Psychological and pedagogical aspects of training teachers for the formation and development of cognitive interest of students

In article authors have considered the problem of psychological and pedagogical aspect of training of teachers for formation and development of cognitive interest of pupils, in which a key role is played by the teacher who promotes development of motivation of the teaching and cognitive interests of pupils in the conditions of complete pedagogical process, seeking for improvement of the professional knowledge and abilities. In this regard, authors have specified several ways and methods of development of cognitive interest for successful professional activity in modern conditions. Also in article stages studying and the organizations of educational activity were considered as one of ways of formation of motivation of pupils. Also recommendations about formation and development of cognitive interests of pupils are offered. Development of creative thinking, the speech, flexibility and independence of cogitative activity, the solution of problem situations and the proof of own opinion are the basis of formation of initiative of students. The problem of interest formation in teaching students, as well as a problem of successful implementation of the training, addresses the identity of the teacher. Authors noticed that teacher-enthusiast with due to level of training is capable to create the real big miracle for the students. If it carries out constant search of effective forms of education and upbringing, development of cognitive interests of students, it is in manyways is capable of ensuring the success of the conceived. Such aspiration is expressed in logic of lessons, selection of didactic materials, use of presentation, technical means of training. Studying of experience of many teachers, the programs aimed at the general development of students, for the teacher is an obligatory, necessary component of pedagogical work. Versatile pedagogical activity yields good results in education and upbringing of students. After analyzing, the authors came to the conclusion that development of creative thinking, the speech, flexibility and independence of cogitative activity, the solution of problem situations and the proof of own opinion are the basis of formation of initiative of students. 

Professional pedagogical education as the sphere which is most closely connected with training of the younger generation for life in the conditions of continuous education has to take the responsibility according to the solution of the major problems of realization of current educational trends in development of society. The key figure in this area was and always remains the teacher a competent professional teacher, who possesses all the arsenal of the means of education and upbringing of students, creative personality capable of developing the motivation of the teaching and cognitive interests of students in the conditions of a holistic pedagogical process, striving to improve their professional knowledge and skills [1; 156].

The strategy of improvement of vocational training of future teachers assumes the conscious system organization of management of teaching and educational process.

The identity of the teacher acts as the first element of this system organization. Its position in the attitude towards the student, towards itself changes. The teacher acts not only as the preacher of subject and disciplinary knowledge, the data carrier, the keeper of norms and traditions but also as the assistant to formation and development of the identity of the student respecting this personality regarless of a measure of its familiarizing it with knowledge.

The second component is a change in the function and structure of knowledge that is mastered in the school, as well as ways to organize the process of their assimilation. The process of mastering knowledge ceases to have the character of routine memorization, reproduction. It becomes an instrument of knowledge and is organized in various forms.

The third essential component of the reorganization is a decisive advancement of the social nature of   the student himself and the development of his personality, which is associated with the orientation not only of group forms of learning, of joint activity, of the variety of forms of interaction, interpersonal relations and communication, but also of individual — natural cultivation of identity from the collective subject.

The fourth component  is connected with refusal  of a repressive and overwhelming role  of estimates  [2; 15].

These are only four of many essential aspects of reorganization of management of an educational situation which are presented to us as the most significant for modern school training and can promote development of individual tendencies, interests and informative activity of students.

In our opinion, there is a certain dependence of level of practical possession of knowledge and abilities of the development organization of students' cognitive interest on efficiency of professional and pedagogical training of graduates of pedagogical higher education institutions. The teacher has to provide such development of cognitive interest which would support effective and productive study of each student for all years of his stay in school and would be a basis for its self-training and self-improvement in the future. In this regard the teacher needs to know the main ways and methods of development of cognitive interest for successful professional activity in modern conditions.It is known that dynamism of pedagogical process is reached by interaction of three of its structures: pedagogical (which we just considered), methodical (for its creation the purpose is divided into a number of tasks according to which consecutive stages of activity of the teacher and students are defined) and psychological. Psychological structure, perhaps, the most difficult. It includes: processes of perception, thinking, judgment, storing of information; students' degree of interest manifestation, tendencies, motivation for studying, dynamics of an emotional spirit; rises and recessions of physical and psychological tension, dynamics of activity, working capacity and exhaustion. Thus, in psychological structure of a lesson it is possible to allocate three substructures: 1) informative processes; 2) motivation for studying; 3) tension. The teacher needs to have a clear view of theoretical bases of training and already on this theoretical basis to build his own pedagogical practice. Knowledge of pedagogical and methodical structure of a lesson allows to build occupation competently and methodically reasonably, and the psychological structure gives the chance to consider age and individual characteristics of students and to make training available and fascinating [3].

We note that influence of cognitive interest on formation of the personality is provided with a number  of conditions:

• level of development of interest (its force, depth, stability);
• character (multilateral, wide interests, local-core or multilateral interests with allocation of core);
• the place of cognitive interest among other motives and their interaction;
• an interest originality in informative process (a theoretical orientation or aspiration to use of knowledge of applied character);
• communication with vital plans and

The specified conditions provide force and depth of influence of cognitive interest on the identity of the university student.

Due to individualization of teaching and educational process when designing lessons the teacher needs to analyze quality of the created conditions, their influence on educational results of students. At the same time it is necessary to take psychological features of training of university students into consideration. The teacher has to know that information is perceived by means of sense organs of students, their feelings and perception and only then — an identification, memorization, establishment of associations, comprehension. Absolutely necessary, though insufficient condition for the information to be perceived, is the arrival to those sense organs which are enough intensive, accurate corresponding to characteristics of sense organs that human perception has. Unfortunately, teachers do not always remember it, neglecting control of loudness of the voice and diction, without using (or using less) visual aids. The combined influence of visual and audioinformation gives the best results (in fact, the principle of presentation, «the golden rule of didactics» is based on it).

Modern psychologycal and pedagogical researches showed that the person remembers 15 % of information obtained by him in a speech form and 25 % — in visual. If both of these ways are used at the same time, he can apprehend up to 65 % of the contents of this information [4; 285].

Through visual system perception is conducted at three levels: feeling, perception and representation, and through acoustical — at one level, representation. It means that when reading information is perceived better, than aurally. 20 % of the arriving auditory information can be lost as thoughts flow at 8-10 times quicker, than the speech, there are distracting factors (reaction to external irritants). Besides, every 5-10 seconds the brain «is disconnected» on fractions of a second from reception of information. For this reason repetition of the same information in the different ways and by lexical means is required.The type of cogitative activity is important for perception of information. According to neuropsychologists, 48 % of people think in the logical way and 52 % — figurative. 24 % of logically conceiving people pass to figurative thinking and 26 % which are figuratively conceiving — to logical thinking. Most of psychologists consider that preservation of this or that material in memory of the person is closely connected with the nature of perception of the world, with thinking type. Conditionally logically conceiving people can be divided into two categories: one think theoretically, others — empirically. Accurately the nature of thinking of the person is shown in how his logical memory holds material. Experiments showed that «theorists» best of all remember abstract material, it remains even in twenty months. It is interesting that when examinees were asked leading questions, «theorists» even after so big break reproduced almost full volume of the text. «Practicians» in memory had only concrete facts and their descriptions. The text even if it was reproduced, it was sketchy. After leading questions «practicians» manage to restore much smaller volume of the text, than to «theorists». Such experiments show noticeable advantage of theoretical type of thinking. Psychologists consider that  such thinking should be developed when teaching schoolchildren [5, 6, 7; 67].

The modern didactics recognizes that both sides — teaching and studying — make uniform process of training. The training purposes in different modern approaches to the organization of teaching process provide not only formation of knowledge, but also the general development of students, their intellectual, creative abilities, satisfaction of informative and spiritual needs of pupils. The teacher directs educational cognitive activity of pupils, at the same time stimulating their independent work, activity and creative search. Pedagogical cooperation is a humanistic idea of the joint developing activity of students and teachers on the basis of mutual understanding, penetration into inner world of each other, the collective analysis of the course and results of this activity. Lessons of cooperation, coauthorship is a lengthy process of reorganization of trainees' thinking from the scheme «I heard — I remembered — I retold» to the scheme «I learned (by search together with the teacher and groupmates) — I comprehended — I told — I remembered» [8, 9, 10; 112].

Thus, the problem of interest formation in teaching students, as well as a problem of successful implementation of the training, addresses the identity of the teacher. The teacher-enthusiast with due to level of training is capable to create the real big miracle for the students. If it carries out constant search of effective forms of education and upbringing, development of cognitive interests of students, it is in manyways is capable of ensuring the success of the conceived. Such aspiration is expressed in logic of lessons, selection of didactic materials, use of presentation, technical means of training. Studying of experience of many teachers, the programs aimed at the general development of students, for the teacher is an obligatory, necessary component of pedagogical work. Versatile pedagogical activity yields good results in education and upbringing  of students. Development of creative thinking, the speech, flexibility and independence of cogitative activity, the solution of problem situations and the proof of own opinion are the basis of formation of initiative of students. Active introduction to educational process of the various developing occupations aimed at the development of personal and motivational, analytico-synthetic spheres of students, memories, attention, spatial imagination and some other important functions are the most important tasks of teachers. Teachers can actively introduce non-standard forms of carrying out studies: the correspondence travel and excursions, drawing up fairy tales, creation of self-made books and textbooks, the dramatized representations and competitions, collective and group researches, panoramas, reviews, various educational and informative games, etc.  It means, a lot of things depend on the teacher, and he has to be trained for that to turn these a lot of things  for the good of the students and to turn the lessons ordinary into the bright reality capable to learn, to bring  up and develop.

Due with the above, let us consider the next important stage: the study of the organization of  educational activity as one of the ways to form the motivation of students. It is known that the content of the educational material is assimilated by the students in the process of educational activity. From what this activity is, from what training activities it consists, how these parts relate to one another, ie, how they relate  to each other. What is the structure of educational activity from all this, the result of  learning,  its developing and nurturing role, largely depends. The ratio of students to their own activities is determined to a large extent by the way the teacher organizes educational activities, what are its structure and character.

The study and analysis of this issue led us to the conclusion that in order to develop an interested attitude towards the activity of the learner, the teacher must organize the educational process in a special way. The study of each section or topic of the curriculum should consist of three main stages: motivational, operational-cognitive and reflexive-evaluative. Let us consider the content of these stages and their role in the formation of motivation for learning activity.

Motivational stage. At this stage, students need to understand why and wherefore they need to study   this section of the program, what exactly they need to do to successfully complete the basic teaching task.  For this, the motivational stage should consist of certain training activities. Firstly, it is the creation of an educational and problem situation that introduces students to the subject of studying the forthcoming topic and can be created by the teacher in different ways: a) setting before the students a task whose solution is possible only on the basis of studying a new topic; B) a conversation (story) about the theoretical and practical significance of the topic (section) proposed for study; C) the teacher's information on how the problem was solved in the history of science. Secondly, the formulation of the main teaching task, which should be cited by the teacher as a result of the discussion of the problem situation. This can happen, for example, in this form: «... Thus, we must study the» golden rule of mechanics, «which is.» The educational task should show the students the landmark to which they should direct their activities in the process of studying this topic. «There cannot be any activity without the existence of a goal and a task that starting this process, giving   it direction», wrote V.K Dyachenko. Therefore, an important condition for the organization of educational activities is to bring students to an independent formulation and acceptance of educational tasks. Thirdly, self-monitoring and self-assessment of the possibilities of the forthcoming activity to study the topic of the lesson [11].

After the main learning task has understood and accepted by the students, they plan and discuss the plan of the forthcoming work. The teacher sets the time allowed for the study of the topic, the approximate completion time. This creates a clear perspective for students. Then the teacher tells you what you need to know and be able to study the topic. The discussion ends with the fact that students give self-assessment to their opportunities to study the topic, determine what material should be repeated and what else needs to be done to prepare for the upcoming lessons. This stage of the study of the topic is important for motivating students' learning activities.

Operational-cognitive stage. At this stage, students learn the content of the topic and master the learning activities and operations that must correspond to this content. The stage in the  formation of the motivation for learning activity depends primarily on whether the student will understand the need for the whole content of the topic and its individual parts, for all educational activities and operations to solve the basic educational task posed at the motivational stage, whether they are aware of the natural connection between all private learning tasks and basic. With this structure of students' learning activities, the main content of the operational-cognitive stage is the modeling of objects and phenomena, the study of constructed models in which the activity of students acquires a theoretical, research character. Thus, students are, as it were, introduced into the laboratory of the thought of the corresponding sciences, acquire the experience of genuinely creative educational and cognitive activity. This becomes a powerful tool that facilitates the formation of motivation for students' learning activities.

Reflexive-evaluation stage. This stage is final in the process of studying the topic, when students learn to reflect (analyze) their own learning activity, evaluate it, comparing the results with basic and private learning tasks. The qualitative holding of this stage is of great importance in the formation of motivation for learning activities. The work on summarizing the study of the passed section should be organized so that students can experience a feeling of emotional satisfaction from what has been done, the joy of triumph over overcome difficulties, the happiness of learning new, interesting. This will create an orientation to the experience of such feelings in the future, which will lead to the emergence of needs for creativity, persistent self-study, To the emergence of a positive sustainable motivation for learning

For example, you can use tasks like: «Make a diagram (model) of the material covered, which reflects the basic concepts has studied in the topic has covered and the links between them». This task students can perform in groups of 3-5 people.

Useful task will such as: «Make a questions and problems, in which you can check the level of assimilation of the studied topics».

In order to form students' ability to evaluate their work, one can give them tasks of this type: «Write a list of the main issues studied by us in this topic, and next note how you have learned this question: well, or not very well, or not at all have learned. On the other sheet, list the skills that you should have acquired while studying the topic, indicate how you learned these skills: well, little or not at all». This is useful for developing an adequate self-assessment of training activities, to find out the reasons for the gaps that exist and to encourage students to eliminate these gaps. At the same time, it is important that monitoring and evaluation not only establish the actual position of knowledge and skills of each student, but also be used to motivate him to work further, to create prospects for this work.

In the individual work of the teacher with students, should be two interrelated tasks set:

• identification of interests and inclinations of specific students;
• purposeful impact on their strengthening, developing and 

The solution of these problems can proceed both sequentially and simultaneously. Studying of cognitive interests and inclinations at students it is desirable to carry out taking into account following recommendations:

1. to conduct a questionnaire, a survey, a conversation (to offer approximate questions);
2. get acquainted with the circle of reading students, analyze it;
3. to identify the interests and inclinations of students in the process of preparing various activities, to enable each student to express himself in a certain type of activity, organize reviews-competitions;
4. the data of questionnaires, essays, conversations and other forms of studying the interests and inclinations of the students to analyze, compare with each other; to make brief characteristics for each student, providing in them: individual conditions for the development of the student, sources of interest and its content – character, persistence, depth; characterization is supplemented by facts, concrete material of observations in the process of educational and other activities;
5. form cognitive interest in all areas – in the process of teaching, extracurricular work, individual work with students [11; 256].

In addition, in education and upbringing, the teacher's main attention should be paid to the gradual complication and increase in the diversity of independent work of students in order to improve their cognitive skills and abilities. For this it is recommended: to talk on questions of interest to students; Encourage students to ask questions from their area of interest; Recommend books in order to deepen the knowledge of students in the area of interest; Help to put experiments; to motivate teenagers to creative work,, to be interested in their successes in the chosen field, etc.

Thus, the formation of motives of cognitive interest, as a form of manifestation of cognitive needs, determines the direction of the learner's personality to realize the goals of activity and thereby facilitates familiarization with new facts, cognition of phenomena and objects of the surrounding world, mastering the methods of cognition. The proposed recommendations on the formation and development of cognitive interests of students can serve as a guide for teachers and can used in full or in part in their professional activities. 

References

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