The article considers the issues of ecological education of schoolchildren, in particular, the development of environmental awareness and environmental competence. An analysis of theoretical and applied research led the authors to conclude that the concept of environmental consciousness and the environmental competence developed on the basis of that competence are incomplete. It lacks an element that reflects the safety of the subject of environmental activity. Foreign concepts of ecological consciousness are critically evaluated, including as a necessary element of such consciousness a “guilt complex” for former non-ecological behavior. The paper demonstrates the harm of such concepts to the psychological health of the student. It shows empirically that the problem of the safety of environmental actors is especially relevant for schoolchildren. Lacking sufficient environmental competence in the field of hygiene and hazard assessment of household waste, survey data shows that they are unprotected in environmental terms. The paper concludes that modern environmental education programs should include, as a necessary element, provisions on reasonable prohibitions on environmental activities. Sections on teaching safe behavior when participating in environmental activities should also be included in environmental education programs for schoolchildren.
Keyword(s) : child personality
The outcome of complete and incomplete family structure on childrens’ personality and cognition
Family structure is the composition and membership of the family. Most of past and recent researches have only shown the effect of family structure on children’s cognition. Due to the insufficiency in the study of the effects of family structure on children’s personality and cognition, this paper therefore aims at reporting the findings of research carried out on 40 samples of Russian children (7-10 years) and their parents, in order to determine the extent to which family structure (parents’ marital status) influence children’s personality (sense of personal volition) and cognition. The results obtained at the end of this research showed that family structure (in terms of parents’ marital status) indeed influence children’s personality and cognition.