Project, Research and Project-Research Activities: Comparative Analysis

Abstract

In the practice of teaching school subjects, there is a positive experience of using project and research activities of schoolchildren, but when they are implemented, there is a mix of activities. The relevance of the research is due to the practical need to distinguish project-research activity as a special type of cognitive activity. The issue of convergence of project and research within the same cognitive activity is discussed, which creates the need to allocate a special type of independent cognitive activity of schoolchildren – project-research activity. Theoretical analysis of scientific-methodical literature allows us to generalize the signs, bringing project and research activities: a) independence of students as a condition of activities; b) the requirement of affordability and adaptability of the methods used; c) obtaining a subjectively meaningful and new results; d) the possibility of important personal qualities and teaching skills development; e) community of some stages: detection of relevant problems, determining goals and objectives, design and presentation of results. The author compares project, research and project-research activities based on the following characteristics: predictability of the work result, stages, goal, novelty of the result, performance criteria, implementation – and comes to the conclusion that project-research activity is a special type of educational activity with its inherent differentiating characteristics.