Elena Polyakova

The priority goal of education in a modern school is the development of a person with highly developed interrelated cognitive processes. Purpose: to identify the characteristics of the relationship between the properties of attention and the academic performance of fourth grade students, conditioned by the educational process in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, to work out a program for the development of attention and draw up appropriate methodological recommendations. The ascertaining experiment was carried out on the basis of the secondary school No. 21 in Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region (N = 70 people, of which 28 students of the fourth grade: 15 girls, 13 boys) using three tests (“Remember and dot” by R. S. Nemov, Pieron-Ruser test, “Schulte Tables”), diagnostics of academic performance in the electronic journal and report card, rank correlation coefficient by Ch. E. Spearman. The results show that more than a third of students (36%) have low and below average levels of concentration, stability and attention span. The calculation of the rank correlation coefficient by Ch. E. Spearman confirmed direct correlations (high level of attention properties correlates with high academic performance). Carrying out an ascertaining experiment and subsequent analysis of the results obtained made it possible to work out a program (20 lessons, 2 lessons per week) and draw up psychological and pedagogical recommendations for the development of the attention properties of fourth-grade students. The purpose of the program: the development of the attention properties (stability, concentration, span) of fourth-grade students. The objectives of the program: to develop the properties of attention, mental skills, fine motor skills of the hands, perseverance and the ability to concentrate. The content of the program is determined on the basis of following after the content of the same program for preschoolers. Methodological recommendations include several integrative areas of pedagogical activity (selection of exercises, creation of pedagogical conditions for their implementation, creation of a favorable psychological climate, individual work with students, organization of complex joint work of teachers and parents).