Zankov’s educational system is the result of an interdisciplinary study of the relationship between learning and development in children. The system’s interdisciplinary nature is initially expressed through the integration of various scientific disciplines including physiology, psychology and pedagogy, then via the integration of experimentation, theory and practice. For the first time, the results of experimental psychological and educational research were developed into a comprehensive educational system that could be practically implemented.

Scientific conclusions: Development must be seen as a complex interplay between external and internal factors. This requires a special form of training that on the one hand emphasises structure, content, principles, methods etc. by taking into account previous experience and societal requirements. On the other hand, emphasis must also be placed on the child’s inner life – individual and age-related peculiarities, requirements, interests etc.

Zankov understood that when it comes to a child’s overall psychological development, each new thing that arises is a result of the interaction between the mind, the will, and the emotions. He placed particular weight on ethical and aesthetic development.

In today’s schools, the following elements are hopefully prioritised: the ability to acquire substance (to learn how to learn), both general and subject-specific methods, and the individual child’s emotional, social and intellectual progress. Achieving these goals requires a scientifically established pedagogical system that has been developed over time and is constantly evolving. This is what Zankov’s system is, representing both a cohesive whole and an interdependent combination of the three core areas described below.

The goal of education is the child’s optimal general development.

The role of teaching is to present the pupils with a broad and comprehensive picture of the world encompassing science, literature, art and the direct acquisition of knowledge.

Zankov’s didactic principles:

  • Teaching at a high level of difficulty.
  • Leading role for theoretical knowledge
  • Proceeding at at rapid pace through the syllabus.
  • Pupils’ awareness of the learning process
  • The systematic and goal-oriented development of each child in the classroom, including the weakest.

The teaching system is characterised by its versatility, progression, cognitive conflict and variety.

Extensive experimental studies using the system at lower levels of education have proven very effective. The system gives the teacher theoretical and methodological knowledge that assists in the task of developing the child’s personality, curiosity and creativity.

L.S. Vygotsky believed that a child’s development occurs more quickly if training takes precedence over the child’s development. This means that learning takes place in the child’s closest proximal developmental zone rather than on the actual, achieved level. Zankov expressed this fundamental psychological postulate as the didactic principle of “teaching at a high level of difficulty”. A key condition for the realisation of this is an awareness of each individual pupil’s peculiarities, and their current level of development. A teacher who has accompanied a child from the start of his/her education can fairly accurately determine the child’s current developmental zone.

When it comes to the youngest pupils’ intellect and emotions, the greatest emphasis is placed on emotion, from which the child’s intellectual, ethical and creative development begins.

Consider the relationship between the left and right hemispheres of the brain in the youngest pupils. Even among children who will eventually develop their left hemisphere best, at this point it is the right hemisphere’s organisation of psychological functions that dominates. The development of the right hemisphere, responsible for oversight, emotional perception, and thinking, is temporarily ahead of the left hemisphere, which stands for the brain’s rational, analytical, and algorithmic functions. A person with a well-developed right hemisphere is a researcher type, deriving positive emotional stimuli from problem-solving and a desire to continue with the activity at hand.

It is for precisely this reason that it is so important for teaching to take into account the type of feelings we are discussing, and how the child is faring during lessons. This is why particular weight should be placed on the youngest pupils’ explorations and their desire to discover things for themselves.

Cognitive conflict can be a driving factor in the pupils’ problem-solving. These conflicts arise when the child:

  • Receives too little or too much information, or faces a lack of available strategies for solving a problem;
  • Finds him/herself in a situation where she/he must choose between different alternatives, strategies, problem-solving messages etc.;
  • Encounters new situations/conditions in which to use knowledge she/he already possesses.

In these situations, learning does not progress from the simple to the complex, but rather from the complex to the simple. The child must, together with other pupils (under the teacher’s supervision) be able to solve problems in a new and unfamiliar situation.

The realisation of the didactic principle “teaching at a high level of difficulty” requires that content must be selected and structured in such a way that the pupils, when working with the material, are exposed to the greatest possible level of intellectual excitement. The difficulty level varies depending on the abilities of the individual pupil. It is important that the child be confronted with cognitive challenges that provoke an emotional response and stimulate and motivate the work of both the pupils and the class.

The didactic principle of “leading role for theoretical knowledge” is realised by making the child aware of the properties of different phenomena, and the relationships between them.

Zankov strongly rejected the notion that individual elements of the curriculum should be treated as independent and self-contained units, with the pupils not moving on to a new task until after completing the previous one. He writes: “True understanding of each element should be continually developed at the same time as the pupils continue to work on other parts of the subject. This creates an overall understanding that is expanded upon throughout (the pupil’s) schooling”. To organise a learning process in development, it is crucial that the content and/or the teaching situation be new. Repetition is therefore not a separate topic, but rather a part of studying something new. This fulfils the didactic principle of “proceeding at rapid pace through the syllabus”. The principle requires steady progression.

When the pupils’ skills across different fields are constantly being enriched, a solid foundation for deeper awareness is formed. The whole is divided into parts and levels, while also being treated as a unit in and of itself. The pupils understand each individual component by seeing the way it relates to other parts of the whole. One is not only concerned with the subject’s products and content, but also with the learning process itself – with learning how to learn. This is what defines the didactic principle of “pupils’ awareness of the learning process”.

The key to a child’s acquisition of knowledge, skills, and qualifications lies in their general level of development, including the level of the development of their understanding of the learning process. Developmental learning is only possible through continual monitoring of the pupil. An awareness of each pupil’s differences enables the realisation of the didactic principle “the systematic and goal-oriented development of each child in the classroom, including the weakest”.

As Zankov writes in his monograph ‘Learning and Development’, “in the long term, creative and investigative work will become more and more important. There is no doubt that we can overcome the uniformity so typical of traditional methodology in primary education. Only then will we be able to see and feel the effects of the potential spiritual power of every teacher and every pupil”.

In the textbook Mathematics, outlines Zankov’s five didactic principles. The textbook seeks to ensure that the pupils:

  • gain an understanding of the context of what is being taught;
  • gain an understanding of basic concepts and how to apply them;
  • learn to apply mathematics to everyday life;
  • develop their ability to research and analyse information;
  • learn how to use language actively, both written and spoken;
  • learn to justify and argue in defence of their beliefs;
  • are able to adequately discuss, hear and listen;
  • receive an individually tailored education.

A broad spectrum of pupil-centred teaching methods is used during the teaching process: active learning, in which pupils solve problems, discuss, explain or debate; cooperative learning, in which pupils work in teams on problems; and inductive teaching and learning (inquiry-based learning, case-based instruction, problem-based learning, discovery learning and just-in-time teaching), in which pupils are first presented with challenges and learn the course material in the context of addressing the challenges.