CC BY
22
Saprunova Yelena,
Postgraduate student, Department of Professional Education Theory and Techniques, Kharkov National Pedagogical University named after H. S. Skovoroda, Kharkov, Ukraine E-mail: [email protected]
Compound natural thinking as a basis of developing intellectually gifted primary schoolchildren
Abstract: The article is devoted to the problem of the compound natural thinking as a basis for the development of intellectually gifted primary schoolchildren. The author considers rational didactic methods which are based on the use of associative and image thinking, sensory perception, verbal — logical thinking as main components of the compound natural thinking which can be used in the educational process in primary schools allowing gifted primary pupils not only to work with lexical material more effectively but also to develop their imagination, memory, mind and, as the result, their intelligence and letting teachers turn classes into an interesting and exciting process.
In addition, the analysis of the problem on developing intellectually gifted primary schoolchildren's abilities led the author to the conclusion that the peculiarities of the teaching methods which are based on the compound natural thinking are useful for the development of primary schoolchildren intelligence and they must be included into the school curriculum.
Keywords: associative and image thinking, verbal — logical thinking, sensory perception, compound natural thinking, educational process, pupils, intellectual giftedness, primary school.
1. Introduction
"The National Doctrine of Developing Education System in Ukraine in XXI century" says that the national education system reproduces and ramps up the intellectual potential of the society [1].
The main aim for forming Ukrainian intellectual gentlefolk is to develop gifted children who have intellectual abilities and high motivation for learning.
Real changes in the educational system of such a category of pupils make teachers pay their attention not only to giving the necessary volume of knowledge but at first place to assuring productive knowledge adoption. That is why today teachers have to use new scientific ideas in practice, to take care about their pupils' creative development, to bring effective forms and didactic methods into their work with intellectually gifted primary schoolchildren.
Today the system of training of intellectually gifted primary schoolchildren on different subjects is over and above analytical one and consequently pupils' creative abilities, the development of their imagination and image thinking are affected.
Methods of drilling and the system of rote memorization of numerous verbal units and copying out texts are not interesting for gifted pupils and at the same time such kind of methods can not develop intellectual abilities, moreover they can give rise to pupils' negative attitude and fear.
That is why today it is a live problem in the process of training intellectually gifted primary schoolchildren to find rational didactic methods for the development of gifted pupils' intellectual abilities, the aim ofwhich is not only to reach specific results in their education but also to turn learning into an interesting process, which performs not only teaching function but also developing, creative and cognitive ones.
2. Recent papers review
A lot of authors such as N. Maslova, R. Gardner, J. Gilford, U. Bogoyvlenskay, V. Panenkova pay much attention to studying psychological and pedagogic aspects of the development of intellectually gifted primary schoolchildren.
The researches made by U. Troshihina, V Shadrikov and Ch. Cheromushkina are devoted to the problem of the development of memory and associative-image thinking.
Tony Buzen studies the problem of developing children's associative and image thinking.
Using didactic methods of memory development are considered by such modern scientists as I. Matugin, I. Antoshko, N. Derabina, I. Ribnikov and T. Slonenko.
Despite availability of the researches which described the problem in different ways, special didactic methods based on the compound natural thinking including the associative and image and verbal — logical thinking along with pupils' sensory perception which would develop schoolchildren's memory and, as the result, their mental abilities and intelligence have not been the object of a special research.
3. The objective of our article is to describe opportunities for using specific didactic methods based on pupils' compound natural thinking as effective ones for developing intellectually gifted primary schoolchildren with the aim of raising the quality of their knowledge.
4. Paper main body
According to the researches of R. Sternberg, U. Bogoyvlenskay, L. Terston, J. Gilford, S. Takaks we found out that the main characteristics of children intellectual giftedness were logical and image thinking, verbal abilities and sensory perception. We believe that it is important to use such kind of educational methods which are based on using of all these
Section 6. Pedagogy
characteristics altogether as the compound natural thinking which will help to develop pupils' memory and as the result their mental abilities and intelligence.
The ancients Pifagor and Aristotel studied memory functions [2, 4; 3, 44]. Using introspection and changing different ideas in disputes the Ancient Greeks noted that memory depends on the ability to find and fix different relations (associations) between objects [4, 31]. For instance, when we think about an apple and a notion connected with it, first we remember its colour, taste, quality, texture and even how it smells; second we also remember its surroundings (for example, people eating this apple), where an apple had been taken from as an image. In this case we can say that our brain gives us associative relations belonging to this fruit.
As our brain gets information thanks to our senses (sight, hearing, scent) the Greeks noted that an object, which should be remembered, in addition to association had to be perceived by all human senses like a bright and profound object in different ways. Moreover, if a person wants to store an obj ect like an image and has associations in his memory, he should give this object a specific imaginative place among other fragments of information which are kept in his memory, in other words, localization or fixing the object in our mind must be done for memorizing it [4, 31].
In Renaissance Gordano Bruno thought that the art of storing something in one's mind was based on using mental symbolic images relating to each other [5, 31].
Today we can find specific didactic methods based on logical thinking for the development of pupils' memory and as the result their intelligence [2, 4]. The latter are called supporting symbols and using them gives us an opportunity to unload mechanical memory (visual, motor, emotional) due to image-logical thinking that let pupils "code the information into our brain' in a combination of visual images and to memorize the information at first time developing pupils' mind [6, 110].
The action of these methods can be formulated in the following:
1) synthesis means a combination of all main components of person sense-affective sphere (sight, hearing, scent, taste), its main sensations help people to perceive the world [4, 32];
2) moving means to make associations with any movement image for giving a possibility to ascertain a connection with it in our sense and after that to memorize it, representing our images in moving as three-dimensional ones;
3) associations: we have to formulate an association or to imagine a relation between the new object which must be memorized and the object which has already been fixed by our brain [4, 32]. The search of associations is more widespread achievable method of memorizing information in class because the association is a fundamental characteristic of the sanity action and the connection between its elements where the appearance of one element in the definite conditions produces the appearance of another one bound with the first one. This is an original subjective image of the objective relation
between subjects and phenomena. It is clear that using different associations in educational process at primary schools helps gifted pupils to remember school material better without any difficulties [7, 166]. Moreover, different associative relations which appear in pupils' mind can be discussed and also can create a common method for remembering linguistic units (words, expressions) — a collective association;
4) humour: a peak effect of remembering which can be reached if children use absurd, funny, surrealistic images created by their imagination;
5) imagination: if it is used increasingly memorization is better;
6) counting: numbering and counting add specification and effectiveness to the principle of ordering and succession of remembering;
7) symbolism: the substitution of a boring image by a brighter and more interesting one that enlarges an opportunity to memorize verbal material effectively;
8) colour: if images are bright and colourful they can be memorized easily;
9) succession: this principle let pupils find a requisite object among others which must be memorized due to the optional memory;
10) image positiveness: positive and aural images are used in many cases for holding them in one's remembrance because as a rule people mind blocks negative ones for the process for engraving information in pupils' memory;
11) exaggeration: while we are creating images it is useful for pupils to exaggerate their sizes, shape, colour and sound accompaniment which can be associated with them [4, 33].
So described above methods help gifted pupils to use associations, forming an image and localization but they are not necessary. In this case the main task is not to bethink the scheme of memorizing but to remember the character of using it. Pupils' imagination, associations, verbal-logical thinking and sensory perception help them to join different words for keeping them in their memory more easily.
For example, it is easy to learn a pair of words "dog-chair" if pupils make up a simple sentence "The dog jumped over the chair" or if they want to learn such words as "a fence, a desert, a horse, a drop" they will imagine "a horse drinking a water drop in the desert", feel the freshness of the water, see the hot desert [8, 7].
There are words which can produce different sound associations: a word "book" is in Ukrainian: буква, буксир, букашка, бука, букшст, бамбук, букет, букля, буксир, буклет, бук, буквально. It shows that the sound association is not the full sound analogue of an English word which must be memorized but only a word that is alike in a sound and helps to remember a necessary word even when words are alike in their sound but letters are different in their pronunciation. In this case pupils have to memorize the words but not the right pronunciation. First of all, an assonance should be read aloud because written in the native language word can be alike an English word less than the sound of the same word [8, 12]. So the association is named a sound one because its sound
but not its written form is used and that is why it is important to say it aloud to listen to a similarity and difference between a word from the native language and a foreign one [8, 13].
As for different methods which are based on the compound natural thinking and their role in the development of the intellectually gifted primary schoolchildren's memory and intelligence during the educational process we can determine that in a case of finding different kinds of associations or discussing them a teacher organizes revision of material but the role of revision with using the methods described above is changed. The revision in this case is directed not only to the second fixation image connections which have been stamped in pupils' mind before but also for finding new ones altogether with the revising the previously created relations that help to adopt information [7, 165].
The relations in which we find the sense of our methods based on pupils' compound natural thinking can be outside the material which must be learnt by pupils or inside it and belong to the material.
So grouping, systematization, classification, structurization are methods which are directed to the separation of relations in the material for memorizing. Categorization, recording and definition of supporting objects present both inside relations and outside ones. Before finding the right model for the material which we want to hold in our remembrance and fix its analogy, it is worth to analyze the sense of the material, otherwise it is difficult to find analogues for it. As researchers say, associations are directed to build up outside connections more than inside ones, and they are used as helpful ones on the first steps of orientation which is the introduction of the material. They make a background for the analytic-synthetically activity, the process and result of which is fixed by helping methods, directed to find out relations exactly in the material which must be learnt [7, 164].
That is why remembering of foreign lexical structures depends on pupils' skills to find and fix different associative relations between objects with their sensory perception, imagination and verbal — logical thinking that rise stable associations
and can be memorized effectively. Those associations without strong links can be forgotten quickly. As researchers say, this process takes place without pupils' conscious or wishes.
Using the methods which are based on the compound natural thinking in the educational process of intellectually gifted primary schoolchildren can be done according to the following algorithm: games, tasks to find analogies, tasks on classification or structurization [7, 169]. Getting information can be transformed into bright visual or sound images, strong feelings and can be linked with the information which we have got before. Pupils have to think along with their sensory perception. Thus, the main principle of the didactic methods based on the compound natural thinking is in simultaneous using verbal-logic and associative-image thinking with sensory perception.
Developing pupils' imagination, memory and intelligence using the described didactic methods we, as other researchers, try to reach such an ideal which will be named "ecological thinking" in our future [9, 8].
5. Conclusions of the research
The author came to the conclusion that didactic methods based on the compound natural thinking are the necessary collection for working with material the aim of which is to improve the speed, strength, accuracy of remembering a great deal of lexical units at once with the correct reproduction of them in future but at the same time these methods develop gifted pupils' memory, imagination and image or verbal-logical thinking rising children's IQin a natural way.
The research of problems on using special didactic methods based on the compound natural thinking with the aim to develop intellectually gifted primary school children for making their education more effective is advanced and future-oriented as this problem in modern scientific pedagogical discourse is still a live issue both from the point of theoretic and practical usage, because nowadays the problem of the role of natural didactic methods of the development pupils' memory as methods of the development of a child's intellectual ability in the educational process is still a matter of argument.
References:
1. The National Doctrine of Developing Education System in Ukraine in XXI century.
2. Antoshko I. B. Eidetics at the English lessons/I. B. Antoshko, N. I. Derabina//English. - K., 2012. - № 4. - P. 4-5.
3. Troshihina U. G. Evolution of mnemofunctions/U. G. Troshihina. - L.: Leningrad University press, 1973. - 59 p.
4. Buzen Tony. Develop your memory/Tony Buzen. - Minsk: Popurri, 2003. - 239 p.
5. Sikirich Y. Gordano Broono is a titanium of Renaissance/Y. Sikirich//New Akropol. - 2000. - № 1. - P. 4-45.
6. Vaculenko O. L. Mnemonics directivity of students self-done work/O. L. Vaculenko//Scientific herald of Ukrainian Academy of science of higher school. - K., 2004. - № 28. - P. 109-112.
7. Shadrikov V. D. Mnemoabilities: developing and diagnostic/V. D. Shadrikov, L. V. Cheromushkina. - M.: Pedagogy, 1990. - 175 p.
8. Matugin I. U. How to remember English words/I. U. Matugin, T. B. Slonenko. - M.: Repol Classic, 2001. -384 p.
9. Matugin I. U. How to develop the good memory: school of Eidetics/I. U. Matugin, Y. L. Jemaeva, Y. I. Chakaberia, I. K. Rub-nikova. - M.: Repol Classic, 2000. - 413 p.
