Background. Studying students’ and teachers’ views on the goals and purposes of the teaching and upbringing process is important in connection with the modernization of school education. Their attitude to these issues characterizes the social psychological context that determines the role of school in cultural and value-based education of adolescents.

The Objective of the research is to determine the differences between the students’ and teachers’ views on the goals and purposes of school education in relation to the three areas of analysis: between students and teachers, between members of schools types (general education, in-depth study of particular subjects, gymnasium and lyceum), between generations of teachers and students as of 1991 and 2017.

Design. The paper presents the results of survey questionnaire conducted by the Centre for Sociology of Education, IEM RAE, Moscow, Russia, in 2017. The sample included 11 803 students of 7-11 grades and 4 999 school teachers. The data are further compared with the results of the survey 1 conducted in 1991 (sample included 162 students and 681 teachers). Questions concerning goal orientations of school education are considered at two levels: pragmatic ("What should school give to students?") and value-based ("Who should schools prepare their students for?").

Research Results. At the pragmatic level, students attach greater importance to the issues of professional identity, whereas teachers regard the traditional functions of education. At the value-based level for students, the individualistic attitudes are more typical, whereas teachers place a greater value on socially regular patterns. Members of the gymnasia and lyceums more often note the importance of the cultural development as well as communication and interaction between students. Unlike gymnasia and lyceums, general education schools put a greater emphasis on normal behaviour and participation in public life. The admission requirements have increased for socializing functions and training, and also the individualistic attitudes in modern education compared with 1991 have been in the focus of attention. Simultaneously, the importance of creative activity is decreasing and education is aimed at supporting social institution. Factor analysis has revealed three meaningful juxtapositions in relation to which the goals of school education are structured: "norm – self-actualisation", "convention – principle", "romantic approach – pragmatic approach".

Conclusion. This research reveals particular goals and purposes for modern school education in students’ and teachers’ minds that allows them to improve the educational process.

The paper presents the results of a longitudinal research of personal traits of actor students of the Moscow Tabakov Theatre College. The research has been carried out since 2010 till the present yaer and is a continuation of the scientific program which began in 1976. The results of the research are based on Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors Test. The total number of participants is 312.

We discuss the gender influence on the enrollment peculiarities and student training in the Theatre College. Also we compared the Cattell’s test data of those participants who entered or failed to enter the Theatre College (males and females). We are comparing the distinctive features of males and females who entered the College. Using cluster analysis we consider peculiarities of the personality types of actor students who do the first year.

The obtained results show that teachers’ rates of males are more diverse in respect of direct and natural behaviour. However, female assessment of teachers is based on the appearance factor. Analysis of the personal data shows a reversal of trends in gender stereotypes. The cluster analysis based on the personal data according to Cattell’s 16 PF test for males who do the first year reveal seven cluster groups. Those groups include emotional, behavioural factors, and also group orientation of actor students.

The paper presents the detailed comments on the review of L.S. Vygotsky on the famous Russian ballerina E.V. Geltser’s performance during her Gomel tour in the autumn of 1922. We present a reconstruction of the cultural context which is quite essential for understanding multiple lines of the plot covered in the review of Vygotsky.In the analysis of the text the importance of the distinction between artificial and natural movements introduced by L.S. Vygotsky’s when considering the uniqueness of expressive movement in the choreography is stressed.

It is shown that the uniqueness of cathartic experience that has become a central theme in L.S. Vygotsky’s research monograph “Psychology of Art” (1925), in this review is examined using the analysis of classical dance perception. However, we fix the methodological importance for the analysis of Vygotsky’s account of the existing opposition between the classical and the “so-called untaught natural dance” (A. Duncan, M. Fokine), which in turn allows to designate the fundamental differences between “spiritual” and “soulful” experience. The comments to the review are equipped by the detailed references to the theoretical works of the classicists of the Russian theatre (e.g. A.Tairov, Vs. Meyerhold), where the problem of expressive movement and gesture is also given special focus. Analysis of L.S. Vygotsky’s representations on the fact that it is the “indifference” of the ballet to the natural movement, puts it at a particular level, whereas the detachment from everyday things brings to the experience of the great psychological meaning (“not soulful but spiritual”), and thus allows to link his early work with the ideas he developed in his later book “The Psychology of Art”.

Referring to S. Frank’s works, he rhapsodizes about the nature of artistic experience that might fulfill “the incompleteness and imperfection” of a particular situation. Exactly in these comments to the review L.S. Vygotsky’s juxtaposition of “soulful” and “spiritual” being the fundamental importance for perceiving the psychological characteristics of cathartic experiences in the perception of art is fixed.

In addition, the review comprises the specific use of symbolic means for understanding the processes that have been developed by L.S. Vygotsky in the following works: “The history of the development of higher mental functions” (1930), “Thinking and Speech” (1934).

The present article reports the results of cross-cultural research on the role of sociocultural factors that develop attitudes toward extremism in school students of Moscow, Russia, and Riga, Latvia. Equally, it analyzes various aspects of social activity of adolescents: their attitude to legislative sanctions against extremist activities, a tendency to express various ways of political protest, etc. Special attention is paid to the role of social and cultural factors that determine the specific features of adolescents’ attitude to extremism. We consider such factors as the degree of social distance from extremist organizations or membership of a national majority or minority, etc. The article reports on the relationship between adoption of extremist behaviour and attitudes of aggressive behaviour in various social situations, and in the situation of bullying in particular. In addition, the article presents the results of factor analysis to identify a set of features that determine not only those ones related to extremism, but also the position of the teenagers in the propensity for violence and aggressive behaviour as a way to solve their own conflicts. Also, based on the selected factors, the averaged profiles of teenagers in Moscow (Russia) and Riga (Latvia), who claimed their own relationship with extremist organizations, are shown. The main conclusions of the article can be briefly presented in the following points. In general, negative attitude towards extremism dominates in schoolchildren. It is expressed in personal non-acceptance of extremism. Social environment of teenager affects assessment of various kinds of extremist manifestations. The study revealed significant differences in attitudes toward extremism, depending on the membership of a national minority or titular nation.

The authors, Education Center staff of Russian Academy of Education, describe the results of research on professional growth of psychology students, conducted among students of different psychological departments of Moscow universities (social, clinical, legal, educational psychology, etc.). Among the parameters of professional position selected by the authors are: criteria for choice of profession, attitudes to the content of professional education, personal contribution in scientific research, professional life-plans.

The psychological meaning of the school mark and its role in regulating social relations within the educational process, and also between social institutions such as family and school are considered. The research results of how gender, age and social stratification influence the academic progress are shown.

The problems of interconnection between mass media and the negative effects of terrorism are analyzed, as well as the media's role in the process of their monitoring and reduction. It is shown that to counter terrorism effectively it is not enough to have knowledge only about the differentiation of terrorism and its purposes. It is needed to consider this type of crime in terms of its psychological and social consequences for individuals and society.

The results of polls to reveal features of emigration plans among high school students in Moscow and Riga are analysed. The dependence of adolescents' emigration plans on various factors (family income, parental education, ethnic and religious affiliation, national status, social and psychological climate, emotional issues, etc.) is shown.

The paper deals with the degree of satisfaction of kindergarten teachers with their financial situation, the nature of the preferences of the different values of life and confidence in successful future. This work is based on the data obtained during the survey of kindergarten teachers in the city of Moscow, Russia, which was conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Education. Analyzing the results obtained, the authors try to evaluate the significance of educators and social stratification factors, such as teaching experience, age, level of education, level of material security. The data obtained are compared to the results of their earlier survey of kindergarten teachers, which makes it possible to identify certain trends, changing the social well-being in this group.

Finally, a structural analysis, which allows to compare the characteristics of different interconnections are compared to the values and perspectives at different stages of professional kindergarten career. The analysis showed that in the course of professional development, the structure of life orientation of an educator undergoes a kind of transition stages related to change in values and resolution of crisis situations. The data provided in the paper are important since the change of educator‘s life orientation largely determines the nature of the education process in kindergarten, where the implementation of the educational program is reverberated through the eduacor’s system of values.