7.1. The concept of forms of education and their classification

The category of “forms of education” (“forms of educational work”) is one of the most difficult to define in pedagogical science - firstly, because of the ambiguity of the concept itself (for example, in the Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian language S. I. Ozhegova, nine meanings of the word “form "), And secondly, because of the many classifications of the forms of educational work.

Speaking about the form of education, they most often mean the expression of its content through a certain organization of relations between teachers and students. As forms of upbringing, we will consider specific acts of activity, situations, procedures, activities, within the framework of which the participants in the educational process interact, aimed at solving certain pedagogical tasks.

The form of education as a pedagogical phenomenon performs a number of functions. The first function is organizational, since any form of educational work involves the solution of an organizational problem. In the role of the organizer can act as a teacher, and students. The organization of any business reflects a certain logic of actions, interaction of participants. Many teachers use generalized methods (algorithms) for organizing various forms of educational work, (conversations, collective creative affairs, competitions, dramatization, etc.). These techniques involve the sequential passage of a number of stages, stages of organizational activity.

The second function is regulating, since the use of one form or another allows regulating relations both between teachers and students, and only between children. Different forms of educational work affect the process of rallying a group of schoolchildren in different ways. Thanks to the forms of education, in which the need for interaction is laid in advance, the norms of social relations are formed.

The third function is informative. Its implementation involves not only one-sided communication of a certain amount of knowledge to students, but also the actualization of their knowledge, appeal to their experience.

In pedagogical theory and practice, many forms of educational work have been created, which are classified for various reasons:

1) depending on the number of participants involved in it: individual (for one pupil), group (for several pupils), collective (for the whole class), mass (school-wide, urban).

2) depending on the means mainly used: gaming (imitations, competitions, etc.), forms of labor activity (student production associations, individual work, work in temporary groups, etc.), forms of communication (direct, indirect, etc.) ;

3) depending on the methods mainly used: verbal (information, meetings, rallies, etc.); visual (exhibitions, stands, etc.); practical (charity and labor actions, design materials for the exhibition, museum, etc.).

4) depending on the time of holding: short-term (from several minutes to several hours), prolonged (from several days to several weeks), traditional (regularly repeated);

5) depending on the time of preparation: impromptu (conducted without the participation of children in preliminary preparation); providing for preliminary work and long training of students;

6) depending on the method of influence of the teacher: direct and indirect;

7) depending on the subject of the organization: the organizers are teachers, parents and other adults; the activity is organized on the basis of cooperation; the initiative and its implementation belongs to children;

8) depending on the result: aimed at information exchange; aimed at developing a common solution; aimed at creating a socially significant product.

All forms of educational work can be united by a common term - activities, meaning by them specific educational actions, acting as segments of the educational process, characterized by a targeted, meaningful and organizational unity and having a direct educational impact on the team and the individual.

The method of organizing and conducting educational activities can be carried out in two ways: 1) traditionally, when most of the work on preparing and conducting an event is performed by the teacher, and the students either do not participate in its preparation in general, or are occasionally involved at different stages; 2) based on the method of collective creative work (for more details on this see 7.3), when all stages of the development, preparation and holding of an event are implemented on the basis of a joint creative search for teachers and pupils.