Galperin's theory: fundamentals of theory, content and structure

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Honored Scientist of the RSFRS, an outstanding psychologist, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences Pyotr Yakovlevich Galperin was born on October 2, 1902 in Tambov. His contribution to science lies in the fact that he not only introduced into psychology such a concept as the systematic development of orientation towards future action, but also created on its basis the theory of the gradual formation of mental actions.

Creating a theory

The creation of the theory dates back to 1952, when Galperin presented it to the scientific community as a hypothesis of the formation of mental action. The theory was based on ideas about a possible genetic relationship between mental operations and its external expressions in the form of practical actions. This assumption is based on the fact that the thinking of children develops mainly through connection with objective activity, when the child directly interacts with objects.

Galperin's main conclusions were based on the fact that an external action can gradually turn intointernal, passing through a number of specific stages that are closely interconnected and cannot exist without each other. Galperin's theory of the gradual formation of action does not lose its relevance to this day.

Subsystems

Galperin divided the system of systematically-staged formation of mental actions into four components:

• Formation of adequate motivation.
• Providing retrieval by acting on desired properties.
• Formation of an indicative basis for activities.
• Ensuring the transfer of actions to the mental plane.

It is on these four subsystems that Galperin's theory of gradual mental actions is built. The system was further developed in the division into 6 stages.

Main steps

Galperin's theory implied the existence of six stages in the formation of mental action: motivation, orienting basis, material actions, external speech actions, external speech "to oneself", mental actions.

• It all starts with the stage of motivation - this is the creation of an incentive individual attitude to understanding and mastering actions.
• The second stage is the formation of an indicative basis for future action. This stage is carried out by familiarizing in practice with the content of the future mental action. Also, do not forget about the final requirements for action.
• The third stage is the stage of actions with real objects as their substitutes. That is, material ormaterialized actions. The essence of this stage is the practical assimilation and awareness of the action using the right items.
• The fourth stage is external speech actions. This period is characterized by further assimilation, but already a person does not rely on real-life objects. The process itself begins with the transfer of external action to the internal plane. Galperin believed that this transfer of action into speech is not just voicing, but verbal performance of the action.
• The fifth stage is a speech “to oneself”. By the end of a certain mental action, the process no longer requires the work of external speech, it completely moves into internal speech.
• The final stage is the stage of mental actions. The sixth stage is the completion of the transition of the process of formation of mental actions to the internal plane, that is, the speech component is no longer needed. However, it is at the final stage that the action undergoes significant transformations. It can shrink, automate, and leave the realm of consciousness entirely.

Each of the listed stages involves the reduction of the action, which at the initial stage is performed in an expanded form. Galperin and the theory of stage-by-stage formation of actions - a new word in educational psychology.

Human Action Property System

P. Ya. Galperin put a lot of effort into creating a theory of the systematically staged formation of mental actions. But subsequently there was an urgent need for a subsequent assessment of the quality of an already formed action. That's whyafter the theory of the formation of mental actions, the professor created a system of properties of human actions. Peter Yakovlevich divided all properties into two components:

• Primary parameters of action - characterize any human action. The basis of this group is the completeness of the properties of the system, the separation of essential and non-essential relations, the level of implementation of the action, power and time characteristics.
• Secondary action parameters - reflect the result of connecting the primary parameters. This group includes reasonableness, awareness, criticality, a measure of development.

Only in the aggregate, the data of the theory of Galperin P. Ya. reflect the essence of mental actions.

Method of systematically-staged formation of mental activity

Psychological mechanisms are revealed exclusively in the process of performing an action, while in the process of formation the action can change significantly, and it is not possible to study the result. This pattern served as the basis for creating the idea of a formative experiment, which was based on the method of systematically-staged formation of mental actions. Galperin P. Ya. suggested directing forces not to search for what has already been formed, but to create conditions for formation that can be controlled.

This method is based on the concept of performing a certain action with already pre-formed properties and features. Thanks to this technique, it is possible to reveal the relationship not only between the contentaction and the conditions for its assimilation, but also between the characteristics of the result of the activity.

This invention of the scientist opened up truly wide opportunities for the practical use of the theory of the formation of mental actions in the learning process. Some time later, the professor noted that the method of systematically phased formation contributed to the identification of psychological mechanisms.

Meaning of the theory

Galperin's theory P. Ya. had both theoretical and practical significance. The professor's thoughts made a splash not only in psychology, but also in pedagogy.

Theoretical value

The value of the technique in the theoretical aspect is as follows:

• Pyotr Yakovlevich Galperin actually created a specific unit of analysis of the human psyche - this is a mental human action that is distinguished by awareness and purposefulness.
• The method of forming Galperin's mental action in accordance with predetermined properties has become a real tool in psychology and the development of a person's spiritual life.
• The world saw this approach as a formative experiment.
• A new word in psychology is a quality control system for the performance of a particular mental action.

This theory has become the basis for the work of many psychologists.

Practical value

In addition to the theoretical value, the theory has received its recognition in the practical sphere:

• This techniquecontributes to the automation of mental activity, that is, it significantly reduces the time for the formation and mastering of skills, not only without loss of quality, but also with an increase in this indicator.
• The method of forming mental actions is used at all levels of education, from kindergarten to university.
• The theory of Peter Yakovlevich Galperin served as the basis for the implementation of a sufficient number of applied projects. Their essence was to improve the content and the learning process.

This theory of Galperin about the formation of mental actions has become one of the most famous in Soviet and Russian educational psychology.

Pyotr Yakovlevich made an invaluable contribution to the development of psychology. In October 2012, in honor of the professor, an international scientific conference was held, the name of which was “New Life of Classical Theory”. The event was timed to coincide with the 110th birthday of P. Ya. Galperin. The main topic of the conference is the professor's contribution to educational psychology, the development of his theories in modern times, as well as topical problems of using the general psychological concept of a scientist.

An example of using theory

In order to understand the theory of mental actions of Galperin P. Ya., we can refer to this example. The teacher of the Russian language needs to teach his student not to make specific grammatical errors. To do this, you can write on the cards those rules that cause problems in use. The cards are laid out in the order in which they should bebe used in a written phrase. The learning process begins with the student reading the first rule aloud, then applying it to the written phrase, after which he reads the second rule aloud and also applies it to the desired sentence. And so it happens with all the rules written on the cards. By the second stage, the student already knows all the rules by heart, the teacher must take the cards, and the student repeats the rules aloud without their help. The next stage is pronouncing the rules "to yourself", still applying them to the sentence. By the final stage, according to Galperin's theory of the formation of mental actions, the student is already able to independently use the learned rule on a subconscious level, without reading it either aloud or “to himself”.