other classmates towards him. The position of “teacher” in which the underachiever was located obliged him to fill gaps in knowledge. As a result, attitudes towards teaching changed.

The organization of such work had a positive effect on the student’s social position. His experience of success was reflected in his overall perception of learning, as well as in his mastery of current material in the classroom.

Teachers are recommended to adapt the educational process to the specific cognitive abilities, interests, and abilities of each student. For example, the need to pay attention “evenly” to all academic subjects. That is, those for which the student already has pronounced abilities and those that are given by labor. That is, equalizing the program for students without taking into account their individual characteristics and abilities is fraught with a decrease in motivation.

The possibilities of an individual approach to each underachiever will allow us to optimally differentiate the pace, volume, and complexity of the material being studied, which will depend on the level of cognitive activity and, of course, the abilities of the students. This type of training will stimulate the development of various cognitive interests, help schoolchildren overcome difficulties, and study more successfully.

When developing recommendations for teachers, the psychologist will note the need to regulate the degree of difficulty of tasks for students. All of them will be at the optimal level. That is, difficult, but doable, focused on the student’s level of learning. It is better to choose simpler tasks for low achievers. For excellent students it is more difficult than for others. While completing tasks, the student should experience a feeling of joy obtained from overcoming difficulties, realizing his own achievement.

As a method of motivation, it is recommended to show children how and where they can use the knowledge acquired during school. Moreover, not only the teacher, but also the parents can do this. The latter are recommended to introduce the child to their own interests, identify new hobbies, support and develop cognitive processes, even if they are not related to various school subjects. A wide range of activities will give the child a feel for the types of activities in which his capabilities are demonstrated. You can show confidence in a student’s abilities even when preparing homework. But help must be measured. The presence of easy and constant success, as well as an insurmountable, increased level of difficulty of knowledge, often leads to a decrease in the child’s motivational activity, as well as his readiness for subsequent improvement of his own activities.

Conclusion 2

Thus, the basic psychological causes of academic failure and rational ways of correcting them for children of primary school age are considered.

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- violations of oral and written speech, in which the child cannot express the experienced event meaningfully even within himself in the form of coherent speech. This shows up in poverty. vocabulary, the impossibility of consistent retelling, the inability to correctly construct a sentence.

Previously, the problem was not so acute, since the vast majority of children, already in preschool age mastered sufficiently correct oral speech. In the last few decades, the situation has changed dramatically for the worse.

Based on specially conducted research, it can be stated with full responsibility that more than half of the children (55.5%) now enter the first grades of public schools in a state of obvious unpreparedness for the beginning. schooling due to their insufficient formation oral speech.

Since 1977, the number of primary school students secondary school with difficulties of this kind increased from 8.7% to 70% and continues to increase.

And one of the main components of this lack of development is the poverty and insufficient systematization (and often complete unsystematization) of their vocabulary.

In order to immediately remove the question of what this may have to do with the study of grammatical rules, I think it is necessary to clearly define: the poverty of vocabulary does not in any way interfere with memorizing or learning any rules, therefore even “illiterate” students usually know them well. But simple knowledge of the rules does not ensure competent writing, since this knowledge is the first and not even the most important stage of their assimilation. One can speak of mastering a rule only when the student is able to freely apply it in practice and, thanks to this, confidently avoid mistakes in writing. This second most important stage of assimilating the rule, mastering it, turns out to be completely inaccessible to students with a poor and unsystematized vocabulary, which is explained by the following.

For practical application Grammar rules require the ability to quickly (almost instantly!) and also accurately select test words, which a student with a delay in vocabulary development cannot do.

These students (even high school students!) practically do not know their way around the limited vocabulary they have, that is, they do not know the exact semantic meaning of many words, much less feel their semantic “kinship.”

This leads to the fact that even in the conditions of a calm and slow one-on-one dictation, they select test words for a very long time, by trial and error, and often incorrectly (as a test word for the word “rumbles” instead of “thunder” they select “letter” , to the word “big” - “pain”, to the word “spring” - “fun”, to the word “foliage” - “stairs”, to the word “initial” - “night”, etc.)

It is quite understandable that in the conditions of classroom dictation such a student finds himself completely helpless and forced to write at random, although he clearly answers that “the questionable vowel must be stressed.” But how to put it, what kind of test word can be chosen here - this is exactly what for him is the real “dark forest!” This is where his obvious unpreparedness for starting school is fully revealed. This is why many parents are sincerely perplexed why their child “knows all the rules well,” but for some reason does not know how to apply them.

Written speech is formed only in conditions of targeted learning. Its mechanisms are associated with the formation of a dynamic word stereotype in the unity of acoustic, optical and kinetic components.

Different brain systems make their own contribution to the implementation of any mental function, while they do not mature simultaneously and function asynchronously.

Thus, the right hemisphere (emotions) demonstrates maturity already by the age of 5, and the left hemisphere (speech zones) only by the age of 8-12.

Retention of information in memory is ensured by the integral activity of the brain, which also depends on the formation of subcortical-cortical and interhemispheric interactions that combine the work of various cerebral systems into a single whole.

Violations of sound pronunciation, phonemic and lexico-grammatical development, as a rule, have a cerebral-organic origin and entail the above-described readings that grow with the child.

In order to lay the necessary foundations on which the grammar rules taught at school will “lie,” I bring to your attention the most important areas of correctional work.

In general, you need to do the following:

1. Ensure that children know a sufficiently large number of words (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs) by systematically working on enriching their vocabulary).

2. Ensure an accurate understanding of the semantic meaning of each word they have learned, because there should not be words in their speech that “have nothing behind them.”

3. Take care to systematize their existing vocabulary, that is, help them feel the existence intercom between separate large groups of words, united in these groups according to certain principles (for example, some words denote objects, others - actions, others - signs of objects and actions, and within each of these groups smaller subgroups are distinguished).

4. Introduce figurative meaning many words (such as “golden autumn”, “bright head”, etc.)

5. To develop the simplest word formation skills (formation of new words with the same root using prefixes and suffixes).

b. To teach to distinguish words that are “related” in their semantic meaning, having a common root, from words that are only superficially similar, similar in sound, but completely different in meaning (sconce, brother, marriage, take; cake, court, grade, port, board, fort ).

7. On this basis, develop the initial practical skill of independently selecting related words.

At all stages of training, exercises are provided for the development of the child’s coherent speech and modern technical means are used: computer, interactive board.

Interviewing as one of the techniques for developing coherent speech

For a primary school student, speech development, as stated above, is of exceptional importance. In elementary school, the student plays the roles of listener, reader, interpreter, creator, as well as responder, asker, narrator, describer, evaluater, reasoner, and a number of others. These speech roles make up the child’s speech role, which can be studied and expanded.

I suggest that colleagues and parents pay attention to the possibility of including a child in the speech experience interviewer's role. The interview genre is well known, but it is not customary to talk about the use of interviews as working methods in school.

Meanwhile, the use of this technique in speech therapy work in normative and correctional classes, allows us to talk about the effectiveness of including the role of the interviewer in the student’s speech activity.

The work was carried out with 3rd and 4th grade students. Children were asked to act as an interviewer on the topics: “And I was once a first-grader,” “ New Year in my childhood", "The smell of spring in my childhood", " Summer holidays" Schoolchildren had to interview their parents and find out what excitement their parents felt when they went to first grade, what childhood memories remained from the New Year holidays, how they perceived the spring season, how they went through it school break. The non-standard nature of the task interests the child and motivates him to perform a certain sequence of actions.

First, he needs to ask his parents about the topic of conversation. Since the younger student is not yet able to independently conduct a dialogue in the genre of an interview, the questions for the conversation were formulated in advance in class (for a sample of questions, see Appendix No. 1). In the process of such work, the student acts as a questioner, a listener, and at the same time a hearing interlocutor.

Secondly, the child selected the necessary information from everything he heard.

Thirdly, he recorded what the parents said.

As a result, the written work is a complete text, united by a common concept and consisting of unique “question-answer” blocks. Examples of such work are presented in Appendix No. 2.

Summarizing the results obtained, we can answer the question: “What does the inclusion of the role of the interviewer in the speech activity of the schoolchild give?”

Let's start with the fact that this role, being proactive, allows you to “move away” from the predominantly cultivated reproductive speech activity of students and provides an opportunity for the student’s creative expression, his self-expression in speech.

No less significant is that the role of the interviewer involves the student’s transition from oral to written speech.

I would like to immediately emphasize that the role of the interviewer is realized as a result of language teaching going beyond the scope of the school curriculum. School speech, programmed by textbooks, intersects with the real everyday and speech experience of a child and an adult. As a result, the children's vocabulary is replenished at the expense of “parental” language means. Thus, in the essays there were such words and expressions from the parents’ statements as “a vivid memory”, “her happiness knew no bounds”, “the celebration was over”, “this brings all members of our friendly family together”, “peace”, “a significant event” etc.

Of course, no less important is the fact that the proposed speech role interested schoolchildren and helped children and parents get to know each other better. For many students, it was a discovery that their parents and grandparents themselves loved to run through puddles as children, believed in Santa Claus, made wishes and believed in miracles. That, unlike today's children, gifts for the New Year were simpler: dolls, cars, candies, and they made the Christmas tree decorations themselves from papier-mâché.

It was also remarkable that such work contributes to the child’s natural need to communicate with his parents, to share thoughts and feelings with them. Parents came with words of gratitude that, thanks to the child’s questions, they remembered the wonderful pages of their childhood and these memories were interesting and touching.

And how emotionally the children read their essays! Everyone thought that he was talking about the most interesting events. Some even brought photographs from their family archives, which depicted their little grandmothers in New Year's costumes.

The chosen teaching strategy corresponds to the trend of dialogization of school communication, which is increasingly being talked about by teachers and linguists and which is aimed at ensuring the conscious and competent use of language in all types of speech activity and different situations communication.

Introduction

1.2 Psychological characteristics of underachieving schoolchildren

1.3 Ways to eliminate school failure

Chapter 2. Experimental work to eliminate the underachievement of children of primary school age

2.1 Diagnosis of the performance of children of primary school age

2.2 Implementation of ways to eliminate underachievement of children of primary school age

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Until now, one of the most “sore” areas of all schools remains the poor academic performance of schoolchildren. The reason lies not only in imperfect methods of school work, but also in the characteristics of age, in the child’s psychological readiness for school.

An analysis of literary sources shows that many authors study the problem of schoolchildren’s underachievement. Failure to achieve success is the result of our inattention, indifference, our “perhaps it will go away on its own.” Experience shows that timely and correct difficulties not only allow the child to study normally, but also preserve his physical and mental health.

The problem of school failure is one of the central ones in pedagogy and educational psychology. It was revealed that school failure can be a consequence of reasons of a non-psychological nature: family living conditions, pedagogical neglect, level of parental and psychological education: shortcomings in the cognitive, need-motivational spheres, individually psychological characteristics students, lack of analysis and synthesis. The variety of reasons for underachievement makes it difficult for a teacher to identify them, and in most cases the teacher chooses the traditional way of working with low-performing students - additional classes with them, consisting mainly of repeating the completed educational material. Moreover, most often such additional classes are carried out with several lagging students at once. However, this work, which requires a lot of time and effort, turns out to be useless and does not give the desired result.

In order for work with low-performing children to become effective, it is necessary, first of all, to identify specific psychological reasons that prevent each student from fully mastering knowledge.

The problem of school failure has always received special attention from both psychologists and teachers (M.N. Danilov, V.I. Zynova, N.A. Menchinskaya, T.A. Vlasova, M.S. Pevzner, A.N. . Leontyev), A.R. Luria, A.A. Smirnov, L.S. Slavina, Yu.K. Babansky). The reasons for school failure were noted: unpreparedness for schooling, in its extreme form acting as social and pedagogical neglect; somatic weakness of the child as a result of long-term illnesses during the preschool period; speech defects uncorrected in preschool age, visual and hearing impairments; mental retardation; negative relationships with classmates and teachers.

Currently, scientific thought is characterized by the theory of two factors, i.e., the acceptance of both biological and social theories. Experts note that the problem of academic failure is pedagogical, medical, psychological, and social. That is why, in the last decade, there have been more and more frequent calls to unite the efforts of specialists from various fields in improving the performance of schoolchildren. There is an opinion that to identify the causes of academic failure, a comprehensive examination is necessary. To the psychological examination it is necessary to add anthropometric (body type) and psychophysiological (properties of the nervous system) examinations.

Despite the close attention of teachers and psychologists, scientists and practitioners to the problem of school failure, the number of students experiencing learning difficulties is continuously growing.

All this determined the relevance of the research topic.

When studying psychological and pedagogical literature, we identified a contradiction between big amount psychological and pedagogical literature on the problem of underachievement of younger schoolchildren, on the one hand, and a small amount methodological developments ways to eliminate these causes.

The revealed contradiction made it possible to identify the research problem: studying the reasons for the failure of younger schoolchildren and ways to eliminate these reasons.

This problem made it possible to formulate the research topic: “Causes of school failure and ways to eliminate these causes.”

Object of study: underachievement of younger schoolchildren.

Subject of the study: causes of school failure in children of primary school age and ways to eliminate them.

Purpose of the study: theoretically identify and, through experimental work, test the effectiveness of ways to eliminate the causes of failure of younger schoolchildren.

The study of psychological and pedagogical literature on the topic of the study allowed us to put forward the following hypothesis: it is assumed that the elimination of the causes of underachievement of younger schoolchildren will be carried out more successfully if pedagogical and psychological prevention, psychodiagnostics of the causes of schoolchildren’s underachievement are carried out in a timely manner; in the presence of educational influence, individual planning should be carried out with underachieving students educational work, which includes work with the student’s family.

In accordance with the purpose and hypothesis of the study, the following tasks were identified:

1. Analyze scientific and methodological literature on the research problem.

2. Consider the concept of “underachievement” and determine the reasons for the failure of younger schoolchildren.

3. Identify ways to eliminate academic failure in children of primary school age.

4. Experimentally test the effectiveness of measures to eliminate academic failure in children of primary school age.

Theoretical and methodological basis of the study: methodological and Scientific research school failure in the works of P.P. Blonsky, A.M. Gelmont, N.I. Murachkovsky and others.

To solve the problems and test the hypothesis, the following research methods were used:

Theoretical analysis of psychological-pedagogical and methodological literature on the research problem.

Observation, interviewing students and teachers, analysis of student activity products;

Comparison, study of documentation;

Organizing and conducting an experiment to test a hypothesis.

Experimental research base: Municipal educational institution secondary school No. 31 of the city of Ishim. Students from grade 3 "B" took part in the experiment.

The study was carried out in three stages.

The first stage is staged (02/11/10 - 03/28/10) - choosing and understanding the topic. Study of psychological and pedagogical literature, problem statement, formulation of the goal, subject, object, research objectives, formulation of a hypothesis.

The second stage is the actual research stage (03/29/10 - 04/22/10) - development of a set of measures and their systematic implementation, processing of the results obtained, testing of the hypothesis.

The third stage is interpretation and design (04/23/10 - 05/29/10) - processing and systematization of the material.

The scientific novelty of the research: the research lies in the fact that the underachievement of younger schoolchildren is for the first time considered as an independent research problem; The effectiveness of measures to eliminate academic failure in children of primary school age was experimentally tested.

The practical significance lies in the fact that the conclusions and results course work can be used in the educational process of educational institutions.

Structure and scope of work: the work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, a bibliography including 33 titles, and appendices. The total volume of work is 44 pages of computer text.

Chapter 1. Theoretical aspects of school failure and ways to eliminate these causes

1.1 The concept of “underachievement” in psychological and pedagogical literature

Underachievement is understood as a situation in which behavior and learning outcomes do not meet the educational and didactic requirements of the school. Underachievement is expressed in the fact that the student has weak reading and counting skills, poor intellectual skills of analysis, generalization, etc. Systematic underachievement leads to pedagogical neglect, which is understood as a complex of negative personality qualities that contradict the requirements of the school and society. This phenomenon is extremely undesirable and dangerous from a moral, social, and economic point of view. Educationally neglected children often drop out of school and join risk groups. Failure to perform is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon of school reality, requiring versatile approaches to its study.

Underachievement is interpreted as a discrepancy between students’ preparation and the mandatory requirements of the school in the acquisition of knowledge, development of skills and experience, and formation of experience. creative activity and good manners of cognitive relationships. Preventing underachievement involves timely detection and elimination of all its elements.

Depending on the reasons that cause academic failure, there are several approaches to classifying types of academic failure.

A.A. Budarny identifies two types of academic failure:

• 1. absolute failure- expressed by grades “2” and “1” and correlates with the minimum requirements of the school curriculum.
• 2. relative underachievement characterized by insufficient cognitive load of those students who could exceed the mandatory requirements, and is correlated with the minimum requirements of the school curriculum and the capabilities of individual students.

foreign language failure student

A.M. Gelmont and N.I. Murachkovsky distinguishes three degrees of academic failure depending on the stability of the gap:

1. General and deep lag (in many or all subjects for a long time).

Reasons: lack of preparation; unfavourable conditions(disease, family circumstances); carelessness, laziness; insufficient level of general development.

2. Partial, but relatively persistent failure (in 1 - 3 of the most difficult subjects).

Reasons: shortcomings in teaching; deficiencies in previous grades; lack of interest in learning, consciousness.

3. Episodic failure (either in one or another subject).

Reasons: shortcomings in teaching; careless attendance at school.

Polish researcher V.S. Tsetlin, along with fixed underachievement, there is hidden underachievement, which underachievement can be expressed not only in gaps in knowledge, but also in the attitude of students to learning.

N.P. Lokalova identifies two types of school failure:

• 1. General lag in learning;
• 2. Lagging behind in certain subjects.

In order to achieve effective work to overcome school failure, it is necessary first of all to determine the underlying causes. There is no single point of view on the causes of academic failure, but an analysis of the relevant literature made it possible to identify several groups of factors leading to academic failure:

• - physiological factor;
• - social factor;
• - psychological factor.

P.P. Blonsky believes that the reasons for academic failure can be pathological heredity (nervous, heart diseases), unfavorable uterine development, poor academic performance of parents, etc.

L.S. Slavina names the following reasons for academic failure:

• - incorrect attitude towards learning;
• - difficulties in mastering educational material;
• - inability to work;
• - lack of cognitive educational interests;
• - lack of skills and methods of learning activities or incorrectly formed skills and methods of learning activities.

Yu.K. Babansky, N.I. Murachkovsky identifies such reasons for underachievement as: gaps in knowledge, in work organization skills, underdevelopment of individual thought processes, etc.

P.P. Borisov offers the most complete classification of the reasons for academic failure:

• 1. Pedagogical reasons: shortcomings in the teaching of certain subjects, gaps in knowledge from previous years, incorrect transfer to the next grade.
• 2. Social and everyday reasons: unfavorable living conditions, unworthy behavior of parents, financial security of the family, lack of a home regime, child neglect.
• 3. Physiological causes: illness, general poor health, upper respiratory tract diseases, infectious diseases, disorders of motor functions of the central nervous system, diseases of the nervous system.
• 4. Psychological reasons: features of the development of attention, memory, slowness of understanding, insufficient level of speech development, immaturity of cognitive interests, narrow-mindedness.

Unfortunately, students’ desire to speak and know a language does not always coincide with their ability to speak it. Language is easy for some, difficult for others. Some students quickly memorize words, some learn to read faster, others are more able to imitate foreign speech.

So, let's take a closer look at the types and causes of failure.

Knowing the reasons for student failure helps the teacher eliminate some of them when preparing for the lesson. It is incomparably easier to prevent students from falling behind than to later deal with problems in their knowledge.

What are the main reasons for the existing gaps in students' knowledge? Let's divide them into two groups:

• 1) internal, subjective, coming mainly from the student himself;
• 2) external, objective, mostly independent of the student.

One of the most common internal causes of academic failure - insufficient development of thinking among schoolchildren and other cognitive processes, the unpreparedness of these children for intense intellectual work in the learning process (lag in mental development from their peers).

For approximately every fifth underachieving student, this is the main reason for poor knowledge, and it can sometimes be very difficult to eliminate it. However, with the proper individual approach from many of them, the school curriculum is quite accessible.

This category should include children with slow mental development. Therefore, we have to work with such children in a regular classroom. But these children are excitable and easily wounded. They get tired quickly. And it is necessary to create such a microclimate in the class so that both they and their comrades do not feel much difference in their mental development, to exclude any humiliation and contempt for them.

Other subjective the reason why some students fail is the low level of academic skills of schoolchildren ( inattention in class, failure to fully understand the material presented). Thus, if we conditionally divide all those lagging behind into systematically and occasionally underperforming, then it turns out that for every second occasionally underachieving student, it is the lack of necessary academic skills, disorganization that is main reason two.

In the work to prevent the failure of such students, special attention is paid to developing habits for academic work. The focused work of all teachers, the coordination of their individual work plans for specific students and, of course, the help of parents are especially important here. One of the forms of working with students in this case is preparatory consultations before studying new topic. The teacher introduces the children to the topic of the next lesson and repeats with them the old material that is needed to study this topic.

If students have gaps on current issues, the following can be suggested:

• 1. Paired dialogues (test theoretical knowledge) at the beginning of the lesson,
• 2. Collective lesson in alternating pairs: The goal is to get around as many of your comrades as possible, and they, in turn, prepare cards with the task at home.
• 3. Work in groups. When practicing practical skills on any topic, mixed groups are created. The work is carried out by discussion.
• 4. When checking homework, the children’s mistakes are not only highlighted and corrected by the teacher, but also reviewed in writing by him in a notebook. Visiting teachers' lessons, checking workbooks, the administration did not see any of the listed forms, lessons are conducted traditionally, oral examination of homework, authoritarian explanation of new material, and if there is time left, traditional reinforcement.

Another common reason for academic failure- the student’s reluctance to learn due to the lack of sufficiently strong positive incentives for the learning process itself. This reluctance to learn can arise for various reasons. They all boil down mainly to learning difficulties. For example, a student does not know how, cannot force himself to study. Sometimes, reluctance to learn is generated objective difficulty of the subject for the student. In this case, you should stimulate him by all available means, show him the joyful side of learning and overcoming difficulties, the inner beauty of the subject, and develop interest in the subject. Notations, punishments, complaints to parents often only complicate the situation. .

A student's reluctance to learn may be caused by lack of interest in the student only in this subject. A student may be capable, it is easy for him to study, if he wanted, he could do well, but he is indifferent to this particular subject. So another unsuccessful person appears. Here you should look for and find an approach that would rediscover for a given student all the advantages of the subject being studied.

Sometimes there are students for whom the teaching has lost almost all meaning. But this category of underachievers is not hopeless. If a teacher constantly scolds and shames them at work in front of the whole class, and often calls in parents to punish him, then the results will be minimal. It is better to attract such children to help in the subject room, involve them in extracurricular work, etc. In a word, we need a well-thought-out system of measures in the struggle, first for interest in the subject, and then for the performance of this student.

Reasons affecting health from school:

• - stuffy room;
• - physical inactivity, incorrect posture;
• - low motivation; lack of individualization;
• - lack of switching;
• - authoritarian influence of teachers;
• - asthenic condition of students;
• - high loads at the end of the day.

Low efficiency of psychological and pedagogical technologies (technological unpreparedness of teachers).

Physical inactivity of the educational process:

the minimum number of movements for a schoolchild is 200;

average - 840-1320;

maximum - 9000 Students with health problems quickly get tired and have poor perception educational material. From the teacher's table, all children seem, as a rule, to be healthy, if you do not pay special attention to this issue. You need to know such children. It is not difficult to identify children with permanent or temporary serious illnesses.

All that is required is delicate work with parents, the school doctor, and monitoring the attention of students and the degree of their fatigue. The teacher does not need to know any details about the disease. It is enough just to imagine to what extent a student’s illness can affect learning. Such awareness about children's health helps to avoid many undesirable consequences, including indifference to the subject and teaching. A certain percentage of current failure is caused by random illnesses and injuries. In all cases, the teacher must work with the sick student according to individual plan, optimal for him.

Thus, we can conclude that the majority of schoolchildren today have health problems and for this reason cannot or have difficulty mastering the school curriculum. On the other hand, the school harms the health of students, thereby aggravating the situation. There is a “scissors effect” on the face. If we nevertheless make an effort and solve some problems that we can do, thereby reducing the list of health-damaging factors, then maybe the percentage of healthy students who are able to assimilate the program will increase and it will become easier for us to work.

A common cause of persistent underachievement is indiscipline of individual students. But, experience of working with such students shows that if you find feasible and interesting work for them, both in class and outside of class, then they gradually improve.

Among the subjective reasons for academic failure are the sometimes encountered personal hostility of the student to the teacher. Persistent dislike and disrespect for the teacher greatly interfere with the mobilization of the student’s efforts, giving rise to poor performance. But, life experience and pedagogical duty should help the teacher find an approach to such students. Often it is enough to discover it, correct some mistake in order to regain respect for yourself. It is important that there is no falsehood in the relationship between teacher and student.

Let's consider the objective reasons for academic failure.

Among them, the most common is poor quality work of the subject teacher due to poor knowledge of the subject and methods of teaching it. He came, he issued, he asked, he appreciated, he left - this is a habit, a routine, not work, but service; teaching work that has lost its creativity. He doesn’t care what happens after him, whether the disciples have learned it or not; they will be able to do their homework or go for help (in good faith, of course). Often teachers know their subject, have sufficient knowledge of teaching methods, but do not know how to organize students’ activities in the classroom. This inability is also a cause of academic failure beyond the control of students.

The next objective reason for academic failure is considered to be lack of ability among schoolchildren in this subject. Among them are diligent, hardworking people who successfully study in many subjects, but do not succeed, for example, in mathematics or physics. It makes no sense to constantly give bad grades to such students. They work hard even without intimidation or punishment. For such students, a strictly individual step-by-step program is advisable, providing feasible, gradually more complex work in order to bring them to the usual requirements. This will allow you to eliminate problems in knowledge while simultaneously mastering the main provisions of the new material. On initial stage individual work, some questions of the program for such students should be made easier by changing the level of difficulty of the tasks, without requiring separate complex conclusions, etc. Over time, these students develop confidence in their knowledge because situations of success are specifically created for them. As a result, many students in this category end up doing well in the high school curriculum and even going on to higher education.

The reason for academic failure is sometimes dysfunctional family. Unfortunately, there are often families where there are no normal conditions for the student to work or relax. For example, there is no father in the family, and the mother is too busy with herself - there is no time left for the child, or both mother and father have little interest in how their children study, what their interests are, what they need. In such situations, children may lose interest in learning and have problems with knowledge. Good results In preventing academic failure for this reason, kind, non-intrusive care for the student in the classroom, involving him in a variety of extracurricular activities - the creation of conditions that would, to a certain extent, compensate for the shortcomings of family education. This is achieved relatively easier if the student has a penchant for learning or some kind of creativity.

Underachievement is associated with the "street" problem. Rest and games in the fresh air are necessary. However, there are often so many temptations, and so little parental control and student diligence, that careless students spend most of their time after school in the company of street friends. And since learning programs involve systematic work at home, then all the prerequisites for lag and failure arise.

Let us note another common reason - the so-called preventive two. Sometimes a teacher gives a bad grade for a student’s refusal to answer. From the outside, this approach seems objective. But when such “twos” accumulate, they, as a rule, develop in the student’s personal plan into a new quality - a state of uncertainty, indifference to the assessment. After all, sooner or later, such students, having paid off their debts, will receive a “three” for a quarter. But it is simply impossible for them to get a “B”, although many of them deserve it. Thus, imaginary rigor and objectivity gives rise to poor academic performance, indifference to studies, reluctance to work and, as a consequence, new “Fs”. Realizing the obvious harm such “Fs” bring both in teaching and in upbringing, the teacher must find other ways to evaluate the student’s unfulfilled work.

• · Back to top school year In a personal journal, reflect information about the educational capabilities of students. All it takes is a conversation with class teacher and my own observation.
• · Study the possible reasons for the underachievement of those lagging behind and, to the best of our ability, neutralize them.
• · Teach children independent work skills. Train parents in the skills of systematically helping their child.
• · Create situations of success for lagging students.
• · Teach students how to work with textbook text and do homework.
• · Organize constant monitoring of academic work lagging students.
• · Actively involve children in the system of extracurricular work in their subject.
• · Organize additional classes for low-performing students.
• · Individualize homework taking into account the student’s capabilities and inclinations.

Of course, the danger of overlooking such a student, not coming to his aid in time, not discovering his abilities in the student, not seeing his talent, is perhaps always there. Another thing is how we react to this problem.

What is academic failure?

• “The effectiveness of school education does not meet the normative criteria, which is a consequence of the child’s inability to fully master educational material and complete educational tasks” (Sergey Sergeevich Stepanov, psychologist).
• “Underachievement is a child's performance below the level predicted by his or her abilities” (Carol Bainbridge, expert on gifted children).

The term “underachievement” is one of the most popular terms used by schools, parents and teachers. Nevertheless, different people understand it differently.

Research has proven that almost all people use only a small part of their mental abilities. In other words, none of us are perfect when it comes to reaching our full potential. That is, we are all underachieving students and do not fully utilize our abilities to learn and achieve anything.

For children, the issue of “underachievement” can have serious secondary implications. Many children who fall into this category of student demonstrate a pronounced gap between their natural abilities and what they actually achieve in the classroom. The main sign of underachievement usually appears in the lower grades of school, and the problem becomes more serious as children mature and move into high school. In some ways, this type of underachievement can be destructive.

However, most children in this category may simply not use their abilities to the fullest. Just take a look at them School journal and pay attention to the teachers’ comments: “He’s trying hard! It can work much better!” There may even be complaints and warnings from parents about the child's unsatisfactory performance. There are a number of reasons why children do not give their all in lessons.

Causes of childhood failure

What causes children to fail academically? Are there any genetic parameters that play an active role in the process? Can any external factors lead to academic failure? In addition to medical and mental reasons that lead to academic failure in children (these reasons are beyond the scope and scope of this article), a number of external reasons also lead to academic failure. In many cases, the main reason why children do not reach their maximum potential is that children who are falling behind may simply not have mastered the art of achieving their goals.

Children's underachievement may arise from school- and home-related factors (either in combination or separately).

Possible reasons related to school

• The classroom lacks an interesting, intriguing and challenging (in a good way) atmosphere.
• Excessive competition.
• Lack of competition.
• Conflicts between teacher and student.
• Some forms of learning disabilities.
• Slow learning.
• Too much peer pressure.
• Lack of visible opportunities to express creativity.
• Inertia, lack of flexibility in school curriculum. There is a clear discrepancy between the child’s abilities and the school system.

Possible causes related to the home

• Disagreements or conflicts between parents.
• Excessive parental care of the child.
• Lack of expressions of love and affection from parents.
• Lack of parental attention.
• Health problems.
• Conflicts between brothers and sisters.
• Too much parental pressure requiring the child to constantly demonstrate high results.
• Lack of dedication and effort of the child in the lesson.

Most retarded children show the following signs

• They are disorganized and undisciplined.
• They usually forget to do homework, don't write essays, and ignore school tests.
• They don't complete their assignments.
• Their desks, textbooks and educational materials are in disarray.
• They never listen to either the teacher or their parents.
• They are always inattentive and restless.
• They talk too much to their classmates and look out the window during class.
• Their learning skills are unsatisfactory.
• They constantly make excuses and defend themselves.
• They are bored in class.
• They believe, however, that extracurricular activities interesting and exciting.
• Low ratings do not discourage them. In fact, they are indifferent to low grades.
• They may blame teachers for their low grades.
• They have big dreams, but don't believe they have to work hard to achieve big results.
• They don't recognize the value of true effort.
• At times they can be too self-confident, showing neither effort nor aspiration.
• They want to achieve big goals, but don't know how to do it.
• They do not know how to set realistic goals for themselves and fail due to such inefficiency.

In essence, children with poor academic performance lack a sense of self-confidence. In fact, children who fall behind are good students, although they are unaware of their real worth. They don't think they can be the best in their class. Parents and teachers need to cure this condition of children as quickly as possible and guide them towards achieving better academic results.