Background. The ubiquity of ICTs, the decrease in the age at which digital devices began to be used, the sensitivity of the periods of preschool and primary school age, the extremely high importance of parental position regarding the use of digital devices by young children, with insufficient scientific development of this problem, necessitates obtaining and analyzing empirical data on the use of digital technologies in Russian families with preschool- and primary school- aged children.

Objective. Investigation of the ICTs usage in families with children of preschool (5-7 years old) and primary school (8-11 years old) age.

Design. The at-home study (N=100 parental-child dyads) consisted of a semi-structured interview for preschoolers and questionnaires for primary school aged children and parents of both age groups. It included questions about the level of user activity, digital initiation and culture, digital competency, parental mediation, online risks, psychological well-being and parent-child relationships .

Results. On weekdays, two-thirds (62-64%) of children aged 5–11 spend max. 1 hour on the Internet, and the rest of them spend max. 3 hours. On weekends, 48% of children of 5–11 years old spend online 1–3 hours, with 8% of preschool children and 18% of primary school children spending >3 hours. 5–7 aged children mostly use tablets, while 7–11 olders prefer smartphones. In both age groups, the leading form of digital activity is watching cartoons and videos. Children’s digital games evolve from interest in interacting with objects to preference for role-playing games. 7–1 aged kids begin to explore social networks, and use the Internet for study. 46% of 5–7 year children (46%), and 60% of 8–11 aged children have encountered online risks. Technical and content risks (pop-up banners and videos, frightening and pornographic content, viruses) prevail. 12% of primary school students encounter communication risks as well.

Most parents of preschoolers (70%) choose a strategy of being nearby their child using the Internet. In families with 8–11 aged children, adults are more tend to purposefully educate their child to use online technologies. A third of all adults surveyed admit to being insecure in the issue of online safety.

Background. The change of the traditional model of family relations that has occurred in recent decades in modern society, the change in marriage and family attitudes and values, gender roles and stereotypes lead to difficulties in the process of socio-psychological adaptation of young people who get married. Simultaneously, the effectiveness of adaptation depends on various aspects, e.g. personal maturity of spouses that determines not only the effectiveness of adaptation to family life, but also the stability of family relations. This identifies the need to study the relationship of personal maturity of young spouses and their socio-psychological adaptation to family life.

The Objective purpose is to study the dependence of personal maturity and socio-psychological adaptation of the spouses in young couples.

Design. The study involved 150 young couples. The age of spouses is 20-30 y.o. Taking residence together is up to five years. The study used the following methods: test questionnaire of Yu.Z. Gilbuha, questionnaire of D.L. Burtyansky and V.V. Crishtal.

Results. The results showed the existence of a connection between such indicators of personal maturity as the achievement motivation, life attitude, the ability for psychological intimacy with another person and socio-psychological adaptation. Also, the dependence has been established between the general indicator of personal maturity and socio-psychological adaptation. The hypothesis about the relationship between indicators of personal maturity and socio-psychological adaptation of spouses in young married couples has been partially confirmed.

Conclusion. The development of the orientation of spouses to self-realization in family life, high emotional stability, empathy can increase the level of spouse adaptation to family life.

Background. In modern psychology, the question is increasingly being raised if there is a fine type of upbringing or it is rather a myth that does not correspond to the reality of family education practices. Parenting and child relationships are rather acute issues of discussion today.

The Objective of the paper is to analyze the approaches to the nature of the finely tuned type of parental education that provides psychological conditions for child development and positive socialization.

Design. Child-parent relationship is a bilateral process where both partners are active. The provision on the indirect nature of the relationship between the style of parental education and the child development is extended on. The cultural goals of raising a child are discussed. It is proved that in adolescence, the task of development and the goal of upbringing is based on developing personal autonomy in coincidence with the interdependence with the parents.

Results. Studies of the parenting style influence on the child personality showed the complex non-linear nature of such an effect, mediated by the nature of the child’s experience of his relationship with the parent. The main parameters of the harmonious type of upbringing that ensure further child autonomy are highlighted: features of emotional relations, communication and interaction, requirements and prohibitions, and control.

Findings. The model of the fine-drawn style of upbringing and parent-child relationships is a multi-lateral system of emotional relations, communication, control and requirements, creating a zone of the nearest development maintaining stable emotional closeness and interdependence.

Background. The research of the student attitude to the system of supplementary education is of  paramount importance as it is the system of supplementary education where the adolescent tries to implement specific "cultural tests" that allow him/her to obtain an inverse social reaction regarding his/her personal success (success as a subject of activity).

The Objectives of the research are as follows: 1. Determining the influence of age, social demographic factors on the involvement of adolescents in the system of supplementary education is the objective of the research. 2. Defining the motives determining the occupations of students of the secondary and high schools in the circles, studios, sections. 3. Studying the influence of the student involement in the system of supplementary education on their studies.

Research Progress. The paper presents the results of the research carried out by the Center for the Sociology of Education of the IEM RAE in October-November, 2017. The sample includes 11,803 school students of 7-11^th grades of the Leningrad region, Russia. Questions concerning the student involvement in the system of supplementary education, paid vs free school classes in various circles, studios, sections, preferences of certain areas of supplementary education, variety of motives that make students get interested in different types of extra classes are discussed. The influence of extra classes on the studying activities (academic success, student status in the classroom, peculiarities of motives involved).

Research Results. In the system of supplementary education, every second student of the secondary and high school is engaged. The educational status and financial position of the student's parents influence his/her involvement in the system of supplementary education. The influence of macro-indicators (settlement factor) is marked as preference in the field of studies and also within the payment strategy of the educational services provided. Among the main motives for attending classes there are the following ones: broadening the horizons, assessing the abilities and opportunities.

Conclusion. The most important motive that causes adolescent interest in various types of jobs and occupations in the system of supplementary education is to catch up with the lack of knowledge obtained in school. The student’s involvement in the system of supplementary education also sets a positive vector for his/her development as subject of the studying activity. 

Background. The paper examines the attitude of scientists engaged in research in the field of education to various aspects of professional activity: the features of planning, resources for implementation, and satisfaction with the results. The relevance of the study is due to a number of institutional changes in the national science. Thus, the active reform initiated in 2013 was aimed at optimizing and increasing the efficiency of various research institutes, primarily those within the structure of state academies. In this regard, it seems important to identify the scientists’ attitude to the results of the implemented initiatives within the period of the last four years.

Objective. The paper is to analyze the influence of age and social indicators of professional status (academic degree, academic title, position held, publication activity) on various aspects of the professional activity of the researches. 

Design and sample characteristics. A special questionnaire of 72 questions was developed (closed, open and scale), 721 respondents were interviewed. The sample included employees with different levels of scientific qualifications and length of professional scientific activity. Both employees of scientific research institutes and universities from different regions of the Russian Federation were interviewed. 

Results. The results show the manifestation of negative tendencies concerning the planning of scientific activity related to its authoritarian nature and formal requirements for reporting on the results of scientific activity. The peculiarities of well-being of scientific employees at the stage of completing a professional career are revealed. The features of the manifestation of the professional crisis, which is characteristic for the age cohort of forty-year scientific workers, are considered. The specifics of attracting personal funds and additional financial sources depending on various indicators of the professional status of the scientist are shown.

The paper presents the results of the sociological study of life values in researchers in the sphere of education. According to a specially designed questionnaire that included 72 questions, 721 people were interviewed. The sample of respondents included employees with different levels of academic qualifications and experience of professional activity, living in various regions of Russia. The respondents are the employees of the Scientific Research Institute and various universities. The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of social demographic features (age, gender, financial status) and a number of social indicators of professional activity (seniority, position, availability of scientific degrees and titles, having a permanent job or working flexi time, publication activity) to life values in researchers. Special attention is paid to the influence of the emotional assessment of their life prospects, social status in the scientific group and migration plans over the evaluation of the significance of certain life fears. The research results reveal the hierarchy of the life values in researchers. The influence of traditionalist gender differences in the value orientations of researchers is emphasized. Two developmental stages are to identified with the significant transfer changes of life orientations in researchers. The influence of the scientific status (academic degree, academic rank, position held, publication activity) on the value orientations and professional well-being of the scientific employee are highlighted. The common data show the role of social psychological factors (assessing the success of their life prospects, social status in the team, migration plans) in determining the significance of certain life values. The identified trends are interpreted with respect to the issues of social success and professional development of researcher.

The interview reveals the contribution of Lev Vygotsky in science and education, his main scientific achievements being drawn particular attention to. His innovative concepts in pedagogy and psychology are far ahead of time and are relevant up today. Lev Vygotsky put forward ideas that disclosed the principles of cultural development of human individual, his/her mental functions (speech, attention, thinking), and explained the internal mental processes of the child, their relationship with the environment. Lev Vygotsky introduced a number of terms and concepts that are the basis of modern psychology and pedagogy. Among them there are «higher mental functions», «interiorization», «mediation», «signification», etc.

There extraordinary versatility Lev Vygotsky is emphasized in the paper. He is known not only as a psychologist, but also as a philosopher, methodologist, teacher, therapist, and even as the author of the brilliant theater and literary reviews. There are also facts about Vygotsky’s scientific path and his biography.

The importance of Vygotsky’s ideas in the development of the educational process is highlighted. The scientist laid the most important principles of the child education. Such concepts developed by him as «zone of proximal development», «social situation of development», «critical age», «sensitive periods in the child development» are still successfully used by leading psychologists and educators. He made a huge contribution to the development of ideas about the origin and development of speech, its role in the development of thinking.

The whole galaxy of prominent scientists were raised under the influence of Vygotsky. Closest students and colleagues were the author of the activity theory A.N. Leontyev, the world-renowned neuropsychologist A.R. Luria, the author of the concept of the child’s mental development D.B. El’konin, the author of the theory of stage development of mental activity P.Ya. Galperin.

Lev Vygotsky is famous on the international scale: his works are translated into 19 languages. Research centers and institutes based on the approach of Vygotsky and developing his ideas exist today in many countries, e.g. in France, Portugal, Brazil, Angola. Seminars, conferences and congresses in different parts of the world are devoted to his ideas scientific.

The paper presents the book “Island of Utopia: pedagogical and social engineering of postwar school” (M. Mayofis, P. Safronova, & I. Kukulina (Eds.) (2014) Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie) which is currently in press. This collective monograph is the result of a research project relevant School of Humanitarian Studies of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

The work is devoted to a particular period of history of education (1940s-1980s), but in scope, it inevitably goes beyond the period mentioned, forcing to think about what was happening in the Soviet education before this period after, i.e. in the post-Soviet education.

The author defines the genre of the book mentioned, as non-fiction pedagogy literature. Previously non-fiction pieces had no analogues among the historical and pedagogical works.

On the one hand, the genre of non-fiction involves precision, rejection of many myths rooted in human consciousness. On the other hand, it allows multiple interpretations. Therefore, the author notes that the text of the paper cannot be regarded as a professional review with a brief overview of the diverse collective heads of academic monographs. This is a reflection on the book that offers readers the opportunity to join a meaningful conversation, complete the piece with their own stories that clarify and specify the message of the book, and sometimes even disagree with the authors of the book.

The book is written by serious Russian and foreign authors. It enables a sober assessment of the Russian education system with all its ups and downs. The book convinces the reader that despite education being a sphere of activity is very dependent on the state of politics and ideology, it allows a certain breakthrough which results in emerging relatively autonomous pedagogical utopias.

A great number of pages devoted to the reform of education outside Russia show that the only correct solution accepted by absolutely all the players on the field of education (the state and the teachers, parents and their children) is found nowhere in the world.

The paper presents the book “Island of Utopia: pedagogical and social engineering of postwar school” (M. Mayofis, P. Safronova, & I. Kukulina (Eds.) (2014) Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie) which is currently in press. This collective monograph is the result of a research project relevant School of Humanitarian Studies of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

The work is devoted to a particular period of history of education (1940s-1980s), but in scope, it inevitably goes beyond the period mentioned, forcing to think about what was happening in the Soviet education before this period after, i.e. in the post-Soviet education.

The author defines the genre of the book mentioned, as non-fiction pedagogy literature. Previously non-fiction pieces had no analogues among the historical and pedagogical works.

On the one hand, the genre of non-fiction involves precision, rejection of many myths rooted in human consciousness. On the other hand, it allows multiple interpretations. Therefore, the author notes that the text of the paper cannot be regarded as a professional review with a brief overview of the diverse collective heads of academic monographs. This is a reflection on the book that offers readers the opportunity to join a meaningful conversation, complete the piece with their own stories that clarify and specify the message of the book, and sometimes even disagree with the authors of the book.

The book is written by serious Russian and foreign authors. It enables a sober assessment of the Russian education system with all its ups and downs. The book convinces the reader that despite education being a sphere of activity is very dependent on the state of politics and ideology, it allows a certain breakthrough which results in emerging relatively autonomous pedagogical utopias.

A great number of pages devoted to the reform of education outside Russia show that the only correct solution accepted by absolutely all the players on the field of education (the state and the teachers, parents and their children) is found nowhere in the world.