Development of the imagination of younger students. Features of imagination in children of primary school age What properties of imagination can be developed in a schoolchild

The first years of schooling are characterized by the rapid development of imagination processes. The image of fantasy here acts as a program of play activity. Imagination allows the child to deepen and consolidate such valuable personality traits as courage, determination, resourcefulness, organization; By comparing his own and other people's behavior in an imaginary situation, the child learns to make the necessary assessments and comparisons, develops and exercises his natural inclinations. The share of the imagination in childhood falls to the educational function, the meaning of which is to organize the behavior of the child in such forms so that it can be exercised for the future. Imagination, which has exclusively importance, for the implementation of activities, is itself formed in various activities and fades when the child ceases to act.

The school period is characterized by the rapid development of the imagination, due to the intensive process of acquiring versatile knowledge and using it in practice. Individual features of the imagination are clearly manifested in the process of creativity. In this sphere of human activity, imagination is placed on a par with thinking in importance. It is important that for the development of imagination it is necessary to create conditions for a person under which freedom of action, independence, initiative, and looseness are manifested. It has been proven that imagination is closely connected with other mental processes (memory, thinking, attention, perception) that serve learning activities. Without a sufficiently developed imagination, it cannot successfully proceed academic work schoolchild, because imagination is able to create new images from the experience of other people. The more the imagination participates in all cognitive processes, the more creative will be its educational activity.

Initial forms Imaginations first appear at the end of early childhood in connection with the emergence of a role-playing game and the development of a sign-symbolic form of consciousness. The child learns to replace real objects and situations with imaginary ones, to build new images from existing ideas. Further development of the imagination goes in several directions:

¨ along the lines of expanding the range of replaced items and improving the replacement operation itself, linking with the development of logical thinking;

¨ along the line of improving the operation of recreating imagination. The child begins to create more and more complex images and systems based on existing fairy tales, descriptions, and pictures. The content of these images is developed and enriched. A personal attitude is introduced into the images, they are characterized by richness, emotionality;

¨ creative imagination develops when a child not only understands some expressive techniques, but also applies them independently;

¨ imagination becomes deliberate and mediated. The child begins to create images in accordance with the goal and certain requirements, according to a pre-proposed plan, to control the degree of compliance of the result with the task.

The emergence of creative search can be represented by the following features:

· reconstructive creativity;

combinatorial creativity;

creativity by analogy.

The levels of achievement can be determined by the tasks that the subject sets for himself, or by the successes themselves, and here it is appropriate to single out three conditions:

1. The desire to surpass existing achievements (to do better than it is).

2. Achieve top class results.

3. Realize the most important task (program - maximum) - on the verge of fantasy.

In terms of emotional response to the performance of activities, passion can be divided into three types:

inspirational (sometimes euphoric);

· confident;

Doubting.

Thus, the proposed structure describes creative abilities in a rather diverse way, their dominant characteristics, and the originality of combinations of the most important qualities.

Activity creative imagination is very complex and depends on a number of different factors. Therefore, this activity cannot be the same for a child and an adult:

experience is less and differs from the experience of an adult in a deep originality;

The child's attitude to the environment is again completely different;

The interests of an adult and a child are different.

Therefore, it is clear that the imagination of a child works differently than that of an adult.

In general, any problems associated with the development of children's imagination, junior schoolchildren usually does not arise, so that almost all children who play a lot and in a variety of ways in preschool childhood have a well-developed and rich imagination. The main questions that in this area may still arise before the child and the teacher at the beginning of training relate to the connection between imagination and attention, the ability to regulate figurative representations through voluntary attention, as well as the assimilation of abstract concepts that can be imagined and presented to the child, as well as to an adult, hard enough.

At primary school age, in addition, there is an active development of the recreative imagination. In younger children school age There are several types of imagination. It can be recreative (creating an image of an object according to its description) and creative (creating new images that require the selection of material in accordance with the plan).

The main trend that arises in the development of children's imagination is the transition to an increasingly correct and complete reflection of reality, the transition from a simple arbitrary combination of ideas to a logically reasoned combination. If a child of 3-4 years old is satisfied with two sticks laid crosswise for the image of an airplane, then at 7-8 years old he already needs an external resemblance to an airplane ("so that there are wings and a propeller"). A schoolboy at the age of 11-12 often designs a model himself and demands from it an even more complete resemblance to a real aircraft ("so that it would be just like a real one and would fly").

The question of the realism of children's imagination is connected with the question of the relation of the images that arise in children to reality. The realism of the child's imagination is manifested in all forms of activity available to him: in play, in visual activity, when listening to fairy tales, etc. Observations show that the child strives to depict well-known events truthfully, as happens in life. In many cases, the change in reality is caused by ignorance, the inability to coherently, consistently portray the events of life. The realism of the younger schoolchild's imagination is especially evident in the selection of game attributes. This selection is carried out according to the principle of maximum closeness, from the point of view of the child, of this material to real objects, according to the principle of the possibility of performing real actions with it.

A.G. Ruzskaya notes that children of primary school age are not deprived of fantasizing, which is at odds with reality, which is even more typical for schoolchildren (cases of children's lies, etc.). “Fantasying of this kind still plays a significant role and occupies a certain place in the life of a younger student. Nevertheless, it is no longer a simple continuation of the fantasizing of a preschooler who himself believes in his fantasy as in reality. A 9-10 year old student already understands the “conventionality "his fantasies, his inconsistency with reality." However, with age, the elements of reproductive, simple reproduction in the imagination of a younger student become less and less, and more and more creative processing of ideas appears.

According to L.S. Vygotsky, a child of preschool and primary school age can imagine much less than an adult, but he trusts the products of his imagination more and controls them less, and therefore imagination in the everyday, "cultural sense of the word, i.e. something like what is real, imaginary, in a child, of course, more than in an adult.However, not only the material from which the imagination builds is poorer in a child than in an adult, but also the nature of the combinations that are added to this material, their quality and the variety is considerably inferior to the combinations of an adult.Of all the forms of connection with reality that we have listed above, the child's imagination, to the same extent as the adult's imagination, has only the first, namely, the reality of the elements from which it is built.

At primary school age, for the first time, there is a division of play and labor, that is, activities carried out for the sake of pleasure that the child will receive in the process of the activity itself and activities aimed at achieving an objectively significant and socially assessed result. This distinction between play and work, including educational work, is an important feature of school age.

The importance of imagination in primary school age is the highest and necessary human ability. However, it is this ability that needs special care in terms of development. And it develops especially intensively at the age of 5 to 15 years. And if this period of imagination is not specially developed, in the future there will be a rapid decrease in the activity of this function. Along with a decrease in a person’s ability to fantasize, a person becomes impoverished, the possibilities of creative thinking decrease, interest in art, science, and so on goes out.

junior schoolchildren most his vigorous activity carried out with the help of imagination, they enthusiastically engage in creative activities. Psychological basis the latter is also creative imagination. There are three criteria for the effectiveness of the development of the creative imagination of children:

The dynamics of the child's success in doing themselves game tasks;

dynamics of success in performing traditional intellectual and facial tests;

The dynamics of the overall performance of schoolchildren and the increase in their activity in the classroom.

When, in the process of learning, children are faced with the need to comprehend abstract material and they need analogies, support with a general lack of life experience, imagination also comes to the aid of the child. Thus, the significance of the function of imagination in mental development is great.

However, fantasy, like any form of mental reflection, must have a positive direction of development. It should contribute to a better knowledge of the surrounding world, self-disclosure and self-improvement of the individual, and not develop into passive daydreaming, replacing real life with dreams. To accomplish this task, it is necessary to help the child use his imagination in the direction of progressive self-development, to activate cognitive activity schoolchildren, in particular the development of theoretical, abstract thinking, attention, speech and creativity in general. The younger student is interested in various types of creative activities. Some children have a penchant for drawing, modeling, national traditional types of applied art; others - to various types of amateur performances (dancing, singing, artistic reading, etc.). The creative activity of a younger student in various types of activity usually consists in the search for a new one, in the manifestation of independence in choosing the object of labor and its implementation, in the degree of processing of samples, in the originality of the methods and results of this activity, in the skillful use of knowledge, skills and abilities of work in this or that way. another kind of activity, in the ability to see new task in the ordinary and everyday.

It should be noted that the younger schoolchild is characterized by poorly developed, compared with a teenager, independence in work, not always a correct understanding of the phenomena around, the inability to single out the main thing in a given situation, he still has little life and cognitive experience. Each child has imagination, fantasy, but they manifest themselves in different ways, depending on his individual characteristics. Some are so constrained by the situation that any mental change of it presents significant difficulties for them. Sometimes a student fails to understand educational material only because they are not able to mentally imagine what the teacher is talking about or what is written in the textbook. For other children, every situation is material for the activity of the imagination. When such a child is reproached for inattention in a lesson, he is not always to blame: he tries to listen, but a different life takes place in his head, images arise, perhaps brighter and more interesting than what the teacher tells about.

The emotionality of a younger student, the delight and joy of success, good results, admiring the product of one's activity also serves as an indicator of its creative activity. In a younger student, activity may be on high level when emotions reach the limit and at this time the creative idea is realized. But here the impulsiveness of children of this age also affects, their creative activity can quickly fade away if it is not noticed and not supported.

Thus, the imagination is formed in the process of development of its activity and under the influence of the conditions of life, training and education, passing from the involuntary, passive, recreative to arbitrary, creative. A characteristic feature of creative activity at this age is the absence in children of a pronounced desire to achieve high performance in work. This is due to the fact that the product of activity for a younger student is often only subjective novelty, activity at this age is more often episodic. These features of the imagination of children must be taken into account. It is necessary to know not only how the student perceives the material, but also how this material is refracted in his imagination.

Features of the imagination of younger students are determined, on the one hand, by age patterns, and on the other, by individual characteristics. Individual features of the imagination are determined by mental properties and previous life experience of a person. To understand the nature of the imagination of a younger student, it is important to take into account how it developed at previous age stages. The first manifestations of imagination in children are closely related to the process of perception. This is indicated by the fact that children at the beginning of early childhood (1-1.5 years) are not yet able to listen to even the simplest fairy tales, being constantly distracted, but they can listen with relative attention to stories that they themselves have experienced.

In this case, the child is listening because he can clearly imagine the images in question. Further, the connection between imagination and perception is preserved, but gradually the child begins to process the received life impressions in his psyche. This is manifested, for example, in endowing surrounding objects with fictitious functions in accordance with the plot of the game (a chair can become a car; a closet can become a house, etc.). A feature of the imagination at this age stage is that its images are always mediated by the play activity performed.

The subsequent development of the imagination is determined by the mastery of speech. Speech allows the child to designate images with corresponding concepts and to operate in the psyche not only with concrete ideas, but also with the simplest abstract concepts. Given that the attention of a preschooler is often involuntary, this is also reflected in the development of his imagination: images arise spontaneously, are determined by the situation.

A significant qualitative leap in the development of the imagination is associated with the development of the arbitrariness of the higher mental functions of the child (L. S. Vygotsky) But this leap does not occur on its own, but thanks to the active assistance of adults (the creation of optimal conditions for development, taking into account the so-called "zone of proximal development "). Specifically, this is expressed in the organization of play, art and other activities of the child. The setting of a feasible task requires the child to activate internal processes, create new images, taking into account his experience, existing conditions, etc. Subsequently, the child himself arbitrarily begins to set such tasks for himself, model their solutions, and implement what he has planned in actions. In this case, we have the right to speak about the manifestation of the active imagination of younger students.

The development of imagination at primary school age is largely related to how the educational activities of children will be organized. The teacher should stimulate the cognitive activity of students through the creation of problem situations in the classroom, taking into account individual characteristics children's activities. Of great importance for the development of the imagination is visual activity, reading works of art, carrying out unusual educational activities that require children to be imaginative and internally liberated.

Speaking about the development of the imagination, it is important to keep in mind that we are talking not just about a qualitative change in one of the cognitive processes, but the entire cognitive sphere of a person and some of his personal characteristics. This is due to the fact that imagination is directly related to the creative activity of a person. The role of imagination in the creative process is great. Creativity is closely connected with all spheres of personality: the creation of a new object, finding a solution, writing a work, etc. is mediated by the available knowledge, the level of development of the relevant abilities, strong-willed character traits, emotional mood, experiences, etc.

Despite the recognition that creativity is basically unique, the English scientist G. Wallace distinguishes 4 main stages of the creative process:

1. Preparation - the birth of an idea.

2. Maturation - concentration on the problem, collection of the necessary information, its mental processing (we can conditionally say that at this stage there is a kind of "loading" of the subconscious).

3. Illumination - seeing the whole problem, the whole situation and generating ideas on this basis.

4. Verification - testing the found solution in practice, obtaining feedback.

It is important that this algorithm be internally perceived, internalized by children, so that they see and feel that the teaching is not only “important” and “necessary”, but also “interesting” and “fascinating”. It is the creative element in learning activities and throughout the life of younger students can become the basis for the disclosure of their individuality. This will allow in the future to choose the area of educational and professional interests, the implementation of which will make the future life rich, meaningful and meaningful both for the person himself and for society.

The first images of the child's imagination are associated with the processes of perception and his play activity. A one and a half year old child is still not interested in listening to stories (fairy tales) of adults, since he still lacks the experience that generates perception processes. At the same time, one can observe how, in the imagination of a playing child, a suitcase, for example, turns into a train, a silent doll, indifferent to everything that happens, into a crying little man offended by someone, a pillow into an affectionate friend. During the period of speech formation, the child uses his imagination even more actively in his games, because his life observations are sharply expanded. However, all this happens as if by itself, unintentionally.

Arbitrary forms of imagination "grow up" from 3 to 5 years. Imagination images can appear either as a reaction to an external stimulus (for example, at the request of others), or initiated by the child himself, while imaginary situations are often purposeful, with an ultimate goal and a pre-thought-out scenario.

The school period is characterized by the rapid development of the imagination, due to the intensive process of acquiring versatile knowledge and using it in practice.

Individual features of the imagination are clearly manifested in the process of creativity. In this sphere of human activity, imagination about significance is placed on a par with thinking. It is important that for the development of imagination it is necessary to create conditions for a person under which freedom of action, independence, initiative, and looseness are manifested.

It has been proven that imagination is closely connected with other mental processes (memory, thinking, attention, perception) that serve learning activities. Thus, not paying enough attention to the development of imagination, primary teachers reduce the quality of education.

In general, primary schoolchildren usually do not have any problems associated with the development of children's imagination, so almost all children who play a lot and in a variety of ways in preschool childhood have a well-developed and rich imagination. The main questions that in this area may still arise before the child and the teacher at the beginning of training relate to the connection between imagination and attention, the ability to regulate figurative representations through voluntary attention, as well as the assimilation of abstract concepts that can be imagined and presented to the child, as well as to an adult, hard enough.

Senior preschool and junior school age are qualified as the most favorable, sensitive for the development of creative imagination, fantasies. Games, conversations of children reflect the power of their imagination, one might even say, a riot of fantasy. In their stories and conversations, reality and fantasy are often mixed, and the images of the imagination can, by virtue of the law of the emotional reality of the imagination, be experienced by children as quite real. The experience is so strong that the child feels the need to talk about it. Such fantasies (they are also found in adolescents) are often perceived by others as lies. Parents and teachers often turn to psychological counseling, alarmed by such manifestations of fantasy in children, which they regard as deceit. In such cases, the psychologist usually recommends that you analyze whether the child is pursuing any benefit with his story. If not (and most often it happens that way), then we are dealing with fantasizing, inventing stories, and not with lies. This kind of storytelling is normal for kids. In these cases, it is useful for adults to join the children's game, to show that they like these stories, but precisely as manifestations of fantasy, a kind of game. Participating in such a game, sympathizing and empathizing with the child, an adult must clearly designate and show him the line between the game, fantasy and reality.

At primary school age, in addition, there is an active development of the recreative imagination.

In children of primary school age, several types of imagination are distinguished. It can be recreative (creating an image of an object according to its description) and creative (creating new images that require the selection of material in accordance with the plan).

Observations show that the child strives to depict well-known events truthfully, as happens in life. In many cases, the change in reality is caused by ignorance, the inability to coherently, consistently portray the events of life. The realism of the younger schoolchild's imagination is especially evident in the selection of game attributes. For a younger preschooler in the game, everything can be everything. Older preschoolers are already selecting material for the game according to the principles of external similarity.

The younger student also makes a strict selection of material suitable for play. This selection is carried out according to the principle of maximum closeness, from the point of view of the child, of this material to real objects, according to the principle of the possibility of performing real actions with it.

Mandatory and essential actor game for schoolchildren in grades 1-2 is a doll. With it, you can perform any necessary "real" actions. She can be fed, dressed, she can express her feelings. It is even better to use a live kitten for this purpose, since you can already really feed it, put it to bed, etc.

The corrections to the situation and images made during the game by children of primary school age give the game and the images themselves imaginary features, bringing them closer and closer to reality.

A.G. Ruzskaya notes that children of primary school age are not deprived of fantasizing, which is at odds with reality, which is even more typical for schoolchildren (cases of children's lies, etc.). “Fantasying of this kind still plays a significant role and occupies a certain place in the life of a younger student. But, nevertheless, it is no longer a simple continuation of the fantasizing of a preschooler who himself believes in his fantasy as in reality. A 9-10 year old student already understands "conventionality" of one's fantasizing, its inconsistency with reality.

Concrete knowledge and fascinating fantastic images built on their basis coexist peacefully in the mind of a junior schoolchild. With age, the role of fantasy, divorced from reality, weakens, and the realism of children's imagination increases. However, the realism of a child's imagination, in particular the imagination of a younger schoolchild, must be distinguished from its other feature, close, but fundamentally different.

The realism of the imagination involves the creation of images that do not contradict reality, but are not necessarily a direct reproduction of everything perceived in life.

The imagination of a younger schoolchild is also characterized by another feature: the presence of elements of reproductive, simple reproduction. This feature of children's imagination is expressed in the fact that in their games, for example, they repeat the actions and situations that they observed in adults, play out stories that they experienced, which they saw in the cinema, reproducing the life of the school, family, etc. without changes. The theme of the game is the reproduction of impressions that took place in the lives of children; the storyline of the game is a reproduction of what was seen, experienced, and necessarily in the same sequence in which it took place in life.

However, with age, the elements of reproductive, simple reproduction in the imagination of a younger student become less and less, and more and more creative processing of ideas appears.

V.S. Mukhina notes that at primary school age, a child in his imagination can already create a variety of situations. Being formed in the game substitutions of some objects for others, the imagination passes into other types of activity.

In the process of educational activities of schoolchildren, which goes into primary school From living contemplation, an important role, as psychologists note, is played by the level of development of cognitive processes: attention, memory, perception, observation, imagination, memory, thinking. The development and improvement of the imagination will be more effective with purposeful work in this direction, which will entail the expansion of the cognitive capabilities of children.

Along with a decrease in a person’s ability to fantasize, a person becomes impoverished, the possibilities of creative thinking decrease, interest in art, science, and so on goes out.

Younger students carry out most of their vigorous activity with the help of imagination. Their games are the fruit of the wild work of fantasy, they are enthusiastically engaged in creative activities. The psychological basis of the latter is also creative

imagination. When, in the process of learning, children are faced with the need to comprehend abstract material and they need analogies, support with a general lack of life experience, imagination also comes to the aid of the child. Thus, the significance of the function of imagination in mental development is great.

Thus, one cannot but agree with the conclusions of psychologists and researchers that imagination is one of the most important mental processes and the level of its development, especially in children of primary school age, largely depends on the success of mastering the school curriculum.

Chapter summary: so, we examined the concept of imagination, the types and features of its development in primary school age. In this regard, the following conclusions can be drawn:

The definition of imagination and the identification of the specifics of its development is one of the most difficult problems in psychology.

Imagination - special shape human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory.

Imagination can be of four main types:

Active imagination - is characterized by the fact that, using it, a person, at his own request, by an effort of will, causes appropriate images in himself.

Passive imagination lies in the fact that its images arise spontaneously, in addition to the will and desire of a person. Passive imagination can be unintentional and intentional.

There is also a distinction between the reproducing, or reproductive, and the transforming, or productive imagination.

Diagnostics of children of primary school age showed that the level of imagination development can be divided into three levels: high, medium and low.

Department of Education and Science of the Bryansk Region

State budgetary educational institution

middle vocational education

Novozybkov Professional Pedagogical College

COURSE WORK

The development of creative imagination in children of primary school age

Pakhodina Anna Alexandrovna

Specialty 44.02.02

Teaching in elementary grades

III course, 31 groups

Scientific adviser:

Pitko Inna Sergeevna

Novozybkov, 2015

Content

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...3

The concept and types of imagination………………………………………………..…6

Features of creative imagination in children of primary school age……………………………………………………………………………...10

The development of imagination in children of primary school age in the process of creative activity……………………………………………………………..15

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….20

List of used literature……………………………………………...22

Introduction

The problem of developing the creative imagination of children is relevant because in last years society faced the problem of preserving the intellectual potential of the nation, as well as the problem of developing and creating conditions for gifted people in our country, since it is this category of people that is the main productive and creative force of progress.

One of the fundamental principles of modernizing the content of education is its personal orientation, which implies reliance on the subjective experience of students, the actual needs of each student. In this regard, the question arose about the organization of active cognitive and creative activity of students, contributing to the accumulation of creative experience of younger students, as a basis, without which self-realization of the individual at subsequent stages. continuing education becomes ineffective.

the main task elementary school- to ensure the development of the child's personality. The sources of the full development of the child are two types of activity. Firstly, any child develops as he masters the past experience of mankind through familiarization with contemporary culture. At the heart of this process is educational activity, which is aimed at mastering the child with the knowledge and skills necessary for life in society. Secondly, the child in the process of development independently realizes his abilities, thanks to creative activity. Unlike educational, creative activity is not aimed at mastering already known knowledge. It contributes to the manifestation of the child's initiative, self-realization, the embodiment of his own ideas, which are aimed at creating a new one. Teachers, providing the implementation of the conditions for the development of creative imagination in teaching students, on the one hand, contribute to its formation, and on the other hand, determine the greater likelihood of preserving creative imagination in the future activities of an adult.

Representatives of many scientific areas and schools that consider the development of a person, his personal, psychological, didactic and other qualities, confirm the productivity of this process in the course of activity and communication, while emphasizing that not any activity has a developing function, but one that affects potential student's abilities, causes his creative cognitive activity. In the psychological literature there are different points of view on the origin and development of the imagination. Proponents of one of the approaches believe that the genesis of creative processes is associated with the maturation of certain structures (J. Piaget, Z. Freud). At the same time, the mechanisms of imagination turned out to be conditioned by characteristics external to this process (the development of the intellect or the development of the child's personality). Another group of researchers believes that the genesis of the imagination depends on the course of the biological maturation of the individual (K. Koffka, R. Arnheim). These authors attributed the components of external and internal factors to the mechanisms of imagination. Representatives of the third approach (T. Ribot, A. Bain) explain the origin and development of imagination by the accumulation of individual experience, while they were considered as transformations of this experience (associations, accumulation of useful habits).

In domestic psychology, research on the development of imagination in preschool children also occupies a significant place. Most authors associate the genesis of the imagination with the development of the child’s play activity (A.N. Leontiev, D.B. Elkonin, etc.), as well as with the mastery of preschool children with activities traditionally considered “creative”: constructive, musical, visual , artistic and literary. S.L. Rubinshtein et al. devoted their research to studying the mechanisms of imagination. The basis for determining the characteristics of the creative activity of primary school students are the works of famous Russian teachers and psychologists A.S. Belkina, L.I. Bozhovich, L.S. Vygotsky, V.V. Davydova, V.A. Petrovsky, E.S. Polat and others. As studies by L.S. Vygotsky, V.V. Davydova, E.I. Ignatieva, S.L. Rubinstein, D.B. Elkonina, V.A. Krutetsky and others, imagination is not only a prerequisite for the effective assimilation of new knowledge by children, but is also a condition for the creative transformation of knowledge available to children, contributes to the self-development of the individual, i.e. to a large extent determines the effectiveness of teaching and educational activities at school.

Thus, the creative imagination of children represents a huge potential for the realization of the reserves of an integrated approach in teaching and upbringing. And great opportunities for the development of creative imagination are represented by the visual activity of children.

The object of research is the features of creative imagination.

The subject is the process of developing the creative imagination of younger students.

The purpose of this term paper: to study the features of the development of creative imagination in children of primary school age in the process of visual activity.

Based on the goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

To study and analyze the scientific and methodological literature and practical experience on the problem of imagination and creativity.

To identify the features of the creative imagination of younger students.

Develop a system of training sessions creativity younger students.

The following methods were used: the study of theoretical and scientific and methodological literature on the topic of research.

The concept and types of imagination

Imagination is one of the forms of mental reflection of the world. The most traditional point of view is the definition of imagination as a process (A.V. Petrovsky and M.G. Yaroshevsky, V.G. Kazakova and L.L. Kondratiev and others).

Thus, in psychology, there is a growing interest in the problems of creativity, and through it, in imagination, as the most important component of any form of creative activity.

Imagination in psychology is considered as one of the forms of reflective activity of consciousness. Since all cognitive processes are reflective in nature, it is necessary, first of all, to determine the qualitative originality and specificity inherent in the imagination. According to Russian psychologists, imagination reflects reality not as existing reality, but as a possibility, probability. With the help of imagination, a person seeks to go beyond the existing experience and a given moment in time, i.e. he orients himself in a probabilistic, conjectural environment. This allows you to find not one, but many options for solving any situation, which becomes possible due to the repeated restructuring of existing experience. The process of combining elements of past experience into fundamentally new ones corresponds to the probabilistic nature of reflection and constitutes the qualitative specificity of the reflective activity of the imagination, in contrast to other cognitive processes in which the probabilistic nature of reflection does not act as the main, dominant, but only a particular feature.

According to M.V. Gamezo and I.A. Domashenko: "Imagination is a mental process that consists in creating new images (representations) by processing the material of perceptions and ideas obtained in previous experience." Domestic authors also consider this phenomenon as an ability (V.T. Kudryavtsev, L.S. Vygotsky) and as a specific activity (L.D. Stolyarenko, B.M. Teplov). Taking into account the complex functional structure, L.S. Vygotsky considered the use of the concept of a psychological system adequate. According to E.V. Ilyenkov, the traditional understanding of the imagination reflects only its derivative function. The main one - allows you to see what is, what lies before your eyes, that is, the main function of the imagination is the transformation of an optical phenomenon on the surface of the retina into an image of an external thing. So, imagination is the process of transforming images in memory in order to create new ones that have never been perceived by a person before (see Fig. 1).

The process of imagination is peculiar only to man and is necessary condition his work activity. Imagination is always a certain departure from reality. But in any case, the source of imagination is objective reality.

Rice. 1. Essence and physiological basis of imagination

There are two main types of imagination: passive and active.

In the case of passive imagination, there is a separation from practical activity. Here fantasy creates images that are not realized in life. In this case, a person can intentionally, and sometimes unwittingly, temporarily go into the realm of ideas that are far from reality. Patterns of fantasy, deliberately caused, but not connected with the will aimed at bringing them to life, are called dreams.

Active imagination is imagination associated with the performance of a specific practical activity. So, for example, when starting to make crafts, children form its image, think over what materials it can be made of, how to assemble it.

Depending on the independence and originality of images, imagination can be recreative and creative. Recreating imagination is a representation of something new for a given person, based on a verbal or conditional image of this new (drawing, diagram).

It is very important to create correct ideas about the new to describe it figuratively, to talk about it in such a way as to evoke living images that would concretize the abstract data characterizing this new one. The most important condition for the correct representation of what is described by words is the availability of knowledge on which the images recreated according to the description should be based.

Creative imagination is the creation of new images without relying on a ready-made description or conditional image (drawing, diagram). Creative imagination is the independent creation of new images. Creative imagination allows, bypassing the chain of conclusions, evidence, as if to see something completely new.

Usually, when people talk about imagination, they most often mean creative imagination. It is closely related to creative thinking, but differs from it in that it acts not with the help of concepts and reasoning, but with the help of images. A person does not reason, but mentally sees what he did not see and did not know before, sees vividly, figuratively, in all details.

Many researchers note that in the process of schooling, such mental processes as memory, perception, thinking are mainly "trained", and insufficient attention is paid to the development of the imagination. At the same time, given that all cognitive processes are in a relationship close connection and interdependencies (as elements unified system), we can say that the active development of any of these functions in educational activities creates favorable prerequisites for the development of the imagination.

The question of the relationship between imagination and thinking is, perhaps, the pivotal one in the entire psychology of imagination. There are several points of view on this issue, depending on what the emphasis is on - on the similarity of these processes or on their difference.

If the emphasis is on the difference between imagination and thinking, this leads to a denial of the mutual connection of these processes. Imagination in this interpretation is not considered as an exclusively independent process, independent of other psychological functions. This point of view was developed by V.V. Abramov, S.D. Vladychko, T. Ribot, A.I. Rozov.

Imagination mechanisms:

– dissociation - dissection of a complex whole into parts;

– association - the union of dissociated elements.

Having characterized imagination as a mental process, it is necessary to highlight the features of its development in primary school age.

There are conditions conducive to finding a creative solution: observation, ease of combination, sensitivity to the manifestation of problems.

2. Features creative imagination in children of primary school age

In a child, the imagination is formed in the game and at first is inseparable from the perception of objects and the performance of game actions with them. In children of 6-7 years of age, the imagination can already rely on such objects that are not at all similar to the ones being replaced.

Most children do not like very naturalistic toys, preferring symbolic, home-made, imaginative toys. Parents who so love to give their children huge bears and dolls often unwittingly hinder their development. They deprive them of the joy of independent discovery in games. Children, as a rule, like small, inexpressive toys - they are easier to adapt to different games. Large or “just like real” dolls and animals do little to stimulate the imagination. Children develop more intensively and get much more pleasure if the same stick performs in various games and the role of a gun, and the role of a horse, and many other functions. Thus, in L. Kassil’s book “Konduit and Shvambrania” a vivid description of the attitude of children to toys is given: “Turned lacquered figures represented unlimited possibilities for using them for the most diverse and tempting games ... Both queens were especially comfortable: the blonde and the brunette. Each queen could work for a Christmas tree, a cab driver, a Chinese pagoda, a flower pot on a stand, and a bishop.

Gradually, the need for an external support (even in a symbolic figure) disappears and internalization occurs - a transition to a game action with an object that does not really exist, to a game transformation of the object, to giving it a new meaning and representing actions with it in the mind, without real action. This is the origin of imagination as a special mental process.

In children of primary school age, the imagination has its own characteristics. The younger school age is characterized by the activation of the first recreating imagination, and then the creative one. The main line in its development lies in the subordination of the imagination to conscious intentions, i.e. it becomes arbitrary.

Here it should be noted that for a long time in psychology there was an assumption according to which the imagination is inherent in the child "initially" and is more productive in childhood, and with age it obeys the intellect and fades away. However, L.S. Vygotsky shows the untenability of such positions. All images of the imagination, no matter how bizarre they may seem, are based on ideas and impressions received in real life. And so the experience of a child is poorer than that of an adult. And one can hardly say that the child's imagination is richer. Just sometimes, not having enough experience, the child explains in his own way what he encounters in life, and these explanations often seem unexpected and original.

The younger school age is qualified as the most favorable, sensitive for the development of creative imagination, fantasy. Games, conversations of children reflect the power of their imagination, one might even say, a riot of fantasy. In their stories and conversations, reality and fantasy are often mixed, and the images of the imagination can, by virtue of the law of the emotional reality of the imagination, be experienced by children as quite real.

A feature of the imagination of younger students, manifested in educational activities, is initially based on perception (primary image), and not on representation (secondary image). For example, a teacher offers a task to children in a lesson that requires them to imagine a situation. It can be such a task: “A barge was sailing along the Volga and carried in holds ... kg of watermelons. There was pitching, and ... kg of watermelons burst. How many watermelons are left? Of course, such tasks start the process of imagination, but they need special tools (real objects, graphic images, layouts, diagrams), otherwise the child finds it difficult to advance in arbitrary actions of the imagination. In order to understand what happened in the watermelon holds, it is useful to give a sectional drawing of a barge. According to L.F. Berzfai, a productive imagination must have the following features in order for the child to enter the school environment painlessly: .

− with the help of imagination, he must be able to reproduce the principles of the structure and development of things;

− have the ability to see the whole before its parts, i.e. the ability to create a holistic image of any object;

− the productive imagination of a child is characterized by “above situationality”, i.e. a tendency to constantly go beyond these conditions, to set new goals (which is the basis of the future ability and desire to learn, i.e. the basis of learning motivation);

− mental experimentation with a thing and the ability to include an object in new contexts, and therefore, the ability to find a method or principle of action.

A child's creativity is determined by two factors:

Subjective (development of anatomical and physiological features);

Objective (the impact of the phenomena of the surrounding life).

The most vivid and free manifestation of the imagination of younger students can be observed in the game, in drawing, writing stories and fairy tales. In children's creativity, the manifestations of the imagination are diverse: some recreate reality, others create new fantastic images and situations. When writing stories, children can borrow plots known to them, stanzas of poems, graphic images, sometimes without noticing it at all. However, they often deliberately combine well-known plots, create new images, exaggerating certain aspects and qualities of their characters.

The tireless work of the imagination - effective method knowledge and assimilation of the world around the child, the ability to go beyond personal practical experience, the most important psychological prerequisite for the development of a creative approach to the world.

There are the following stages of creative imagination in children: .

1) preparatory (incitement to create, meeting with the necessary people, etc.);

2) nurturing a plan (in art activity, the child creates a sketch, sketches, selects visual materials);

3) implementation of the idea (creation of a specific work, completion of the work);

4) presentation of the result to the “spectator” (exhibition of works). The last stage for children is of particular importance.

Conditions for the development of students' creative imagination in the process of educational and cognitive activity, depending on the sides of activation cognitive activity(content, organizational, subjective) can be classified in the following way(see Table 1). .

Table 1.

Conditions for the development of children's creative imagination in the process of educational and cognitive activity

Content side

Organizational side

Subjective side

Presenting to students a system of tasks and tasks aimed at developing creative imagination.

used didactic material, varying for students with different academic performance.

The ability for students to choose the amount of complexity of the form of homework.

The amount of knowledge calculated for each student, taking into account his cognitive abilities, is established, and educational material is selected in connection with this.

Selection and implementation in the learning process of methods that contribute to the actualization of the student's personal experience and the activation of his creative activity.

Working with cognitive strategies.

The study of educational material, the complexity of which is chosen by the student and varied by the teacher.

The inclusion of schoolchildren in the optimally possible individual, group, collective forms of work.

Work with each student, identifying and taking into account inclinations and preferences in the learning process

Democratic style of leadership in the organization of training.

The teacher gives the student the opportunity to choose group or independent work.

The manifestation of both the teacher and students of bright positive emotions.

The orientation of teaching methods to create a situation of success for each student.

Direction for independent search, independent work, independent discoveries of the student

General provisions for understanding individual approach to learning. First, the recognition of the student in the process of teaching his subjectivity. Secondly, learning is not only teaching, but also learning (a special individual activity of the student, and not a direct projection of teaching). Thirdly, the starting point of learning is not the realization of ultimate goals, but the disclosure of the individual cognitive capabilities of each student and the determination of the pedagogical conditions necessary to satisfy the development of the student. Fourthly, communication between the subjects of learning is understood, first of all, as personal communication. Thus, the formation of a creative personality is one of the important tasks of pedagogical theory and practice at the present stage. Its solution begins already in preschool and at primary school age.

The development of imagination in children of primary school age in the process of creative activity

Modern pedagogy no longer doubts that it is possible to teach creativity. The question, according to I.Ya. Lerner, is only to find the optimal conditions for such learning. Under the creative (creative) abilities of students, we understand "... the comprehensive capabilities of the student in performing activities and actions aimed at creating new educational products for him" .

Through creativity, the child develops thinking. But this teaching is special, it is not the same as they usually teach knowledge and skills. The starting point for the development of the imagination should be directed activity, that is, the inclusion of children's fantasies in specific practical problems. A.A. Volkova states: “Education of creativity is a versatile and complex impact on a child. The mind (knowledge, thinking, imagination), character (courage, perseverance), feeling (love of beauty, passion for image, thought) take part in the creative activity of adults. We must educate the same aspects of the personality in the child in order to more successfully develop creativity in him. Enriching the child's mind with a variety of ideas, some knowledge - means to provide abundant food for creativity. To teach to look attentively, to be observant means to make ideas clearer, more complete. This will help children to more vividly reproduce what they see in their work.

AND I. Lerner identified the following features of creative activity: .

Independent transfer of knowledge and skills to a new situation; seeing new problems in familiar, standard conditions;

Vision new feature familiar object;

The ability to see an alternative solution;

The ability to combine previously known methods of solving a problem in a new way;

The ability to create original solutions in the presence of already known ones.

Since creative activity involves the promotion of different approaches, solutions, consideration of the subject from different angles, the ability to come up with an original unusual way of solving - all these features of creative activity are inextricably linked with the imagination. Naturally, the child creates a subjectively new, i.e. new for himself, but it is of great social importance, because in the course of it the abilities of the individual are formed.

Very great importance in the process of learning has a recreating imagination, tk. without it, it is impossible to perceive and understand the educational material. Teaching promotes the development of this kind of imagination. In addition, the younger schoolchild's imagination is more and more closely connected with his life experience, and it does not remain a fruitless fantasy, but gradually becomes an incentive to activity. The child seeks to translate the thoughts and images that have arisen into real objects.

Most effective remedy for this - the visual activity of children of primary school students. In the process of drawing, the child experiences a variety of feelings: he rejoices at the beautiful image that he created himself, upset if something does not work out. But the most important thing: by creating an image, the child acquires various knowledge; his ideas about the environment are clarified and deepened; in the process of work, he begins to comprehend the qualities of objects, memorize their characteristic features and details, master fine skills and abilities, learns to use them consciously.

Even Aristotle noted: "Drawing contributes to the versatile development of the child." Prominent teachers of the past - Ya.A. Comenius, I.G. Pestalozzi, F. Frebel - and many domestic researchers. Their works testify: drawing and other types of artistic activity create the basis for full-fledged meaningful communication between children and with adults; perform a therapeutic function, distracting children from sad, sad events, remove nervous tension, fears, cause a joyful, high spirits, provide a positive emotional condition.

Visual activity is integral part human culture. Visual activity develops the ability to observe, analyze; creativity, artistic taste, imagination, aesthetic feelings (the ability to see the beauty of shapes, movements, proportions, colors, color combinations), contributes to the knowledge of the world around, the formation of a harmoniously developed personality, develops the senses and especially visual perception based on the development of thinking. It follows that the lessons visual arts necessary and very important in the system of general education.

In the lessons of fine arts, the result of the work is a drawing. This is only the external result of the students, but it encodes the whole path of development of those mental images that were given by the topic. A drawing is that material form into which thoughts have poured out. And the result depended on how diverse and active they were. Here we understand the great importance of the development of imagination in the lessons of fine arts, as an important factor in solving certain artistic problems. From this we conclude that the imagination in the lessons of fine arts is of an active creative nature.

Any artistic work is inherent in the concept - creativity, because. it (creativity) in the visual arts is associated with the need to create something new, one's own, that did not exist before. This is seen in children's drawings.

When children begin to experiment with form and color in the classroom, they are faced with the need to find a way of depicting in which the objects of their life experience can be reproduced using certain means. The plethora of original solutions they create is always amazing, especially since children usually turn to the most elementary topics. For example, when depicting a portrait of a person, children do not strive to be original, and yet the attempt to reproduce on paper everything that they see makes each child discover a new visual formula for an already known subject. In each drawing, one can notice respect for the basic visual concept of a person. This is proved by the fact that any viewer understands that he has an image of a person in front of him, and not of any other object.

At the same time, each drawing is significantly different from the others. The object represents only an insignificant minimum of characteristic structural features, thus appealing to the imagination in the literal sense of the word. In children's drawings, many solutions are offered for the image of individual parts human face. Images vary not only of parts of the face, but also of the contour lines of the face itself. Some drawings have many details and differences, others just a few. round shapes and rectangular, thin strokes and huge masses, oppositions and overlaps - all used to reproduce the same object. But a mere enumeration of geometric differences alone does not tell us anything about the individuality of these images, which becomes apparent due to appearance the entire drawing. These differences are partly due to the stage of development of the child, partly their individual character, partly they depend on the goals for which the drawing was created. Taken together, the drawings testify to the richness of children's artistic imagination. It follows that the role of creative imagination in the lessons of fine arts is great. And the development of creative imagination is one of the main tasks in the system of aesthetic education, because. drawing is a source of creative activity.

In elementary school, the fine arts teaching program includes the following types of lessons: thematic drawing; drawing from nature; decorative drawing. The development of students' imagination is most facilitated by thematic and decorative drawing.

Decorative drawing mainly develops reproductive imagination, as children usually study various types of folk paintings (Khokhloma, Gzhel, Polkhovo-Maidanskaya painting, etc.) in the classroom and recreate them. But still, there are tasks that require creative imagination (for example, appliqué, drawing an ornament, etc.).

Thematic drawing most of all contributes to the development of creative imagination. In thematic drawing, the child shows both artistic and creative abilities. And here, first of all, it is necessary to define the concept of the topic itself. Exist common topics(“eternal themes” - good and evil, relationships between people, motherhood, courage, justice, beauty and ugliness), which have many manifestations and provoke creativity, and specific topics, with a clear indication of the place and action that require precise implementation. They help diagnose creative imagination.

In order to penetrate deeper into the essence of the implementation of the conditions for the development of creative imagination, as well as to strengthen the connection between pedagogical theory and practice, in the next chapter we will conduct pilot study development of the creative imagination of younger students and classes have been developed that contribute to the development of the creative imagination of younger students

Conclusion

The relevance of the problem of developing the creative abilities of younger students is due to the need for a scientifically based solution practical tasks elementary education, the search for ways to improve the organization of creative activity of students.

Imagination is the process of transforming images in memory in order to create new ones that have never been perceived by a person before.

Types of imagination differ in how deliberate, conscious is the creation of new images by a person. According to this criterion, they are divided into arbitrary, or active, imagination - the process of deliberately constructing images in accordance with a conscious plan, a goal, an intention - it is this type of imagination that needs to be specially developed; and involuntary or passive imagination is the free, uncontrolled emergence of images.

Creative imagination - independent creation of new images. Both recreative and creative imagination are very important for a person and must be developed.

The child's imagination develops gradually, as he acquires real life experience. The richer the experience of the child, the more he saw, heard, experienced, learned, the more impressions about the surrounding reality he accumulated, the richer material his imagination has, the more scope opens up for his imagination and creativity, which is most actively and fully realized in games, writing fairy tales and stories, drawing.

Primary school age is a period of intensive and qualitative transformation of cognitive processes (perception, memory, imagination, etc.): they begin to acquire an indirect character and become conscious and arbitrary.

Without a sufficiently developed imagination, the student's educational work cannot proceed successfully, hence the important pedagogical conclusion: the creation of favorable conditions for the development of imagination in the work of children contributes to the expansion of their real life experience, the accumulation of impressions.

The leading components of the imagination of younger students are past experience, the subject environment, which depend on the internal position of the child, and the internal position from supra-situational becomes extra-situational.

The following conditions contribute to the development of creative imagination:

Involving students in various activities

The use of non-traditional forms of conducting lessons

Creating problem situations

Independent performance of work

The results of our work showed that the use of a developmental program in working with children gives a positive trend in the development of the imagination of younger students.

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