(CZ) Žákovské napovídání jako sociálně psychologický jev
(EN) Classroom Prompting as a Socio-Psychological Phenomenon

An attempt has been made to analyse the socio-psychological phenomenon of prompting, which is relatively frequent in the “i legal” communication between pupils. It can be characterized as an offence against the school regulations, the seriousness of which depends on what significance the teacher attaches to it, what he thinks of his possibilities of preventing it, or, in some cases, how he wants to make use of it for getting to know his pupils. Thus prompting involves the relationship of teacher — pupil, pupils.
From the point of view of pupil-classmate relationship prompting is a manifestation of the willingness to help (a manifestation of pro-social behaviour) which is, however, at the same time, a breach of the school regulations. In this sense prompting belongs to the category of cheating, which can be met with at school. But prompting can also be the manifestation of the prompter’s desire for self-assertion, which can be interpreted in different ways according to the pupils’ age. As regards younger pupils, it can be interpreted as a manifestation of impatience, and with older pupils, as a manifestation of competitive motivation. The pupil, in most cases readily accepting the prompting, gains certain advantages, thus getting better results by “unfair” means.
The analysis further shows that prompting is influenced by a number of personality and situational factors. Attention is paid to those situational factors which results from the teacher’s style of checking on the pupil’s preparation, and to those which result from the impact of the group phenomena (the pupil’s participation in the class activities, entailing a feeling of solidarity, mechanisms of imitation, taking up a public attitude to classroom cheating, etc.).
The analysis shows some possibilities of investigating the phenomenon in greater detail, taking into account the course of the lesson, the working atmosphere in the class, and, last but not least, taking into account the conception of moral education.