Case-Study Of Social Competence Development In Primary School Children From Rural Areas

Abstract

In the context of socio-economic changes education is challenged with the task to give children a certain level of knowledge and skills in sciences, to help them develop the ability to live in a modern exceptionally complex society, to achieve meaningful goals, to effectively interact with their environment, to solve life problems and adequately reflect on their own actions. Our goal is to develop theoretically and test empirically the educational content to ensure effective development of primary school children from rural areas and their social competence. We applied the following research methods: theoretical analysis of relevant psychological-educational literature, generalization, systematization; testing, pedagogical experiment; methods of mathematical data processing. 28 school students (aged 10-12 years old) living in the countryside of the Republic of Tatarstan took part in the research. ‘Intelligence Test’ (the version for children, subtest ‘Understanding’) developed by Wechsler (1949) was employed to study the cognitive component of children’s social competence; ‘Diagnostics of student social competence’ developed by Bespalova was used to assess the motivation-values component of social competence. The behavioral component of social competence in children was studied with the method ‘Individual map of child social behavior assessment’ developed by Prikhozhan. Positive results on changing the quality of social competence in children living in rural areas were obtained in the study.