№ 3(114) (2023)

The article presents the findings of the study undertaken as part of the project for the Russian Foundation for Basic Research — Promising Areas of Didactic Research in Russia. The authors discuss social and cultural issues in didactics, such as instability and non-standard living and professional conditions, the dynamism of the professional arena, unexpected intricacy of job responsibilities, and others. The study reveals how the research area has expanded beyond the discovery of common patterns in schooling and higher education to include preschool, postgraduate, corporate, domestic, and senior citizen education, as well as tutoring. It raises new didactic challenges related to the digital transformation of education and describes changes in the methodological regulation of didactic research using V.S. Styopin’s typology of scientific rationality, which encompasses classical, non-classical, and post-nonclassical kinds. The authors present a review of didactic research in higher education based on the integration of competency and value-semantic methods that focus on the search and application of personal meanings in both education and subsequent activities. They also discuss the specific features of adult education practices as well as the challenges they pose to didactics, including changes in subjects of education, multi-agency in the educational process, multiple ‘integration points,’ ‘non-cognitive’ types of experience, a shift in the teacher’s position, and the coherence and complexity of didactic theory. 

The realities of modern schooling show that teachers are paying more attention to working with bright kids. Simultaneously, the primary focus is on providing circumstances for the development and application of the child’s special abilities. As a consequence of their efforts, these students compete in contests and Olympiads and develop creative products in various areas. We witness an apparently successful child who may struggle with difficulties of self-determination, self-presentation, complex relations with the micro-society, and so on. These difficulties might result in the victimization of a bright youngster, preventing them from achieving success in the future. The basis of these problems for this group of children is frequently a lack of a solution or an untimely remedy to socializing issues (according to A.V. Mudrik). This issue is especially problematic in high school. The purpose of the research is to identify gifted high school students’ challenges in solving cultural, socio-cultural, and socio-psychological socialization problems, as well as to determine the social and pedagogical conditions for overcoming and preventing difficulties in solving socialization problems. The research covered high school students of the Development Vector Multi-Subject School of the Kostroma State University, Kostroma (n = 11); Sirius Centre session participants, Sochi (n = 22); students of the Academy of Talents, St. Petersburg (n = 22); students of the Pre-University Training Department of the Omsk State Technical University, Omsk (n = 48). The sample size was 103 persons in total. Diagnostic tools: Gender Autobiography Method by I.S. Kletsina; Rokeach Value Survey by M. Rokeach; Studying a Child’s Performance in Relation to School and Extracurricular Activities (questionnaire) by V.S. Yurkevich; Friendship Questionnaire (developed by the authors); Agency Questionnaire by V.K. Zaretsky; Self-Attitude Analysis Method by S.R. Pantileyev; Communicative and Organizational Abilities Method by V.V. Sinyavsky and V.A. Fedoroshin; Professional Attitudes in Adolescents Questionnaire by I.M. Kondakov. The authors offer social and educational settings for overcoming and preventing the identified socialization difficulties in gifted high school pupils.

Ensuring the proper quality of inclusive education continues to be one of the most pressing issues requiring fundamental scientific research. The article presents the findings of the study undertaken in 2020–2022 as part of the project for the Russian Foundation for Basic Research — Educational Setting Individualization as a Contributing Factor to the Development of Inclusive Processes in the Education of Children with Disabilities in Urban and Rural Areas. The research seeks to address a major scientific goal of current pedagogy: the theoretical and methodological development, as well as the empirical analysis, of pedagogical mechanisms and conditions for the individualization of the educational process for students with disabilities. The author explores the notion of individualization in the context of an integrative approach. It is seen as a factor that contributes to the availability and high quality of inclusive education by guaranteeing the participation of students with disabilities in the social and educational environment. The article reflects the authors’ methodological foundations for individualization. It also substantiates the psychological and pedagogical mechanisms and conditions that allow for better resourcing of inclusive education, as well as the harmonization of teaching and special educational needs of students with disabilities associated with the specifics of their individual psychosocial development. The authors provide diagnostic tools to assess a teacher’s preparedness for individualization of the educational process, as well as a preparedness typology generated throughout the research. They develop the notion of inclusive methodological competency of the teacher and define its operational components with the goal of increasing teachers’ individualization skills. Furthermore, the study discusses the authors’ strategy and organizational models for the pedagogically suitable interaction of subject teachers with the goal of individualizing educational process.

The article summarizes the study findings, which led to the creation and standardization of the Adolescent Psychological Problems in Real and Virtual Environment Methodology. The empirical data collected throughout the study define the level of concern among modern teenagers, par­ticularly that related to the online world. The authors also developed and standardized the Inter­net Immersion Index Methodology, identified relationships between the level of concern and theimmersion index, and devised strategies for coping with Internet addiction. The results were gathered on a sample of adolescents aged 13 to 17 between 2020 and 2022. The sample inclu­ded 1,157 teenagers from St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. The techniques are theore­ tically founded, reflecting the authors’ view of the nature of this psychological problem, which they term as an emotion reflective approach. They also provide a theoretical rationale for the phenomenon of Internet immersion, which aided in the development of the aforementioned technique.

This research is particularly relevant due to the need to supply educational resources in electronic form, including digital textbooks (DTs) and their fragments on digital educational platforms. As the issue is multidisciplinary, the research analyses the conditions for DT development, including psychodidactic, ecopsychological, and cybernetic prerequisites. The article’s goal is to share experience in psychodidactic development of DT fragments and DT testing on a digital platform. The idea of creating an interactive Russian language textbook serves as the study’s psychodidactic foundation (G.G. Granik et al.). The authors employed an ecopsychological agency development model as well as an ecopsychological typology of agent–media interactions (V.I. Panov). Learn to Learn, a digital learning platform, was used to implement  the cybernetic component (D.D. Rubashkin, I.N. Kondratieva). It has been demonstrated that this trial digital platform fosters student agency and the activation of their communicative connections. The feedback (digital footprint) enables the instructor to regulate the learning process interactively. As a result, the triad student–teacher–digital platform becomes a separate agent in the educational process. The authors also report on the results of DT fragment testing, which evaluated students’ comprehension of an electronic learning text. Thus, digital platforms may become more than just a handy DT storage solution; they can also be a pedagogical instrument for the development of student agency and overall support for the educational process.

The research discusses a parallel-sequential model of agency development stages for teachers of preschool and primary school. The model was successfully tested on students. The authors developed a profile of teacher agency development stages. The most noticeable stages include ‘motivated individual,’ ‘observer,’ ‘master,’ and ‘creator.’ The stage ‘student’ has a little diminished presence, while the another two — ‘apprentice’ and ‘critic’ — are at a very low level. The researchers also outline the interrelationships between agency stages and interpersonal interactions and examine competitive behaviour strategies.

The research focuses on the development of reading competency in students from the standpoint of teacher agency. The importance of this article is justified by the function of reading as a key learning and academic achievement skill, as well as the fact that Russian pupils continue to do poorly in text reading and comprehension. The authors present a reading competency framework for general education that consists of five components: 1) reading ability; 2) high reading motivation; 3) ability to work with a book, basic reading skills (information search and analysis; text comprehension and interpretation; assessment of content and form); 4) extensive reading experience and desire to read extracurricular books; 5) willingness and ability to discuss what has been read orally and/or in writing. The researchers identify the teacher’s role in the development of each of the five components in general school children. It is demonstrated that a teacher with advanced agency skills shows a consistent interest in the development of students’ reading competency (motivational component); has relevant knowledge about the content of this competency and the methods of its development, teaches students book-working techniques (cognitive component); and enriches the classroom and school life with exciting reading activities (behavioural component). 

The XVIII Symposium of the International Dostoevsky Society commemorated the 150 thanniversary of the publication of the novel Demons. Participants reviewed a wide range of textology and poetics materials, presented their views of the novel, and discussed the worldwide and national significance of Dostoevsky’s legacy.The Symposium attendees talked about the ‘Dostoevsky boom’ in China and Japan.To mark Dostoevsky’s 200thbirthday, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research/Russian Scientific Information Centre held a research project competition titled Studying Dostoevsky’s Legacy in Russian and World Culture: Sources and Methods. The competition resulted in the publication of thirty research works. A landmark event in global philosophy and criticism was the release of the Jubilee Library and the annotated catalogue A Trace Left for Ages honouring Dostoevsky’s 200 th birthday.