Research as one of the development measures of students’ research skills on natural sciences lessons (late 50’s – early 70’s XX century)

Abstract

The article highlights research as one of the means of developing pupils’ research skills. The important role of research work, which was an important section in the polytechnic education of the late 1950’s to the early 1970’s, is emphasized. The research has contributed to solving problems combining training with productive work at a higher level. The features of the development of research skills during the independent conduct of experiments in the process of experimental-practical work are characterized.
Experimental-practical work is more focused on agriculture: conducting experiments in a «corner of wildlife», in a greenhouse, on a study site and in fields of student production teams. Th intensification of cognitive activity in the process of experimental-practical work contributed to the independent planning of future work. The main ways to activate cognitive activity were practical independent work, but under the teacher’s guidance. It is noted that during this period little attention was paid to creative independence. It is found that the application of the research method to the lessons of the natural sciences during this period became more important: the experiments contributed to the development of several concepts; the objects selected did not require too much care.
It is concluded that research skills as such were not isolated and represented a collective structure: polytechnical skills and the ability to apply knowledge in practice. The beginning of the 60’s is characterised by the fact that the research work was represented by a combination of training and industrial work. In the mid-1960’s, there was a further development of productive agricultural labour as a means of activating cognitive activity, which did not always use intellectual forms. In the late 60’s and early 70’s, the concept of developing skills to experiment, to observe and to generalize began to be applied more frequently.