STUDY OF MENTAL OPERATIONSAS BASIS FOR PLANNING CORRECTIONAL COMPONENT AT GEOGRAPHY LESSONS

Abstract

The article deals with specifying the level of development of mental operations of senior pupils with mental disorders (MD). To study mental operations methods of general and special psychology have been applied. These methods have been adapted according to the geographical material and peculiarities of cognitive activity of children with MD. One hundred and twenty pupils of the 9th grade have been involved into the research. The methodology by E. Rogova “Exclusion of words” have been adapted and used to evaluate the pupils’ skills of generalization and abstraction. To this end, the level of verbal-logical thinking of a pupil has been determined. The adaptation lies in substituting standard words for geographical names in each set of tasks. The methodology is aimed at pupils with MD, aged fourteen to seventeen.The educational curricula in geography for special secondary establishments have been used in the investigation. We have introduced four markers (high, intermediate, low and very low) of the level of the skill development of pupils in terms of generalization and abstraction according to their number of points. Both qualitative and quantitative evaluation have been implemented. The qualitative evaluation presupposes the mistake analysis. To diagnose the pupils’ level of development of analysis and synthesis we have adapted and used the methodology of “Anagram” substituting the standard words for geographical names and decreasing the number of words from 30 to 15.To find out arbitrariness and differentiation of associations of respondents the methodology “Opposites” has been adapted and used. It has been found out in pupils with MD the low level of mental operations development prevails. Among the reasons are underdevelopment of speech functions and their disconnection with practice, absence of flexibility and connection between different types of activity.The teacher is also considered to be responsible for the pupils’ level of MD, in particular he/she does not use enough illustrative-practical methods of teaching and does not stimulate concrete-imagery thinking in pupils. Partly responsible are the absence of the special means of teaching as well as distant form of education. Thus, in teaching geography the correctional component needs much improvement. Keywords: pupils with mental disorders (MD); mental operations; cognitive activity; geography; correctional component; corrective and developmental work; adaptation; educational process.