home / Self-development/ Features of the development of imagination of younger schoolchildren briefly. Course work development of creative imagination in children of primary school age

Features of the development of the imagination of younger schoolchildren briefly. Course work development of creative imagination in children of primary school age

The first images of a child’s imagination are associated with the processes of perception and his play activities. A one and a half year old child is not yet interested in listening to stories (fairy tales) of adults, since he still does not have the experience that gives rise to the processes of perception. At the same time, you can observe how, in the imagination of a playing child, a suitcase, for example, turns into a train, a silent doll, indifferent to everything that happens, into a crying little person offended by someone, a pillow into an affectionate friend. During the period of speech formation, the child uses his imagination even more actively in his games, because his life observations expand sharply. However, all this happens as if by itself, unintentionally.

From 3 to 5 years, arbitrary forms of imagination “grow up”. Images of imagination can appear either as a reaction to an external stimulus (for example, at the request of others), or initiated by the child himself, while imaginary situations are often purposeful in nature, with an ultimate goal and a pre-thought-out scenario.

The school period is characterized by rapid development of imagination, due to the intensive process of acquiring diverse knowledge and its use in practice.

Individual characteristics of imagination are clearly manifested in the creative process. In this sphere of human activity, imagination about significance is placed on a par with thinking. It is important that for the development of imagination it is necessary to create conditions for a person in which freedom of action, independence, initiative, and looseness are manifested.

It has been proven that imagination is closely connected with other mental processes (memory, thinking, attention, perception) that serve educational activities. Thus, without paying enough attention to the development of imagination, primary teachers reduce the quality level of education.

In general, younger schoolchildren usually do not have any problems associated with the development of children's imagination, so almost all children who play a lot and variedly in preschool childhood have a well-developed and rich imagination. The main questions that in this area may still arise before the child and the teacher at the beginning of education concern the connection between imagination and attention, the ability to regulate figurative representations through voluntary attention, as well as the assimilation of abstract concepts that a child, like an adult, can imagine and imagine. hard enough.

At primary school age, in addition, the active development of the recreating imagination occurs.

In children of primary school age, several types of imagination are distinguished. It can be reconstructive (creating an image of an object according to its description) and creative (creating new images that require the selection of material in accordance with the plan).

The question of the realism of children's imagination is connected with the question of the relationship of the images that arise in children to reality. The realism of a child’s imagination is manifested in all forms of activity available to him: in play, in visual activities, when listening to fairy tales, etc. In play, for example, a child’s demands for verisimilitude in a play situation increase with age.

The obligatory and main character of the game for schoolchildren in grades 1-2 is a doll. You can perform any necessary “real” actions with it. You can feed her, dress her, you can express your feelings to her. It’s even better to use a live kitten for this purpose, since you can really feed it, put it to bed, etc.

Amendments to the situation and images made by children of primary school age during the game give the game and the images themselves imaginary features that bring them closer and closer to reality.

Realism of the imagination involves the creation of images that do not contradict reality, but are not necessarily a direct reproduction of everything perceived in life.

The imagination of a primary school student is also characterized by another feature: the presence of elements of reproductive, simple reproduction. This feature of children's imagination is expressed in the fact that in their games, for example, they repeat those actions and positions that they observed in adults, they act out stories that they experienced, that they saw in the movies, reproducing without changes the life of school, family, etc. The theme of the game is the reproduction of impressions that took place in the lives of children; The storyline of the game is a reproduction of what was seen, experienced and necessarily in the same sequence in which it took place in life.

However, with age, the elements of reproductive, simple reproduction in the imagination of a younger schoolchild become less and less, and creative processing of ideas appears to an increasing extent.

V.S. Mukhina notes that at primary school age a child can already create a wide variety of situations in his imagination. Formed in playful substitutions of some objects for others, imagination moves into other types of activity.

At primary school age, for the first time, a division of play and labor occurs, that is, activities carried out for the sake of pleasure that the child will receive in the process of the activity itself and activities aimed at achieving an objectively significant and socially assessed result. This distinction between play and work, including educational work, is an important feature of school age.

The importance of imagination in primary school age is the highest and necessary human ability. At the same time, it is this ability that needs special care in terms of development. And it develops especially intensively between the ages of 5 and 15 years. And if this period of imagination is not specifically developed, then a rapid decrease in the activity of this function occurs.

Along with a decrease in a person’s ability to fantasize, the personality becomes impoverished, the possibilities of creative thinking decrease, interest in art, science, and so on fades away.

However, fantasy, like any form of mental reflection, must have a positive direction of development. It should contribute to better knowledge of the surrounding world, self-discovery and self-improvement of the individual, and not develop into passive daydreaming, replacing real life with dreams. To accomplish this task, it is necessary to help the child use his imagination in the direction of progressive self-development, to enhance the cognitive activity of schoolchildren, in particular the development of theoretical, abstract thinking, attention, speech and creativity in general. Children of primary school age love to engage in artistic creativity. It allows the child to reveal his personality in the most complete and free form. All artistic activity is based on active imagination and creative thinking. These functions provide the child with a new, unusual view of the world.

Thus, one cannot but agree with the conclusions of psychologists and researchers that imagination is one of the most important mental processes and the success of mastering the school curriculum largely depends on the level of its development, especially in children of primary school age.

Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Non-state educational institution of higher professional education

Novosibirsk Humanitarian Institute

Department of Practical Psychology

Course work

by discipline

Research methods in psychology

Completed by a 2nd year student PZ - 11

Ivanova Svetlana Vladimirovna

I checked

Gulyaeva Kapitolina Yurievna

Novosibirsk 2009

Introduction. 3

Chapter 1. Imagination and creative abilities of the individual. 5

1.1 The concept of imagination. 5

1.2 The concept of creativity. 10

1.3 Methods for studying imagination and creativity. 15

Chapter 2. Features of the creative abilities and imagination of younger schoolchildren. 19

2.1 Mental characteristics of children of primary school age. 19

2.2 Imagination and creative abilities of younger schoolchildren. 23

Chapter 3. Experimental study of the characteristics of creative abilities and imagination of primary schoolchildren. 31

3.1 Organization, methods and techniques of research. 31

3.2 Analysis and discussion of the research results. 34

References.. 48

Application. 50

Introduction

The relevance of this course work lies in the fact that research on the problem of studying the characteristics of the development of creative abilities, in particular imagination, in children of primary school age lies in the fact that in modern sociocultural conditions, when there is a process of continuous reform, a fundamental change in all social institutions, skills thinking outside the box, creatively solving assigned problems, and designing the expected end result acquire special significance.

A creatively thinking person is able to solve the tasks assigned to him faster and more economically, overcome difficulties more effectively, set new goals, provide himself with greater freedom of choice and action, that is, ultimately, organize his activities most effectively in solving the problems set before him by society. It is a creative approach to business that is one of the conditions for nurturing an active life position of an individual.

The prerequisites for further creative development and personal self-development are laid in childhood. In this regard, increased demands are placed on the initial stages of development of a child’s personality, especially the primary school stage, which largely determines its further development.

Problems of creativity have been widely developed in Russian psychology. Currently, researchers are searching for an integral indicator that characterizes a creative personality. Psychologists such as B.M. made a great contribution to the development of problems of abilities and creative thinking. Teplov, S.L. Rubinstein, B.G. Ananyev, N.S. Leites, V.A. Krutetsky, A.G. Kovalev, K.K. Platonov, A.M. Matyushkin, V.D. Shadrikov, Yu.D. Babaeva, V.N. Druzhinin, I.I. Ilyasov, V.I. Panov, I.V. Kalish, M.A. Kholodnaya, N.B. Shumakova, V.S. Yurkevich and others.

An object research - imagination and creative abilities of the individual.

Item research - features of the imagination and creative abilities of children of primary school age.

Target research - to identify the characteristics of the imagination and creative abilities of children of primary school age.

Hypothesis: We assume that primary school students have specific characteristics of imagination and creative abilities compared to preschool children.

Tasks:

Conduct an analytical review of the literature on the research topic,

Expand the concept of imagination and creativity,

To study, on the basis of psychological and pedagogical literature, the main patterns in the development of imagination and creative abilities of primary schoolchildren,

Conduct an experimental study of the development of imagination and creative abilities of primary schoolchildren,

Analyze the diagnostic results obtained and draw conclusions.

Research methods: observation, conversation, experiment, analysis of the products of activity (creativity).

Research base. School No. 15 of Novosibirsk (Leninsky district, Nemirovich-Danchenko St., 20/2), 3rd grade students in the amount of 15 people; Preschool educational institution No. 136 in Novosibirsk (Leninsky district, Titova str., 24), pupils of the senior group in the amount of 15 people.

Chapter 1. Imagination and creative abilities of the individual

1.1 The concept of imagination

The experimental study of imagination has become a subject of interest for Western psychologists since the 50s. The function of imagination - constructing and creating images - has been recognized as the most important human ability. Its role in the creative process was equated with the role of knowledge and judgment. In the 50s, J. Guilford and his followers developed the theory of creative intelligence.

Defining imagination and identifying the specifics of its development is one of the most difficult problems in psychology. According to A.Ya. Dudetsky (1974), there are about 40 different definitions of imagination, but the question of its essence and difference from other mental processes is still debatable. So, A.V. Brushlinsky (1969) rightly notes the difficulties in defining imagination and the vagueness of the boundaries of this concept. He believes that “Traditional definitions of imagination as the ability to create new images actually reduce this process to creative thinking, to operating with ideas, and conclude that this concept is generally redundant - at least in modern science.”

S.L. Rubinstein emphasized: “Imagination is a special form of the psyche that only a person can have. It is continuously connected with the human ability to change the world, transform reality and create new things.”

Possessing a rich imagination, a person can live in different times, which no other living creature in the world can afford. The past is recorded in memory images, and the future is represented in dreams and fantasies. S.L. Rubinstein writes: “Imagination is a departure from past experience, it is the transformation of what is given and the generation of new images on this basis.”

L.S. Vygotsky believes that “Imagination does not repeat impressions that were accumulated before, but builds some new series of previously accumulated impressions. Thus, introducing something new into our impressions and changing these impressions so that as a result a new, previously non-existent image appears , forms the basis of that activity which we call imagination."

Imagination is a special form of the human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory. The specificity of this form of mental process is that imagination is probably characteristic only of humans and is strangely connected with the activities of the body, being at the same time the most “mental” of all mental processes and states.

In the textbook "General Psychology" A.G. Maklakov provides the following definition of imagination: “Imagination is the process of transforming ideas that reflect reality, and creating new ideas on this basis.

In the textbook "General Psychology" V.M. Kozubovsky contains the following definition. Imagination is the mental process of a person creating in his mind an image of an object (object, phenomenon) that does not exist in real life. The product of imagination can be:

The image of the final result of real objective activity;

a picture of one’s own behavior in conditions of complete information uncertainty;

an image of a situation that resolves problems that are relevant to a given person, the real overcoming of which is not possible in the near future.

Imagination is included in the cognitive activity of the subject, which necessarily has its own object. A.N. Leontyev wrote that “The object of activity appears in two ways: primarily - in its independent existence, as subordinating and transforming the activity of the subject, secondly - as an image of the object, as a product of the mental reflection of its properties, which is realized as a result of the activity of the subject and cannot be realized otherwise.” . .

The identification of certain properties in an object that are necessary for solving a problem determines such a characteristic of the image as its bias, i.e. the dependence of perception, ideas, thinking on what a person needs - on his needs, motives, attitudes, emotions. “It is very important to emphasize that such “bias” is itself objectively determined and is not expressed in the adequacy of the image (although it can be expressed in it), but that it allows one to actively penetrate into reality.”

The combination in the imagination of the subject contents of the images of two objects is associated, as a rule, with a change in the forms of representation of reality. Starting from the properties of reality, the imagination cognizes them, reveals their essential characteristics by transferring them to other objects, which record the work of the productive imagination. This is expressed in metaphor and symbolism that characterize the imagination.

According to E.V. Ilyenkova, “The essence of imagination lies in the ability to “grasp” the whole before the part, in the ability to build a complete image on the basis of a separate hint.” “A distinctive feature of the imagination is a kind of departure from reality, when a new image is built on the basis of a separate sign of reality, and not simply reconstructed existing ideas, which is characteristic of the functioning of the internal plan of action.”

Imagination is a necessary element of human creative activity, which is expressed in the construction of an image of the products of labor, and ensures the creation of a program of behavior in cases where the problem situation is also characterized by uncertainty. Depending on the various circumstances that characterize a problem situation, the same problem can be solved both with the help of imagination and with the help of thinking.

From this we can conclude that the imagination works at that stage of cognition when the uncertainty of the situation is very great. Fantasy allows you to “jump” over certain stages of thinking and still imagine the end result.

So, imagination in psychology is considered as one of the forms of reflective activity of consciousness. Since all cognitive processes are reflective in nature, it is necessary, first of all, to determine the qualitative originality and specificity inherent in the imagination.

Imagination and thinking are intertwined in such a way that it can be difficult to separate them; both of these processes are involved in any creative activity; creativity is always subordinated to the creation of something new, unknown. Operating with existing knowledge in the process of fantasy presupposes its mandatory inclusion in systems of new relationships, as a result of which new knowledge can arise. From here we can see: “... the circle closes... Cognition (thinking) stimulates the imagination (creating a model of transformation), which (the model) is then checked and refined by thinking" - writes A.D. Dudetsky.

According to L.D. Stolyarenko, several types of imagination can be distinguished, the main ones being passive and active. Passive, in turn, is divided into voluntary (daydreaming, daydreaming) and involuntary (hypnotic state, fantasy in dreams). Active imagination includes artistic, creative, critical, recreative and anticipatory.

Imagination can be of four main types:

Active imagination is characterized by the fact that, using it, a person, of his own free will, by an effort of will, evokes in himself the appropriate images.

Active imagination is a sign of a creative type of personality, which constantly tests its internal capabilities, its knowledge is not static, but is continuously recombined, leading to new results, giving the individual emotional reinforcement for new searches, the creation of new material and spiritual values. Her mental activity is supraconscious and intuitive.

Passive imagination lies in the fact that its images arise spontaneously, regardless of the will and desire of a person. Passive imagination can be unintentional or intentional. Unintentional passive imagination occurs with weakening of consciousness, psychosis, disorganization of mental activity, in a semi-drowsy and sleepy state. With deliberate passive imagination, a person arbitrarily forms images of escape from reality-dreams.

The unreal world created by a person is an attempt to replace unfulfilled hopes, make up for bereavements, and alleviate mental trauma. This type of imagination indicates a deep intrapersonal conflict.

There is also a distinction between reproductive, or reproductive, and transformative, or productive, imagination.

Reproductive imagination aims to reproduce reality as it is, and although there is also an element of fantasy, such imagination is more like perception or memory than creativity. Thus, the direction in art called naturalism, as well as partly realism, can be correlated with the reproductive imagination.

Productive imagination is distinguished by the fact that in it reality is consciously constructed by a person, and not simply mechanically copied or recreated, although at the same time it is still creatively transformed in the image.

Imagination has a subjective side associated with the individual personal characteristics of a person (in particular, with his dominant cerebral hemisphere, type of nervous system, characteristics of thinking, etc.). In this regard, people differ in:

brightness of images (from the phenomena of a clear “vision” of images to the poverty of ideas);

by the depth of processing of images of reality in the imagination (from complete unrecognizability of the imaginary image to primitive differences from the real original);

by the type of dominant channel of imagination (for example, by the predominance of auditory or visual images of the imagination).

1.2 The concept of creativity

Creative abilities are the highest mental function and reflect reality. However, with the help of these abilities, a mental departure beyond the limits of what is perceived is carried out. With the help of creative abilities, an image of an object that has never existed or does not currently exist is formed. In preschool age, the foundations of a child’s creative activity are laid, which are manifested in the development of the ability to conceive and implement it, the ability to combine one’s knowledge and ideas, and the sincere transmission of one’s feelings.

Currently, there are many approaches to the definition of creativity, as well as concepts related to this definition: creativity, non-standard thinking, productive thinking, creative act, creative activity, creative abilities and others (V.M. Bekhterev, N.A. Vetlugina, V. N. Druzhinin, Ya. A. Ponomarev, A. Rebera, etc.).

Many scientific works widely present the psychological aspects of creativity, in which thinking is involved (D.B. Bogoyavlenskaya, P.Ya. Galperin, V.V. Davydov, A.V. Zaporozhets, L.V. Zankov, Ya.A. Ponomarev , S.L. Rubinstein) and creative imagination as a result of mental activity, providing a new education (image), implemented in different types of activities (A.V. Brushlinsky, L.S. Vygotsky, O.M. Dyachenko, A.Ya. Dudetsky, A.N. Leontiev, N.V. Rozhdestvenskaya, F.I. Fradkina, D.B. Elkonin, R. Arnheim, K. Koffka, M. Wergheimer).

"Ability" is one of the most general psychological concepts. In Russian psychology, many authors gave it detailed definitions.

In particular, S.L. Rubinstein understood abilities as “... a complex synthetic formation that includes a whole range of data, without which a person would not be capable of any specific activity, properties that are developed only in the process of a certain way of organized activity.” Statements similar in content can be gleaned from other authors.

Abilities are a dynamic concept. They are formed, developed and manifested in activity.

B.M. Teplov proposed three essentially empirical signs of abilities, which formed the basis for the definition most often used by specialists:

1) abilities are individual psychological characteristics that distinguish one person from another;

only those features that are relevant to the success of performing an activity or several activities;

abilities are not reducible to knowledge, skills and abilities that have already been developed in a person, although they determine the ease and speed of acquiring this knowledge and skills.

Naturally, the success of an activity is determined by both motivation and personal characteristics, which prompted K.K. Platonov classifies as abilities any mental properties that, to one degree or another, determine success in a specific activity. However, B.M. Teplov goes further and points out that, in addition to success in an activity, ability determines the speed and ease of mastering an activity, and this changes the situation with the definition: the speed of learning may depend on motivation, but the feeling of ease when learning (otherwise - “subjective price”, experience of difficulty), rather, is inversely proportional to motivational tension.

So, the more developed a person’s ability, the more successfully he performs an activity, the faster he masters it, and the process of mastering an activity and the activity itself are subjectively easier for him than learning or working in an area in which he does not have the ability. A problem arises: what kind of mental essence is this ability? Mere indication of its behavioral and subjective manifestations (and B.M. Teplov’s definition is essentially behavioral) is not enough.

In its most general form, the definition of creative ability is as follows. V.N. Druzhinin defines creative abilities as individual characteristics of a person’s qualities, which determine the success of his performance of creative activities of various kinds.

Creativity is a fusion of many qualities. And the question about the components of human creative potential remains open, although at the moment there are several hypotheses regarding this problem. Many psychologists associate the ability for creative activity, first of all, with the characteristics of thinking. In particular, the famous American psychologist Guilford, who dealt with the problems of human intelligence, found that creative individuals are characterized by so-called divergent thinking.

People with this type of thinking, when solving a problem, do not concentrate all their efforts on finding the only correct solution, but begin to look for solutions in all possible directions in order to consider as many options as possible. Such people tend to form new combinations of elements that most people know and use only in a certain way, or to form connections between two elements that at first glance have nothing in common. The divergent way of thinking underlies creative thinking, which is characterized by the following main features:

1. Speed - the ability to express the maximum number of ideas; in this case, it is not their quality that is important, but their quantity).

2. Flexibility - the ability to express a wide variety of ideas.

3. Originality - the ability to generate new non-standard ideas; this can manifest itself in answers and solutions that do not coincide with generally accepted ones.

4. Completeness - the ability to improve your “product” or give it a finished look.

Well-known domestic researcher of the problem of creativity A.N. Onion, based on the biographies of outstanding scientists, inventors, artists and musicians, identifies the following creative abilities:

1. The ability to see a problem where others do not see it.

The ability to collapse mental operations, replacing several concepts with one and using increasingly information-capacious symbols.

The ability to apply skills acquired in solving one problem to solving another.

The ability to perceive reality as a whole, without splitting it into parts.

The ability to easily associate distant concepts.

The ability of memory to produce the right information at the right time.

Flexibility of thinking.

The ability to choose one of the alternatives to solve a problem before testing it.

The ability to incorporate newly perceived information into existing knowledge systems.

The ability to see things as they are, to isolate what is observed from what is introduced by interpretation.

Ease of generating ideas.

Creative imagination.

The ability to refine details to improve the original concept.

Candidates of psychological sciences V.T. Kudryavtsev and V. Sinelnikov, based on broad historical and cultural material (history of philosophy, social sciences, art, individual areas of practice), identified the following universal creative abilities that have developed in the process of human history.

1. Realism of the imagination - figurative grasp of some essential, general tendency or pattern of development of an integral object, before a person has a clear concept about it and can fit it into a system of strict logical categories.

2. The ability to see the whole before the parts.

Trans-situational - the transformative nature of creative solutions and the ability, when solving a problem, not just to choose from externally imposed alternatives, but to independently create an alternative.

Experimentation is the ability to consciously and purposefully create conditions in which objects most clearly reveal their hidden essence in ordinary situations, as well as the ability to trace and analyze the features of the “behavior” of objects in these conditions.

1.3 Methods for studying imagination and creativity

To more accurately determine the level of development of students’ creative abilities, it is necessary to analyze and evaluate each creative task completed independently.

S.Yu. Lazareva recommends that pedagogical assessment of the results of students’ creative activity be carried out using the “Fantasy” scale developed by G.S. Altshuller to assess the presence of fantastic ideas and thus allowing one to assess the level of imagination (the scale was adapted to the primary school question by M.S. Gafitulin,

T.A. Sidorchuk).

The “Fantasy” scale includes five indicators: novelty (assessed on a 4-level scale: copying an object (situation, phenomenon), minor change in the prototype, obtaining a fundamentally new object (situation, phenomenon)); persuasiveness (a well-founded idea described by a child with sufficient reliability is considered convincing).

Data from scientific works indicate that research conducted in real life is legitimate if it is aimed at improving the educational environment in which the child is formed, promoting social practice, and creating pedagogical conditions conducive to the development of creativity in the child.

1. Methodology "Verbal fantasy" (verbal imagination). The child is asked to come up with a story (story, fairy tale) about any living creature (person, animal) or something else of the child’s choice and present it orally within 5 minutes. Up to one minute is allotted to come up with a theme or plot for a story (story, fairy tale), and after that the child begins the story.

During the story, the child’s imagination is assessed according to the following criteria:

speed of imagination processes;

unusualness, originality of imagination;

wealth of imagination;

depth and elaboration (detail) of images; - impressionability, emotionality of images.

For each of these features, the story is scored from 0 to 2 points. 0 points are given when this feature is practically absent in the story. A story receives 1 point if this feature is present, but is expressed relatively weakly. A story earns 2 points when when the corresponding sign is not only present, but also expressed quite strongly.

If within one minute the child has not come up with a plot for the story, then the experimenter himself suggests some plot to him and 0 points are given for the speed of imagination. If the child himself came up with the plot of the story by the end of the allotted time (1 minute), then according to the speed of imagination he receives a score of 1 point. Finally, if the child managed to come up with the plot of the story very quickly, within the first 30 seconds, or if within one minute he came up with not one, but at least two different plots, then the child is given 2 points for the “speed of imagination processes.”

The unusualness and originality of imagination is assessed in the following way.

If a child simply retold what he once heard from someone or saw somewhere, then he receives 0 points for this criterion. If a child retells what is known, but at the same time brings something new into it, then the originality of his imagination is assessed at 1 point. If a child comes up with something that he could not see or hear somewhere before, then the originality of his imagination receives a score of 2 points. The richness of a child’s imagination is also manifested in the variety of images he uses. When assessing this quality of imagination processes, the total number of different living beings, objects, situations and actions, various characteristics and signs attributed to all of this in the child’s story is recorded. If the total number named exceeds ten, then the child receives 2 points for the richness of imagination. If the total number of parts of the specified type is in the range from 6 to 9, then the child receives 1 point. If there are few signs in the story, but in general there are at least five, then the richness of the child’s imagination is assessed as 0 points.

The depth and elaboration of images is determined by how diverse the story is in presenting details and characteristics related to the image that plays a key role or occupies a central place in the story. Grades are also given here in a three-point system.

The child receives points when the central object of the story is depicted very schematically.

point - if, when describing the central object, its detail is moderate.

point - if the main image of his story is described in sufficient detail, with many different details characterizing it.

The impressionability or emotionality of imaginary images is assessed by whether it arouses interest and emotion in the listener.

About points - the images are uninteresting, banal, and do not make an impression on the listener.

score - the images of the story arouse some interest on the part of the listener and some emotional response, but this interest, along with the corresponding reaction, soon fades away.

points - the child used bright, very interesting images, the listener’s attention to which, once aroused, did not fade away, accompanied by emotional reactions such as surprise, admiration, fear, etc.

Thus, the maximum number of points that a child can receive for his imagination in this technique is 10, and the minimum is 0.

Chapter 2. Features of creative abilities and imagination of younger schoolchildren

2.1 Mental characteristics of children of primary school age

Junior school age (from 6-7 to 9-10 years) is determined by an important external circumstance in the child’s life - entering school.

A child who enters school automatically takes a completely new place in the system of human relations: he has permanent responsibilities associated with educational activities. Close adults, a teacher, even strangers communicate with the child not only as a unique person, but also as a person who has taken upon himself the obligation (whether voluntarily or under compulsion) to study, like all children of his age. The new social situation of development introduces the child into a strictly standardized world of relationships and requires from him organized arbitrariness, responsible for discipline, for the development of performing actions associated with acquiring skills in educational activities, as well as for mental development. Thus, the new social situation of schooling tightens the child’s living conditions and acts as a stressful one for him. Every child who enters school experiences increased mental tension. This affects not only physical health, but also the child’s behavior [Davydov 13., 1973].

Before school, the child’s individual characteristics could not interfere with his natural development, since these characteristics were accepted and taken into account by loved ones. At school, the child's living conditions are standardized. The child will have to overcome the trials that have befallen him. In most cases, the child adapts himself to standard conditions. The leading activity is educational. In addition to mastering special mental actions and actions related to writing, reading, drawing, labor, etc., the child, under the guidance of a teacher, begins to master the content of the basic forms of human consciousness (science, art, morality, etc.) and learns to act in accordance with traditions and new ones. people's social expectations.

According to the theory of L.S. Vygotsky, school age, like all ages, opens with a critical, or turning point, period, which was described in the literature earlier than others as the crisis of seven years. It has long been noted that a child, during the transition from preschool to school age, changes very dramatically and becomes more difficult in educational terms than before. This is some kind of transitional stage - no longer a preschooler and not yet a schoolchild [Vygotsky L.S., 1998; p.5].

Recently, a number of studies have appeared on this age. The results of the study can be schematically expressed as follows: a 7-year-old child is distinguished primarily by the loss of childish spontaneity. The immediate cause of children's spontaneity is insufficient differentiation of internal and external life. The child’s experiences, his desires and expression of desires, i.e. behavior and activity usually represent an insufficiently differentiated whole in a preschooler. The most significant feature of the seven-year-old crisis is usually called the beginning of differentiation between the internal and external aspects of the child’s personality.

The loss of spontaneity means the introduction of an intellectual moment into our actions, which wedges itself between experience and direct action, which is the direct opposite of the naive and direct action characteristic of a child. This does not mean that the crisis of seven years leads from immediate, naive, undifferentiated experience to the extreme pole, but, indeed, in each experience, in each of its manifestations, a certain intellectual moment arises.

At the age of 7, we are dealing with the beginning of the emergence of such a structure of experience, when the child begins to understand what it means “I am happy”, “I am sad”, “I am angry”, “I am kind”, “I am evil”, i.e. . he develops a meaningful orientation in his own experiences. Just as a 3-year-old child discovers his relationship with other people, so a 7-year-old child discovers the very fact of his experiences. Thanks to this, some features appear that characterize the crisis of seven years.

Experiences acquire meaning (an angry child understands that he is angry), thanks to this the child develops such new relationships with himself that were impossible before the generalization of experiences. Just like on a chessboard, when with each move completely new connections arise between the pieces, so here completely new connections arise between experiences when they acquire a certain meaning. Consequently, by the age of 7, the entire nature of a child’s experiences is rebuilt, just as a chessboard is rebuilt when a child learns to play chess.

By the seven-year crisis, generalization of experiences, or affective generalization, the logic of feelings, first appears. There are deeply retarded children who experience failure at every step: normal children play, an abnormal child tries to join them, but is rejected, he walks down the street and is laughed at. In short, he loses at every turn. In each individual case, he has a reaction to his own insufficiency, and a minute later you look - he is completely satisfied with himself. There are thousands of individual failures, but there is no general feeling of one’s worthlessness; he does not generalize what has happened many times before. In a school-age child, a generalization of feelings arises, i.e., if some situation has happened to him many times, he develops an affective formation, the nature of which also relates to a single experience, or affect, as the concept relates to a single perception or memory . For example, a preschool child has no real self-esteem or pride. The level of our demands on ourselves, on our success, on our position arises precisely in connection with the crisis of seven years.

A child of preschool age loves himself, but self-love as a generalized attitude towards himself, which remains the same in different situations, but a child of this age does not have self-esteem as such, but generalized attitudes towards others and an understanding of his own value. Consequently, by the age of 7, a number of complex formations arise, which lead to the fact that behavioral difficulties change sharply and radically; they are fundamentally different from the difficulties of preschool age.

Such new formations as pride and self-esteem remain, but the symptoms of the crisis (mannering, antics) are transient. In the crisis of seven years, due to the fact that differentiation of internal and external arises, that semantic experience arises for the first time, an acute struggle of experiences also arises. A child who does not know which candy to take - bigger or sweeter - is not in a state of internal struggle, although he hesitates. Internal struggle (contradictions of experiences and choice of one’s own experiences) becomes possible only now [Davydov V., 1973].

A characteristic feature of primary school age is emotional sensitivity, responsiveness to everything bright, unusual, and colorful. Monotonous, boring classes sharply reduce cognitive interest at this age and give rise to a negative attitude towards learning. Entering school makes major changes in a child's life. A new period begins with new responsibilities, with systematic teaching activities. The child’s life position has changed, which brings changes to the nature of his relationships with others. New circumstances in the life of a small schoolchild become the basis for experiences that he did not have before.

Self-esteem, high or low, gives rise to a certain emotional well-being, causes self-confidence or lack of faith in one’s strengths, a feeling of anxiety, a feeling of superiority over others, a state of sadness, and sometimes envy. Self-esteem can be not only high or low, but also adequate (corresponding to the true state of affairs) or inadequate. In the course of solving life problems (educational, everyday, gaming), under the influence of achievements and failures in the activities performed, a student may experience inadequate self-esteem - increased or decreased. It causes not only a certain emotional reaction, but often a long-term negative emotional state.

While communicating, the child simultaneously reflects in his mind the qualities and properties of his communication partner, and also gets to know himself. However, now in pedagogical and social psychology the methodological foundations for the process of forming younger schoolchildren as subjects of communication have not been developed. By this age, the basic block of psychological problems of the individual is structured and the mechanism of development of the subject of communication changes from imitative to reflective [Lioznova E.V., 2002].

An important prerequisite for the development of a junior schoolchild as a subject of communication is the emergence in him, along with business communication, of a new non-situational-personal form of communication. According to research by M.I. Lisina, this form begins to develop from the age of 6. The subject of such communication is a person [Lisina M.I., 1978]. The child asks the adult about his feelings and emotional states, and also tries to tell him about his relationships with peers, demanding from the adult an emotional response and empathy for his interpersonal problems.

2.2 Imagination and creativity of younger schoolchildren

The school period is characterized by rapid development of imagination, due to the intensive process of acquiring diverse knowledge and its use in practice.

It has been proven that imagination is closely connected with other mental processes (memory, thinking, attention, perception) that serve educational activities. Thus, by not paying enough attention to the development of imagination, primary teachers reduce the quality of teaching.

Senior preschool and junior school age qualify as the most favorable and sensitive for the development of creative imagination and fantasy. The games and conversations of children reflect the power of their imagination, one might even say, a riot of imagination. In their stories and conversations, reality and fantasy are often mixed, and images of the imagination can, by virtue of the law of emotional reality of the imagination, be experienced by children as completely real. Their experience is so strong that the child feels the need to talk about it. Such fantasies (they also occur in adolescents) are often perceived by others as a lie. Parents and teachers often turn to psychological consultations, alarmed by such manifestations of fantasy in children, which they regard as deceit. In such cases, the psychologist usually recommends analyzing whether the child is pursuing any benefit with his story. If not (and most often this is the case), then we are dealing with fantasizing, making up stories, and not lying. Inventing stories like this is normal for children. In these cases, it is useful for adults to get involved in the children’s play, to show that they like these stories, but precisely as manifestations of fantasy, a kind of game. By participating in such a game, sympathizing and empathizing with the child, the adult must clearly indicate and show him the line between game, fantasy and reality.

At primary school age, in addition, the active development of the recreating imagination occurs.

The main trend emerging in the development of children's imagination is the transition to an increasingly correct and complete reflection of reality, the transition from a simple arbitrary combination of ideas to a logically reasoned combination. If a 3-4 year old child is content to depict an airplane with two sticks placed crosswise, then at 7-8 years old he already needs an external resemblance to an airplane (“so that there are wings and a propeller”). A schoolchild at the age of 11-12 often constructs a model himself and demands that it be even more similar to a real plane (“so that it looks and flies just like a real one”).

The younger schoolchild also makes a strict selection of material suitable for the game. This selection is made according to the principle of maximum proximity, from the child’s point of view, of this material to real objects, according to the principle of the ability to perform real actions with it.

Amendments to the situation and images made by children of primary school age during the game give the game and the images themselves imaginary features that bring them closer and closer to reality.

In the minds of a junior schoolchild, concrete knowledge and fascinating fantastic images built on its basis coexist peacefully. With age, the role of fantasy, divorced from reality, weakens, and the realism of children's imagination increases. However, the realism of children's imagination, in particular the imagination of a primary school student, must be distinguished from another of its features, close, but fundamentally different.

Realism of the imagination involves the creation of images that do not contradict reality, but are not necessarily a direct reproduction of everything perceived in life.

According to research by L.S. Vygotsky, a child of preschool age and primary school can imagine much less than an adult, but he trusts the products of his imagination more and controls them less, and therefore imagination in the everyday, “cultural sense of the word, i.e. something like this what is real and imaginary, a child, of course, has more than an adult. However, not only the material from which the imagination is built is poorer in a child than in an adult, but also the nature of the combinations that are added to this material, their quality and the variety is significantly inferior to the combinations of an adult. Of all the forms of connection with reality that we listed above, the child’s imagination possesses, to the same extent as that of an adult, only the first, namely the reality of the elements from which it is built.

Along with a decrease in a person’s ability to fantasize, the personality becomes impoverished, the possibilities of creative thinking decrease, interest in art, science, and so on fades away.

imagination. When, in the process of studying, children are faced with the need to comprehend abstract material and they need analogies and support in the face of a general lack of life experience, the child’s imagination also comes to the aid. Thus, the importance of the imagination function in mental development is great.

Chapter 3. Experimental study of the characteristics of creative abilities and imagination of primary schoolchildren

3.1 Organization, methods and techniques of research

The purpose of the experimental study is to practically identify the features of the development of imagination and creative abilities of younger schoolchildren in comparison with children of a younger age group, namely, in comparison with children of older preschool age.

IN The study involved junior schoolchildren - 3rd grade students of secondary school No. 15 in Novosibirsk, located in the Leninsky district at st. Nemirovich-Danchenko, 0/2. Children of primary school age in the amount of 15 people. constituted the experimental group.

The control group consisted of a sample of 15 children of senior preschool age. - pupils of preschool educational institution No. 136 in Novosibirsk, located in the Leninsky district at the address st. Titova, 24.

IN methods: conversation, observation and analysis of the products of children's creative activity.

IN The study involved the following techniques.

Method No. 1. Methodology for studying the characteristics of imagination based on the Torrance “Incomplete Figures” test.

The child is shown images of simple geometric shapes (square, triangle, circle) on separate forms and is asked to draw as many drawings as possible on the base of each of the proposed figures, and additional drawing can be done both inside the contour of the figure and outside it in any way convenient for the child turning the sheet to depict the figure, i.e. You can use each figure from different angles.

The quality of the drawings in terms of their artistry is not taken into account in the analysis, since first of all we are interested in the very idea of the composition, the variety of associations that arise, the principles of implementing ideas, and not the technical finishing of the drawings.

The working time is not limited, since otherwise the child will develop anxiety and uncertainty, and this contradicts the nature of the creative process, the elementary manifestation of which must be simulated during the experiment.

This technique, being essentially a “miniature model of the creative act” (E. Torrens), allows us to sufficiently fully study the features of the creative imagination and trace the specifics of this process. From the point of view of E. Torrance, the activity of creative imagination begins with the emergence of sensitivity to gaps, shortcomings, missing elements, disharmony, etc., i.e. in conditions of shortage of external information. In this case, the figures to be drawn and the corresponding instructions provoke the appearance of such sensitivity and create the opportunity for a multi-valued solution to the task, since a large number of drawings are performed based on each of the test figures. According to the terminology of E. Torrance, difficulties are identified, guesses arise or hypotheses are formulated regarding missing elements, these hypotheses are tested and double-checked, and their possible implementation occurs, which is manifested in the creation of various drawings.

This technique activates the activity of the imagination, revealing one of its main properties - seeing the whole before the parts. The child perceives the proposed test figures as parts, details of some integrity and completes and reconstructs them. The possibility of implementing such a reconstructive function of the imagination is inherent in the very specificity of this mental process. In the first chapter, we already indicated that the mechanisms of imagination are always based on the processes of dissociation and association, analysis and synthesis of existing ideas. The child, completing the figures into object images, carries out the operation of synthesis. However, this is possible only through a preliminary analysis of a given figure, isolating it from a number of objects, highlighting its properties, studying its functional features, etc. The productivity of the imagination largely depends on the level of formation of the operations of analysis and synthesis.

Visual activities are typical for children of this age period. In addition, as many psychologists note, it allows, as it were, to bring imagination processes from the internal plane to the external one, which creates a kind of visual support when the internal mechanisms of the combinatorics of imagination processes in children are not sufficiently developed. And finally, the use of visual activities allows one to obtain extensive practical material (children's drawings) for a versatile objective analysis.

One of the characteristics of creative imagination is the flexibility of using ideas; as a result, all children's work can be divided into creative and non-creative.

Non-creative ones include:

Typical drawings, when the same figure turns into the same image element (a circle - a wheel of a car, scooter, bicycle, motorcycle).

Drawings in which different standards are transformed into the same element of the image (a circle, square, triangle turned into a clock).

Compositions of this kind are regarded as perseverative (repetitive); out of their total number, only one composition (as an idea) is taken into account in further analysis.

Creative drawings include drawings in which non-repeating images are created based on given standards. Most psychologists identify the originality of the images it creates as one of the most significant aspects of imagination, and therefore the degree of their originality can be one of the indicators when analyzing completed compositions. The parameters of originality (individuality) and unoriginality (typicality) are quite often used in psychology to evaluate the products of imagination. The presence of a large number of original images in a child indicates the strength and plasticity of his imagination and, on the contrary, the immaturity of the mechanisms of combinatorics of imagination processes leads to the emergence of a large number of stereotypical compositions.

The entire set of children's drawings can be divided into 6 qualitative levels, a description of which is given in the Appendix.

The technique is intended to study the processes of imagination. Reveals the level of development and content of imagination, as well as the processes of symbolization, the ability to recode a stimulus.

Materials: several sheets, paper, colored pencils.

Instructions: “Draw a picture for each word that is written on the back of the sheet. Draw it in a way that you understand and imagine this word and so that everyone understands that you drew this particular word. Use different colors.”

Stimulus material (words): happiness, grief, kindness, illness, deception, wealth, separation, friendship, fear, love, beauty.

Testing time is not limited.

The interpretation is given in the Appendix.

3.2 Analysis and discussion of research results

Method No. 1. A method for studying the characteristics of imagination based on E. Torrance’s “Incomplete Figures” test.

The diagnostic data for younger schoolchildren using the 1st method are shown in Table No. 1 of Appendix (c); the diagnostic data for older preschoolers who made up the control group using the 1st method are given in Table No. 2 of Appendix (d).

Percentage distribution of children in the experimental and control groups by levels of imagination development according to the results of the 1st method

Table 1

According to Table 1, a graph has been constructed that clearly reflects the difference in the level of development of imagination and creative abilities of children of the two groups:

Picture 1.

Distribution of children in two groups according to the levels of development of imagination and creative abilities according to the results of method No. 1

The level is characterized by a less schematic image, the appearance of a greater number of details both inside the main contour and outside it.

A third of the children in the control group (33.3%) were assigned to the third level of imagination development, which is characterized by the emergence of a “field of things” around the main image, i.e. substantive design of the environment, there is a change in scale

images due to the use of a given test figure as any large detail of a holistic image, but at the same time, acting as details of the image, the geometric figure continues to occupy a central position in it.

And finally, 20% of children of senior preschool age were classified as having the lowest level of imagination development.

As a clear example, here are the works of older preschoolers classified as the lowest, 1st level:

Figure 3

These works are characterized by extreme sketchiness, an almost complete absence of details; these children depict single objects, the contours of which, as a rule, coincide with the contours of the proposed geometric figures.

Next, let us turn to the results for the experimental group - the group of junior schoolchildren. When diagnosing younger schoolchildren, completely different results were obtained. Thus, not a single junior schoolchild was classified as low 1st and 2nd levels. 6 people are assigned to level 3. or 40%. 5 children of primary school age, or 33.3%, are assigned to the 4th level of development of creative imagination.

As a clear example, here are the works of junior schoolchildren classified as level 4:

Figure 4

The works of these children are already characterized by the repeated use of a given figure in the construction of a single semantic composition. Test figures in such compositions receive a certain camouflage by reducing their scale, changing their spatial position, and complicating the composition. The possibility of repeated use of a test figure as an external stimulus when creating an image of imagination indicates the plasticity of the imagination and a higher level of formation of its operational components.

Method No. 2. Pictogram (“Draw a word”).

The diagnostic data for younger schoolchildren using the 2nd method are shown in Table No. 3 of Appendix (E); the diagnostic data for older preschoolers who made up the control group using the 2nd method are shown in Table No. 4 of Appendix (E).

The distribution of children in the two groups according to the nature of mental activity, indicating the level of imagination development, is recorded in Table 2:

table 2

The percentage distribution of children in the experimental and control groups by levels of imagination development according to the results of the 2nd method, according to Table 2, a graph was constructed that clearly reflects the difference in the level of development of imagination and creative abilities of children of the two groups:

Figure 6.

Distribution of children in two groups according to the levels of development of imagination and creative abilities according to the results of the 2nd method

According to the results of the 2nd methodology with children of the control group (senior preschoolers), only works completed by 5 children can be classified as creative works; these are the so-called “artistic” type creatives (symbols in the table - “C” and “M” ).

6 children in the control group are classified as the “thinker” type; they are characterized by a predominance of generalization, synthesis in information, and a high level of abstract logical thinking (symbols in the table are “A” and “3”).

4 children in the control group were assigned to the type of concretely effective practical thinking (symbols in the table - “K”).

Based on the results of the 2nd method with children from the experimental group (primary schoolchildren), the works of 9 children can be classified as creative works. This is significantly more compared to the control sample of older preschoolers.

Thus, 4 junior schoolchildren, according to the results of the 2nd method, are classified as creatives of the “artistic” type (“C”): the images made by these children are classified as plot-based (C) (depicted objects, characters are combined into some situation, plot, or one character in the process of activity).

According to the results of the 2nd method, 5 junior schoolchildren were classified as creatives of the “artistic” type (“M”): the images made by these children were classified as metaphorical (M) (images in the form of metaphors, artistic fiction).

4 junior schoolchildren are classified as the “thinker” type; they are characterized by a predominance of generalization, synthesis in information, and a high level of abstract logical thinking (symbols in the table are “A” and “3”).

2 junior schoolchildren are assigned to the type of concretely effective practical thinking (symbols in the table - “K”).

Conclusions based on the research results.

So, the features of the imagination and creative abilities of children of primary school age (8-9 years old) in comparison with children of older preschool age are as follows:

children of primary school age reach the 4th level of imagination development: a widely expanded subject environment appears in the products of creative activity of primary schoolchildren, children add more and more new elements to the drawing, organizing a holistic composition according to an imaginary plot;

children of primary school age reach the 5th level of imagination development: the products of creative activity of primary schoolchildren are already characterized by the repeated use of a given figure when constructing a single semantic composition, and the possibility of repeated use of a test figure as an external stimulus when creating an imaginary image indicates the plasticity of the imagination , a higher level of formation of its operational components;

younger schoolchildren develop creative thinking of an artistic plot type: in the products of creative activity of younger schoolchildren, depicted objects and characters are combined into a situation, plot, or one character in the process of activity;

Young schoolchildren develop creative thinking of an artistic metaphorical type: images in the form of metaphors and artistic fiction appear in the products of creative activity of younger schoolchildren.

Conclusion

Imagination is a special form of the human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory. The specificity of this form of mental process lies in the fact that imagination is probably characteristic only of humans and is strangely connected with the activities of the body, being at the same time the most “mental” of all mental processes and states. Imagination is a special form of reflection, which consists of creating new images and ideas by processing existing ideas and concepts.

The development of imagination follows the path of improving the operations of replacing real objects with imaginary ones and recreating imagination. Imagination, due to the characteristics of the physiological systems responsible for it, is to a certain extent associated with the regulation of organic processes and movement. Creative abilities are defined as individual characteristics of a person’s qualities, which determine the success of his or her performance of creative activities of various kinds.

The features of the creative abilities and imagination of younger schoolchildren are revealed. The school period is characterized by rapid development of imagination, due to the intensive process of acquiring diverse knowledge and its use in practice. Senior preschool and junior school age qualify as the most favorable and sensitive for the development of creative imagination and fantasy. At primary school age, in addition, the active development of the recreating imagination occurs. In children of primary school age, several types of imagination are distinguished.

A study of imagination as a creative process was conducted. Imagination is a special form of the human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory. The specificity of this form of mental process lies in the fact that imagination is probably characteristic only of humans and is strangely connected with the activities of the body, being at the same time the most “mental” of all mental processes and states. The latter means that the ideal and mysterious character of the psyche is not manifested in anything other than the imagination. It can be assumed that it was imagination, the desire to understand and explain it, that attracted attention to psychic phenomena in ancient times, supported and continues to stimulate it in our days. Imagination is a special form of reflection, which consists of creating new images and ideas by processing existing ideas and concepts. The development of imagination follows the lines of improving the operations of replacing real objects with imaginary ones and recreating imagination. Imagination, due to the characteristics of the physiological systems responsible for it, is to a certain extent associated with the regulation of organic processes and movement. Creative abilities are defined as individual characteristics of a person’s qualities, which determine the success of his or her performance of creative activities of various kinds.

favorable, sensitive for the development of creative imagination and fantasy. At primary school age, in addition, the active development of the recreating imagination occurs. In children of primary school age, several types of imagination are distinguished. It can be reconstructive (creating an image of an object according to its description) and creative (creating new images that require the selection of material in accordance with the plan). In the process of educational activity of schoolchildren, which begins in the elementary grades from living contemplation, a major role, as psychologists note, is played by the level of development of cognitive processes: attention, memory, perception, observation, imagination, memory, thinking. The development and improvement of imagination will be more effective with targeted work in this direction, which will entail an expansion of the cognitive capabilities of children.

Based on the results of the experimental study, listening conclusions were drawn about the characteristics of the development of imagination and creative abilities of children of primary school age (8-9 years old) in comparison with children of older preschool age. Firstly, children of primary school age reach the 4th level of imagination development: a widely expanded subject environment appears in the products of creative activity of primary schoolchildren, children add more and more new elements to the drawing, organizing a holistic composition according to an imaginary plot. Secondly, children of primary school age reach the 5th level of imagination development: the products of creative activity of primary schoolchildren are already characterized by the repeated use of a given figure when constructing a single semantic composition, and the possibility of repeated use of a test figure as an external stimulus when creating an imaginary image, indicates the plasticity of the imagination, a higher level of formation of its operational components. Thirdly, creative thinking of the artistic plot type is developed in younger schoolchildren: in the products of creative activity of younger schoolchildren, depicted objects and characters are combined into a situation, plot, or one character in the process of activity. Fourthly, creative thinking of an artistic metaphorical type develops in younger schoolchildren: images in the form of metaphors and artistic fiction appear in the products of creative activity of younger schoolchildren.

This course work can be used by teachers as methodological material for studying the characteristics of children's imagination. If a teacher knows the characteristics of imagination and creative thinking, knows during what period intensive development occurs, then he will be able to influence the correct development of these processes.

Circles: artistic, literary, technical, are of great importance for the development of creative imagination. But the work of clubs should be organized so that students see the results of their work.

In younger schoolchildren, the imagination develops more intensively than in preschoolers, and it is important not to miss this moment. It is important to play games that develop imagination with them, take them to clubs and help them develop creative thinking.

A creatively thinking person is able to solve the tasks assigned to him faster and more economically, to overcome difficulties more effectively, to outline new goals, that is, ultimately, to most effectively organize his activities in solving the problems assigned to him by society.

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Application

Appendix No. 1 (a)

Method No. 1 "Studying the characteristics of imagination based on E. Torrance's test "Incomplete figures":

· level - the works are characterized by extreme sketchiness, an almost complete absence of details. Children depict single objects, the contours of which, as a rule, coincide with the contours of the proposed geometric shapes.

· the level is characterized by a less schematic image, the appearance of a greater number of details both inside the main contour and outside it.

· level - characteristically the appearance of a “field of things” around the main image, i.e. objective design of the environment (for example, a trapezoid is no longer just a plate, but a vase standing on a table, or a circle is not just an apple, but on a plate). At this level, there is also a change in the scale of the image due to the use of a given test figure as some large detail of the entire image (for example, a circle is no longer a ball or a balloon, but the head of a person, an animal, a car wheel; a square is not a mirror or cabinet, but a robot body, a truck body, etc.). At the same time, acting as details of the image, the geometric figure continues to occupy a central position in it.

· level - the works show a broadly expanded subject environment; children, having turned a test figure into an object, add more and more new elements to the drawing, organizing a holistic composition according to an imaginary plot.

· level - the works are characterized by repeated use of a given figure in the construction of a single semantic composition. Test figures in such compositions receive a certain camouflage by reducing their scale, changing their spatial position, and complicating the composition. The possibility of repeated use of a test figure as an external stimulus when creating an image of imagination indicates the plasticity of the imagination and a higher level of formation of its operational components.

· level - the qualitative difference between this level and the previous ones lies in the nature of the use of the test figure, which no longer acts as the main part of the composition, but is included in its complex integral structure as a small secondary detail. This method of depiction is usually called “inclusion”. At this level there is the greatest freedom to use external data only as “material”, an impetus for imagination and creativity.

The use of “inclusion” actions when creating ideas and products of imagination, ensuring the search for an optimal solution, which corresponds to the probabilistic nature of the reflection of reality, which is the specificity of the imagination process.

Appendix No. 1 (b)

Method No. 2 Pictogram (“Draw a word”)

Interpretation

All images are classified into five main types:

abstract (A) - lines not formed into an image;

sign-symbolic (3) - signs and symbols;

concrete (K) - concrete objects;

plot (C) depicted objects, characters are combined into any situation, plot, or one character in the process of activity;

metaphorical (M) images in the form of metaphors, fiction.

When processing the research results, a letter designation is placed next to each picture. The most frequently used form indicates the nature of mental activity:

A and 3 - type of “thinker” - generalization, synthesis in information, high level of abstract logical thinking;

S and M - creatives of the “artistic” type;

K - concretely effective practical thinking.

Appendix No. 2 (c)

Results of diagnostics of creative abilities and imagination of junior schoolchildren

Table 1.

Results of diagnostics of children in the experimental group using method No. 1 “Incomplete figures” (primary schoolchildren)

Pupils	Figures			Final level of development
Pupils	Square	Triangle	Circle	Final level of development
1	3	3	2	3
2	4	3	4	4
3	2	3	3	3
4	3	4	4	4
5	4	4	3	4
6	4	5	5	5
7	2	3	3	3
8	3	3	3	3
9	4	3	4	4
10	3	3	2	3
11	4	3	4	4
12	3	3	2	3
13	4	5	5	5
14	5	4	5	5
15	5	4	5	5

Appendix No. 2 (d)

Table 2.

Results of diagnostics of children in the experimental group using method No. 1 “Incomplete figures” (Senior schoolchildren)

Pupils	Figures			Final level of development
Pupils	Square	Triangle	Circle	Final level of development
1	2	2	1	2
2	2	1	2	2
3	1	1	2	1
4	2	3	3	3
5	2	2	2	2
6	2	2	2	2
7	1	1	1	1
8	2	1	2	2
9	3	2	3	3
10	1	2	1	1
11	3	2	3	3
12	2	2	2	2
13	2	2	2	2
14	3	2	3	3
15	3	2	3	3

Appendix No. 2 (d)

Results of diagnostics of children in the experimental group using method No. 2 “Draw a word” (primary schoolchildren)

Table 3.

No. incentive.

mat-la Children

Bottom line

With

WITH

With

WITH

With

WITH

With

WITH

With

WITH

With

WITH

With

WITH

Appendix No. 2 (E)

Results of diagnostics of children in the control group using method No. 2 “Draw a word” (senior schoolchildren)

Table 4.

No. incentive. mat-la Children	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Bottom line
1	A	3	A	A	A	A	3	TO	A	A	A	A
2	TO	TO	TO	TO	3	3	TO	A	TO	A	TO	TO
3	3	3	A	3	3	A	3	3	TO	3	3	3
4	WITH	With	m	A	WITH	WITH	With	3	WITH	WITH	WITH	WITH
5	3	3	3	A	A	3	3	3	TO	3	To	3
6	TO	3	3	TO	3	TO	To	TO	To	TO	To	To
7	TO	To	To	3	TO	A	A	TO	To	3	To	To
8	3	A	3	A	3	3	3	3	3	TO	3	3
9	With	WITH	m	A	With	TO	WITH	3	With	WITH	With	With
10	A	3	3	3	3	A	3	3	3	A	3	3
11	M	m	With	3	A	M	M	m	With	M	A	m
12	TO	To	To	A	3	TO	TO	To	To	3	TO	To
13	A	3	To	A	A	A	A	A	To	3	A	A

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION "BELARUSIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY NAMED AFTER MAXIM TANK"

Department of General Psychology

Coursework in general psychology

“Development of imagination in primary school age”

STUDENTS 404 GROUPS
FACULTY OF NATURAL SCIENCE
KOVALENO Anna Borisovna

WORK MANAGER:
Candidate of Psychological Sciences,
CHINIKOYLA Svetlana Ivanovna

MINSK 2012
CONTENT
Management………………………………………………………………………………………4
Chapter 1. The problem of imaginationin psychology……...…………………...6
1.1.The concept of imagination………………… ………………………………6
1.2. Types of imagination…………………………………… ………………8
1.3. Features of imagination in primary school age……..16
Chapter 2. Development of imagination………………………………………….19
2.1. Development of imagination in primary school age………….19
2.2. Diagnostics of the level of imagination development……………………....23
Conclusion…………………………………………………………….….34
List of sources used……………………………………36
Applications …………………………………………………………………… …………...38

INTRODUCTION
Imagination is a special form of the human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory.
The specificity of this form of mental process lies in the fact that imagination is probably characteristic only of humans and is strangely connected with the activities of the body, being at the same time the most “mental” of all mental processes and states. The latter means that the ideal and mysterious character of the psyche is not manifested in anything other than the imagination. It can be assumed that it was the imagination, the desire to understand and explain it that attracted attention to psychic phenomena in ancient times, supported and continues to stimulate it in our days.
Imagination is a special form of reflection, which consists of creating new images and ideas by processing existing ideas and concepts. The development of imagination follows the lines of improving the operations of replacing real objects with imaginary ones and recreating imagination. The child gradually begins to create increasingly complex images and their systems based on existing descriptions, texts, and fairy tales. The content of these images develops and enriches. Creative imagination develops when a child not only understands some techniques of expressiveness (hyperbole, metaphor), but also independently applies them. Imagination becomes mediated and intentional.
In general, younger schoolchildren usually do not have any problems associated with the development of children's imagination, so almost all children who play a lot and variedly in preschool childhood have a well-developed and rich imagination. The main questions that in this area may still arise before the child and the teacher at the beginning of education concern the connection between imagination and attention, the ability to regulate figurative representations through voluntary attention, as well as the assimilation of abstract concepts that a child, like an adult, can imagine and imagine. hard enough. Thus, the diagnosis and development of imagination in children of primary school age is relevant.
Target course work - to study the features of the development of creative imagination.
Tasks course work:
1. Reveal the nature of creative imagination based on the analysis of educational literature.
2. To study ways to develop creative imagination in younger schoolchildren.
3. Conduct experimental work on the diagnosis and development of creative thinking in younger schoolchildren.
Item course work - the development of imagination in younger schoolchildren.
An object course work - a process of exercises to develop imagination in younger schoolchildren.
Hypothesis: If you use a system of exercises to develop creative thinking, its level will increase significantly and will further contribute to increasing the overall level of learning of younger schoolchildren.
The work used methods of analysis of theoretical, methodological, practical literature on this problem, the method of statistical data in assessing the results of experiments.
Relevance of the topic:The problem of developing the creative imagination of children is relevant because this mental process is an integral component of any form of creative activity of the child, his behavior in general.
Almost all psychologists who studied the ontogenesis of mental development pointed out the importance of imagination and fantasy in a child’s life. Some of them (V. Stern, D. Dewey) argued that a child’s imagination is richer than an adult’s imagination, others (L.S. Vygotsky, S.L. Rubinstein, I.Yu. Kulagina) pointed out the relativity of children’s imagination, which can only be assessed in comparison with the rate of development of other mental processes.
The laws of development of creative imagination identified for each age stage form the basis for the construction of new training programs and the allocation of special tasks in them aimed at activating creative processes and abilities.
However, it should be noted that the psychological and pedagogical literature does not sufficiently cover the issues of psychoregulation of the creative activity of junior schoolchildren in general and, in particular, imagination. The solution to this issue requires highlighting the psychological foundations of the formation and development of imagination, which should include the objective and subjective components of the creative activity of younger schoolchildren. Knowledge of the structural characteristics of psychoregulation of creative activity of primary school children will make it possible to more effectively solve problems in developing and improving the creative imagination of children of primary school age.
The relevance of studying the general patterns of imagination development is dictated, on the one hand, by the logic of the development of psychological theory, and on the other hand, by the needs of pedagogical practice.

Chapter 1 The problem of imagination in psychology
1.1. Theoretical problems of imagination in the psychology of imagination
Along with memory images, which are copies of perception, a person can create completely new images. In images, something can appear that we did not directly perceive, and something that does not actually exist in this particular form. These are images of the imagination. So, “imagination is a cognitive process that consists of the creation of new images, on the basis of which new actions and objects arise,” notes I.V. Dubrovina et al. (2001).
Every image created in the imagination is, to some extent, both a reproduction and transformation of reality. Reproduction is the main characteristic of memory, transformation is the main characteristic of imagination.
Images of the imagination are based on representations of memory. But these ideas are undergoing profound changes. Memory representations are images of objects and phenomena that we do not currently perceive, but once perceived. But we can, based on knowledge and relying on the experience of mankind, create ideas about such things that we ourselves have never perceived before. For example, “I can imagine a sandy desert or tropical forests, although I have never been there,” writes V.M. Melnikov (1987). Imagination is the creation of something that did not yet exist in a person’s experience, that he did not perceive in the past and that he had not encountered before. Nevertheless, everything new, created in the imagination, everything, one way or another, is connected with what really exists.
All representations of the imagination are built from material received in past perceptions and stored in memory. The activity of the imagination is always the processing of those data that are delivered by sensations and perceptions. The imagination cannot create out of “nothing” (a person blind from birth cannot create a color image, a deaf person cannot create sounds). The most bizarre and fantastic products of the imagination are always built from elements of reality.
Imagination is one of the fundamental characteristics of a person. It most clearly shows the difference between man and his animal ancestors. Pinsky B.I. wrote: “Fantasy itself, or the power of imagination, belongs to the number of not only precious, but also universal, universal abilities that distinguish a person from an animal. Without it, it is impossible to take a single step, not only in art... Without the power of imagination, it would be impossible to even cross the street through traffic. Humanity, devoid of imagination, would never launch rockets into space" (1962, p. 84) D. Diderot exclaimed: "Imagination! Without this quality one cannot be a poet, a philosopher, an intelligent person, a thinking being, or just a person... Imagination is the ability to evoke images. A person completely lacking this ability would be a stupid person.”
With the help of imagination, a person reflects reality, but in other, unusual, often unexpected combinations and connections. Imagination transforms reality and creates new images on this basis. Imagination is closely related to thinking, therefore it is capable of actively transforming life impressions, acquired knowledge, perceptions and ideas. In general, the image is connected with all aspects of a person’s mental activity: with his perception, memory, thinking, feelings.
Any human activity, the result of which is not the reproduction of impressions or actions that were in his experience, will belong to this second type of creative or combining behavior. The brain is not only an organ that preserves and reproduces our previous experience, it is also an organ that combines, creatively processes and creates new positions and new behavior from the elements of this previous experience. According to L.S. Vygotsky (1997), imagination is called “precisely this creative activity based on the combining ability of our brain.”
R.S. Nemov (p. 220, 1995) defines imagination as “a special form of the human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory.” The specificity of this form of mental process is that imagination is probably characteristic only of humans and is strangely connected with the activities of the body, being at the same time the most “mental” of all mental processes and states. The latter means that the ideal and mysterious character of the psyche is not manifested in anything other than the imagination. It can be assumed that it was imagination, the desire to understand and explain it, that attracted attention to mental phenomena in ancient times, supported and continues to stimulate it in our days.
As for the mystery of this phenomenon, it lies in the fact that until now we know almost nothing specifically about the mechanism of imagination, including its anatomical and physiological basis. Where is imagination located in the human brain? With the work of which nervous organic structures known to us is it connected? We can’t answer these important questions with almost anything concrete, which, of course, does not indicate the small significance of this phenomenon in psychology and human behavior.
Here the situation is just the opposite, namely: we know a lot about the importance of imagination in a person’s life, how it affects his mental processes and states, and even the body.
Thanks to imagination, a person creates, intelligently plans and manages his activities. Almost all human material and spiritual culture is a product of the imagination and creativity of people, and we already know quite well what significance this culture has for the mental development and improvement of the species “Homo sapiens”. Imagination takes a person beyond his immediate existence, reminds him of the past, and opens up the future. Possessing a rich imagination, a person can “live” in different times, which no other living creature in the world can afford. The past is recorded in memory images, arbitrarily resurrected by an effort of will, the future is presented in dreams and fantasies.
Imagination is the basis of visual-figurative thinking, which allows a person to navigate a situation and solve problems without the direct intervention of practical actions. It helps him in many ways in those cases of life when practical actions are either impossible, or difficult, or simply impractical (undesirable).
How do images of the imagination arise, according to what laws are they constructed?
A.N. Leontyev (1972) defines imagination as a cognitive process based on the analytical and synthetic activity of the human brain. Analysis helps to identify individual parts and characteristics of objects or phenomena, synthesis helps to combine them into new, hitherto unheard of combinations. As a result, an image or system of images is created in which real reality is reflected by a person in a new, transformed, changed form and content.
1.2 Types of imagination
Authors of the textbook I.V. Dubrovina et al. (1999) identify the following types of imagination.
Involuntary or passiveinto the imagination - new images under the influence of little-conscious or unconscious needs. These are dreams, hallucinations, reveries, states of “crazy rest”.
Thus, images are born in the snow unintentionally. People came to discover the secrets of sleep only at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries. Scraps of memories of the past are intricately combined in dreams; they are born unintentionally, entering into unexpected, sometimes completely meaningless combinations. In a half-asleep, drowsy state, the same thing can happen. Sechenov said that dreams are “unprecedented combinations of experienced impressions.”
Despite all the fantastic nature of dreams, they can only contain what was perceived by a person. Today some mechanisms of dreams are known.
For example, the reason for dreams can be the irritations that the body of a sleeping person receives.
Sometimes the cause of a dream is the turbulent events that happened during the day - the dream is about the same topic, in continuation of these events.
Sleep is a product of a healthy psyche. All people see dreams. Research in recent years has led scientists to believe that dreams are even necessary for the normal functioning of our brain. If you deprive a person of dreams, it can lead to mental disorder. The product of a sick or unhealthy psyche is hallucinations.
Hallucination is also a passive, unintentional imagination. In people who are mentally abnormal or not entirely healthy, fantasy images take on the characteristics of reality. In a mentally ill person they compete with what he actually perceives. If a long-dead relative appears to him, he talks to him as if he were alive, and does not doubt for a minute the reality of the latter. Such “daydreams” are called hallucinations.
Hallucinations appear in various mental illnesses, under the influence of strong experiences - feelings of melancholy, fear, obsessive thoughts.
With auditory hallucinations, the patient hears voices, music, and sounds. The voices either threaten him or ask him for something. At the same time, voices can be quiet, loud, “commanding”, as a result of which a person commits unexpected actions. This psychological disorder often occurs due to alcoholism.
Visual hallucinations usually occur in diseases such as epilepsy, hysteria, as well as in alcoholics who have reached the point of delirium tremens.
These phenomena Vygotsky L.S. (1995) explains by the fact that significant areas of the brain of a mentally ill person are constantly inhibited to a greater or lesser extent. Traces of past perceptions, combined in fantasy images, cause the same reaction as real stimuli.
Daydreaming is passive but intentional imagination. These are dreams that are not associated with the will aimed at fulfilling them. People dream about something pleasant, joyful, tempting, and in dreams the connection between fantasy and needs and desires is clearly visible.
Passive imagination rarely becomes the impulse of the creative process, since “spontaneous” images, independent of the will of the artist, are more often the product of the subconscious work of the creator, hidden from him. Nevertheless, observations of the creative process described in the literature make it possible to give examples of the role of passive imagination in artistic creativity. Thus, Franz Kafka gave an exceptional role to dreams in his work, capturing them in his fantastically gloomy works.
Voluntary or active imaginationis a process of deliberate construction of images in connection with a consciously set goal in a particular activity. This type of image appears at an early age and is most developed in children's games. In the game, children take on different roles (pilot, driver, doctor, Baba Yaga, etc.). The need to build your behavior in accordance with a pleasant role for yourself requires active work of the imagination. In addition, you need to imagine the missing items and the game situation itself. Active imagination is characterized by the fact that, using it, a person voluntarily evokes appropriate images in himself.
Based on originality, the authors of the textbook “Psychology” (1987) divide voluntary (active) imagination into recreating, or reproductive, and creative.
Recreating or reproductive imagination is the construction of an image of an object, phenomenon in accordance with its verbal description or according to a drawing, diagram, picture. In the process of recreating imagination, new images arise, but new ones are subjective, for a given person, but objectively they already exist. They are already embodied in certain cultural objects. When reading fiction and educational literature, when studying geographical, historical and other descriptions, it constantly turns out to be necessary to recreate with the help of imagination what is said in these sources. Any viewer, reader or listener must have a sufficiently developed re-creating imagination to see and feel what the artist, writer, storyteller wanted to convey and express. An excellent school for the development of reconstructive imagination is the study of geographical maps.
The essence of the reconstructive imagination is that we reproduce what we ourselves did not directly perceive, but what other people tell us (by speech, drawings, diagrams, signs, etc.). We seem to decipher signals, symbols, signs. For example, an engineer, looking at a drawing (a system of lines on a sheet), restores the image of a machine that is “encrypted” with symbols.
A.V. Petrovsky (1976) believes that the reconstructive imagination plays an important role in human life. It allows people to exchange experiences, without which life in society is unthinkable. It helps each of us to master the experience, knowledge and achievements of other people.
In reproductive imagination, the task is to reproduce reality as it is, and although there is also an element of fantasy here, such imagination is more reminiscent of perception or memory than creativity. Thus, the direction in art called naturalism, and also partly realism, can be correlated with the reproductive imagination. It is well known that from the paintings of I.I. Shishkin botanists can study the flora of the Russian forest, because all the plants on his canvases are depicted with “documentary” accuracy. Works of democratic artists of the second half of the 19th century. I. Kramskoy, I. Repin, V. Petrov, with all their social emphasis, also represent a search for a form that is as close as possible to copying reality.
With the phenomenon of imagination in the practical activities of people, the famous artist K.F. Yuon (1959) primarily connects the process of artistic creativity. Creative imagination is the independent creation of new images that are realized in original products of activity. Images are created without relying on a ready-made description or conventional image.
The role of creative imagination is enormous. New original works are being created that have never existed. However, their characters (from artists, sculptors, writers) are so vital and real that you begin to treat them as if they were alive (Don Quixote, Natasha Rostova, Anna Karenina).
But sometimes the artist is not satisfied with recreating reality using the realistic method. Reality is passed through the productive imagination of creators; they construct it in a new way, using light and color, filling their works with air vibration (impressionism), resorting to dotted images of objects (pointillism in painting and music), decomposing the objective world into geometric figures (cubism) etc. The fruit of such imagination is M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”, the fiction of the Strugatsky brothers, the famous abstract painting by P. Picasso “Guernica”, where behind a chaotic pile of geometric figures a very specific image, a specific thought arises, reflecting the tragic events of the war in Spain 1936– 1939
With a special kind of imagination S.D. Smirnov (1985) calls it a dream. A dream is always aimed at the future, at the prospects for the life and activities of a specific person, a specific individual. A dream allows you to outline the future and organize your behavior to realize it. A person could not imagine the future (i.e., something that does not exist) without imagination, without the ability to build a new image. Moreover, a dream is a process of imagination that is always directed not just to the future, but to the desired future.
A dream does not provide an immediate, objective product of activity. But it is always an impetus for activity. K.G. Paustovsky said that the essence of a person is the dream that lives in everyone’s heart. “A person hides nothing so deeply as a dream. Perhaps because she cannot stand the slightest ridicule and, of course, cannot stand the touch of indifferent hands. Only a like-minded person can trust your dream.” Images of this kind, like a dream, include a person’s ideals - images that serve him as models of life, behavior, relationships, and activities. An ideal is an image that represents the most valuable and significant personality traits and properties for a given person. The ideal image expresses the tendency of personality development.
Another type of creative imagination is fantasy or daydreaming. Here the desired future is not directly connected with the present. Fantasy images include fairy-tale-fantasy and science-fiction images. Fantasy presents objects and phenomena that do not exist in nature. Both fairy tales and science fiction are the result of creative imagination. But their authors do not see ways to achieve what their imagination depicts.
Every object, no matter how everyday and far from fantasy it may seem, is to one degree or another the result of the work of the imagination. In this sense, we can say that any object made by human hands is a dream come true. The new generation uses the thing that their fathers dreamed of and created. A fulfilled dream creates a new need and gives birth to a new dream. At first, every new achievement seems wonderful, but as it is mastered, people begin to dream of something better, more.
The essence of imagination lies in the ability to notice and highlight specific signs and properties in objects and phenomena and transfer them to other objects. The authors of the textbook “Psychology” (2001) highlight several imagination techniques.
Combination is a combination of individual elements of various images of objects in new, more or less ordinary combinations. Combination is a creative synthesis, and not a simple sum of already known elements, it is a process of significant transformation of the elements from which a new image is built.
A special case of combination is agglutination - a way of creating a new image by connecting, gluing together completely different objects or their properties. For example, a centaur, a dragon, a sphinx - a lion with a human head, or a carpet - an airplane, when the ability to fly was transferred from a bird to another object. This is a fairy-tale image: the conditions under which the carpet could fly are not taken into account. But the very imaginary transfer of the ability of birds to fly to other bodies is justified. Then we studied the flight conditions and made our dream come true - an airplane appeared. Such connections of different objects exist not only in art, but also in technology: trolleybus, snowmobile, amphibious tank, etc.
Accentuation - emphasizing certain features (for example, the image of a giant). This method underlies the creation of caricatures and friendly caricatures (smart - very high forehead, lack of intelligence - low).
Emphasis manifests itself in several specific actions:
1. exaggeration – deliberately emphasizing the features of a person’s external appearance;
2. exaggeration or understatement (Boy Thumb, seven-headed Serpent - Gorynych);
3. typification – generalization and emotional richness of the image. This is the most difficult way to create an image of creative imagination.
Individual characteristics of imagination are determined by:
1) the degree of ease and difficulty with which imagination is generally given to a person;
2) the characteristics of the created image itself: absurdity or an original solution;
3) in which area is the creation of new images brighter and faster (personal orientation).

Figure 1. “Types of imagination”
1.3 Features of imagination in primary school age
A child’s imagination is formed in play and is initially inseparable from the perception of objects and the performance of play actions with them. In children 6-7 years old, the imagination can already rely on objects that are not at all similar to those being replaced. Parents and, especially, grandparents, who so love to give their grandchildren big bears and huge dolls, often unwittingly slow down their development. They deprive them of the joy of independent discovery in games. Most children do not like very naturalistic toys, preferring symbolic, homemade ones that give room to imagination. Children, as a rule, like small and inexpressive toys - they are easier to adapt to different games. Large or “just like real” dolls and animals contribute little to the development of imagination. Children develop more intensively and get much more pleasure if the same stick plays the role of a gun, a horse, and many other functions in various games. L. Kassil’s book “Conduit and Schwambrania” gives a vivid description of children’s attitude towards toys: “The chiseled lacquered figurines presented unlimited possibilities for using them for the most varied and tempting games... Both queens were especially convenient: the blonde and the brunette. Each queen could work for a Christmas tree, a cab driver, a Chinese pagoda, a flower pot on a stand, and a bishop.”
Gradually, the need for external support (even in a symbolic figure) disappears and interiorization occurs - a transition to playful action with an object that does not actually exist, to a playful transformation of the object, to giving it a new meaning and imagining actions with it in the mind, without real action. This is the origin of imagination as a special mental process.
A feature of the imagination of younger schoolchildren, manifested in educational activities, at first is also its reliance on perception (primary image), and not on representation (secondary image). For example, a teacher offers children a task in class that requires them to imagine a situation. It could be the following problem: “A barge was sailing along the Volga and was carrying... kg of watermelons in its holds. There was a rocking motion, and... kg of watermelons burst. How many watermelons are left? Of course, such tasks trigger the process of imagination, but they require special tools (real objects, graphic images, layouts, diagrams), otherwise the child finds it difficult to advance in voluntary actions of imagination. In order to understand what happened in the holds with the watermelons, it is useful to give a cross-sectional drawing of the barge.
In our lessons with children, we often offer children tasks to develop their imagination. In this case, the material that is used in the educational process must be applied in a strictly specified manner. For example, with the help of numbers we suggest imagining anything. To do this, just ask the children the question: “What does a unit look like?” And immediately get answers: “A person who gives flowers,” “A crocodile standing on its hind legs.” And also - on a trampoline, an airplane, a giraffe, a snake... This task gives children the opportunity to see that the same numbers can be very strict, subject to mathematical rules (the line “must”, “the same for everyone”, “correct” ), and at the same time alive, creating their own opportunities (the line “I want”, “not like everyone else”, “great”). Such games with numbers or other educational material not only stimulate the development of imagination, but also serve as a kind of bridge between two types of thinking, abstract-logical and figurative.
The most vivid and free manifestation of the imagination of younger schoolchildren can be observed in play, in drawing, writing stories and fairy tales. In children's creativity, manifestations of imagination are diverse: some recreate real reality, others create new fantastic images and situations. When writing stories, children can borrow plots, stanzas of poems, and graphic images that they know, sometimes without noticing it at all. However, they often deliberately combine well-known plots, create new images, exaggerating certain aspects and qualities of their heroes. The tireless work of imagination is an effective way for a child to learn and assimilate the world around him, an opportunity to go beyond personal practical experience, the most important psychological prerequisite for the development of a creative approach to the world. Often, the activity of imagination underlies the formation of personal qualities that are relevant for a particular child. A. Barto’s poem “On the way to class” serves as an excellent illustration of this last point:
Children often create dangerous, scary situations in their imagination. Experiencing negative tension in the process of creating and deploying imaginative images, controlling the plot, interrupting images and returning to them not only trains the child’s imagination as a voluntary creative activity, but also contains a therapeutic effect. At the same time, when experiencing difficulties in real life, children can retreat into an imaginary world as a defense, expressing doubts and experiences in dreams and fantasies.
Conclusion : thus, imagination is a special form of the human psyche, thanks to which a person creates, intelligently plans his activities and manages them. Imagination is a complex mental process that has several types:
voluntary and involuntary;
re-creative and creative;
dreams and fantasies.
The initial forms of imagination first appear at an early age in connection with the emergence of plot-role-playing games and the development of the sign-symbolic function of consciousness. Further development of imagination occurs in three directions. Firstly, in terms of expanding the range of replaced items and improving the replacement operation itself. Secondly, in terms of improving the operations of the recreating imagination. Thirdly, creative imagination develops. The development of imagination is influenced by all types of activities, and especially drawing, playing, designing, and reading fiction.
The activity of imagination is carried out using the following mechanisms: combination, emphasis, agglutination, hyperbolization, schematization, typification, reconstruction.
Chapter 2. Development of imagination.
2.1 Development of imagination in primary school age.
At primary school age, a child can already create a wide variety of situations in his imagination. Formed in playful substitutions of some objects for others, imagination moves into other types of activity.
In the context of educational activities, special demands are placed on the child’s imagination, which encourage him to perform voluntary acts of imagination. During the lesson, the teacher asks the children to imagine a situation in which certain transformations of objects, images, and signs occur. These educational requirements stimulate the development of imagination, but they need to be reinforced with special tools - otherwise the child will find it difficult to advance in voluntary acts of imagination. These can be real objects, diagrams, layouts, signs, graphic images, etc.
In J. Piaget's experiments, tasks were used in which the subject was required to imagine successive stages of some physical transformation.
The child was shown a rod standing vertically and reinforced at one end, and was asked to imagine (in a drawing, with gestures, etc.) the successive positions that the rod occupies during the fall, moving to a horizontal position. It turned out that children of six or seven years old could not cope with this task.
In another experiment, a child was given a glass with a certain amount of liquid and asked to guess the result of moving the liquid into a glass of a different shape: 1) whether the amount of liquid would be retained; 2) what will be the height of the liquid column in the second glass.
Children as young as six and seven years old made correct predictions about the height of a liquid column and the conservation of its quantity. However, the most interesting stage is the transitional stage, in which the child correctly predicts a change in the level, but then denies the conservation of the amount of fluid.
From similar studies, J. Piaget concluded that imagination undergoes a genesis similar to that of intellectual operations: at first, imagination is static, limited to the internal reproduction of states accessible to perception; As the child develops, the imagination becomes more flexible and mobile, capable of anticipating successive moments of the possible transformation of one state into another.
J. Piaget separates imagination, as he previously did with perception, from intellectual operations; he also distinguishes it from perception. Higher-level imagination develops in conjunction with specific operations, but it cannot be identified with them.
J. Piaget believes that flexible imagination, capable of anticipation, can really help operational thinking, and is even necessary for it. Imagination is most clearly manifested in drawing and writing stories and fairy tales. In younger schoolchildren, as well as in preschoolers, we can observe great variability in the nature of children's creativity: some children recreate real reality, others - fantastic images and situations. Depending on this, children can be divided into realists and dreamers. A child’s special interest may be the fantastic, frightening and attractive world of a fairy tale. Devils, water creatures, goblins, mermaids, sorcerers, fairies, fairy-tale princesses and many other characters of folk art, creatures created by individual imagination, along with completely realistic images of people, determine the content of the mental work and products of a child’s activity. Of course, the content of the child’s drawings depends on the cultural baggage that is determined by the spiritual level of the family and the degree of orientation of the child himself to real or imaginary reality.
By writing all kinds of stories, rhyming “poems,” inventing fairy tales, portraying various characters, children can borrow plots, stanzas of poems, and graphic images known to them, sometimes without noticing it at all. However, often a child deliberately combines well-known plots, creates new images, exaggerating certain aspects and qualities of his heroes. A child, if his speech and imagination are sufficiently developed, if he enjoys reflecting on the meaning and meaning of words, verbal complexes and images of the imagination, can come up with and tell an entertaining story, can improvise, enjoying his improvisation himself and including other people in it.
In the imagination, the child creates dangerous, scary situations when, for example, it is necessary to go to a black, black mountain, climb into the deepest cave and move towards the cherished goal in complete darkness, without reacting to frightening sounds, without fear of repeated echoes, shadows flickering in the gaps , multiple reflections of mysterious mirrors, etc. The main thing is overcoming, finding a friend, reaching the light, hope and joy. Experiencing negative tension in the process of creating and unfolding imaginary situations, controlling the plot, interrupting images and returning to them trains the child’s imagination as a voluntary creative activity.
In addition, imagination can act as an activity that brings therapeutic benefits.
A child, experiencing difficulties in real life, perceiving his personal situation as hopeless, can go into an imaginary world. So, when there is no father and this brings unspeakable pain, in the imagination you can find the most wonderful, most extraordinary - a generous, strong, courageous father. In your imagination, you can even save your father from mortal danger, and then he will not only love you, but also appreciate your courage, resourcefulness and courage. A father-friend is the dream of not only boys, but also girls. Imagination provides a temporary opportunity to relax, free from tension in order to continue living without a father. When peers oppress - beat, threaten with violence, morally humiliate, in the imagination you can create a special world in which a child either solves his problems with his own generosity, reasonable behavior, or turns into an aggressive overlord who cruelly takes revenge on his offenders. It is very important to listen to the child’s statements about his peers who oppress him. What dominates his emotions—sadness, bewilderment about the behavior of the offenders, or aggression? Only by understanding the child’s deep feelings can you try to help him.
When a nervous and unhappy mother constantly breaks down and screams at her child, in your imagination you can meet a good fairy or perform a feat, save your mother from terrible danger. But you can wish your mother death - because she is so unfair...
Imagination, no matter how fantastic it may be in its storyline, is based on the standards of real social space. Having experienced good or aggressive impulses in his imagination, the child can thereby prepare for himself the motivation for future actions.
Imagination, for all its usefulness in preparing for creative activity, can take a child away from the real world, adding morbidity to his mental life.
Imagination can lead a child into a dead end, creating obsessive images that really persistently haunt the child. In this case, special help is required.
As mentioned above, the imaginary images of some children may be close to eidetic images, which have not only brightness and clarity, but also processivity - they can involuntarily change before the child’s inner gaze. At the age of seven to eleven years, the child may still be dependent on emerging images of the imagination, but he can, with some effort, control their appearance and development, encouraging the free flow of visual or sound associations, or interrupt it, depending on his will. Involuntary images of the imagination burden the child; liberation from their spontaneous pressure requires special effort and control.
A child may be tense from involuntarily arising images of the imagination, and sometimes feel unhappy, but he also finds attractive sides from immersion in the spontaneously emerging world of imagination, which for him acts as a different reality than the natural, objective and social world of human relations.
Imagination plays a greater role in the life of a child than in the life of an adult, manifesting itself much more often, and more often allowing for a violation of life reality. The tireless work of imagination is the most important way for a child to learn and master the world around him, a way to go beyond the limits of personal practical experience, the most important psychological prerequisite for the development of creativity and a way to master the normativity of social space, the latter forces the imagination to work directly on the development of personal qualities.
The mental development of a child attending school changes qualitatively due to the demands made by educational activities. The child is now forced to enter into the reality of figurative-sign systems and into the reality of the objective world through constant immersion in situations of solving various educational and life problems.
Main goals that are decided at primary school age:
1) penetration into the secrets of the linguistic, syntactic and other structure of the language;
2) assimilation of the meanings and meanings of verbal signs and independent establishment of their subtle integrative connections;
3) solving mental problems associated with the transformation of the objective world;
4) development of voluntary aspects of attention, memory and imagination;
5) development of imagination as a way to go beyond personal practical experience, as a condition for creativity.
2.2 Diagnosis of the level of imagination development in children of primary school age
The study was carried out on the basis of 2 “A” class (experimental group) and 2 “B” class (control group) of a high school.
The experiment consists of three stages:
– ascertaining;
– formative;
– control.
Target ascertaining experiment - to identify the level of imagination development in younger schoolchildren. To do this, we used methods for diagnosing imagination, based on a generalization of the developmental characteristics of a 6-8 year old child.
A child’s imagination is assessed by the degree of development of his fantasy, which in turn can manifest itself in stories, drawings, crafts and other products of creative activity.
Method 1. “Verbal fantasy” (verbal imagination)
It is necessary to come up with a story (story, fairy tale) about any living creature (person, animal) or something else of the child’s choice and present it orally within 5 minutes. Up to one minute is allotted to come up with a theme or plot for a story (story, fairy tale), and after that the child begins the story.
During the story, the child’s imagination is assessed according to the following criteria:
1. Speed of imagination processes.
2. Unusuality, originality of images.
3. Wealth of imagination.
4. Depth and elaboration (detail) of images.
5. Impressionability, emotionality of images.
For each of these characteristics, the story receives from 0 to 2 points.
0 points are given when this feature is practically absent from the story.
A story receives 1 point if this feature is present, but expressed relatively weakly.
A story earns 2 points when the corresponding feature is not only present, but also expressed quite strongly.
If within 1 minute the child has not come up with a plot for the story, then the experimenter himself suggests some plot to him and gives him 0 points for the speed of imagination. If the child himself came up with the plot of the story by the end of the allotted minute, then for the speed of imagination he receives a score of 1 point. Finally, if the child managed to come up with the plot of the story very quickly, during the first 30 seconds of the allotted time, or if within one minute he came up with not one, but at least two different plots, then according to the “speed of imagination processes” the child is given 2 points.
The unusualness and originality of images is assessed in the following way.
If a child simply retold what he once heard from someone or saw somewhere, then he receives 0 points for this criterion. If a child retells what is known, but at the same time brings something new into it, then the originality of his imagination is assessed at 1 point. Finally, if a child came up with something that he could not see or hear anywhere before, then the originality of his imagination receives a score of 2 points.
The richness of a child’s imagination is also manifested in the variety of images he uses. When assessing this quality of imagination processes, the total number of different living beings, objects, situations and actions, various characteristics and signs attributed to all of this in the child’s story is recorded.
If the total number named exceeds 10, then the child receives 2 points for the richness of imagination. If the total number of parts of the specified type is in the range from 6 to 9, then the child receives 1 point. If there are few signs in the story, but overall no less than 5, then the richness of the child’s imagination is assessed as 0 points.
The depth and elaboration of images are determined by how diversely the story presents details and characteristics related to the image (person, animal, fantastic creature, object, item, etc.) that plays a key role or occupies a central place in the story. Grades are also given here in a three-point system.
A child receives 0 points when the central object of his story is depicted very schematically, without detailed elaboration of its aspects.
1 point is given if, when describing the central object of the story, its detail is moderate.
A child receives 2 points for the depth and elaboration of images if the main image of his story is described in sufficient detail, with many different details characterizing it.
The impressionability or emotionality of images is assessed by whether they arouse interest and emotion in the listener.
If the images used by the child in his story are uninteresting, banal, and do not make an impression on the listener, then according to the criterion under discussion, the child’s fantasy is assessed at 0 points. If the images of the story arouse interest on the part of the listener and some emotional response, but this interest, along with the corresponding reaction, soon fades away, then the impressionability of the child’s imagination receives a score of 1 point. And, finally, if the child used bright, very interesting images, the listener’s attention to which, once aroused, did not fade away and even intensified towards the end, accompanied by emotional reactions such as surprise, admiration, fear, etc., then the impressionability of the story The child is assessed with the highest score - 2.
Thus, the maximum number of points that a child can receive for his imagination in this technique is 10, and the minimum is 0.
Conclusions about the level of development
8-10 points - high.
3 -7 points - average.
0 - 3 points - low.
Method 2. “Drawing” (artistic imagination)
In this technique, the child is offered a standard sheet of paper and markers (at least six different colors). The child is given the task to come up with and draw a picture. 5 minutes are allotted for this.
Analysis of the picture and assessment of the child’s imagination in points is carried out in the same way as the analysis of oral creativity in the previous method, according to the same parameters and using the same protocol.
Method 3. “Sculpture” (arts and applied imagination)
The child is offered a set of plasticine and a task: in 5 minutes, make some kind of craft, sculpting it from plasticine. The child’s imagination is assessed using approximately the same parameters as in previous methods, from 0 to 10 points.
A 0-1 point is given to a child if, during the time allotted for completing the task (5 minutes), he was unable to come up with anything or do anything with his hands.
A child receives 2-3 points when he has invented and sculpted something very simple from plasticine, for example a ball, cube, stick, ring, etc.
A child earns 4-5 points if he has made a relatively simple craft that contains a small number of ordinary parts, no more than two or three.
A child is given 6-7 points if he has come up with something unusual, but at the same time not distinguished by the richness of his imagination.
A child receives 8-9 points when the thing he has invented is quite original, but not worked out in detail.
A child can receive 10 points on this task only if the thing he has invented is very original, worked out in detail and has good artistic taste.
Comments on the method of psychodiagnostics of imagination. The methods of assessing the development of imagination of a child of primary school age through his stories, drawings, and crafts were not chosen by chance. This choice corresponds to the three main types of thinking that a child of this age has: visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical. The child’s imagination is most fully manifested in the corresponding types of creative activity.
Conclusions about the level of development
A score of 8-10 points indicates that the child has the inclinations for that type of activity for which the development of the corresponding type of imagination is essential. That is, the imagination is fully developed.
A score in the range from 4 to 7 points is a sign that, in general, the child has a satisfactorily developed imagination.
A score of 3 or less most often acts as a sign of a child’s unpreparedness for learning in primary school. The imagination is not developed, which greatly complicates the course of learning as a whole.
At the beginning of the experimental work, we conducted a confirmatory experiment. The three methods described in the first paragraph of this section of the course work are taken as a basis.
Table No. I.


Children's name	Age	Methodology № 1	Methodology № 2	Methodology № 3
1.Lisa	8 years 6 months	average	short	high
2. Dima	8 years 4 months	average	average	short
3. Zhenya	8 years	high	average	short
4. Alik	8 years	short	average	short
5. Pasha	8 years	average	average	high
6. Ksyusha	8 years 7 months	short	short	average
7. Dasha M.	8 years 2 months	average	high	short
8. Dasha P	8 years 3 months	high	average	short
9. Albert	8 years 2 months	average	short	high
10.Artem	8 years 4 months	average	average	short

Table No. II.

	High level	Average level	Low level
Method No. 1	20%	60%	20%
Method No. 2	10%	60%	30%
Method No. 3	30%	10%	60%
Average	20%	43%	37%

Thus, the average indicator of the methods performed shows that the level of imagination development of 43% of children has an average level of development, 37% has a low level of development; 20% is a high level.
Methods and techniques for developing creative imagination
Proceeding to the next, developmental stage of the experiment, we will determine the principles for the development of creative thinking in primary schoolchildren:
1. Before starting to develop creative activity in children, they should develop the necessary speech and thinking skills for this.
2. New concepts should be introduced only in familiar content.
3. The content of developmental techniques should be focused on the child’s personality and his interaction with other children.
4. The focus should be on mastering the meaning of the concept, not the rules of grammar.
5. The child should be taught to look for a solution, taking into account, first of all, possible consequences, and not absolute merits.
6. Encourage children to express their own ideas about the problem being solved.
In the developmental experiment, we tried to implement the proposed principles as much as possible in the exercises and games offered to children.
In addition to the tasks used in the ascertaining experiment, junior schoolchildren were offered the following games.
1. Game “Archimedes”.
The goal is to activate the imagination, and thus stimulate the child to learn.
Description: When studying works, children are presented with a number of problems. The guys’ task is to give as many ideas as possible to solve these problems. For example, in a reading lesson while working on a work by L.N. Tolstoy’s “The Lion and the Dog” propose to solve the following problem: How can you calm a lion?; when studying the fairy tale “The Frog Traveler” - How can a fallen frog continue its journey?
The answers of all children as a whole can be characterized as complete, detailed, containing cause-and-effect relationships.
However, Pachkina Dasha and Vestoropsky Zhenya showed the greatest activity in the game. They were characterized by the ability to move away from the “right answer” template and think broadly. Broadness of outlook - good knowledge of the environment and the properties of objects - helped to find original “outputs” and “solutions” in the proposed situations.
Ksyusha, Dima, Artem, Alik experienced difficulties. To enhance their activity during the game and not let them out of sight, they were appointed co-leaders. Their task was to announce situations and evaluate the originality of answers.
2. Game “Inventor”.
The goal is to activate thinking along with fantasy.
Description. This game was used to introduce Russian folk tales. The children were given several tasks, the result of which would be inventions. Fairy tale “Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka” - come up with a fairy-tale spell with the help of which brother Ivanushka, turned into a little goat, will take on a human form. Fairy tale “Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf” - imagine that the wolf got sick and could not help Ivan Tsarevich, come up with a fairytale type of transport on which Ivan Tsarevich would travel. In mathematics lessons, this game was based on searching for an inverse solution to problems with the original condition.
Artem and Alik were in the lead in this game, demonstrating the skill of an inventor and the ability to work with applied materials.
M. Dasha, who among others preferred drawing lessons, depicted invented inventions on paper.
P. Dasha and Zhenya, who were leaders in the first game, successfully continued to complete tasks in this game, but to a greater extent this concerned inventing spells, that is, working with verbal material.
The co-leaders in this game were Lisa, Pasha, Albert, who had not yet shown themselves in any way.
3. Game “Fan”
Purpose - used to develop imagination and combinatorics skills for children of primary school age.
Description: children were offered several cards depicting objects or fairy-tale characters. There is one object on the left, three on the right. In the center, the child must draw three complex objects (fantastic), in which objects from the right and left halves seem to be combined. When studying the works of D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak “The Tale of the Brave Hare - Long Ears, Slanting Eyes, Short Tail” offered an image of a Hare on the left, a wolf, a fox and a bear on the right. Playing with numbers and mathematical symbols in mathematics lessons.
Absolutely everyone participated quite actively in this game. For greater success in completing tasks, we paired the children.
4. Game “Transformations”.
The goal is to develop the child’s ingenuity, that is, imagination combined with creative thinking, to expand the child’s understanding of the world around him.
Description: this game is built on the universal mechanism of children's games - imitation of the functions of an object. For example, children were asked to use facial expressions, pantomimes, and imitation of actions with objects to transform an ordinary object (for example, a hat) into a completely different object with different functions.
Carrying out this game did not cause problems with understanding the task or being active. Each of the children prepared independently and consciously. The game took place in the form of a concert, when each of the participants came to the board and showed the task to everyone.
To improve the classroom environment, desks were moved to the back of the classroom, freeing up space in the center. For greater interest, a jury of school teachers was created. The task of the jury was to determine the main property that was most clearly manifested in the child’s performance. This is how nominations for originality, ingenuity, resourcefulness, etc. arose.
The main nominations were Miss Fantasy and Mister Ingenuity, which went to M. Dasha and Pasha, respectively.
In addition to playing games, exercises were used to develop children's imagination. Let's give examples of them.
1. Let your favorite toy tell the story of your life - soap in the bathroom, an old sofa, an eaten pear.
2. Take an old book that is well known to the child and try together to come up with a new story for the illustrations from it.
3. Offer a new twist on an old fairy tale and let the child continue. For example, Little Red Riding Hood did not tell the wolf where her grandmother's house was and even threatened to call the woodcutter.
4. Find reproductions of paintings whose contents the child does not yet know. Give him the opportunity to express his own version of what was drawn. Perhaps it won't be too far from the truth?
5. Continue the drawing. A simple figure (a figure eight, two parallel lines, a square, triangles standing on top of each other) must be turned into part of a more complex pattern. For example, from a circle you can draw a face, a ball, a car wheel, or glasses. It is better to draw (or offer) options one by one. Who is bigger?
6. "Squiggles." We draw arbitrary squiggles for each other, and then exchange leaves. Whoever turns the squiggle into a meaningful drawing will win.
7. Two people can draw one picture, taking turns making several strokes.
8. You can paint with paints not only with a brush. You can paint with your finger, paint can be sprayed through a juice straw, or dripped from a brush directly onto a sheet. The main thing is, after the paint has dried, take a closer look, try to see the plot and complete the drawing. What does that big green blob look like?
9. "Non-existent animal." If the existence of hammerhead fish or pipefish is scientifically proven, then the existence of thimblefish is not excluded. Let the child fantasize: “What does a panfish look like? What does a scissorfish eat and how can a magnet fish be used?”
10. Imagination is also useful when jokingly discussing serious topics. What is bad and what is good about snowfall? How can you use ice? What is the use of a mosquito?
The exercises were used as a warm-up during each lesson. Moreover, each new lesson was accompanied by a new exercise. Using the principle of novelty, we tried to stimulate children's interest in developing their imagination.
Control experiment
At the end of the formative experiment, we conducted a control experiment in which we used the same diagnostic techniques based on a generalization of the developmental features of the mental operations of a 6-8 year old child.
The results of the control experiment differ somewhat from the results of the ascertaining experiment. Let us present the results of each method.
Table No. III. high
average
average
3.Zhenya
8 years
high
average
average
4. Alik
8 years
high
average
average
5. Pasha
8 years
average
high
high
6. Ksyusha
8 years 7 months
average
high
average
7.M.Dasha
8 years 2 months
high
high
average
8.P. Dasha
8 years 3 months
high
average
average
9.Albert
8 years 2 months
average
high
average
10.Artem
8 years 4 months
average
high
average
As a result, using three methods, the results reflected in Table No. II were obtained.
80%
-
Average
43%
57%
-
Conclusions and offers
As can be seen from the results reflected in Table No. VI, there is no low level of imagination development. The indicator of a high level of imagination development increased by 23%, and the average level of imagination development increased by 14%.
Based on the data obtained, we can conclude that the effectiveness of the system we used is quite effective, since we can trace the dynamics of growth in the level of development of creative imagination in children of primary school age. Thus, the hypothesis of our study was confirmed.
At the end of the experiment, we made the following recommendations for developing imagination in primary schoolchildren:
1. During the learning process, give tasks to “come up with” non-standard solutions to standard situations, and this can happen, as the experiment showed, in any lesson, starting with literature and ending with works, drawing and physical education.
2. Periodically conduct extracurricular activities, a component of which is certainly a creative approach. Moreover, when voicing tasks, initially emphasize the need for imagination and fantasy.
3. To spend quality time during recess, we recommend using imagination exercises. At the end of the week, we can sum up the most “tireless” and “original” dreamer.
4. At the same time, you can allow children to invent and carry out “their own” games and exercises to develop their imagination.
5. You can also involve children of this class in introductory work on the development of imagination in children in other (parallel) classes.

CONCLUSION
Imagination is the ability, inherent only in humans, to create new images (ideas) by processing previous experience. Imagination is the highest mental function and reflects reality. However, with the help of imagination, a mental departure beyond the limits of what is directly perceived is carried out. Its main task is to present the expected result before its implementation.
Imagination and fantasy are inherent in every person, and these qualities are especially inherent in children. Indeed, the ability to create something new and unusual is laid down in childhood, through the development of higher mental functions, which include imagination. It is the development of imagination that needs to be given attention in raising a child between the ages of five and twelve. Scientists call this period sensitive, that is, the most favorable for the development of a child’s cognitive functions.
There is no doubt that imagination and fantasy are the most important aspects of our lives. If people did not possess these functions, humanity would have lost almost all scientific discoveries and works of art, children would not have heard fairy tales and would not have been able to play many games, and would not have been able to master the school curriculum. After all, any learning is associated with the need to imagine, imagine, and operate with abstract images and concepts. All artistic activity is based on active imagination. This function provides the child with a new, unusual view of the world. It promotes the development of abstract-logical memory and thinking, enriches individual life experience.
But, unfortunately, the primary school curriculum in a modern school provides an insufficient number of methods, training techniques, and exercises for developing the imagination.
It has been proven that imagination is closely connected with other mental processes (memory, thinking, attention, perception) that serve educational activities. Thus, by not paying enough attention to the development of imagination, primary teachers reduce the quality of teaching.
In the experimental work we carried out, we clearly proved the need to diagnose creative imagination in younger schoolchildren, and also showed the results of a formative experiment that fully confirmed the hypothesis of the course work that if you use a system of exercises to develop creative thinking, its level will increase significantly and in the future will contribute to an increase in overall level of learning of younger schoolchildren.

LIST OF SOURCES USED
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etc.................

Studying creative imagination in primary schoolchildren

Introduction

CHAPTER 1. The state of the problem of creative imagination of junior schoolchildren in psychological literature

1 The essence of the concept of creative imagination in modern psychology

2 Features of the mental development of younger schoolchildren

3 Features of the development of creative imagination in younger schoolchildren

Conclusions on chapter 1

CHAPTER 2. Empirical study of creative imagination in primary schoolchildren

2.1 Organization of the study

2 Analysis and interpretation of research results

Conclusions and suggestions for Chapter 2

Conclusion

Bibliography

Application

Introduction

In the 21st century, in the new socio-economic conditions, the importance of education is increasingly increasing, and the requirements for the development of a creative personality, who must have flexible productive thinking and a developed active imagination, are increasing to solve the most complex problems that life poses.

The problem of studying the characteristics of the development of creative abilities, in particular, imagination in children of primary school age lies in socio-cultural conditions, which is relevant in modern conditions, when there is a process of continuous reform, radical changes in all social institutions, the ability to think outside the box, creatively solve problems, design the intended end result takes on special significance. A creatively thinking person is able to solve the tasks assigned to him faster and more economically, overcome difficulties more effectively, set new goals, provide himself with greater freedom of choice and action, that is, ultimately, organize his activities most effectively in solving the problems set before him by society. It is a creative approach to business that is one of the conditions for nurturing an active life position of an individual.

Problems of creativity and imagination have been widely developed in Russian psychology. Currently, there is an active search for an integral indicator that characterizes a creative personality. A great contribution to the development of problems of abilities and creative imagination was made by psychologists such as B.M. Teplov, S.L. Rubinstein, B.G. Ananyev, N.S. Leites, V.A. Krutetsky, A.G. Kovalev, K.K. Platonov, A.M. Matyushkin, V.D. Shadrikov, Yu.D. Babaeva, V.N. Druzhinin, I.I. Ilyasov, V.I. Panov, I.V. Kalish, M.A. Kholodnaya, N.B. Shumakova, V.S. Yurkevich.

Purpose of the study:studying the characteristics of the development of creative imagination in first and fourth graders.

Object of study:children of primary school age.

Subject of research:creative imagination of primary school children.

Tasks:

-identify the state of the problem of creative imagination in younger schoolchildren in the psychological literature;

-reveal the concept of creative imagination and study the patterns of its development;

-to explore the development of creative imagination in primary schoolchildren.

Research methods:diagnostic experiment

Research base: MBOU "ONSH No. 2", students of 1st and 4th grades in the amount of 21 people.

The structure of the course work. The course work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, a list of references and an appendix.

The introduction substantiates the relevance of the course work, formulates goals and objectives, and defines the object and subject. The first chapter contains information about the characteristics of creative imagination in primary schoolchildren. The second chapter describes the results of the ascertaining experiment.

The course work is presented on 53 pages. The list of references includes 23 sources. The application consists of 1 technique.

Chapter 1. The state of the problem of creative imagination of junior schoolchildren in psychological literature

.1 The essence of the concept of creative imagination in modern psychology

Defining imagination and identifying the specifics of its development is one of the most difficult problems in psychology. According to A.Ya. Dudetsky (1974), there are about 40 different definitions of imagination, but the question of its essence and difference from other mental processes is still debatable. So, A.V. Brushlinsky (1969) rightly notes the difficulties in defining imagination and the vagueness of the boundaries of this concept. He believes that “Traditional definitions of imagination as the ability to create new images actually reduce this process to creative thinking, to operating with ideas and conclude that this concept is generally redundant - at least in modern science.”

L.S. Vygotsky believes that “Imagination does not repeat impressions that were accumulated before, but builds some new series from previously accumulated impressions. Thus, introducing something new into our impressions and changing these impressions so that as a result a new, previously non-existent image appears, forms the basis of that activity that we call imagination.”

In the textbook “General Psychology” A.G. Maklakov provides the following definition of imagination: “Imagination is the process of transforming ideas that reflect reality, and creating new ideas on this basis.”

In the textbook “General Psychology” V.M. Kozubovsky contains the following definition. “Imagination is the mental process of a person creating in his mind an image of an object (subject, phenomenon) that does not exist in real life. The product of imagination can be:

The image of the final result of real objective activity;

A picture of one’s own behavior in conditions of complete information uncertainty;

An image of a situation that resolves problems that are relevant to a given person, the real overcoming of which is not possible in the near future.”

Imagination is a necessary element of human creative activity, expressed in constructing an image of the products of labor and ensuring the creation of a program of behavior in cases where the problem situation is also characterized by uncertainty. Depending on the various circumstances that characterize a problem situation, the same problem can be solved both with the help of imagination and with the help of thinking.

From this we can conclude that the imagination works at that stage of cognition when the uncertainty of the situation is very great. Fantasy allows you to “jump” over some stages of thinking and still imagine the end result.

Imagination and thinking are intertwined in such a way that it can be difficult to separate them; both of these processes are involved in any creative activity; creativity is always subordinated to the creation of something new, unknown. Operating with existing knowledge in the process of fantasy presupposes its mandatory inclusion in systems of new relationships, as a result of which new knowledge can arise. From here we can see: “...the circle closes... Cognition (thinking) stimulates the imagination (creating a transformation model), which (the model) is then verified and refined by thinking,” writes A.D. Dudetsky.

Let's consider the types of active imagination outlined by L.D. Stolyarenko.

Active imagination is always aimed at solving a creative or personal problem. A person operates with fragments, units of specific information in a certain area, their movement in various combinations relative to each other. In an active imagination there is little daydreaming and “groundless” fantasy. Active imagination is directed to the future and operates with time as a well-defined category (that is, a person does not lose his sense of reality, does not place himself outside of temporary connections and circumstances). Active imagination is directed more outward, a person is mainly occupied with the environment, society, activities and less with internal subjective problems. Active imagination, finally, is awakened by a task and directed by it; it is determined by volitional efforts and is amenable to volitional control.

Using this type of imagination, a person consciously sets himself the task of inventing something and then fulfills it. True, a person, engaging in the process of active imagination, does not have an exact idea in advance of what he will ultimately imagine or invent: the image of his fantasy is born in the course and as a result of the corresponding process, and is unknown to its creator in detail until then until this image is created by himself. Moreover, the person creating it does not know in advance where and where his creative process will stop. This is how, for example, writers, artists, engineers, scientists, and representatives of other creative professions work. This type of imagination is called active because at any moment in time, creating an appropriate image, a person can introduce something new, stop, that is, he is able to control this process or stop it of his own free will.

One of the types of active imagination is reconstructive imagination, in which new images and ideas are constructed in people in accordance with externally perceived stimulation in the form of verbal messages, diagrams, conventional images, signs, etc. This type of imagination is widely used in various types of human practice. The usual structure for using the reconstructive imagination is as follows: someone tells how to find the right house in an unfamiliar area of the city and describes in detail the complex route to follow. When perceiving words, images, their systems corresponding to the description of the street, signs, and landmarks appear. The appearance of the described places is represented with greater or less accuracy.

The degree to which the resulting images correspond to reality will depend on the accuracy and imagery of the description, as well as on the brightness and richness of the listener’s recreating imagination.

More complex types of reconstructive imagination, such as the imagination of drawings, geographical maps, musical notations, and the perception of literary works, require special training, knowledge and skills.

Soviet psychologist O.I. Nikiforova noted that the reconstructive imagination of different people is not developed to the same extent (differences in training, life experience, individual characteristics). She identifies four types of literary reconstructive imagination.

.The weakest imagination. When reading a description of a landscape, such subjects did not awaken their imagination at all, they did not have visual ideas about the landscape, they could retell the content of what they read only in a general form.

2.Subjects may have ideas, but they do not correspond to the text to one degree or another. The complex process of recreating an artistic image is replaced by the process of concretizing their personal, individual memories, more or less similar to the image of the description.

.Persons of this type had to analyze the text in detail. When reading, they had memories that did not correspond to the text, but unlike the subjects of the second group, they always checked these memories based on the analysis of the text and tried, through conscious alteration, to recreate the images as the writer depicted them. The main quality of subjects of this type is that they clearly identified the differences between the image of a literary description of a landscape and their memories. The subjects were able to recreate in their imagination an image of a landscape based on its description, even if they had never seen this or a similar landscape before in their lives.

.Complete adaptation of the imagination to the originality of artistic descriptions and complete subordination of figurative processes to a deep and accurate analysis of the text. For such readers, as O.I. writes. Nikiforova: “immediately, as the reading progresses, ideas arise that correspond to the image of the landscape created by the writer. They did not observe any noticeable operations of the imagination, no alterations in representation.” The images appeared by themselves as I read the text. These subjects simply “saw” the images. The peculiarities of this type are that images appeared immediately without indirect recollection of past impressions.

But figurative reconstruction depends not only on the ability to recreate the imagination, on the level of knowledge, but also on the stylistic features of the description.

As studies have shown, it is easier for a person to recreate an image with a synthetic description, and the image itself will be more correct.

The next type of active imagination is anticipatory imagination.

Anticipatory imagination underlies a very important and necessary human ability - to anticipate future events, foresee the results of one’s actions, etc. Etymologically, the word “anticipate” is closely related and comes from the same root with the word “see,” which shows the importance of understanding the situation and transferring certain elements of it into the future based on knowledge or predicting the logic of the development of events.

Anticipatory imagination is internally connected with the structure of any human activity. Animals have more primitive and simpler forms of this type of imagination. The roots of anticipatory imagination go to the sphere of vital adaptive mechanisms of the brain, which are based on the principle of anticipatory reflection of reality, that is, adaptation to future events that have not yet occurred. Without these mechanisms, not a single living creature could exist for even a minute. This is a universal phenomenon of life, which largely determined all forms of adaptive behavior of living matter. The highest manifestation of this principle is the activity of anticipatory imagination in its specific human forms: dreams, anticipation of events, anticipation of the consequences of one’s actions, etc.

Like other types of imagination, anticipatory draws “building” materials from memory reserves, from knowledge of the past and present, from an understanding of the logic of the development of certain events. Thanks to anticipatory imagination, a person organizes his activities based not only on his personal experience, but using the experience of other people and all of humanity.

In a new and unknown situation, a person cannot help but resort to trial and error. Anticipatory imagination helps to mentally perform a series of actions, explore proposed behavior options, possible consequences, on the basis of which a person can slow down and postpone some and activate other actions. A person does not need to jump from the twentieth floor to know how dangerous such a fall is. On the contrary, the idea of one’s own fall from a height and the fear associated with it (which, by the way, is a very common motive in dreams), as well as an imaginary picture of possible consequences - damage, injury, fractures, death, etc. - keep many people from the temptation to climb trees and roofs, and cause a seemingly unfounded fear of heights.

Thus, thanks to this ability, a person can “with his mind’s eye” see what will happen to him, other people or surrounding things in the future. F. Lersch called this the Promethean (looking forward) function of the imagination, which depends on the magnitude of the life perspective: the younger the person, the more and more clearly the forward orientation of his imagination is represented. In older and older people, the imagination is more focused on events of the past. This situation, arising in the imagination, can be designated as an “as if” situation. By accepting a certain social or personal role in such a situation, a person checks the reliability of his knowledge about himself, as well as about his “ecology,” that is, about the immediate environment and the people around him. The hypotheses put forward are tested in practice. Some of them are rejected as inadequate and inconsistent with reality, others, confirmed by experience, are recognized as correct, and new ones are built on their example.

The success of forecasting and the correspondence of the expected results to the actual ones will depend on how objective the material of the anticipatory imagination is and corresponds to reality. The degree of plausibility of the assumption will depend on the extent to which the hypothesis takes into account known factors and laws of nature and human society, and also whether this hypothesis contradicts established laws. Strengthening the function of active imagination can be especially useful for a person searching for a solution to a scientific problem.

Another type of active imagination is creative imagination.

Creative imagination is a type of imagination during which a person independently creates new images and ideas that are valuable for other people or for society as a whole and which are embodied (“crystallized”) into specific original products of activity. Creative imagination is a necessary component and basis of all types of human creative activity. Depending on the subject to which the imagination is directed, scientific, artistic, and technological imagination are distinguished. An example of creative imagination in science, for example, are peculiar image-concepts in which a certain concept appears in a visual form. In chemistry, this is the formula of a substance, that is, a specific image in the form of a picture gives a complete description of a given substance, indicates the order of connections of atoms in a molecule and the structure of their arrangement in space. In physics it is a visual model of the structure of an atom, in biology it is a model, an image of a protein molecule, etc.

Images of creative imagination are created through various techniques and intellectual operations. In the structure of creative imagination, two types of such intellectual operations are distinguished. The first is the operations through which ideal images are formed, and the second is the operations on the basis of which the finished product is processed. One of the first psychologists to study these processes was T. Ribot. In his book The Creative Imagination, he identified two main operations: dissociation and association. Dissociation is a negative and preparatory operation during which sensory experience is fragmented. As a result of such preliminary processing of experience, its elements are able to enter into a new combination.

Dissociation is a spontaneous operation; it already manifests itself in perception. Association is the creation of a holistic image from elements of isolated units of images.

Traditionally identified operations of creative imagination, or so-called imagination algorithms, were observed: agglutination, hyperbolization, sharpening, schematization, typification. Important conditions for creative imagination are its purposefulness, that is, the conscious accumulation of scientific information or artistic experience, the construction of a specific strategy, the anticipation of expected results; prolonged “immersion” in the problem.

Let's consider the second main type of imagination - passive imagination.

Of greatest interest is the work of E. Bleuler “Autistic Thinking” (1927), which provides a detailed and in-depth analysis of passive imagination. In subsequent years (30-60s) only a few studies appeared, which obviously reflects a certain decline in interest in the study of this mental function. Recently, in connection with the development of psychology, the situation has begun to change, but unresolved problems of the significance of the pathology of the imagination in the pathogenesis of neuroses, neurotic states and psychoses remain relevant.

Passive imagination is subject to internal, subjective factors; it is tendentious. “It reflects the fulfillment of desires and aspirations, removes obstacles and turns the impossible into the possible and real. The goal is achieved due to the fact that a path is paved for associations that correspond to the aspiration, while associations that contradict the aspiration are inhibited, i.e. thanks to a mechanism that depends, as we know, on the influence of affects” (Bleuler). Bleuler attaches the most important role in passive imagination to efficiency, which acts as a tendency.

Passive imagination is subordinated to desires, which are thought to be realized in the process of fantasy. In the images of passive imagination, the unsatisfied, mostly unconscious needs of the individual are “satisfied”. Images and ideas of passive imagination, as E. Bleuler emphasizes, are aimed at strengthening and preserving positively colored emotions and at repressing and reducing negative emotions and affects. At the same time, a person can take into account the requirements of reality.

Logic, which reflects the real relationships of reality, cannot serve as a guiding principle for passive imagination. In the dynamics of fantasy images, various desires and tendencies of the individual can coexist, regardless of whether they contradict each other or not.

If in the process of realistic thinking, Bleuler believes, in actions and statements a large number of drives, desires and needs are ignored, suppressed as undesirable in favor of what is subjectively more important, then in the images of passive imagination all this can receive its vivid expression. It is unlikely that a well-mannered, reasonable and cautious person will show his disagreement with the unfair and offensive actions of his boss too aggressively. But in the mental assessment that the imagination, “warmed up” by the desire for revenge, draws, this same boss can be subjected to the most sarcastic, destructive criticism from a subordinate. He can even be physically destroyed, trampled, crushed in the fantasies of a daydreaming person, and this brings him great satisfaction and compensates for the offense. The suppressed desire to respond to the offender comes to the fore in the passive imagination with particular force.

It is unreacted desires, interruption of actions that have begun or are still planned, the inability to act due to an insurmountable obstacle, the collapse of plans - all this, subjectively experienced as a state of frustration, is the main activator of passive imagination. And so fantasy creates images that are substitutes for satisfaction not received in real activity. During the processes of passive imagination, unreal, imaginary satisfaction of any need or desire occurs. In this, passive imagination differs from realistic thinking, which is aimed at real, and not imaginary, satisfaction of needs. Images of the imagination can be completely independent of reality, which in extreme cases leads to the creation of absolute nonsense, completely incomprehensible to others.

Passive imagination is governed by two principles:

) every affect strives to be maintained. It paves the way for the ideas corresponding to it, gives them an exaggerated logical value, and also inhibits the emergence of contradictory ideas, depriving them of their inherent meaning. Thus, a cheerful person assimilates cheerful ideas much more easily than sad ones, and vice versa.

According to L.S. Vygotsky, images of active creative or practical imagination can be conveyed (crystallized) in a verbal message or in a creative work. In most cases, the products of passive imagination are images that are difficult to convey in verbal form, abstract, symbolic, random, incomprehensible to others and therefore uncommunicable.

Passive imagination can use the first available, even erroneous, material, devoid of any logical connection, for example, associations by consonance, random coincidences of any images and ideas, the use of one concept instead of another, which has only minor common components with the first, etc.

In the process of passive imagination, time relations are ignored. In fantasy images, Bleuler notes, there live aspirations that were eliminated from consciousness decades ago: memories that have become inaccessible to realistic functions are used in the passive imagination as recent, and they are often given preference because they encounter less contradiction with actual reality . It is interesting that more accurate, complete and professional knowledge about the subject of dreams and daydreams significantly slows down the process of fantasizing and becomes an obstacle.

Ignoring “reality” in the process of passive imagination, as E. Bleuler writes, lies in the fact that logical laws turn out to be valid for the material of thoughts only insofar as they can serve the main goal, i.e. depicting unfulfilled desires as fulfilled. Contradictions concerning the content of thoughts are even more crude and numerous than affective contradictions.

Passive imagination has a subjective side associated with the individual personal characteristics of a person (in particular, with his dominant cerebral hemisphere, type of nervous system, characteristics of thinking, etc.). In this regard, people differ in:

The brightness of images (from the phenomena of a clear “vision” of images to the poverty of ideas);

According to the depth of processing of images of reality in the imagination (from complete unrecognizability of the imaginary image to primitive differences from the real original);

According to the type of dominant channel of imagination (for example, by the predominance of auditory or visual images of the imagination).

Thus, the analysis of scientific literature on the problem of imagination development showed that many scientists believe that imagination and identifying the specifics of its development is one of the most difficult problems in psychology.

Imagination is a special form of the human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory.

Imagination can be of four main types: active imagination - characterized by the fact that, using it, a person, at his own request, by force of will, evokes appropriate images in himself.

The main aspects in the study of imagination are the cognitive function of imagination and the creative productive ability of imagination. Creative imagination is a necessary component of human creative activity.

1.2 Features of the mental development of younger schoolchildren

Junior school age (from 6-7 to 9-10 years) is determined by an important external circumstance in the child’s life - entering school.

Recently, a number of studies have appeared on this age. The results of the study can be schematically expressed as follows: a 7-year-old child is distinguished, first of all, by the loss of childish spontaneity. The immediate cause of children's spontaneity is insufficient differentiation of internal and external life. The child’s experiences, his desires and expression of desires, i.e. behavior and activity usually represent an insufficiently differentiated whole in a preschooler. The most significant feature of the seven-year-old crisis is usually called the beginning of differentiation between the internal and external aspects of the child’s personality.

Experiences acquire meaning (an angry child understands that he is angry), thanks to this, the child develops such new relationships with himself that were impossible before the generalization of experiences. Just like on a chessboard, when with each move completely new connections arise between the pieces, so here completely new connections arise between experiences when they acquire a certain meaning. Consequently, by the age of 7, the entire nature of a child’s experiences is rebuilt, just as a chessboard is rebuilt when a child learns to play chess.

Thus, when initially entering school life, a child undergoes a significant psychological restructuring. He acquires some important habits of the new regime, establishes trusting relationships with the teacher and comrades, and forms a self-esteem for his activities. Based on the emerging interests in the content of the educational material, he develops a positive attitude towards learning. The further development of these interests and the dynamics of the attitude of younger schoolchildren to learning depend on the process of formation of their educational activities.

1.3 Features of the development of creative imagination in primary schoolchildren

The first images of a child’s imagination are associated with the processes of perception and his play activities.

The school period is characterized by rapid development of imagination, due to the intensive process of acquiring diverse knowledge and its use in practice.

Senior preschool and primary school age are characterized by activation of the imagination function. First, recreating (which allowed one to imagine fairy-tale images at an earlier age), and then creative (thanks to which a fundamentally new image is created). This period is sensitive for the formation of fantasy. Younger schoolchildren carry out most of their active activities with the help of imagination.

Individual characteristics of imagination are clearly manifested in the creative process. In this area of human activity, imagination is placed on a par with thinking in importance. It is important that for the development of imagination it is necessary to create conditions for a person in which freedom of action, independence, initiative, and looseness are manifested.

At primary school age, the active development of the recreating imagination occurs.

The main trend emerging in the development of children's imagination is the transition to an increasingly correct and complete reflection of reality, the transition from a simple arbitrary combination of ideas to a logically reasoned combination. If a 3-4 year old child is content to depict an airplane with two sticks placed crosswise, then at 7-8 years old he already needs an external resemblance to an airplane (“so that there are wings and a propeller”). A schoolchild at the age of 11-12 often constructs a model himself and demands that it be even more similar to a real airplane (“so that it looks and flies just like a real one”).

Amendments to the situation and images made by children of primary school age during the game give the game and the images themselves imaginary features that bring them closer and closer to reality.

Ruzskaya A.G. notes that children of primary school age are not devoid of fantasy, which is at odds with reality, which is even more typical for schoolchildren (cases of children's lies, etc.). “Fantasizing of this kind still plays a significant role and occupies a certain place in the life of a primary school student. But, nevertheless, it is no longer a simple continuation of the fantasy of a preschooler, who himself believes in his fantasy as in reality. A 9-10 year old schoolchild already understands the “conventionality” of his fantasy, its discrepancy with reality.”

In the minds of a junior schoolchild, concrete knowledge and fascinating fantastic images built on its basis coexist peacefully. With age, the role of fantasy, divorced from reality, weakens, and the realism of children's imagination increases. However, the realism of children's imagination, in particular, the imagination of a primary school student, must be distinguished from another of its features, close, but fundamentally different.

Realism of the imagination involves the creation of images that do not contradict reality, but are not necessarily a direct reproduction of everything perceived in life.

According to research by L.S. Vygotsky, a child of preschool age and primary school can imagine much less than an adult, but he trusts the products of his imagination more and controls them less, and therefore imagination in the everyday, cultural sense of the word, i.e. A child, of course, has more of something that is unreal and fictitious than an adult. However, not only the material from which the imagination is built is poorer in a child than in an adult, but also the nature of the combinations that are added to this material, their quality and variety are significantly inferior to the combinations of an adult. Of all the forms of connection with reality that we listed above, the child’s imagination, to the same extent as the adult’s, possesses only the first, namely the reality of the elements from which it is built.

Mukhina V.S. notes that at primary school age a child can already create a wide variety of situations in his imagination. Formed in playful substitutions of some objects for others, imagination moves into other types of activity.

Along with a decrease in a person’s ability to fantasize, the personality becomes impoverished, the possibilities of creative thinking decrease, interest in art, science, and so on fades away.

However, fantasy, like any form of mental reflection, must have a positive direction of development. It should contribute to better knowledge of the world around us, self-discovery and self-improvement of the individual, and not develop into passive daydreaming, replacing real life with dreams. To accomplish this task, it is necessary to help the child use his imagination in the direction of progressive self-development, to enhance the cognitive activity of schoolchildren, in particular the development of theoretical, abstract thinking, attention, speech and creativity in general. Children of primary school age love to engage in artistic creativity. It allows the child to reveal his personality in the most complete and free form. All artistic activity is based on active imagination and creative thinking. These functions provide the child with a new, unusual view of the world.

Thus, the importance of imagination in the life and activities of a primary school student is very great. Not a single school subject can be fully mastered without the activity of the imagination. Younger schoolchildren carry out most of their active activities with the help of imagination. Their games are the fruit of wild imagination; they are enthusiastically engaged in creative activities. The psychological basis of the latter is also creative imagination. When, in the process of studying, children are faced with the need to comprehend abstract material and they need analogies and support in the face of a general lack of life experience, the child’s imagination also comes to the aid.

Chapter summary:So, we examined the concept of imagination, types and features of its development, features of the mental development of younger schoolchildren and features of the development of creative imagination in younger schoolchildren.

In this regard, the following conclusions can be drawn: imagination is a special form of the human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory.

Imagination can be of four main types:

Active imagination is characterized by the fact that, using it, a person, of his own free will, by an effort of will, evokes in himself the appropriate images.

Passive imagination lies in the fact that its images arise spontaneously, regardless of the will and desire of a person. Passive imagination can be unintentional or intentional.

There is also a distinction between reproductive, or reproductive, and transformative, or productive, imagination.

The importance of imagination in primary school age is the highest and necessary human ability. And it develops especially intensively between the ages of 5 and 15 years. And if this period of imagination is not specifically developed, then a rapid decrease in the activity of this function occurs.

individual creative imagination schoolboy

Chapter 2. Empirical study of creative imagination in primary schoolchildren

.1 Organization of the study

We conducted an experimental study, the purpose of which was to study the characteristics of the development of the imagination of primary schoolchildren.

Junior schoolchildren - 1st grade and 4th grade students of MBOU "ONSH No. 2" - took part in the study. Number of participants - 21 people.

The experiment consisted of one stage - ascertaining.

Purpose the ascertaining experiment was to identify the level

development of imagination in younger schoolchildren. To do this, I used the Methodology for studying the characteristics of imagination based on the Torrance “Incomplete Figures” test.

This technique allows us to sufficiently fully study the features of children’s creative imagination and trace the specifics of this process. From the point of view of E. Torrance, the activity of creative imagination begins with the emergence of sensitivity to problems, shortcomings, disharmony, etc., i.e. in conditions of shortage of external information. In this case, the figures to be completed and the corresponding instructions provoke the emergence of such sensitivity and create the opportunity for a multi-valued solution to the task. According to the terminology of E. Torrance, difficulties are identified, guesses arise or hypotheses are formed regarding missing elements, these hypotheses are tested and rechecked, and their possible implementation occurs, which manifests itself in the creation of diverse drawings.

This technique activates the activity of the imagination, revealing one of its main properties - seeing the whole before the parts. The child perceives the figures proposed in the test as parts of some wholes and completes and reconstructs them.

Children are given a test form and detailed instructions.

The form looks like this:

Torrance test form

Last name, first name

Finish the drawing

Unfinished figures are drawn on these two pages (Appendix 1). If you add additional lines to them, you will get interesting objects or plot pictures.

You have 10 minutes to complete this task. Try to come up with a picture or story that no one else can come up with. Make it complete and interesting, add new ideas to it.

Come up with an interesting name for each picture and write it below the picture.

Procedure

Preparing for testing

In preparation for the study, we fully complied with all necessary procedures: we read the instructions and carefully thought through all aspects of the work. The tests do not allow any changes or additions, as this changes the reliability and validity of the test indicators.

During the study, whenever possible, the use of the words “test”, “exam”, “check” was avoided in all explanations and instructions. If the need arose, they used the words: “exercises,” “drawings,” “pictures,” etc. During testing, we strived to create a friendly and calm atmosphere of warmth, comfort, trust, encourage the imagination and curiosity of children, stimulate the search for alternative answers, avoiding the creation of an anxious and tense environment of examination, testing, and competition. The testing took place in the form of an exciting game, as this is very important for achieving reliable and objective results.

All students were provided with test assignments, pencils or pens. Everything unnecessary was removed. The experimenter had instructions, a sample test, and a watch and stopwatch.

Group sizes ranged from 10 and 11 people. During testing, the child sat at a table with an assistant experimenter. When testing younger schoolchildren, we had a sufficient number of assistants to help with the preparation of captions for the pictures.

Test execution time is 10 minutes. Along with preparation, reading instructions, handing out worksheets, etc., 15-20 minutes were allotted for testing.

Before handing out the activity sheets, the children were explained what they would be doing, aroused their interest in the activities, and created motivation to complete them. For this purpose, an example text was used, allowing for various modifications depending on specific conditions: “Guys! It seems to me that you will greatly enjoy the work ahead of you. This work will help us find out how well you can invent new things and solve different problems. You will need all your imagination and ability to think. I hope you let your imagination run wild and enjoy it."

Since a figure test had already been conducted with 4th grade students, this was explained to the students as follows: “We want to find out how your ability to come up with new things, your imagination and ability to solve problems has changed. You know that we measure our height and weight at certain intervals to find out how much we have grown and gained weight. We do the same thing to see how your abilities have changed. It's important that this is an accurate measurement, so try your best."

Instructions for test tasks

After preliminary instructions, the children were given sheets of tasks and it was checked that each subject indicated the last name, first name and date in the appropriate column. Younger schoolchildren were given assistance in entering this information - the data was entered in advance and the children were given sheets with the fields already filled in.

After these preparations, we began reading the following instructions: “You have to complete exciting tasks. They all require your imagination to come up with new ideas and combine them in different ways. When completing each task, try to come up with something new and unusual that no one else in your group (class) can come up with. Then try to complement and complete your idea so that you get an interesting story-picture.

The time to complete the task is limited, so try to use it well. Work quickly, but take your time. If you have any questions, silently raise your hand and I will come to you and give the necessary clarifications.”

The test item was formulated as follows: “There are unfinished figures drawn on these two pages. If you add additional lines to them, you will get interesting objects or plot pictures. You have 10 minutes to complete this task. Try to come up with a picture or story that no one else can come up with. Make it complete and interesting, add new ideas to it. Come up with an interesting title for each picture and write it below the picture.”

If students were worried that they would not be able to complete an assignment on time, they were reassured by saying something like, “You all work differently. Some people manage to draw all the drawings very quickly, and then return to them and add some details. Others manage to draw only a few, but from each drawing they create very complex stories. Continue to work the way you like best, the way that’s most convenient for you.”

This instruction was presented strictly according to the text, without allowing any changes. Even minor modifications to the instructions require re-standardization and validation of the test.

If the children did not ask questions after the instructions, they proceeded to complete the task. If the instructions raised questions, they tried to answer them by repeating the instructions in words that were more understandable to them. As recommended, we have not provided examples or illustrations of possible sample answers, as this reduces the originality and, in some cases, the overall number of answers.

Although the instructions indicated that the items included two pages, some children missed this fact and did not detect the second page. Therefore, we had to specifically remind the children about the second page with tasks.

Time was monitored using a stopwatch. After 10 minutes, the tasks were stopped and the sheets were collected. If the children were unable to write names for their drawings, we asked them for these names immediately after testing. Assistants helped with this.

.2 Analysis and interpretation of research results

When analyzing the drawings, we took into account the personal style of the person being tested, the variety of associations demonstrated, the novelty of ideas and the principles of their creative implementation; minimal attention was paid to the “professional” technique of artistic design of drawings.

An important condition for high test reliability is a careful study of the test indicator evaluation index and the use of the given standards as the basis for judgments.

The measurement procedure assumes:

A clear understanding of the concept of creative thinking by P. Torrance: the content of indicators of fluency, flexibility, originality.

Determining the relevance of responses. Answers that do not fulfill the main condition of the task - to use the original element - are considered irrelevant.

Response Processing - Each relevant idea should be assigned to one of 83 response categories. The category number and points for originality are recorded in the corresponding columns of the evaluation sheet.

The elaboration of each answer is determined in points and is also recorded on the form. The fluency score is obtained by counting the total number of responses taken into account. The flexibility indicator is determined by the number of non-repeating categories. The total score for originality is determined by adding up all the points in this column on the score sheet without exception. The total indicator of the development of answers is determined in a similar way.

Fluency or productivity

This indicator is not specific to creative thinking and is useful, first of all, because it allows you to understand other indicators of CTTM.

Flexibility

This indicator assesses the diversity of ideas and strategies, and the ability to move from one aspect to another. Let us recall that if a subject has a low indicator of flexibility, then this indicates the rigidity of his thinking, a low level of awareness, limited intellectual potential and (or) low motivation.

To determine the category of flexibility, we used both the drawings themselves and their names (which sometimes did not coincide). To determine the flexibility index, repeated numbers of response categories were crossed out and the remaining ones were counted. The total originality score was determined by adding all the points in this column without exception. The total indicator of response elaboration was determined in a similar way.

Originality

This indicator characterizes the ability to put forward ideas that differ from the obvious, well-known, generally accepted, banal or firmly established. Those who receive high values of this indicator are usually characterized by high intellectual activity and non-conformity. Originality of solutions presupposes the ability to avoid easy, obvious and uninteresting answers. Data on the assessment of the category and the originality of the answer are given in list No. 1 (Appendix 2) for each figure separately. This list includes the least original answers for each of the test figures. For more original answers (with originality 2 points), list No. 2 has been compiled. This list contains categories common to all test figures.

Elaboration

High values of this indicator are typical for students with high academic performance, capable of inventive and constructive activity. Low - for lagging, undisciplined and careless students. The indicator of the elaboration of answers reflects a different type of thinking fluency and in certain situations can be both an advantage and a limitation, depending on how this quality manifests itself.

In the process of processing the Torrance creativity test completed by schoolchildren, results were obtained for the following indicators:

Fluency is determined by counting the number of completed figures. The maximum score is 10.

Flexibility is determined by the number of different response categories.

Originality - the maximum score is 2 points for non-obvious answers with a frequency of 5% or more, and 1 point is counted for answers occurring in 2-4.9% of cases. Bonus points may be added for originality of answers in which the subject combines several original figures into a single drawing.

Elaboration - points are given for each significant detail (idea) that complements the original stimulus figure, both within its contour and beyond. But the basic, simplest answer must be significant, otherwise its elaboration is not assessed.

Points for the elaboration of each answer were entered in the column allocated for these indicators of task completion. Indicators of the categories of originality and elaboration of answers were recorded on the form, in the line corresponding to the figure number. Omissions (absence) of answers were also recorded there. The maximum number of points is 20.

Having processed the test tasks, we entered the results into evaluation sheets and received “raw” scores for four indicators. Tables 3 and 4 (Appendix 3) show the test results of students in “raw” scores.

To compare indicators of originality and elaboration, it is necessary to convert them into a standard T-scale. This will allow you to compare the results obtained from the figure test. Using the table for converting “raw” indicators into the T-scale and Table 1, we convert “raw” indicators into standardized ones and give a conclusion on the results.

Table 1

Development of creative imagination among students in grades 1 and 4

proclass9,09,05,913.3T-scale35354 class7,87,85,413.7T-scale4035 As can be seen from Table 1, the indicators of productivity and flexibility for 1st grade students correspond to the age norm - 9 completed figures, in contrast to 4th grade students - 7.8 figures. At the same time, the productivity and flexibility of 8 1st grade students are within the age norm, which is 73%; below the age norm in 18% (2 people); low for one student in the same class, which is 9%. Productivity and flexibility in 4th grade students corresponds to the age norm for 6 students, which is 60%; and low for 4 students, which is 40%.

Student 1's originality of ideas is slightly below the norm of 35 T-scores, indicating a low ability to come up with ideas that differ from those that are obvious, well-known, generally accepted, trivial, or firmly established. Originality was within the age norm for 3 students (27%); slightly below normal in 2 subjects (18%); below the norm in 5 (46%) and low in 1 student (9%).

For 4th grade students, the originality indicator corresponds to the norm and is 40 T-points, while in 7 students (70%) the indicator corresponds to the age norm, and in 3 (30%) it is below the age norm.

The development of ideas among students in both grades 1 and 4 is slightly below the age norm and amounts to 35 T-points in both cases. Moreover, in 1st grade this indicator was within the normal range for 4 students (36%), slightly below the norm for 6 students (55%) and below the norm for 1 student (9%) of this class. In the 4th grade, the indicator of development was within the age norm for 2 students (2%); slightly below normal in 4 subjects (40%) and below normal in 4 (40%).

Let's consider the diagnostic results of imagination criteria in comparison (between grades 1 and 4) and their interpretation:

One of these indicators cannot be used to judge the level of imagination. Therefore, candidates of psychological sciences, professors Rechitskaya E.G. and Soshina E.A. Six quality levels were developed into which the entire set of children's drawings can be distributed.

Diagram 1

Works of the first level are characterized by extreme sketchiness and an almost complete absence of details. Children depict single objects, the contours of which, as a rule, coincide with the contours of the proposed geometric shapes.

Works of the second level are characterized by a less schematic image, the appearance of a large number of details both inside the main contour and outside it.

Works of the third level are characterized by the appearance of a “field of things” around the main image, i.e. objective design of the environment (for example, a trapezoid is no longer just a plate, but a vase standing on a table, or a circle is not just an apple, but on a plate). At this level, there is also a change in the scale of the image due to the use of a given test figure as some large detail of the whole image (for example, a circle is no longer a ball or a balloon, but the head of a person, an animal, a car wheel; a square is not a mirror or a cabinet , but a robot body, a truck body, etc.). At the same time, acting as details of the image, the geometric figure continues to occupy a central position in it.

In the works of the fourth level there is a widely developed subject environment. Children, having turned the test figure into an object, add new elements to the drawing, organizing a complete composition according to an imaginary plot.

Works of the fifth level are characterized by repeated use of a given figure in the construction of a single semantic composition. Test figures in such compositions receive a certain camouflage by reducing their scale, changing their spatial position, and complicating the composition. The possibility of repeated use of a test figure as an external stimulus when creating an image of imagination indicates the plasticity of the imagination and a higher level of formation of its operational components.

The qualitative difference between the works of the sixth level and the previous ones lies in the nature of the use of the test figure, which no longer acts as the main part of the composition, but is included in its complex integral structure as a small secondary detail. This method of depiction is usually called “inclusion”. At this level there is the greatest freedom to use external data only as “material”, an impetus for imagination and creativity.

Based on these levels, a six-point system for assessing children’s creative works was introduced: drawings corresponding to the first level were scored 1 point, the second – 2 points, the third – three points, etc. up to the sixth level.

Data from the study results are listed in Table 2

table 2

Comparative analysis of creative imagination by levels in grades 1 and 4

1st level2nd level3rd level4th level5th level6th level1st grade8 people-73%3 people - 27% 4th grade 6 people - 60%4 people - 40%

Analyzing the indicators presented in Table 2, it can be argued that the creative imagination of children in the experimental 1st grade of MBOU “ONSH No. 2” is poorly developed. None of the students are in levels four, five or six. Based on diagnostics, the third level included works that were characterized by the appearance of a “field of things” around the main image, i.e. subject design of the environment, three students. The second, characterized by a less schematic image and the appearance of a greater number of details both inside and outside the main contour, includes the works of eight students. But it should be noted that no students with creative imagination, which also belongs to the first level, were identified. Among students of the 4th grade of work, 4 children are assigned to the 3rd level, and 7 - to the second. Consequently, the creative imagination of 4th grade children is also poorly developed.

Thus, we can conclude that the creative imagination of children in experimental classes is poorly developed. Based on a survey of teachers working at MBOU "ONSH No. 2", it was found that special work on the development of creative imagination with children is not carried out. However, psychologists and teachers involved in the analysis of educational programs for children of primary school age have long said that they actually do not contain special measures aimed at the consistent and systematic development of children's creative imagination. Under these conditions, it develops mainly only spontaneously and, as a result, often does not reach even the average level of its development. This was confirmed by the diagnostics carried out.

From all of the above, it follows that in the existing conditions at MBOU “ONSH No. 2” it is necessary to carry out special work aimed at developing the creative imagination of children, especially since primary school age is a sensitive period for the development of this process.

Conclusions and suggestions for Chapter 2:

The conducted experimental study of the development of creative imagination makes it possible to determine such indicators as fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration.

As can be seen from Table 1, the indicators of productivity and flexibility for 1st grade students correspond to the age norm - 9 completed figures, in contrast to 4th grade students - 7.8 figures. Student 1's originality of ideas is slightly below the norm of 35 T-scores, indicating a low ability to come up with ideas that differ from those that are obvious, well-known, generally accepted, trivial, or firmly established. The development of ideas among students in both grades 1 and 4 is slightly below the age norm and amounts to 35 T-points in both cases.

Based on the results obtained, we can conclude that the studied schoolchildren in grades 1 and 4 showed low results in terms of development (corresponding to the age norm of 36% and 20% of students, respectively); originality (corresponds to the age norm of 27% and 70% of students, respectively). Indicators of productivity and flexibility correspond to the age norm in only 73% and 60% of the studied schoolchildren.

Only one student has a creative imagination corresponding to the age norm, which is 5% of the total number of those studied. 95% of diagnosed students are below the age norm on one, two, three or four indicators. In the group of schoolchildren tested, there are no students with a high level of creative imagination.

Thus, we can conclude that the creative imagination of children in experimental classes is poorly developed. Based on the data from the obtained research, it becomes obvious the need to create a program for the development of creativity for students in grades 1 and 4.

Conclusion

As a result of the analysis of the work done, it can be argued that imagination manifests itself in the minds of every child by the ability to create with his inner mental “eye” phenomena, objects, processes, projects that are not visually represented; they are “built”, created in the head, thereby acquiring a new status; that “man is born into the world, but man creates worlds.”

The consciousness and subconscious of the child are influenced by the nature, elements, objects, symbols surrounding him, causing certain associations, memories, thoughts in him; awaken consciousness and encourage action. Objects and symbols, “interacting” with the child’s consciousness and subconscious, form a so-called mental field around themselves, influencing the child’s motives and actions.

Children of primary school age learn patterns of behavior, building relationships, and types of activities; have a certain freedom of action in applying knowledge to gain their own life experience. The cognitive and creative imagination processes information and impressions; creates ways to transfer what has been learned. During this period, holistic vision and planning appear, when children, before starting any action, can and are able to: build an action plan; consistently implement this plan, adjusting it as it progresses.

Imagination is part of the cognitive sphere of the psyche and is one of the types of psychological activity of people. Having its own status, the imagination of children is interconnected with perception, impression, attention, thinking, memory, representation, speech, fantasies, vision, creativity, intuition, will, intelligence, intention, creativity, as well as with consciousness, awareness, ideas, spiritual and moral needs, dreams, desires and motives, plans and goals, actions, actions, games, work, rest and much more and, ultimately, with life in all its manifestations. The power of imagination lies in the ability of the mind to create very vivid pictures based on images that it can transform. Naturally, this presupposes the presence and cultivation in the individual (in the broad sense of the word) of adequate self-criticism, responsibility, morality, focus, positivity, creative thinking, emotional balance, and so on.

As a mental phenomenon, process, imagination can be determined by the child’s belonging to specific communities of society. A.V. Brushlinsky and V.A. Polikarpov (in his work “Thinking and Communication”) noted: “The mental is a process, living, continuous, dynamic, forming and developing, generating its products and results (images, concepts, etc.) in the course of constantly changing interaction (activity, communication and so on) of individuals with the outside world."

The scientific findings note that the relevance of the problem of imagination is determined by the tasks of developing the creative potential of society and the development of specific methods for developing play and productive activity of the child. This is strategic government planning, which must take into account the specific personal expression of each person. As is known, most of the existing in the world “...training systems and recommendations for self-study are focused on the intensive development of abstract-logical forms of knowledge of reality, and the need for constant training in figurative reflection of phenomena and objects of the external world, as well as the connections between them, is underestimated in these systems ". On one of the pages of the Bible it is written: “Without inner vision (imagination) My people will perish.”

At one time, Lunacharsky wrote: “The role [of imagination] in the future will be by no means less than now. It is very likely that it will take on a unique character, combining scientific elements of experiment with the most dizzying flights of intellectual and imaginative imagination.”

Studying printed and electronic sources on the issue of imagination, we came to the conclusion that every child has talent, the ability to create and reproduce the images that arise in him; that every scientist, researcher of imagination (in general and children's imagination in particular) is right in his own way, studying imagination from his own point of view, viewing it through the prism of his worldview in the context of the evolution of humanity; that a person who develops “...the ability to create images, simultaneously develops his ability to think, perceive the world, his memory, creativity and strengthens faith in his own strength”

In conclusion, we note that all of us - together and each individually - are responsible for our common present and future, and our common task is not the suppression and rigid structuring of views, points of view, activities, abilities, inner world of us and our descendants, but the desire to learn and teach us to use the gifts invested in us all from above. This is our chance to continue the life and evolution of humanity.

Based on the results of the study, the following conclusions were made about the features of the development of imagination in children of primary school age: the level of imagination development in this group is average.

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Annex 1

Appendix 2

Study of individual characteristics of imagination (according to Torrance). Torrance Creativity Test

List of answers for grading the test:

· 0 pointsAbstract pattern. Face, human head. Glasses. Bird (flying), seagull.

· 1 pointEyebrows, human eyes. There, the sea. Animal (face). Cat Kitty. Cloud, cloud; Supernatural beings. Heart (“love”). Dog. Owl. Flower. Man, man. Apple.

· 0 pointsAbstract pattern. Wood and its details. Slingshot. Flower.

· 1 pointLetter: ZH, U, etc. House, building. Sign, symbol, pointer. Bird, footprints, legs. Number. Human.

· 0 pointsAbstract pattern. Sound and radio waves. Man's face. Sailing ship, boat. Fruits, berries.

· 1 pointWind, clouds, rain. Air balloons. Wood and its details. Road, bridge. An animal or its face. Carousels, swings. Wheels. Bow and arrows. Moon. Fish, fish. Sled. Flowers.

· 0 pointsAbstract pattern. Wave, sea. (Question mark. Snake. Human face. Animal tail, elephant trunk.

· 1 pointCat Kitty. Armchair chair. Spoon, ladle. Mouse. Insect, caterpillar, worm. Glasses. Bird: goose, swan. Shell. Supernatural beings. Smoking pipe. Flower.

· 0 pointsAbstract pattern. Dish, vase, bowl. Ship, boat. Man's face. Umbrella.

· 1 pointReservoir, lake. Mushroom; Lips, chin. Basket, basin. Lemon, apple. Bow and arrows). Ravine, pit. Fish. Egg.

· 0 pointsAbstract pattern. Staircase, steps. Man's face.

· 1 pointMountain, rock. Vase. Tree, spruce. Jacket, jacket, dress. Lightning, thunderstorm. Person: man, woman. Flower.

· 0 pointsAbstract pattern. Car. Key. Sickle.

· 1 pointMushroom. Ladle, scoop. Lens, magnifying glass. Man's face. Spoon, ladle. Hammer. Glasses. Scooter. Symbol: hammer and sickle. Tennis racquet.

· 0 pointsAbstract pattern. Girl, woman. Man: head or body.

· 1 pointLetter: U, etc. Vase. Tree. Book. T-shirt, dress. Rocket. Supernatural beings. Flower. Shield.

· 0 pointsAbstract pattern. Mountains, hills. Animal, its ears. Letter M.

· 1 pointCamel. Wolf. Cat Kitty. Fox. Man's face. Dog. Man: figure.

· 0 pointsAbstract pattern. Goose, duck. Tree, spruce, bough. Man's face. Fox.

· 1 pointPinocchio. Girl. Bird. Supernatural beings. Numbers. Man, figure.

Appendix 3

Individual indicators of the development of creative imagination among students in grades 1 and 4

Table 3

Test scores (in points) for 1st grade students

No. Name Productivity (points) Flexibility (points) Originality (points) Elaboration (points) Total (points) 1. Pavel N. 55214262. Konstantin V. 10101012423. Anvar K. 1010525504. Victoria K. 6646225. Nikita F. 1010812406. Anastasia T.1010513387.Ekaterina L.1010615418.Semyon I.8869319.Kirill I.10105103510.Daria M.10109204911.Pavel D.101051136

Table 4

Test scores (in points) for 4th grade students

No. Name Productivity (points) Flexibility (points) Originality (points) Elaboration (points) Total (points) 1. Elizaveta T. 44512252. Victoria K. 55210223. Daria G. 54615304. Milana Y. 4428185. Victoria Ch. 109221426. Sofia K.109714407.Anastasia T.101099388.Maria I.101098379.Anastasia G.10106255110.Timur D.101061541

Table No. 5

Imagination performance by level in 1st grade

No. Name 1 level 2 level 3 level 4 level 5 level 6 level 1. Pavel N. + 2. Konstantin V. + 3. Anwar K. + 4.Victoria K. + 5.Nikita F. + 6.Anastasia T. + 7.Ekaterina L. + 8. Semyon I. + 9.Kirill I. + 10.Daria M. + 11.Pavel D. +

Table 4

Imagination performance by level in 4th grade

No. Name 1 level 2 level 3 level 4 level 5 level 6 level 1. Elizaveta T. + 2. Victoria K. + 3. Daria G. + 4. Milana Y. + 5. Victoria Ch. + 6. Sofia K. + 7. Anastasia T. +8.Maria I.+9.Anastasia G.+10.Timur D.+

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Tolyatti State University"

INSTITUTEHUMANITIES AND PEDAGOGICAL INSTITUTE

DEPARTMENTPEDAGOGY AND TEACHING METHODS

DIRECTION44.03.02 “PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL EDUCATION”

PROFILEPEDAGOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF PRIMARY EDUCATION

Test

Discipline: “Theories and technologies for introducing primary schoolchildren to the world around them.”

Topic: “Development of the imagination of younger schoolchildren in the process of studying the world around them.”

Completed by the student:

Khokhlova E.S.

Group:

PPOBZ-1231

Teacher:

Emelyanova Tatyana Vitalievna

Tolyatti 2017

Content

………………………………...

1.2.

……...

1.3.

Development of imagination in children of primary school age in the process of creative activity in lessons of the surrounding world……………………………………………………………………

Conclusion………………………………………………………….

List of used literature……………………………

Introduction

It has long been found out that every child is naturally inquisitive and full of desire to learn, and it is at the initial stage of education that he strives for creativity, knowledge and active activity. In this aspect, research activity is one of the most important ways for a child to gain an understanding of the world around him.

Not long ago, all Russian schools made the transition to the new Federal State Standard for Primary General Education, in which one of the central places is undoubtedly occupied by the problem of developing students’ research skills. Under these conditions, there is an increasing interest in an individual who has the fundamentals and skills of a research nature, who is capable of self-realization, creating something new or transforming.

Imagination is the mental process of creating images of objects, situations, circumstances by bringing a person’s existing knowledge into a new combination. Imagination cannot develop in a vacuum. In order to begin to fantasize, a person must see, hear, receive impressions and retain them in memory. The more knowledge, the richer a person’s experience, the more diverse his impressions, the more opportunities for combining images.

Everyday activity poses a lot of challenges to a person. There is not always the necessary knowledge to solve them. Imagination fills this gap: it combines, creates a new combination of existing information and thus, albeit temporarily, fills the gap in knowledge. Many scientists of the past tried to explain the nature and essence of imagination.

There are several points of view both on imagination in general and on its individual aspects.

Idealistic concept fantasy comes down to the fact that its complete spontaneity (spontaneity) is affirmed. According to idealists, fantasy is not reflective. It is not connected to the environment and is thus free from it. Fantasy, according to idealists, is the result of self-development; it arises in a person as a spiritual force, as a manifestation of his energy, state of mind.

Chance Finds Hypothesis . According to this hypothesis, all discoveries were made as a result of a random coincidence of several images of perception or a random collision of a person with some external circumstance. The practical conclusion from it follows: in order to create something new, original, you need to passively wait for a happy occasion.

Recombination hypothesis . The main content of this point of view is the following: imagination is aimed at rearranging sensations, ideas, principles, rules through trial and error.

Like all mental processes, imagination is determined by the activity of the brain, its cortex. Imagination is a necessary element of human creative activity, which is expressed in the construction of an image of the products of labor, and ensures the creation of a program of behavior in cases where the problem situation is also characterized by uncertainty. Depending on the various circumstances that characterize a problem situation, the same problem can be solved both with the help of imagination and with the help of thinking. From this we can conclude that the imagination works at that stage of cognition when the uncertainty of the situation is very great. Fantasy allows you to “jump” over some stages of thinking and still imagine the end result.

Imagination is inherent only to man. According to E.V. Ilyenkov: “Fantasy itself, or the power of imagination, is one of not only the most precious, but also universal, universal abilities that distinguish a person from an animal. Without it, it is impossible to take a single step, not only in art, unless, of course, it is a step on the spot. Without the power of imagination, it would be impossible to even recognize an old friend if he suddenly grew a beard; it would be impossible even to cross the street through a stream of cars. Humanity, devoid of imagination, would never launch rockets into space.”

Imagination processes are analytical-synthetic in nature. Its main tendency is the transformation of ideas (images), which ultimately ensures the creation of a model of a situation that is obviously new and has not previously arisen. When analyzing the mechanism of imagination, it is necessary to emphasize that its essence is the process of transforming ideas, creating new images based on existing ones. Imagination, fantasy is a reflection of reality in new, unexpected, unusual combinations and connections. Even if you come up with something completely extraordinary, then upon careful examination it will turn out that all the elements from which the fiction was formed were taken from life, drawn from past experience, and are the results of a deliberate analysis of countless facts. It is not for nothing that L.S. Vygotsky said: “The creative activity of the imagination is directly dependent on the richness and diversity of a person’s previous experience, because experience represents the material from which fantasy structures are created. The richer a person’s experience, the more material his imagination has at his disposal.”

The first images of a child’s imagination are associated with the processes of perception of the surrounding world and his play activities. The school period is characterized by rapid development of imagination, due to the intensive process of acquiring diverse knowledge and its use in practice.

Senior preschool and junior school age qualify as the most favorable and sensitive for the development of creative imagination and fantasy. The games and conversations of children reflect the power of their imagination, one might even say, a riot of imagination. In their stories and conversations, reality and fantasy are often mixed, and images of the imagination can, by virtue of the law of emotional reality of the imagination, be experienced by children as completely real. Their experience is so strong that the child feels the need to talk about it. Inventing stories like this is normal for children. In these cases, it is useful for adults to get involved in the children’s play, to show that they like these stories, but precisely as manifestations of fantasy, a kind of game. By participating in such a game, sympathizing and empathizing with the child, the adult must clearly indicate and show him the line between game, fantasy and reality. At primary school age, in addition, the active development of the recreating imagination occurs.In children of primary school age, there are several types of imagination:

Recreating imagination - creating an image of an object based on its description

Creative imagination is the creation of new images that require the selection of material in accordance with the plan.

The main trend emerging in the development of children's imagination is the transition to an increasingly correct and complete reflection of reality, the transition from a simple arbitrary combination of ideas to a logically reasoned combination. The realism of a child’s imagination is manifested in all forms of activity available to him: in play, in visual activities, when listening to fairy tales, etc. In play, for example, a child’s demands for verisimilitude in a play situation increase with age.

Observations show that the child strives to depict well-known events truthfully, as happens in life. In many cases, changes in reality are caused by ignorance, the inability to coherently and consistently depict life events. The realism of the imagination of a junior schoolchild is especially clearly manifested in the selection of game attributes. The younger schoolchild also makes a strict selection of material suitable for the game. This selection is made according to the principle of maximum proximity, from the child’s point of view, of this material to real objects, according to the principle of the ability to perform real actions with it. The obligatory and main character of the game for schoolchildren in grades 1-2 is a doll. You can perform any necessary “real” actions with it. You can feed her, dress her, you can express your feelings to her. It is even better to use a living kitten for this purpose, since it can already be truly fed, put to bed, etc. Amendments to the situation and images made by children of primary school age during the game give the game and the images themselves imaginary features, more and more bringing them closer to reality.

A.G. Ruzskaya notes that children of primary school age are not devoid of fantasy, which is at odds with reality, which is even more typical for schoolchildren (cases of children's lies, etc.). “Fantasizing of this kind still plays a significant role and occupies a certain place in the life of a junior schoolchild. But, nevertheless, it is no longer a simple continuation of the fantasy of a preschooler, who himself believes in his fantasy as in reality. A schoolchild of 9-10 years old already understands “conventionality” of one’s fantasy, its inconsistency with reality.” In the minds of a junior schoolchild, concrete knowledge and fascinating fantastic images built on its basis coexist peacefully. With age, the role of fantasy, divorced from reality, weakens, and the realism of children's imagination increases. However, the realism of children's imagination, in particular the imagination of a primary school student, must be distinguished from another of its features, close, but fundamentally different.

In the process of educational activity of schoolchildren, which begins in the elementary grades from living contemplation, a major role, as psychologists note, is played by the level of development of cognitive processes: attention, memory, perception, observation, imagination, memory, thinking. The development and improvement of imagination will be more effective with targeted work in this direction, which will entail an expansion of the cognitive capabilities of children. At primary school age, for the first time, a division of play and labor occurs, that is, activities carried out for the sake of pleasure that the child will receive in the process of the activity itself and activities aimed at achieving an objectively significant and socially assessed result. This distinction between play and work, including educational work, is an important feature of school age. The importance of imagination in primary school age is the highest and necessary human ability. At the same time, it is this ability that needs special care in terms of development. And it develops especially intensively between the ages of 5 and 15 years. And if this period of imagination is not specifically developed, then a rapid decrease in the activity of this function occurs. Along with a decrease in a person’s ability to fantasize, the personality becomes impoverished, the possibilities of creative thinking decrease, interest in art, science, and so on fades away.

Younger schoolchildren carry out most of their active activities with the help of imagination. Their games are the fruit of wild imagination; they are enthusiastically engaged in creative activities. The psychological basis of the latter is also creative imagination. When, in the process of studying, children are faced with the need to comprehend abstract material and they need analogies and support in the face of a general lack of life experience, the child’s imagination also comes to the aid. Thus, the importance of the imagination function in mental development is great. However, fantasy, like any form of mental reflection, must have a positive direction of development. It should contribute to better knowledge of the surrounding world, self-discovery and self-improvement of the individual, and not develop into passive daydreaming, replacing real life with dreams. Children of primary school age love to engage in artistic creativity. It allows the child to reveal his personality in the most complete and free form. All artistic activity is based on active imagination and creative thinking. These functions provide the child with a new, unusual view of the world around him.

Thus, imagination is one of the most important mental processes, and the success of mastering the school curriculum largely depends on the level of its development, especially in children of primary school age.

1.3 Development of imagination in children of primary school age in the process of creative activity in the lessons of the surrounding world

Modern pedagogy no longer doubts that it is possible to teach creativity. Through creativity, a child develops thinking. But this teaching is special, it is not the same as knowledge and skills that are usually taught. The starting point for the development of imagination should be directed activity, that is, the inclusion of children’s fantasies in specific practical problems. A.A. Volkova states: “Nurturing creativity is a diverse and complex impact on a child.

Participating in creative activity are the mind (knowledge, thinking, imagination), character (courage, perseverance), feeling (love of beauty, fascination with image, thought). We must cultivate these same aspects of personality in a child in order to more successfully develop creativity in him. Enriching a child’s mind with various ideas and some knowledge means providing abundant food for creativity. AND I. Lerner identified the following features of creative activity:

Independent transfer of knowledge and skills to a new situation; seeing new problems in familiar, standard conditions; - vision of a new function of a familiar object;

Ability to see alternative solutions;

The ability to combine previously known methods of solving a problem into a new method;

The ability to create original solutions in the presence of already known ones.

Recreating imagination is very important in the learning process, because... Without it, it is impossible to perceive and understand educational material. Teaching contributes to the development of this type of imagination. In addition, in a younger schoolchild, the imagination is more and more closely connected with his life experience, and it does not remain fruitless fantasizing, but gradually becomes a motivator for activity. The child strives to translate the thoughts and images that arise into real objects. The most effective means for this is the visual activity of primary school children. In the process of drawing, a child experiences a variety of feelings: he is happy about the beautiful image that he created himself, and he is upset if something doesn’t work out. But the most important thing: by creating an image, the child acquires various knowledge; his ideas about the objects of the surrounding world are clarified and deepened; in the process of work, he begins to comprehend the qualities of objects, remember their characteristic features and details, master visual skills and abilities, and learn to use them consciously.

There are many methods for developing imagination. Conventionally, we divided the methods used into several groups:

1. Writing fairy tales and stories.

An important role in the development of creativity belongs to such techniques as composing a fairy-tale story, the theme of which was suggested by the teacher, inventing a continuation of a familiar fairy tale, composing a fairy tale based on a picture.

2.Director's play-improvisation.

To develop creative abilities in the game, children were offered two roles of fairy-tale characters, unrelated to each other by a common plot. Students had to act out stories they had invented. It could be a telephone conversation, a skit or a whole dramatization; the inclusion of fantasy and imagination was important. The rest of the children watched the action, then the participants in the game changed. Everything ended with a discussion - a reflective moment was the most important during each lesson.

3.Tasks for transformative imagination.

In tasks of this type, the ability to merge with an object is trained, mentally transforming it into a new image; the mechanism of agglutination is often used. Transformative imagination is an important stage in the development of creativity. By completing these tasks, children learn to see common features in objects that are very distant in essence, but similar in some special external manifestations, and on this basis create figurative (not conceptual) generalizations. Tasks for the development of reconstructive imagination. These include: verbal drawing, musical drawing (creating a verbal portrait of the hero of the music), drawing one’s mood, an image of music, completing the drawing of the whole from fragments, coming up with the ending of a story or sentence. The tasks develop the ability to quickly and easily generate the most unexpected fantasy images and boldly connect them with everyday events. Particularly interesting are tasks to convey by means of painting (color, graphic) or verbal drawing the general mood of the work, certain character traits of the character. The purpose of such tasks is to draw children’s attention to the connection between the means of musical expression and artistic decision with the nature of the musical image.

4.Associative fluency training.

Such tasks serve to develop associative thinking and imagination. They teach you to think and imagine, improve the speed and controllability of the associative flow, which are important components of many types of creativity. These include: creating associative chains, coming up with comparisons and synonyms or antonyms for words, concepts and states.

5.Creative modeling. Children are taught to use their imagination to anticipate consequences and make decisions. Various options for tasks are possible here: searching for a cause based on two effects, inventing consequences based on the cause, and so on. Such universal characteristics of the imagination are trained as the ability to easily and quickly see various cause-and-effect relationships, accurately establish the causes of events, and also find relationships between several completely unrelated, at first glance, events, building your own logical chain.

6.Tasks to actualize subjective experience (freely discuss, compare, convey impressions).

Children were asked to talk about the feelings and emotions that they experience or have experienced, and to express these feelings in the form of images (drawing, physical, music). The tasks develop the ability to reflect on one’s own feelings and experiences when in contact with music, to find images and metaphors of one’s states, to freely express one’s opinion, and to build emotional generalizations.

7.Tasks for formulating creative questions.

So, the child’s imagination develops gradually as he gains real life experience. The richer the child’s experience, the more he has seen, heard, experienced, learned, the more impressions about the surrounding reality he has accumulated, the richer the material his imagination has, the greater scope opens for his imagination and creativity. Creativity occurs when there is surprise and question. The above tasks develop search activity, teach you to perceive the world without restrictions, perceive objects in a new way, capture and identify unrealized functions and meanings. Of course, they are good and accessible for developing the imagination of younger schoolchildren.

8. Creative modeling

The use of the creative modeling method promotes the development of imagination, teaches reasoning, consistently presents the material, and increases the visibility and practical orientation of natural science teaching.

The construction of a model by students ensures clarity of essential properties, hidden connections and relationships; all other properties that are not essential in this case are discarded. The same model is used to prove the correctness of the hypothesis. In this case, it is a means to substantiate a point of view.

Often this is beyond the power of one student, so it is advisable to carry out such work in groups. Within the group, children themselves organize their actions: either according to the principle of role distribution, or according to the principle of individual contributions (“brainstorming”). If the task is to clarify a concept based on the model, then the teacher invites the children to split within the group into two subgroups that would defend opposing positions. The organization of group work is based on the following algorithm:

children repeating a task for group work in order to check whether it is understood equally by all participants in group cooperation;

clarifying the method of work to be done;

development of a unified solution (model);

finding out who will be responsible for the group;

show the group’s readiness with signs;

carry out intergroup discussion of the results.

Working in a group, children finally understand a new way of action, actively participate in completing the task, and control each other’s work. At the same time, responsibility for the correct completion of the task does not lie with any one person, but is distributed among all participants in the group work. This allows children to learn new things in a comfortable environment and move on to individual work with understanding and accumulation of experience.

Here are examples of working with models in lessons about the world around us:

1. You can start learning creative modeling with a ready-made model - a globe. Explain to children that a model is an object, a reduced copy of a real natural object (if it is inaccessible for research, for example, it is large in size). Then the children describe the object under the guidance of the teacher, i.e. highlight its essential features. (The Earth is spherical, most of the planet is occupied by water, the smaller part is by land.)

2. At the next stage of teaching creative modeling, children practice comparing and generalizing objects of the same class. Students learn to recognize signs of similarity and difference, to identify the main ones by which several objects can be combined into one group.

3. After students can identify the general characteristics of an object (for example, parts of plants, feathers of birds, scales of fish), they learn to depict it with a symbol or diagram.

Symbolic drawings play the role of a transition bridge from concrete-figurative to abstract thinking, and also allow you to make the modeling process concrete, visual and creative. It is effective to use reference cards. On each individual card there is a drawing of a symbol representing one of the elements of the modeled object.

The leading components of the imagination of younger schoolchildren are past experience, the subject environment, which depend on the child’s internal position, and the internal position from supra-situational becomes extra-situational.

The following conditions contribute to the development of creative imagination:

Involving students in various activities

Using non-traditional forms of conducting lessons - creating problematic situations

Application of role-playing games

Doing work independently

The use of various materials - the use of various types of tasks, including psychological ones.

Such aspects of educational and cognitive activity as content, organizational, and subjective should be activated.

Conclusion

Imagination is a special form of the human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory. The specificity of this form of mental process lies in the fact that imagination is probably characteristic only of humans and is strangely connected with the activities of the body, being at the same time the most “mental” of all mental processes and states. Imagination is a special form of reflection, which consists of creating new images and ideas by processing existing ideas and concepts.

The development of imagination follows the lines of improving the operations of replacing real objects with imaginary ones and recreating imagination. Imagination, due to the characteristics of the physiological systems responsible for it, is to a certain extent associated with the regulation of organic processes and movement. Creative abilities are defined as individual characteristics of a person’s qualities, which determine the success of him in performing creative activities of various kinds.

List of used literature

Vygotsky, L.S. Thinking and speech. Collection op. / L.S. Vygotsky. - M.: Pedagogy, 2014.

Lyublinskaya, A. A. To the teacher about the psychology of a junior schoolchild / A. A. Lyublinskaya. - M., 2011.

Mamardashvili, M.K. Forms and content of thinking / M.K. Mamardashvili - M.: Higher School, 2010.

General psychology / Ed. IN AND. Petrova. - M., 2006.

Olshanskaya E.V. Development of thinking, attention, memory, perception, imagination, speech. Game tasks / E.V. Olshanskaya – Primary school – 2013, No. 5, p. 45-57.

Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of general psychology. / S.L. Rubinstein - M., 2009.

Tikhomirov O.K. Psychology of thinking: textbook. manual for students of higher educational institutions. 3rd ed., / O.K. Tikhomirov - M.: Publishing Center "Academy", 2007.

Features of the development of the imagination of younger schoolchildren briefly. Course work development of creative imagination in children of primary school age

Introduction

Chapter 1. Imagination and creative abilities of the individual

1.1 The concept of imagination

1.2 The concept of creativity

1.3 Methods for studying imagination and creativity

Chapter 2. Features of creative abilities and imagination of younger schoolchildren

2.1 Mental characteristics of children of primary school age

2.2 Imagination and creativity of younger schoolchildren

Chapter 3. Experimental study of the characteristics of creative abilities and imagination of primary schoolchildren

3.1 Organization, methods and techniques of research

3.2 Analysis and discussion of research results

Conclusion

Bibliography

Application

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