Studying the goal-setting activity in primary students in the context of functional literacy

Abstract

Introduction. Goal setting is one of the most important universal educational activities of primary students, which involves setting of an educational task related to the student’s mastering of the mode of action. In the context of development of functional literacy, it is necessary to determine which goals are set by children when performing competence-oriented tasks that involve the application of knowledge in real life situations. The research is aimed at studying the goal-setting activity in primary students when solving competenceoriented tasks. Materials and methods. In order to identify the level of development of the goal-setting activity in students, a diagnostic technique that involved solving a competence-oriented mathematical problem and determining the goals for completing this task, was designed. The research involved 478 fourth-grade students (children aged 9.5-10.5 years). Results. An analysis of the diagnostic results has shown that only about 23% of the fourth-grade students (3.1% with a high level and 20.5% with an average level of goal-setting activity) were able to formulate specific learning tasks related to the content of the assignment. Only about 40% of primary students correctly solved a mathematical problem, were able to orient themselves in the proposed life situation and correlate it with mathematical concepts and modes of action. The analysis of the research data has demonstrated that only 38% of primary students who successfully coped with the solution of a competence-oriented mathematical task had a high or medium level of goalsetting activity, which indicated both problems with the verbalization of intuitively perceived learning tasks and problems in organizing the goal-setting activities of students (χ2 = 13.277; p<0.001). Discussion and conclusion. The development of goal-setting activity should become part of the overall work on the mastering by students of all components of educational activity. It is important to perform a gradual transition from goal setting by the teacher to the goal setting by students and independent determination of learning objectives by the student. When organizing such work, it is necessary to set goals at different levels: goals for studying a topic or section of the program; general goals of the lesson; goals associated with the assimilation of new material; goals for performing specific tasks. Particular attention should be paid to the work on setting goals in the process of achieving meta-subject results of primary education related to the functional literacy of students.