School Readiness in the Context of the Problem of Preschool and Primary School Education Continuity

The article is devoted to the problem of preschool and primary school education continuity. It has been noted that the contemporary preschool education system considers this age mainly as a stage in preparing children for school education, which results in misinterpretation of the “child’s school readiness” phenomenon. The fact that the preschool age has independent value in ontogenesis of a child and a person in whole is totally overlooked. Defending the idea of the preschool period inherent worth, the author shows importance of psychological school readiness (in case of competent interpretation of the phenomenon) in the context of preschool and primary school education continuity. Analyzing approaches to continuity problem, the author shows differences between behavioral and cultural-historical theories of child’s psychical development as regards to this issue: under the first approach, continuity in two forms of education is considered from a position of their convergence, or, more precisely, building preschool education following the example of school education. Under the second approach, continuity is realized not on the basis of convergence of two forms of education, as it happens now in many countries worldwide (also including Russia), but based on their maximal distinction that results from the child’s development specificity at each of the ages under consideration.

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