PERFORMATIVE ACTIVITY OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: TOWARDS THE PSYCHOLOGY OF UNDERSTANDING

Abstract

The article reveals the content of the performative activity of higher education students in the context of psychological processes of understanding. It is shown that neither performative theory nor age and cognitive psychology proposes detailed analysis and empirical verification of the impact of students’ performative activity on understanding. The psychology of action points to the importance of activity as a socialization component. The university serves as a favorable environment for this. However, performance allows for a more active and practical implementation of the acquired knowledge, leading to understanding as a complex psychological process that results in forming a human personality. The article indicates that a distinctive feature of performative activity is not only the study of educational material, but also the comprehension of one’s own self and identity. Performative activity plays a crucial role in the formation of value and semantic guidelines, and the testing of professional and socio-cultural roles. In the process of performative activities, students interact on an equal creative plane, creating an environment of trust and mutual support. This is a qualitatively different model of educational activity, which is not aimed at obtaining results and competition, but at self-development, social interaction, and creation of new knowledge. In particular, the cognitive dimension of performative activity makes it possible to go beyond the established cognitive schemes and contents of the curriculum. This process takes place through improvisation as the main element of the performance aimed at the process-activity trajectory of learning. Thus, performative activity can contribute to a systematic understanding of the material presented, studied in the subjectsubject plane of interaction between the teacher and students, and one’s own self as a given model capable of changing and transforming in a performative discourse. The further implementation of performative methods can contribute to introducing new didactic models in higher education designed to broaden and deepen the psychological processes of understanding.