(CZ) Nové podněty k rozvoji obecné didaktiky v SSSR
(EN) New Impulses to the Development of General Didactics in the U.S.S.R.

The theoretical-experimental system of L. V. Zankov and his colleagues represents one of the most significant trends in present-day Soviet pedagogy. The theoretical basis of this system is the demand that the teaching process is to be directed and organized in such a way as to ensure maximal development of each pupil's personality. By development of the pupil's personality Zankov does not mean an increase in formal psychical functions (individual mental powers), nor does he mean by it quantitative growth in the acquisition of knowledge; what he means is the development concerning the substance of man's material and social involvement in society. Various aspects of the primary relationship of the teaching process and the general development of personality are reflected by a system of newly conceived didactic principles. These principles are of key importance for the further development of L. V. Zankov's theoretical- experimental system as well as for the application of this system in the teaching practice. In our article we are trying to point out the consequences resulting from Zankov’s system for the conception of fundamental categories of general didactics, such as: goal, curriculum and its didactic arrangement, teaching process, pupils’ classroom activity, motivation of pupils' learning activities, evaluation in the teaching process etc. Zankov’s system pays less attention to isolated facts as basic elements of the curriculum; the didactic arrangement of the curriculum proceeds from relationships and their structured systems. The teaching process may be based on a qualitatively now logic: from the point of view of the teacher's work it is the pupil’s personality development that is being followed, from the pupil’s point of view it is pieces of knowledge that become the natural product of his learning activities. Zankov succeeds in dealing with the traditional problem of didactics — replacement of heteronomous sources of motivation by autonomous ones — by drawing upon the pupils* individual experiences, but above all, there is a change taking place in the character of the pupils' learning activities. Pupils* learning activities have the character of developed and creative activities. Consistent utilization of individual differences of each pupil not only reinforces the dynamism of the teaching process on the cognitive plane, but also creates new pre-conditions for the rise and consolidation of an informal team-spirit among the pupils in a class. Zankov’s system is being further developed; its author and his team of collaborators are trying to derive from the primary (didactic-psychological) system a secondary system of classroom techniques for the teaching of particular subjects.