DIAGNOSTICS OF CREATIVE THINKING DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG SCHOOLCHILDREN IN BOARDING SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

The article deals with description of creative thinking development of young schoolchildren in boarding school environment. The study of creative thinking features was conducted on a homogeneous age and social sample group. 143 school children aged 7-10 were involved in the empiric part of the study. Forty-two pupils (aged 7-10) of boarding school GBSKOU JSC “SKOSHI of 1-2 type” in Astrakhan participated in the main experiment. To receive objective information on creative activities of children, the methods allowing diagnostics of creative thinking development, verbal and nonverbal intelligence, and anxiety level were used. The authors base their assumptions on the notion, that currently national pedagogical theory and practice face a conflict between the objective need for transformations in educational and pedagogical process in modern boarding schools, and insufficiency of existing pedagogical environment for successful development of creative personality. The results of the study revealed that young schoolchildren have minimal level and range of knowledge, low basic intellectual functions (memory and thinking), as well as poor general cultural level. Nonetheless, they show normal ability to identify and classify common characteristics of objects (logical thinking). The authors advance a hypothesis that the organized creative activities will allow the young schoolchildren to balance their levels of verbal and nonverbal intelligence, obtain the skills necessary for active life, and to enhance creative personality development.