The new conception of the Czechoslovak educational system underlines the significance of the pedagogico-psychoiogical approach concentrating on the problems of development of the pupil’s personality, on the analysis of psychological conditions and laws governing his learning activities as well as on following and checking the results of his learning activities. In order to master these tasks the teacher is required to study the respective literature profoundly and to use the knowledge acquired functionally in his educational practice. What appears significant for these purposes is an organic connection of developmentally psychological and pedagogico-psychological approaches, for under the institutional conditions of classroom instruction it is the question, above all, of the strategy and method of active formation of the pupil’s psychical processes and qualities and not just mere registration and description of psychical data.
The Marxist conception of the development of pupils’ personality proceeds from its fundamental biological and social determination, respecting its complexity, its processes and dynamism, underlining the significance of activities for the formation of the respective psychical functions and qualities. A very important and to some extent also newly raised problem is the relationship of education (teaching) and development with emphasis being laid on the more demanding tasks and situations stimulating development and serving as a developing factor. It is necessary to follow and appraise in greater depth the accelerative tendencies, their manifestations, consequences and disproportions.
Special attention is then paid to the pedagogico-psychological problems concerning children entering primary schools, their maturity and preparedness for schooling as well as to questions of adaptation to the new way of life. The next theme that is analysed is the question of pupils’ transition from primary to to secondary (junior high) schools with regard to psychological, physiological and educational pre-requisites. Pedagogico- psychological and developmentally psychological viewpoints of teaching at secondary (junior high) schools are used in discussing the problems of pre-puberty and puberty, attention is then focused on the development of cognitive processes under the conditions of schooling and on the formation of desirable character and personality traits in pupils.