EVALUATION OF SCHOOL STUDENTS’ COGNITIVE STATUS AND PSYCHO-PEDAGOGICAL OPTIMIZATION OF THEIR COGNITIVE ACTIVITY

The article deals with the issue of effective teaching of students of general secondary education institutions of different types and also its connection with the levels of the development of their cognitive skills (auditory and visual memory, attention, verbal-logical and visual-figurative thinking as well as the quality of mental processes). The rele-vance of the research is due to the need for diagnostics of the cognitive processes at the early stages of learning, de-velopment of the methods of student-centered education and stimulation of the students' cognitive sphere develop-ment in the educational process. The purpose of this study is to analyze the psycho-physiological peculiarities of the students' cognitive sphere in conditions of information load of different intensity and development of a complex of psycho-pedagogical means of their cognitive activity stimulation. Among the research methods used is the evaluation of the cognitive status (CS) of schoolchildren by mathematical means using the commonly accepted methods for as-sessing auditory operational and visual memory, attention, flexibility of thinking, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking and strength of the nervous system. The predominance of higher levels of the СS in students of a new type of school with in-depth study of subjects and a large amount of information loading has been discovered. The positive influence of special classes on the development of mental functions has been revealed. A comprehensive psycho-pedagogical approach to stimulation of students' cognitive activity has been proposed in order to increase the effec-tiveness of their learning by means of game situations at lessons, various visual aids, the use of students' life experi-ences and specific examples, avoiding monotony, exclusion of numerous reproductive tasks, taking into account indi-vidual peculiarities of each student, creation of a friendly environment and positive emotional atmosphere. The ob-tained results can be used by teachers, psychologists-practitioners while selecting students for special classes with in-depth study of particular subjects for predicting the effectiveness of learning. The proposed complex of cognitive activity stimulation can be taken as the basis by teachers of general secondary schools.