Psychological and pedagogical grounding of toys expertise in Germany and in Russia (comparative analysis of assessment criteria)

The article provides comparative analysis of psychological and pedagogical expertise of toys in Moscow State Centre of Toys Expertise and in German organization “Spiel Gut” that has been engaged in expertise activities for 55 years. The importance of this task, conditioned with emerging new generation of toys and value uncertainty in choice of toys, is discussed. Two main tasks are regarded as the cultural functions of a toy. Firstly, it gives the opportunity to express oneself and one’s experience, create one’s own images that materialize in actions with a toy. Secondly, a toy helps to comprehend the world of relationships and concepts where a child lives. The main criterion of psychological and pedagogical expertise of a toy is a toy’s option to become an object of self-supported child’s play that may be characterized with different forms and levels of development. The article compares scientific groundings, criteria and peculiar methods of psychological and pedagogical expertise of toys in n Moscow State Centre of Toys Expertise and in German organization “Spiel Gut”. Difference in scientific groundings of the expertise and in approaches to toys classification is shown. The German centre emphasizes motivational aspects of play and the Moscow centre – developmental potential of play actions. However, these differences do not influence the principal solidarity in the approach to expertise and its results that are almost equal in both centres. Such resemblance in assessment criteria may be regarded as a kind of mutual validization and proves the fact that the chosen criteria describe a toy’s potential to fulfill its cultural functions.

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