School studying load optimizing on a base of psycho-physiological conditions defined via hardware for school- children

From year to year, the problem of optimization of the loads on a pupil’s organism in school study processes remains topical. Information flows are intensifying with introduction of new disciplines. Information "press" loads stronger on non-vigorous children’s organisms. The present demands for the new methods of teaching and rehabilitation of a child’s psycho- physiological potential.

A new tendency gains in a pedagogic. That is valeology, a science about health, which covers actually all the school disciplines and teaching methods. Inquiries about the new methods of healthy lifestyle forming are demanded of physical culture trainers, teachers of biology, literature and exact sciences, school psychologists, etc.

In connection with that, needs in a pupil’s health condition flexible defining arise: in any times - before the beginning of a innovative training course, during it and in the end, constantly surveying an objective picture of the pedagogical activity’s results. There are interesting results of a pupil’s functional condition appraisal in the methodic literature on valeology in which the links between certain diseases and loads in school studying processes are retraced. However, all the outcomes and diagrams are based on questionnaires’ data by pupils and their parents, that demands for a vast deal of time for data collection, and its objectivity is decreasing on grounds of the ethic norms of perception by the interviewees.

In Yekaterinburg’s secondary school No3 (at present No 208) since 1994-95 the experimental work is conducted on optimization of studying process loads receiving the operative information about functional conditions of pupils from four senior classes specialized in different educational trends by means of the express diagnostic set "ROFES". It is implemented by joint efforts of the Methodic cabinet of the Department of educational institutions of Sverdlovsk’s Railways Company and The Urals scientific and production enterprise "ALTAIM" producing such tools and promoting these methods.

The experimenters have been attracted with not only an option to define flexibly pupils’ functional conditions using the tool "ROFES" but also the opportunity to bargain psychological characteristics together with somatic data such as: vegeto- emotional tonus, stress- stability, efficiency, psycho- emotional status. So, "ROFES- diagnostics is an integrative system displaying all the aspects of a person’s organism state: both medical which highlights the complete "health section" and psychological focusing on a personal emotional mood which determines the personal behaviour in some situation or other.

The software designed by "ALTAIM" engineers is multi- level.

The first level is operator’s one, tailored for a middle staff: nurses and laboratory assistants. By the results of measuring, the user automatically will have an initial evaluation of the functional condition scored on the 5-points scale system: FINE, GOOD, SATISFACTORY, UNSATISFACTORY, REHABILITATION DEMANDED; Adaptive potential, Vegeto- emotional tonus.

The second level is an expert and reference, in which analysis of the very condition is carried out, and on a base of that the said estimations have been calculated. The analysis is undertaken by the qualified experts: a doctor, a psychologist, an expert in valeology.

The third level is research. It covers the analytic and correlative work with data files.

Two specialists from Yekaterinburg’s secondary school No208 - a nurse and a psychologist were trained on one- week training courses conducted by "ALTAIM". This ventured them to receive personal data about each of the pupils and analyze a complete picture of school studying process’s influences. The results are operatively brought to the teachers and accumulated by the tutors. On their side, the last suggests a correction of the school loads to a school head- master and jointly with a valeologist control throughout the study processes linked to their spheres.

Since "ROFES- diagnostics" is PC- diagnostics, and all the research results, data files, expert and reference systems are stored and used on PC, so it demands of the specialists to be familiar with working on PC. On the first stage of adoption of the methods, school’s computer service technicians help to assimilate the experience at the school. While, we offer the teachers in information systems to train all the teachers involved in valeology to work on PC. That increases their professional skills and allows them to operate flexibly with information flows.

The good reasons for the experiment provided with "ALTAIM" were the successful medical tests of this diagnostic method in The Urals State Medical Academy on the Chair of propedeutics of internal diseases and in Novosibirsk’s Medical Institute on a Chair of hospital pediatric.