Learning Try-Out as Project and Reality in Learning Activity of Adolescents

The problem of a child’s appropriation of new means of action is one of the most essential in psychology of education. Raised initially by L.S. Vygotsky, it is still far from being solved. Numerous studies on the formation of scientific concepts have been carried out within the framework of D.B. Elkonin and V.V. Davydov’s theory of learning activity. Currently, the most mysterious is the point of transition from “someone else’s” model/means/concept to “one’s own”, i.e. the transformation of the means based on collectively distributed activity of a class into an individual resource of action. The paper suggests a hypothesis on the specifics of learning activity in adolescents which involves not only solving learning tasks, but also conducting so-called learning try-outs. The paper introduces the concept of learning try-out and analyses the organizational and pedagogical conditions surrounding its design and the psychological features of its implementation, finally describing the symptoms of its accomplishment. Examples of learning try-outs in teaching/learning of 6th—7th-year students are provided as well.

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