Student performance. Phases of performance in the lesson. Dynamics of performance during the school day. school week, school year. Student performance in primary school lessons

The problem of human performance, and in particular of students, is one of the most important problems not only of hygiene, but also of physiology, psychology and pedagogy.

Hygienists have developed and are developing this problem in direct connection with other problems of childhood hygiene, especially the state of health and physical development, the rational organization of various types of activities and recreation of children and adolescents.

Doctors, teachers and public figures, showing in different periods of the development of society invariably a lot of attention to the correct solution of health-improving and educational tasks in relation to the younger generation, directly or indirectly addressed the problem of the working capacity of the child’s body.

The desire to somehow influence the child’s performance, to protect him from excessive fatigue, first arose, obviously, with the beginning of systematic public education of children, which in Russia, judging by the records of the Laurentian “Tale of Bygone Years” (from 988) and the Sofia First Chronicle (from 1030), begins in the 9th and 10th centuries. Already in such literary monuments of antiquity as “Vladimir Monomakh’s Teachings to Children”, the Konshin list - “Domostroy”, “Citizenship of Children’s Customs”, “An Honest Mirror of Youth, or Indications for Everyday Conduct”, “Regulations or Charter of the Spiritual Collegium”, there are instructions about basic rules of personal hygiene.

In the middle of the 19th century, K. I. Grum-Grzhimailo was the first in Russia to consistently develop (based on his rich medical experience) a routine for students’ lives.

Since the middle of the 19th century, in Russia and many other European countries, works by physiologists and teachers have appeared devoted to the study of students’ daily routine, their academic load, health status and performance dynamics.

It was from this period that the systematic accumulation of factual material began, including not only the results of observations, but also specially designed experimental studies conducted on students in educational institutions of various types. Based on facts, scientific hypotheses arise that need to be tested by experience.

Thus, school hygiene is gradually forming into an independent scientific discipline, the task of which is to correctly understand the patterns of life and activity of children, who are predominantly of school age, and to discover ways to use the identified patterns for the rational organization of students’ education and the protection of their health.

In 1882, V. G. Nesterov studied the health status of male gymnasium students and found that 32% of students had various nervous disorders, the prevalence of which progressively increased from junior to senior grades. In the last grades, nervous disorders occur in students 3-9 times more often than in the first years of education. This phenomenon was directly related to the excessive burden of students with academic work.

Similar studies were conducted in Denmark, Sweden and other countries. In these studies, students' health status was compared with their educational conditions, mainly with daily study load - the number of hours spent on educational activities at school and at home. The researchers noted a higher prevalence of illness among students who spent more time on daily learning activities than the average per student.

A number of other studies have established a deterioration in the performance of students in all grades under the influence of academic work, which was expressed in an increase in the number of errors in dictations and in counting, a decrease in muscle strength and skin sensitivity.

I. A. Sikorsky found that by the end of class, due to a decrease in the ability to distinguish letters that are similar in sound or style, students made errors in dictations on average 33% more than at the beginning of classes. These slips and errors did not depend on knowledge of spelling rules.

F.K. Telyatnik, using the method of dosing work, tracked the change in qualitative indicators of students’ performance from the first lesson to the fifth.

Dosed work included: a) counting letters in a printed text, b) solving arithmetic examples, c) memorizing words and numbers and then writing them, d) recalling words and numbers that needed to be remembered when reading the text and solving examples. The number of tasks assigned to the entire team was taken as the standard - 100% for each of the four assessed indicators. The volume of correctly completed tasks was correlated with this standard. Let’s say 24 people solve 4 problems each, then the total number is 96, which is taken as 100%. If 76 tasks are completed correctly, then this is 79%.

Thus, F.K. Telyatnik received indicators that, as he believed, reflected the state of mental functions. In our understanding, dosed tasks made it possible to identify the magnitude of qualitative indicators of the body’s performance. From the first lesson (9 a.m.) to the fifth (3 a.m.), students expressed the same direction in changing the three indicators towards their reduction by 7, 13, 24%.

L. Burgerstein established a decrease in students’ performance from the beginning to the end of the astronomical hour. During this hour, students performed simple calculations, which they had completely mastered, four times for 10 minutes.

The percentage of errors from the first 10 minutes of work to the last 10 minutes doubled, while the number of solved examples decreased. The most intense deterioration in the quality of work occurred in the third 10 minutes. Consequently, a pronounced decrease in the body’s performance occurred in students (12-13 years old) after the first half hour of work.

A similar decrease in students’ performance was identified by L. Göpfner, using the method of writing dictations.

R. Keller, based on Mosso’s observations, used an ergographic technique and studied the dynamics of muscle performance in students during mental work. The latter required an hour of time and consisted of reading Latin and German texts. Of the total working time - 60 minutes - reading the text took 30 minutes. It was found that such mental work leads to a decrease in muscle performance. By the end of the first hour of work, the value of the muscle performance indicator decreased by 7-23%; by the end of the second hour, despite a more than hour break in mental work (rest), muscle performance dropped by 25-39%. Reading a Latin text was more intense mental work than reading a text in one's native language.

Changes in muscle performance under the influence of work were also studied in students by F. Kemsies, who established a decrease in muscle performance after short-term mental or physical work. Lessons that require particularly high mental effort (mathematics, foreign languages) lead to a decrease in muscle strength after a short time. Geography, natural science, and history classes, being less tiring, do not significantly affect changes in muscle strength.

X. Griesbach identified a relationship between the duration of children's educational sessions and a decrease in their skin sensitivity (an increase in the threshold of sensation): two hours after the start of classes, the threshold increased by more than one and a half times, and after five lessons - by more than twice.

T. Vannod, in a study of secondary school students, also obtained data that convincingly indicates a decrease in students’ skin sensitivity during the school day under the influence of mental work and a gradual increase in it after a long rest.

Research by L. Wagner revealed a similar picture: the threshold of sensation among students increased by the end of lessons and they left school in a state of severe fatigue.

In most studies of this period, only one of three particular methods was used - ergography, esthesiometry, dosing of work (counting letters, writing dictations, solving problems, adding numbers). But even then, many authors pointed out that studying the state of the body using only one technique does not fully characterize the performance of children. Many works with a large age range (from 7-8 to 14-18 years) of the research object had extremely insufficient quantitative saturation of individual age and sex groups. The necessary attention was not paid to the selection of subjects based on their health status, physical development, and academic performance. At the same time, exogenous factors (external environmental conditions during school hours, children’s daily routine, etc.), which in one way or another affect the body’s performance, were not always taken into account.

Thus, in many studies, other equal conditions were not met, which is likely responsible for the often contradictory results obtained by individual authors.

However, to the best of their knowledge and strength, hygienists, physiologists, pediatricians, psychiatrists and teachers sought to legislate mainly classroom training sessions and improve the conditions for their conduct, although many recommendations still continued to be speculative.

The latter was explained not only by the lack of thoroughness and consistency of research, but to a large extent also by the level of development of some biological sciences.

General physiology, age-related physiology and morphology, which are the natural scientific basis of hygiene for children and adolescents, due to their inherent development at that time, could not equip hygienists and pediatricians with theoretical principles, using which it would be possible to experiment more deeply and explain the results of generalizing the factual material.

Even one of the founders of Russian school hygiene, F.F. Erisman, who believed that hygiene should be based on physiological data, sometimes put forward erroneous positions.

These provisions were erroneous precisely because physiology itself did not have a whole series of laws now known to us.

With the discovery of the conditioned reflex by I.P. Pavlov, it becomes obvious that the main function of the central nervous system is the formation of positive and negative temporary connections that ensure the body’s adaptation to continuously changing and complex environmental conditions.

The patterns of higher nervous activity discovered by physiologists are the starting points on the basis of which it becomes possible to give a theoretical justification for the need for consistent alternation of work and rest for children. From the position of the doctrine of stereotypy, of valuable conditioned reflexes, reflexes to time and environment, of rhythmic activity, which is “especially easy and beneficial” to the body, hygienic recommendations about students performing various types of activities and rest at the same hours find their explanation.

The physiological doctrine of the mosaic nature of the cerebral cortex, excitation and inhibition, irradiation and concentration, mutual induction, along with special studies of the state of various functions in the process of educational activities, work and rest of a schoolchild, makes it possible to substantiate the feasibility of alternating various types of activities to maintain performance at a relatively high level during for a long time.

The laws of higher nervous activity also explain the advantage of active rest over unorganized passive rest and the need to standardize active rest according to the duration and intensity of physical activity.

Along with the basic theoretical principles of general physiology and the physiology of higher nervous activity, hygienists, especially since the 40s of the 20th century, widely use the results of age-related physiology and morphology of the child. These sciences equip the hygiene of children and adolescents with knowledge about the growth and development of the child’s body, about its anatomical and physiological characteristics at different age stages of development. Without this knowledge, it is not possible to develop school hygiene, to develop one of its most important problems - the problem of the working capacity of children and adolescents.

Only knowledge of the age-related characteristics of the nervous system, the formation of the musculoskeletal system, the formation of motor and other analyzers, the characteristics of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems allows one to correctly approach the study of the body’s performance and standardize physical exercise, sports, and work activity in preschool, school and adolescence. .

Only knowledge of the basic laws of higher nervous activity, age-related and typological characteristics of a child’s higher nervous activity at different age stages are prerequisites for the correct approach to the development of the pedagogical process, to the interpretation of the actual results of observations and experiments that hygienists conduct in this direction.

Thus, relying on the provisions of physiology, on age-related physiology, morphology and biochemistry as the natural scientific basis of school hygiene, hygienists identify and reveal patterns of changes in the performance and various physiological functions of children and adolescents under the influence of endogenous and exogenous factors.

Based on the results of observations and experiments in relation to the morphophysiological characteristics, functional capabilities and adaptive abilities of the child’s body at different stages of its formation, regulatory requirements and rules are established. These requirements and rules serve to create conditions for optimal interaction of the child’s growing and developing body with continuously changing environmental factors.

Naturally, the creation of optimal conditions for the interaction of the organism with the environment is not limited to the adaptation of environmental factors to the morphophysiological characteristics and functional capabilities of the child at one or another stage of its development. Creating optimal conditions for the interaction of the child’s body with the environment also presupposes a system of targeted active influence on the growth and development of the child, a targeted increase in his performance and functional capabilities, expanding the boundaries of adaptation, increasing general and immunobiological reactivity.

The main research method for solving all these problems is the method of natural experiment. However, in the works of hygienists, natural experiment is not used in the form in which it was first introduced into psychology by A.F. Lazursky.

Hygienists do not simply study the child in the normal environment in which he lives. Very often this natural environment does not fully meet the requirements of hygiene. This discrepancy may, to one degree or another, distort the data that the researcher believed to be obtained according to the working hypothesis. Therefore, a natural experiment must be hygienized.

The essence of the natural experiment method used by hygienists is to study the body's reactions to external factors under normal living conditions. The body's reactions are identified using a variety of physiological techniques, and environmental factors are identified using physicochemical or microbiological techniques. The latter make it possible to constantly monitor environmental factors and bring them, where possible, into compliance with hygienic standards and requirements or strictly take into account deviations. The purity of a natural experiment requires that its other conditions be equal: the physical development and health status of the children being studied, their daily routine, especially the duration of sleep, rest, regularity and adequacy of nutrition.

Such an organization of a natural experiment allows, with the widespread use of private physiological methods, to identify changes in the body directly under the influence of one or another factor to be studied. Of the particular physiological methods in a natural experiment, several are used simultaneously, since the results of studying one particular function do not give an idea of ​​​​the changes in the organism as a whole and, therefore, are not sufficient to normalize one or another operating factor. In most studies on the standardization of educational activities, socially useful and productive work of school-age children, general and muscular performance, accuracy and coordination of movements, higher nervous activity and autonomic reactivity, the state of visual functions, auditory sensitivity threshold, physical and chemical composition of blood, hemodynamic changes were studied. , general and immunobiological reactivity of the body, etc.

Most studies used methods that do not require much time, are more or less adequate to the operating factor, do not tire the body in themselves and do not reduce its performance.

In the 50s of the last century, the study of the performance and other physiological reactions of the body of students in order to develop regulatory requirements for the organization of various types of activities was often carried out in a comprehensive manner by hygienists from several institutes.

Research on the performance of schoolchildren has been carried out especially intensively since the 1950/51 academic year. The results of these studies are the basis for hygienic standardization of educational work and work activities of students.

Thus, studies of the performance of first-grade schoolchildren have shown that the most effective for 7-year-old children is a lesson lasting 30-35 minutes.

The results of experimental studies of schoolchildren's home study load, studying their performance, visual functions and motor chronaxy during the school day were the basis for standardizing the duration of lesson preparation for students in grades I, III, IV, V, VII and IX.

The dynamics of performance, functional changes in higher nervous activity and coordination of movements in students, revealed in the process of educational classes, work, and physical exercises, showed how great the hygienic importance of alternating various types of activities is, not only during the day, but also during the week.

It was found that the effect of switching from one to another, a qualitatively different type of activity, depends on the preceding functional state of the central nervous system.

A similar dependence was noted in studies to establish the most effective duration, content and conditions for students’ rest during school hours and during the break between classes at school and preparing lessons. Special studies of performance, higher nervous activity and autonomic reactivity were carried out with the aim of normalizing the sleep duration of practically healthy students, schoolchildren suffering from tuberculosis and rheumatism, as well as children with functional abnormalities in the state of the nervous system.

The performance of students suffering from tuberculosis intoxication, rheumatism and studying in a public school or special medical and health institutions was also studied in order to normalize their educational load and work.

The results of a study of the dynamics of performance and other physiological reactions in pupils of boarding schools and students of schools with extended days showed that in grades I-IV it is possible to postpone independent homework to the first half of the school day (up to 14 hours). At the same time, after three lessons, a one-hour break is organized with the teacher, which the children spend outdoors in games of low and medium mobility. After such highly effective active recreation, which helps improve performance and restore the optimal level of other physiological functions of the body, students return to their classroom and, in the presence of a teacher, complete tasks independently. Physical education, labor, and singing classes are held after 4 p.m.

Based on the study of the dynamics of general and muscular performance, coordination of movements and vegetative functions of the body of children and adolescents in the process of their socially useful and productive work, it became possible to identify the most appropriate forms of organizing this type of activity for students of middle and high school age.

A comparative study of the dynamics of the performance of boys and girls when they work in different organizational conditions revealed the hygienic advantage of training and production workshops.

In training and production workshops at schools, higher hygienic conditions can be provided (optimal illumination of workplaces, a comfortable microclimate, lower noise levels) and the work itself can be more efficiently organized.

The basis for standardizing the work regime and establishing appropriate production standards for rural school students in student production teams in the profiles of vegetable grower, field grower, machine operator, gardener and winegrower were also based on the results of studying the dynamics of working capacity and vegetative functions of the body of boys and girls aged 15-17 years in the process of labor careful monitoring of meteorological conditions, rest and the entire daily routine.

The dynamics of the working capacity of the body of working teenagers - students of evening schools - and the change in their autonomic reactivity were the basis for the development of hygienic recommendations regarding the organization of educational classes, the duration and content of rest after finishing work and before the start of classes for boys and girls in evening school.

The state and dynamics of the so-called “general” performance of the body, changes in visual functions, strength, endurance to static and dynamic loads, coordination of movements, etc. were the basis for normalizing such environmental factors as the level of natural and artificial illumination of educational premises, external design of educational books and visual aids, sizes and weights of automatic pens for primary school students, equipment of classrooms and drawing rooms, planning and improvement of schools and boarding schools, air-thermal conditions of gymnasiums and classrooms, painting of educational furniture and school plumbing equipment workshops.

Thus, the study of the dynamics of performance and other physiological functions of the body of children and adolescents allowed hygienists to standardize, in an age aspect, the main types of activities of students in various schools (urban and rural secondary schools, extended-day schools, boarding schools), medical and health institutions of various profiles , evening (shift) school, and also recommend for practical use approximate daily routines developed taking into account local conditions.

By adhering to these hygienic recommendations, an educational or medical institution can maintain the performance of pupils at a relatively high level and thereby increase the effectiveness of training, as well as more successfully solve the problem of promoting the health and improving the functional capabilities of the younger generation.

Introduction

During the entire period of a child's education at school, two physiologically vulnerable (critical) periods are distinguished - the beginning of education (grade 1; 6 - 7 years) and the period of puberty (grades 5 - 9; 11-14 years). It is at this time that significant functional overstrain is observed, caused by a restructuring in the activity of the main physiological systems, associated with low and unstable performance, accompanied by a decrease in mental and physical activity (Kardanova et al., 2004). It should be noted that the beginning of a child’s education at school and the transition from primary to secondary are the most difficult stages in the life of a teenager, not only physiologically, but also socially and psychologically. Children's adaptation in high school coincides with the onset of the teenage crisis. It is known that the synchronization of two crises in a person’s life can lead to much more serious consequences. At the same time, the transition point to middle management is usually characterized by a decline in educational motivation, an increase in disciplinary difficulties, an increase in anxiety, and rapid fatigue. Even an excellent student can turn into a lagging student.

A person’s mental performance depends on many factors, the totality of which can be divided into three main groups: physiological factors - age, gender, level of physical and functional development, state of health and nutrition; factors of a physical nature, reflecting geographical and climatic conditions of existence; mental factors are motivation for activity, emotional mood, etc. All of the above factors simultaneously affect the body and mutually influence each other.

The purpose of this work consisted of a study of indicators of mental performance of adolescent schoolchildren (12-13 years old) in Vladikavkaz.

Materials and research methods

The work used proofreading letter tests (Anfimov tables) and Landolt rings (Guminsky et al., 1990).

The study was conducted on the basis of secondary school No. 26 in Vladikavkaz. The object of the study were male and female schoolchildren aged 12-13 years (8th grade), studying in the afternoon. A total of 24 people took part in the experiment. Of these, 12 are boys, 12 are girls. The experiment was carried out on April 15, 2005. The experiment time was 10.16.-16.30. hours. In the period from 16.00 to 18.00 hours, a second rise in the level of physical and mental performance is observed (Ermolaev, 2001).

Next, the results obtained were processed using formulas (Guminsky et al., 1990) and statistical methods. The reliability of differences between the studied characteristics was judged using Student's and Chi-square tests. Correlation coefficients between the studied characteristics (r) were also calculated. (Lakin, 1990).

Research results and discussion

The results of the study are presented in tables 1-4.

Table 1. Characteristics of accuracy of task completion (A) in boys and girls aged 12-13 years in Vladikavkaz

Table 2. Characteristics of the coefficient of mental productivity (P) in boys and girls aged 12-13 years in Vladikavkaz

It was found that 9 out of 12 boys we examined had an accuracy rate for completing the task that met the standards. In 4 out of 12 boys, the mental productivity coefficient corresponds to the norm. 5 boys from the entire group of male schoolchildren meet age standards. The speed of visual information processing corresponds to the norm only in 4 male schoolchildren.

Among schoolgirls, the accuracy rate of task completion corresponds to the standard for 11 people from the studied group. The coefficient of mental productivity corresponds to the standard value for 3 girls out of 12. The volume of visual information corresponds to age standards for 7 eighth-graders. The speed of visual information processing corresponds to the standard value for 5 schoolgirls.

Table 3. Characteristics of the volume of visual information (Q) in boys and girls aged 12-13 years in Vladikavkaz

Table 4. Characteristics of visual information processing speed (S) in boys and girls aged 12-13 years in Vladikavkaz

We conducted a comparative analysis of the average values ​​of mental performance indicators among teenage schoolchildren in Vladikavkaz and standard values ​​using the chi-square test. As a result of the analysis, it was found that for male eighth-graders, the accuracy coefficient for completing the task (A) corresponds to age standards (P>0.05). The coefficient of mental productivity in boys aged 12-14 years old that we examined is significantly lower than standard values ​​(P<0,001). Объем зрительной информации у данной группы школьников ниже, чем стандартное значение характерное для данной возрастной группы, что подтверждается высоким уровнем достоверности (P<0,001). Скорость обработки зрительной информации у мальчиков не отличается от стандартных показателей (P>0,05).

The above is confirmed by the average values ​​of the indicated indicators presented in tables 1, 2, 3, 4.

A comparative analysis of the average values ​​of mental performance indicators of the group of eighth-grade students we examined in Vladikavkaz and the standard values ​​typical for a given age using the chi-square test showed the following. The accuracy rate of task completion among the schoolgirls we examined does not differ from standard indicators (P>0.05). The coefficient of mental productivity in a group of girls aged 12-14 years old at school No. 26 is lower than the standard value typical for this age period (P<0,001) . Объем зрительной информации у обследуемых нами девочек ниже, чем стандартный показатель, что подтверждается высоким уровнем достоверности (P<0,001). Скорость обработки зрительной информации у девочек не отличается от стандартного показателя (P>0,05).

The data we obtained, indicating the correspondence of the average values ​​of the coefficient of accuracy in completing a task and the speed of processing visual information and the low coefficient of mental productivity in the 12-14 year old schoolchildren we examined, are consistent with the results of the study by the authors V.A. Baronenko and D.O. Bretina (2003). These authors explain this fact by the fact that students have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The data we obtained can also be explained by the fact that the survey was carried out on Friday in the fourth lesson at 16:00. On this day of the week, in most cases, mental performance is reduced; in addition, these schoolchildren study in the second shift, when performance decreases sharply already in the first hours of classes, despite the fact that from 16 to 18 hours there is a second rise in mental performance (Antropova, 1982 ; Ermolaev, 2001).

As a result of a comparative analysis of mental performance indicators between boys and girls aged 12-14 years in Vladikavkaz using the Student’s t test, it was found that there are no significant differences between the average values ​​of the coefficient of accuracy of task completion, the coefficient of mental productivity, the volume of visual information and the speed of its processing (P >0.05).

Next, we conducted a correlation analysis of the studied indicators of mental performance in a group of teenage schoolchildren in Vladikavkaz. As a result, we established the following. In the group of boys we examined, a correlation was found between the accuracy of task completion and the coefficient of mental productivity (r = 0.598, P<0,05), между коэффициентом умственной продуктивности и объемом зрительной информации (r=0,7399, P<0,05), между коэффициентом умственной продуктивности и скоростью обработки зрительной информации (r=0,837, P<0,01), между объемом зрительной информации и скоростью ее переработки (r=0,851, P<0,01). У девочек была установлена прямая связь между коэффициентом умственной продуктивности и скоростью переработки зрительной информации (r=0,615, P<0,05), между объемом зрительной информации и скоростью ее переработки (r=0,801, P<0,01).

From the above, it follows that the level of concentration of attention is associated with the volume of visual information, the volume of visual information is associated with the speed of its processing, and the speed of processing visual information is associated with the level of concentration of attention. Thus, all indicators of mental performance in schoolchildren of this age group are interrelated.

conclusions

1. In the group of schoolchildren aged 12-14 years old that we examined, the coefficient of accuracy in completing a task and the speed of information processing correspond to standard values ​​characteristic of this age.

2. The coefficient of mental productivity and the volume of visual information in the schoolchildren we examined are lower than the standard values ​​typical for this age group, which is confirmed by a high level of reliability (P<0,01).

3. We did not find any significant differences between the values ​​of mental performance indicators in schoolchildren aged 12-13 years by gender.

4. A significant correlation was established among male schoolchildren between the coefficient of mental productivity and the coefficient of task completion accuracy (P<0,05), объемом зрительной информации (P<0,05) и скоростью ее переработки (P<0,01). У девочек взаимозависимы коэффициент умственной продуктивности и скорость обработки зрительной информации, которая в свою очередь тесно связана с объемом зрительной информации (P<0,01).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Antropova M.V. Hygiene of children and adolescents. M.: Medicine, 1982, 268 p.
2. Baronenko V.A., Terentyeva I.S. Hierarchy of relationships between indicators of mental performance, motivational-emotional sphere, physical development and health when adapting to the pedagogical environment of students in grades 3-5 of a comprehensive school. // Abstracts of the international symposium “Heart Rate Variability” Izhevsk, 2003, p.191- 195.
3. Guminsky A.A. and others. Guide to laboratory classes in general and age-related physiology. M.: Education, 1990, 239 p.
4. Ermolaev Yu.A. Age physiology. M.: SportAkademPress, 2001, 444 p.
5. Kardanova M.Yu., Kudaeva A.V., Gilyasov M.Kh. Physical and moral health as the basis of human social life. // Materials of the All-Russian scientific and practical conference “Physical culture and sport as one of the factors of national security in the North Caucasus” Nalchik: Publishing center “El-Fa”, 2004, p. 252-554.
6. Lakin G.F. Biometrics, M.: Higher School, 1990, 352 p.

Bibliographic link

The importance of a comprehensive development of the problem of human performance, and in particular schoolchildren, has been repeatedly emphasized. Meanwhile, it cannot be said that the ways and means of educating and increasing the performance of the body of children and adolescents in the process of their growth, development and learning have been comprehensively studied and are quite clear in practice. It is still necessary to conduct a number of in-depth scientific studies in this direction in order for the teacher to be able to teach most effectively, so that he has a clear idea of ​​the performance in general and the performance of students of a certain age in particular.

Often, a teacher overestimates the capabilities of his students and demands that they complete impossible tasks. No less often, he considers the children’s capabilities extremely limited and gives them too easy work. Both approaches can equally negatively affect the development and health of students and their nervous system.

It is known that the performance of children and adolescents is closely related to their health. This is evidenced by a number of facts. For example, students suffering from rheumatism have reduced performance in the inter-attack period and get tired faster during mental work and labor. Children with functional and especially organic abnormalities in the central nervous system have extremely low performance compared to their peers - healthy schoolchildren. Students suffering from chronic tonsillitis have low performance. They quickly get tired in class, they have poor memory and, as a result of all this, poor academic performance. Schoolchildren who had suffered short-term illnesses (upper respiratory tract catarrh and tonsillitis) experienced decreased performance for another one to one and a half weeks after clinical recovery.

This was expressed, in particular, in the fact that during training sessions they experienced an earlier and more significant weakening of physiological functions compared to others.

A doctor helps the teacher find a more or less correct approach to students who have certain health conditions.

In relation to students classified as practically healthy, but having different levels of physical development, the doctor, as a rule, does not give any instructions to the teacher, with the exception of individual instructions on the organization of labor and physical education lessons.

However, the correct organization of training should provide for a differentiated approach to students not only in accordance with their state of health, but also their level of physical development.

This assumption is quite reasonable. The state of physiological functions, which together ensure the performance of the human body, cannot be considered in isolation from the general level of physical development, since growth and development are normal, i.e., an increase in quantitative signs characterizing physical development, and qualitative ones - physiological functions, is determined by the uniform intensity of metabolic processes occurring in the body. Disruption of these processes under the influence of exogenous or endogenous causes obviously affects equally both the formation of morphological and functional indicators of a growing organism.

If we exclude individual cases of student failure associated with poor diligence, or cases of low performance due to either organic or persistent functional changes in the cerebral cortex, then there is every reason to assert that the physical development, performance and academic performance of schoolchildren are closely interrelated.

In his report at the first congress of the Moscow-Petersburg Medical Society, N. I. Bystrov drew the attention of doctors to frequent headaches in school-age children. According to his five-year observations, headaches in children are associated with excessive mental stress: in 8-year-old children complaints of headaches were noted in 5% of cases, and in adolescents 14-18 years old - in 28-40% of cases (there were 74 cases under observation). 780 children), i.e., parallel to the increase in educational load, the frequency of complaints of headaches increases.

A.V. Belyaev, summarizing the results of a survey of the physical development of gymnasium students, came to the conclusion that successful and intense mental exercises, without regular and appropriate physical exercise, lead to a weakening of the physical qualities of students.

Doctor A. A. Yakovleva, analyzing the nature of school overwork, noted that it “essentially is the resultant of two components of the educational requirements of the school, on the one hand, and the psychophysical strength of students, on the other.” A large number of students are already entering educational institutions “frail”, with various disabilities, and with a low level of psychophysical strength. It is these children who are least able to withstand a heavy academic load and it is they who, in most cases, turn out to be “unsuccessful.”

A “frail” child sent to a gymnasium does not study well, gets tired quickly, is distracted, lethargic, often complains of a heaviness in the head, does not rest after a night’s sleep, and in the morning sets to work with disgust. Such students in most cases drop out of grades I and II. Those who are then eliminated from classes III and IV have a greater reserve of psychophysical strength than those who leave classes I-II, and their body is still able to withstand the ever-increasing load for some time.

N.A. Gratsianov, studying the physical development of children and youth of educational institutions in the city of Arzamas, drew attention to a certain connection between academic performance and individual indicators of students’ physical development. All other things being equal (material well-being of the family, health status of parents and children), successful students had higher basic indicators of physical development (body length, body weight, chest circumference) than unsuccessful students. For some groups of students under the age of 13, the differences in body length were at least 3.7 cm, maximum - 18.08 cm.

A comparison of the chest circumference of successful and unsuccessful students, even more than a comparison of body length and weight, indicated better physical development of the former; successful students with greater absolute height had a relatively more developed chest than unsuccessful students.

Similar results were obtained by N.V. Zak, who studied the physical development of students in secondary educational institutions in Moscow. Particularly striking in comparison with the high-achieving students was the lag in the so-called “vital index” - the ratio of chest circumference to half-height. Underachievers aged from 10 to 21 years old had a low “vital index”, despite their absolutely shorter body length, i.e., a less harmoniously developed chest than successful students.

Thus, in a number of works carried out back in the 19th century, a relationship was established between physical development and student performance. Later, some studies appeared that revealed a certain connection between the level of individual indicators of physical development and the readiness (maturity) of the child to study at school, between physical development and deviations in the phonetics of speech, between the academic performance and performance of students.

Thus, Helzer found that among children who by the age of 6 - the first year of school - had reached the indicators characteristic of this age in their physical development and body proportions, the lack of “maturity” at the beginning of education occurred in 3.1% of cases. Among children whose indicators of physical development and body proportions did not correspond to average values ​​(were lower), a lack of maturity at the beginning of systematic schooling was noted in 17.1% of cases.

Schwartz studied the results of a comprehensive medical examination of 6-year-old children entering school. The “maturity” of a child for schooling was determined by a set of indicators characterizing the level of physical development, health and functional state of the central nervous system (level of muscular and mental performance). It turned out that among children who did not yet have sufficient “maturity to learn,” the majority had low or below average weight and body length.

The reasons that inhibit the growth processes of children also negatively affect their overall development (in particular, the formation and improvement of speech).

Medical examinations of boys and girls aged 4-8 years showed that the level of physical development and the state of speech phonetics are closely related in children.

Pronunciation defects were more common in boys and girls aged 7-8 years with average, below average and low physical development, and slurred speech - only in children with below average and low physical development. The same deviations in speech phonetics in children with above average and high physical development were 3.8 times less common than in other groups. Statistical analysis of the data obtained by V.I. Telenchi shows that the discrepancy in the prevalence of various deviations in speech phonetics in groups of different levels of physical development is not accidental.

Some authors who observed adolescents aged 14-17 years indicate that such functional properties of the body as endurance, coordination of movements, lability of the neuromuscular system are also associated with the level of physical development. The functional capabilities of the body of adolescents with average and below average physical development are lower than those of adolescents with above average physical development. In cases of equal volume of muscle load, adolescents who are physically weak tolerate it worse (they get tired faster and more strongly) than adolescents who are more physically developed.

Increasing the load in adolescents above average physical development does not lead to a weakening of the stability of their body’s training. In adolescents below average physical development, under the same conditions, changes in various physiological functions occur that indicate an extremely weak stability of the body’s fitness.

There are works in which, without an anamnesis of the physical development of the observed children, indications are given that they have a close connection between academic performance and the so-called “general” or mental performance of the body.

V. A. Pravdolyubov, presenting the results of his observations of fourth-grade students, divided them according to their academic performance into three groups: the best, the average and the worst. The distribution of students into these groups was made on the basis of very comprehensive pedagogical characteristics. The performance of schoolchildren was determined by the method of dosing work over time: after verbal instructions, students crossed out and underlined certain letters in a printed, coherent text for an hour. It turned out that the best group of students had higher indicators of work intensity (the number of underlined letters in 5 minutes) and higher quality than the average and especially the worst groups.

Students in the best and average academic groups were characterized by a more favorable type of mental performance of the body. If for the best group it is taken as 100%, then in the average group it occurs in 95% of cases, and in the worst group - in 45% of cases.

Thus, the data we have indicate a connection between the level of physical development and academic performance, anthropometric indicators and the degree of development of individual physiological functions of the body, academic performance and mental performance.

Most of the works we reviewed do not provide errors in the average values ​​of the compared indicators and the absolute number of observations. This circumstance deprives us of the opportunity to judge to what extent the results obtained in each of the studies are statistically reliable, and the conclusions drawn are statistically justified. In addition, it remains not entirely clear how the levels of physical development, academic performance, different degrees of muscular and so-called “general” mental performance of the body are related in the same students in different age groups.

Meanwhile, such information is not only of theoretical interest, but also has a certain practical significance for the teacher - in his daily work, for organizing physical education and labor training, for doctors deploying preventive and health measures among children and adolescents.

How to improve student performance

in speech therapy classes

Intensification of the educational process, unfavorable environmental factors, prolonged exposure to a sensory-poor environment in closed rooms and confined spaces, lack of movement, excessive enthusiasm for methods of “intellectual” development - leads to a deterioration in the health of schoolchildren. Everyone will agree that schooling is one of the most difficult moments in a child’s life, both physiologically and socially-mentally. The specific volume of loads increases greatly compared to the preschool period. During the first year of study, unfavorable changes in the health status of children are noted: due to prolonged work with small numbers and letters, vision deteriorates, due to decreased mobility and improper sitting at the desk, posture is impaired, an increase or decrease in blood pressure is noted, and weight loss is observed. bodies, children become irritable. All these disorders indicate fatigue and overwork of the child’s body.

The urgency of the problem, the prevention of fatigue in schoolchildren, is caused by the fact that children living in the north are in harsh climatic conditions, where there is a shortage of light and ultraviolet radiation in the winter, which adversely affects especially younger schoolchildren, since it is they who earlier experience a decrease in performance during exercise, fatigue develops faster.

An experienced teacher can immediately notice the initial signs of fatigue: the child cannot concentrate on the task, handwriting becomes sloppy, the number of errors increases sharply, etc.

Educational activity does not exclude fatigue, but any lesson should be structured in such a way that fatigue is minimal, and cases of overwork are completely excluded. The working time increased from lesson to lesson.

Any work we perform has several phases: the working-in phase, the phase of optimal stable performance, the phase of decreased performance (fatigue), and before the end of the work there comes a short-term phase of increasing performance. Each phase can be changed in duration.

General education institutions must create conditions to satisfy the biological need of schoolchildren for movement; it is necessary to correctly determine the maximum volume of students’ educational load. Teachers must carefully consider lesson structure. It should include several types of activities, and children should be taught how to relieve tension, get rid of fatigue, i.e. rest properly.

Children come to speech therapy classes after classes from an extended day group, of course already tired, so I start classes with a foot massage. Students enter the office barefoot along the massage path. After walking along it, they plunge into a dry pool with balls. This is where the lesson itself begins. The kids know: while swimming in the pool, you need to find balls that have tasks or letters attached, from which you will need to assemble a word, and then perform a phonetic analysis of it. The time spent in the pool is no more than 3 - 4 minutes, but believe me, this is enough to relieve muscle fatigue and create a situation of interest. Performance is established at a relatively high level and lasts for 10 – 15 minutes. To lengthen this phase to 20 minutes by the end of the first half of the year, you should alternate activities as often as possible and allow some tasks to be completed both while sitting at a desk and standing. The optimal sustained performance phase is followed by a 5-minute rest period.

First, we relieve tension from the eye muscles. The “Starry Sky” panel turns on. Children watch the smooth twinkling of the stars for 1 - 2 minutes. Or I suggest they do eye exercises. For the first exercise, you need to hang balloons of different colors and sizes over the board.

Exercise No. 1.

Place your elbows on the table, rest your chin on your palms, and keep your neck straight. At the speech therapist’s command, move your gaze from the green ball to the blue one, then to the red one, etc.

Exercise No. 2.

Close your eyes tightly for 2–3 seconds, open them and look out the window. Close your eyes again, stretch your arms forward, open your eyes and look at your fingertips.

You can use eye exercises using a computer; various types of exercises can be found on disks.

At the end we carry out a set of physical training sessions, which consists of 3-5 exercises and includes arm movements, flexion and extension of the fingers, shaking the hands, exercises such as stretching, squats, and jumping. Never use physical education lessons like: the teacher throws a ball to a child and asks a question about the topic being studied. Remember that mental performance has also reached high limits and the nervous system needs rest. Invite the children to complete the following set of physical education exercises:

Physical education lesson No. 1.

We raise our hands to the sky.

We wave to our friend Gleb.

We sprinkle grains for the chickens.

We stroke the cat's back.

Physical education lesson No. 2.

Get up on your toes

And reach for the sky.

Now sit down 5 times

And dance a waltz with your neighbor.

Physical education lesson No. 3.

Hares in a forest clearing

They jumped and frolicked.

Suddenly a fox crept up to them -

They ran away in all directions.

A physical education session can be educational in nature.

Teddy bear cub

I ran away from my mother yesterday.

I wandered through the forest for a long time...

And I got to the lake.

He sees a frog jumping.

A heron stands in the reeds

He twirls his long neck.

A beetle glides across the water surface.

“How can I find my mother?”

After a timely physical education session, performance is maintained for 10-15 minutes, and at the end of the lesson, offer the children a game.

In my practice I also use non-traditional methods of relieving fatigue, namely aromatherapy. Back in 1939, philologist D.I. Shatentein first substantiated and experimentally proved that some olfactory stimuli affect many functions and especially performance. You can reduce the level of fatigue with the help of aromas of lavender and rosemary, lemon and eucalyptus. You can use scented lamps only after consulting a doctor and with parental permission. The speech therapist must know for sure that students studying at the speech center are not allergic to aromatic oils.

Using these methods in the classroom allowed me, and I hope it will help you, dear colleagues, to increase the performance of students and avoid their fatigue.

At scheduling lessons should be considered performance dynamics students during the school day and week. Under efficiency understands a person’s ability to develop maximum energy and, using it sparingly, achieve a goal at high-quality performance of mental and physical work. This is ensured by the optimal state of various physiological systems of the body. at their synchronous, coordinated activities. The functioning of the cerebral cortex, like other functions of the body, is characterized by a daily biological rhythm. Biorhythmic curve of excitability of the cerebral cortex and related performance students is characterized by their increase from the moment of awakening until 11-12 o'clock, and then a decrease to 14-15 o'clock, the second rise performance celebrated from 16 to 18 hours. The performance of students in all grades is characterized by a relatively low level in the first lesson, during which the body “gets used” to the educational process - this is the first phase performance. During this phase, quantitative (amount of work, speed) and qualitative (number of errors, that is, accuracy) performance indicators either synchronously improve or deteriorate before each of them reaches its optimum.

The run-in phase is followed by a high (optimal) phase performance, when relatively high levels of quantitative and qualitative indicators are consistent with each other and change synchronously. Junior schoolchildren have the highest performance noted in the 2nd lesson; in the 3rd and especially in the 4th lessons it decreases. High school and middle school students have increased performance observed in the 2nd and 3rd lessons, in the 4th it decreases, in the 5th, due to the inclusion of compensatory mechanisms, a temporary improvement is observed performance with a sharp drop in the 6th lesson. The tediousness and low effectiveness of the 6th lesson is confirmed by numerous studies. Daily dynamics performance 11th grade students are distinguished by the absence of a period of increased performance in the 5th lesson. So, after the optimal phase performance fatigue begins to develop, which determines the third phase performance. Fatigue manifests itself first in an insignificant and then a sharp decrease in work efficiency. This leap into the fall performance indicates the limit of effective work and is a signal to stop it.

A fall performance at the first stage, it is also expressed in a mismatch between quantitative and qualitative indicators: the amount of work turns out to be high, and the accuracy is low. At the second stage of decline performance Both indicators deteriorate consistently. Dynamics performance students during the week also has its own characteristics. On Monday performance students is relatively low, which is due to working after Sunday. On Tuesday and Wednesday performance the highest, on Thursday it decreases slightly, reaching a minimum on Friday. On Saturday for middle and high school students (except 11th grade) performance increases slightly, which is explained by the emotional upsurge in connection with the upcoming vacation.

33. Fatigue and overwork. Phases of fatigue in the lesson. The role of the teacher in preventing fatigue and overwork.

With active mental work, the brain's need for nutrients increases, oxygen deficiency occurs, which reduces the vital activity of the brain, resulting in fatigue or overwork, manifested by a decrease in perception and performance.

Fatigue is a state of the body caused by work, during which performance is temporarily reduced, body functions change and a subjective feeling of fatigue appears. Decreased performance is not always a symptom of fatigue. For example, unfavorable working conditions (violation of the temperature regime, monotonous noise, insufficient lighting, etc.) can lead to a decrease in performance. Fatigue, subjectively felt as tiredness, appears in every person, as a rule, towards the end of the working day. Subjective symptoms of fatigue are: heaviness in the head and limbs; lethargy, weakness and general weakness; difficulty doing the job.

Characteristic objective signs of fatigue include: weakening of attention to the work being performed and the environment; inability to develop new useful skills and weakening of previously acquired automatic skills; impaired coordination of functions and slowdown in the pace of work performed; disruption of the working rhythm and the occurrence of unnecessary movements. Consequently, fatigue leads to the appearance of protective inhibition in the brain centers, “functional exhaustion” is prevented and the restoration of a person’s working capacity is ensured. However, the severity of fatigue does not always correspond to the degree of fatigue. What is important here is the emotional state of the worker in relation to the work he is performing. If the work is pleasant and has great social significance, then the worker may not experience fatigue for a long time. At the same time, with aimless, unpaid, unpleasant work, fatigue can arise when objective fatigue has not yet set in.

Thus, fatigue is a normal physiological state of the body. Physiological processes leading to fatigue are biologically useful, since they are a stimulator of recovery processes that ensure increased performance during exercise, i.e., having occurred today, it is a prerequisite for increased performance tomorrow. Working with moderate fatigue gives a person a good appetite and promotes a good night's sleep.

Overfatigue is a condition in which even prolonged sleep does not fully restore performance. The work that was previously done easily is now done with difficulty and requires tension.

The mood is gloomy, irritability arises; interest in life decreases, discontent grows. A person often gets into arguments, conflicts, and develops a feeling of general fatigue even before starting work; there is no interest in her. Apathy occurs, appetite decreases, and your head feels dizzy and hurts.

As can be seen from the above, fatigue is a natural physiological reaction of the body to performing any work. However, the goal of physiology is to develop a set of measures that would contribute to the later appearance of pronounced signs of fatigue and ensure long-term work of a person without a significant decrease in performance.

During the learning process, fatigue is caused not only by the work itself, but also by a number of other factors.

Factors that contribute to fatigue in children

The need to hold the pose. The younger the child, the shorter the time during which he is able to maintain a static position (sitting, standing). Alternating different poses during the lesson facilitates the learning process. Even a short-term change in posture allows you to relax individual muscle groups and then tighten them again. Special exercises that strengthen the muscles of the back and limbs and increase their static endurance are useful for children.

Labor actions performed by hand (writing, drawing, sculpting, cutting). They require significant tension in the muscles of the hand and the entire upper limb. Fatigue of the hand quickly leads to general fatigue of the child.

Causes of hand muscle fatigue in children:

1. unfinished processes of ossification of the hand. By the time of admission to school, only partial ossification of 4 of the 8 carpal bones is noted. The process of bone formation in the hand is completely completed by the age of 15-16 years;

2. insufficient development of small worm-shaped muscles of the hand. Modeling from clay and plasticine with a child in preschool age facilitates the process of learning to write and speeds it up;

3. the need to grip a pen or pencil with three fingers. The innate “grasping” reflex is based on grasping an object with the entire hand. The retraining process is one of the most difficult and tedious. In addition, energy is spent on performing flexion and extension movements with the fingers to draw a picture or write a letter;

4. The primary school student’s lack of experience and ability to relax the muscles of the hand when writing and drawing. “Stiffness” of the hand leads to general fatigue and a significant decrease in performance. As a result, the child cannot complete written work on time and efficiently. Short-term physical exercises for the hand are necessary to relax the muscles and speed up work. The total duration of writing during a lesson in first grade should not exceed 7-10 minutes, continuous writing - 3-5 minutes.

Intense work of the nervous and muscular systems when reading. Reading is a more tedious process for elementary school children than for high school students. The rapid fatigue of younger schoolchildren is due to several reasons:

A large number of eye stops on a line to perceive the text. When reading, eye movements occur along the line and from line to line. The text is perceived when the eye stops. The eyes of older schoolchildren stop on the line 4-6 times, younger ones - 10-15 times. As a result, the load on the extraocular muscles increases and fatigue occurs faster;

The inability of a primary school student to immediately comprehend the content of a line of text. The eye is forced to return to the beginning of the line. Reverse eye movements are tiresome. Thus, when reading one page of textbook text, the eye muscles of a primary school student make more than 500 movements.

To prevent eye fatigue, special exercises based on examining close and distant objects, as well as circular movements of the eyeballs with closed eyelids, are important. To prevent general fatigue of schoolchildren in general education lessons, physical education breaks and physical education minutes are necessary.