School Students Age Ten to Twelve: A "No Man's Land" in Developmental Psychology

A survey of psychological research devoted to school students age ten to twelve was undertaken in order to solve the practical question of the optimal conditions for teaching fourth- and fifth-graders. The results cited give a dual answer to this question. On the one hand, school students age ten to twelve differ qualitatively from elementary school students age six to ten. On the other hand, conditions for a nontraumatic transition of the child from younger school age to adolescence can be created only if changes in his environment are gradual and unhurried. What then is the main line of age-related continuity that is of almost no concern to pedagogues but that should be of concern to them? The empirical evidence examined gives serious grounds for regarding reflection as the chief moving force of all aspects of mental development during the transition from younger school age to adolescence. The reflection in question is what serves above all the sphere of the individual's self-consciousness, reflection as the individual capacity for self-change. The task of the individualization of learning activity, of bringing up a person capable of self-education can hardly be solved without addressing the child's self-consciousness.