SARS-CoV-2 Saliva Mass Screening in Primary Schools: A 10-Week Sentinel Surveillance Study in Munich, Germany

Representative, actively collected surveillance data on asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections in primary schoolchildren remain scarce. We evaluated the feasibility of a saliva mass screening concept and assessed infectious activity in primary schools. During a 10-week period from 3 March to 21 May 2021, schoolchildren and staff from 17 primary schools in Munich participated in the sentinel surveillance, cohort study. Participants were tested using the Salivette® system, testing was supervised by trained school staff, and samples were processed via reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). We included 4433 participants: 3752 children (median age, 8 [range, 6–13] years; 1926 girls [51%]) and 681 staff members (median age, 41 [range, 14–71] years; 592 women [87%]). In total, 23,905 samples were processed (4640 from staff), with participants representing 8.3% of all primary schoolchildren in Munich. Only eight cases were detected: Five out of 3752 participating children (0.13%) and three out of 681 staff members (0.44%). There were no secondary cases. In conclusion, supervised Salivette® self-sampling was feasible, reliable, and safe and thus constituted an ideal method for SARS-CoV-2 mass screenings in primary schoolchildren. Our findings suggest that infectious activity among asymptomatic primary schoolchildren and staff was low. Primary schools appear to continue to play a minor role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 despite high community incidence rates.

METHODOLOGICAL FEATURES OF FORMATION OF THE CULTURE OF CRITICAL THINKING OF PRIMARY SCHOOLCHILDREN

The article deals with the methods and techniques for the development of critical thinking of primary schoolchildren, which are fundamentally different from the reproductive style of learning. The development of critical thinking of students can largely meet the requirements of modernity, namely: the content of education is considered not as a material for learning, but as a material for research; the student in this system is one of the main subjects of cooperation; the teacher, acting as an assistant, encourages students to maximum cognitive activity, maintains a creative psychological climate through co-creativity with students. It is noted that for the quality organization of the educational process and achievement of the set goals it is important to correctly apply the tools and methods of development of critical thinking. The article suggests a detailed description of the basic methods and techniques for the development of critical thinking and features of their application at primary school lessons. It is noted that the technologically correct application of methods and techniques for the development of critical thinking will promote active learning of students and form a culture of critical thinking.

Undernutrition and associated factors in primary schoolchildren in Lokossa, Benin: a cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT Objectives: to estimate the prevalence of stunting and thinness and sociodemographic, household, family, dietary, and scholar associated factors in schoolchildren living in Lokossa-Benin. Methods: a survey conducted in a probabilistic sample (n=615) of primary schoolchildren (8-17 years), from 12/2018 to 01/2019, using structured questionnaire and 24-hour dietary recall. Thinness and stunting were defined as Height-for-age and Body Mass Index-for-age below-2 standard deviations, respectively. Associations were estimated by chi-square test and logistic regression. Results: thinness and stunting prevalence was 13.1% (95%CI:9.0-18.7) and 25.5% (95%CI:20.6-31.2), respectively. Odds of thinness were higher among older schoolchildren and those who experienced hunger at school. Odds of stunting increased with age, low diet diversity, experiencing hunger at school, and having school meal five days a week (OR:2.09; 95%CI:1.29-3.36). Conclusions: stunting was the most common problem. Older schoolchildren and those with food deprivation or poor diet diversity were the most affected.

The development of phrasal speech in primary schoolchildren with multiple developmental disabilities

Introduction. Today, the education system covers all categories of children with disabilities. This category also includes children with severe and multiple developmental disabilities. Until recently, only a small part of these children studied. Most of them did not study due to the severity of a developmental disability. Consequently, in order to exercise their constitutional right to education, specialists of a special (defectological) profile should be actively involved in the development of training programs and psychological-pedagogical support for such children. The purpose of the study is to test a program for phrasal speech development in primary schoolchildren with multiple developmental disabilities. Materials and methods. The study was conducted at schools for students with disabilities in the cities of Kirovo-Chepetsk and Kirov (Kirov region, Russian Federation). The empirical part of the work was carried out on a sample of thirty-four (34) primary schoolchildren with multiple developmental disabilities. The adapted methodology of L.V. Kovrigina "The study of phrasal speech" was used, which makes it possible to assess the development of impressive and expressive phrasal speech. Results. A correctional-developmental program for phrasal speech development in primary schoolchildren with multiple developmental disabilities was developed and tested. This program is aimed at developing the understanding of addressed speech, expanding vocabulary, activating one's own speech utterance through learning to form and expand a phrase. The positive dynamics of phrasal speech development in primary schoolchildren after the formative experiment was revealed. There were significant changes in the development of impressive (χ2=47.852 at p≤0.05) and expressive (χ2=33.78 at p≤0.05) phrasal speech. Discussion and conclusion. The research materials can be used by specialists in organizing and performing correctional-developmental work with this category of children in the context of special education.

Investigating psychological characteristics of self-regulation in schoolchildren with cognitive disorders

Introduction. The authors investigate psychological characteristics of self-regulation in primary schoolchildren with cognitive impairments. The purpose of the article is to identify key determinants of the manifestation of self-regulation as the leading mechanism of adaptation. The results obtained can contribute to developing psychological support programs within school conditions and facilitate adaptive strategies of behavior and components of self-regulation. Materials and Methods. The methodological foundations of the research included leading positions of psychology about the formation of the behavior of children with cognitive disabilities. The research was carried out in the logic of the ascertaining psychological and educational experiment; the material obtained from the collection of empirical data was analyzed and generalized. The sample consisted of 456 schoolchildren aged between 8 and 11 years, who were divided into three groups: NID (normal intellectual development), MR (mental retardation) and MID (mild intellectual disability). The data obtained were interpreted and subjected to statistical analysis using various methods of mathematical and statistical processing: the reliability of differences according to statistical criteria, the F * angular transformation, the criterion for comparing the distribution of Pearson χ2 levels, correlation analysis, and the method of correlation pleiades. Results. The research findings include identifying the main psychological characteristics of self-regulation in primary schoolchildren with cognitive impairment. The research data enabled to develop self-regulation skills in schoolchildren with cognitive impairment. The results obtained are considered as a socio-psychological resource for improving cognitive health in primary schoolchildren. Conclusions. The study concludes that after identifying the psychological characteristics of self-regulation in primary schoolchildren with impaired cognitive health, it is possible to develop programs of psychological assistance for educational settings. The research data can be used within educational settings teaching children with cognitive disabilities to increase the effectiveness of classroom and extracurricular activities and their successful integration into society.

Learning to program: An overview of the main difficulties of the initial stage

The article discusses approaches to teaching programming to primary school students. The emphasis is placed on typical difficulties that students experience while learning programming, on the reasons for these difficulties and possible methods for overcoming them. A retrospective of the development of teaching programming in Russian schools is presented, including in comparison with international experience. The place of the initial programming course in the system of educational results of primary education has been determined. Based on the analysis of the works of A. P. Ershov, A. V. Goryachev, E. K. Henner, M. Gujberova, I. Kalaš, S. Grozdev, J. Wing and other specialists, a connection has been established between teaching programming and a broad interpretation of the term "literacy", as well as computational thinking. The results of the authors' research are presented, in particular, the differences identified in the approaches to teaching programming for primary schoolchildren, implemented by primary school teachers and informatics teachers, are discussed. Based on the analysis of scientific and methodological literature, a number of problems that arise during early learning in programming are identified, in particular, such as: "Computer for the sake of the computer ", "Lack of links between the algorithm and the program", "Playing instead of learning". In the course of practical research, the causes and possible ways of overcoming these problems have been established. In addition, in the course of the study, the authors identified and described in this article several types of problems that still require further study: "Click for a click", "Not a reader", "Stupid robot", "Decomposition", "Geometry", "Many the same question

EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSSHIP OF PRIMARY SCHOOLCHILDREN IN INTEGRATED ART LESSONS

The article is devoted to the problem of the development of civic qualities of a junior student personality in the process of studying the integrated course “Art” in primary school. The semantic aspect of the concept of «citizenship» is revealed; its components such as sense of self-worth, inner freedom of the individual, discipline, respect and trust in state power, readiness to perform their civic duties in a harmonious combination of patriotic, national and universal feelings are distinguished. In this context, the substantiation of new content, forms and methods, innovative technologies of education for citizenship, adequate for modern social and pedagogical realities, acquires special importance. Conceptual provisions of civic education have been developed in the domestic pedagogical science. The purpose of this article is to find out the ways of effective educational tasks implementing by a teacher in the process of teaching the integrated course “Art”.Modern Ukrainian scholars-educators attached special importance to this problem and studied its various aspects: conceptual provision was defined by O. Vyshnevskyi and O. Sukhomlynska; psychological and pedagogical principles – I. Bekh, M. Boryshevsky, O. Kyrychuk. The work of O. Dokukina, M. Zaderikhin, U. Ketsyk, V. Rud, L. Korinna, D. Krytska and L. Rekhteta are relevant to the content of our research.Researchers do not pay attention to the problem of using integrated subjects in particular “Art” in the education of students’ citizenship.The article presents a thorough analysis of textbooks for primary school on the integrated course “Art”, which are important means of knowledge and creative skills developing in the art of music, set out in accordance with the purpose of teaching and implementation of educational tasks for the formation of junior schoolchildren citizenship. Keywords: civic education; content of education; integrated course; component of citizenship; textbook; folk song; lullaby; calendar rituals; national identity; native language.

Developing Essay Writing Skills in Elementary School

The article reveals approaches to solving the urgent problem of modern education - the formation of communicative activity in junior schoolchildren. The most important role in this is assigned to a well-developed speech, the formation of which is successfully taking place in the process of teaching primary schoolchildren to write essays. The article presents interesting pedagogical techniques that contribute to the formation of the skills of productive statements in writing in younger schoolchildren: to draw up an essay plan, develop a creative idea, adhering to the logic of the narrative, and also improve the expressive, grammatical and stylistic aspects of speech.

Cognitive Universal Educational Actions of Primary Schoolchildren: Characteristics, Methods and Techniques of Formation

The article discusses the actual problem of the formation of cognitive universal educational actions in younger schoolchildren in the context of the implementation of the changing requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard of Primary General Education. The approaches to the definition of concepts, groups and main characteristics of cognitive universal educational actions that students must master at the first stage of school education are analyzed. The effective methods and techniques for the formation of this type of educational actions in younger schoolchildren are presented.