Once upon a time, the great Cicero said: "Before you argue about anything, agree on the meaning of the words ...". Probably, this expression of the wise Roman as well as possible in the allegorical sense reflects the meaning of the concept of "social perception". Indeed, everyone understands that effective interaction between people can be carried out only if it is of the nature of mutual understanding. The fact is that interaction, for various reasons of an objective and subjective nature, can be interpreted ambiguously by the participants in this act of interaction.
This ambiguity is associated with the fact that interaction actors have different expectations about the course and result of interaction with another individual, different attitudes, each actor in his relations with the external social environment is guided by different value systems and criteria.
However, despite all the differences between these factors, in interactions there is one parameter that is objectively common to all participants in the interaction process - this is the method and process of their perception of each other. It is objectively binding in the structure of communication and is characterized by the concept of social perception.
It should, however, clarify such a point that the use of this category is not entirely accurate and fully reflects the content side of communication between people. This term was introduced into scientific use by J. Bruner in 1947, and entered psychology along with the New Look theory - a new look at the problems of communication, interaction and people's perception of each other. In the framework of this paradigm, social perception revealed only the determining aspects of human relations.
Then the view on the content of this category expanded somewhat and, under perception, they began to consider the whole process of perception of each other's social objects. Moreover, the broad interpretation was that the social object was understood not as a single person, but as a whole set of elements of the social structure of society as a whole: social groups, communities, and even society as a whole, when it came to relations of the type “person - society". Modern psychological science in this interpretation considers the concept of social perception.
A full-scale review of the content of this category creates a very complex picture that reflects the mechanism of perception of each other's social objects in the process of their interactions. This mechanism includes the actual person who is capable of perceiving another, another person who interacts with the first. This mechanism is supplemented by the properties of the interaction actors that these individuals carry as characteristics of the social groups to which they relate. And finally, an important element of this mechanism is the situational component - the specific conditions and circumstances of the place and time within which the interaction takes place.
Social and pedagogical perception is even more complex in structure and content, which involves the inclusion of a number of special, new significant factors that determine perception. These are such as professional orientation, features of pedagogical activity as a factor in the general socialization of an individual, competence and others. Therefore, pedagogical social perception is understood as the ability of a teacher, teacher (in the broad sense of the word), to see the inner world of a child learning by means of empathy, that is, the ability to "live" the vicissitudes of his formation together with him.
The effectiveness of this approach, as a rule, is determined by the degree of development of interest in the problems that concern the educated. Therefore, the “quality” of the perceptual component of pedagogical activity depends on two components: the teacher’s abilities, on the one hand, and the student’s abilities, on the other.