Julia V. Andreeva 1, Ilmira A. Raskhodovа 2 and Eugenia N. Lyashko3
1Department of Broadcasting and TV Production, Kazan Federal University, Kazan,
Russia. E-mail: [email protected]
2Department of Foreign Languages, Kazan National Research Technical University,
Kazan, Russia. E-mail: [email protected]
3Department of General Church Disciplines, Kazan Theological Seminary, Kazan,
Russia. E-mail: [email protected]
*corresponding author email: [email protected]
Abstract
The relevance of the research problems of thinking development related to the crisis of education and changes of professional requirements, caused by the information revolution and the evolution of thinking processes. The aim of this study is to identify pedagogical methods developing the students’ abilities for critical and system thinking. In order to solve this problem, the authors used the system approach, realizing the axiological, synergetic and humanistic principles. The leading method revealing the level of students’ critical and system thinking and its influence to co-adaptive mechanisms of the person is the method of questionnaire, survey and Delphi approach. The research was held based on three higher education institutions: Kazan Federal University, Kazan Theological Seminary and Kazan National Research Technical University after Tupolev. The total number of participants was ninety-eight students. The results of the research showed that the level of students’ critical and system thinking does not exceed average values, many development criteria of these types of thinking appeared to be at a low level. The materials presented in the study allow making a conclusion about the efficiency of different types of pedagogical methods appropriate to the development of students’ intellectual abilities level, their motivation and a number of other indicators. The authors’ technology allows students to develop the skills and abilities needed for an
active adaptation to the society and broaden their competitive strategies in their professional area.
Key words: creative self-development, system and critical thinking, adaptable mechanisms of the person, innovative pedagogy, pedagogical prognostics
Introduction
Relevance and the problem statement
The general concept of Kazan University development includes the intensification of a number of research, educational and practical activities. The strategic academic unit declared in pedagogics, realizes the potential of scientists consortium, using unique academic base of the university. The relevant and significant theories and researches of Kazan Federal University’s scientists have become the basic for the development of new ideas and concepts. One of these concepts is the person’s creative self-development, which is realized as scientific school of professor of the Kazan University, the academician V. I. Andreyev (2015).
The advantage of this pedagogical system is a complete and tested method of integrative development and self-development of students. The article reveals the problems of pedagogical prognostics, the results of long-term researches of the pedagogical methods of the personal self-development. The dynamics of the modern world leads to the revision of university education requirements, looking for the new learning technologies focusing on self-development.
In the era of new information technologies, values and meanings of education are changing. To teach students the intellectual strategies of self-development means to set the new goals and meanings of life and professional activities. It is the only way for a student to become successful, competitive and adaptive, moral, complete person.
The hypothesis of the study
Effective pedagogical methods can develop critical and system thinking of students. Using the intellectual potential, a student will be able to increase his level of adaptability, to determine the strategy of self-development and can realize in his professional area more successfully.
The purpose of the study is to reveal possible pedagogical methods influencing on the development of critical and systems thinking, stimulating self- development of the person.
According to the problem, hypothesis and the study purpose, the following tasks are set:
1. To analyze the pedagogical theories of the person self-development, the
development of students’ thinking styles revealing their adaptable mechanisms.
2. To clarify the key definitions of the study: "co-adaptive", "critical", "system thinking» using the experience of Russian and foreign researches.
3. To make the pedagogical experiment estimating the general level of students’ critical and system thinking development.
4. To summarize the results and give advice for the application of pedagogical methods of the critical and system thinking development, influencing on the self-development and co-adaptivity of the person. Modern tendencies
For many centuries, education was elitist, giving new ideas, stimulating the development of the person. In the age of information technology teachers ceased to be intellectual leaders; they have to make an effort to keep up with the changes. The serious problem is an unpredictable changing of professional realities; the information technologies have changed the world of most professions. However, the educational strategies do not change so fast. In order to form a successful and competitive person it is necessary to have an ability of new thinking and self-adaptive resources of the person. V.I. Andreyev (2015) in "Pedagogical heuristics" summarized the problems of
pedagogical prognostics: "The solution of many modern educational problems is very difficult and sometimes impossible on the basis of traditional approaches and well-known methods which were accepted earlier in pedagogics and didactics”.
The problem review
The purpose of pedagogical process is the development and self-development (Andreev, 2015). Thinking about the complex issues of pedagogical prognostics, the author of the concept of creative self-development, proposed several ideal models, such as "creative and self-developing person", "competitive person", "self-sufficient person" and " intelligent person".
There are a lot of definition of the term “adaptation” in science. This phenomenon is considered multi-disciplinary. The famous scientists as L.S Vygotsky (2005), B.Z Vulfov and V.D. Ivanov (1999), A.V Mudrik (2006), A.A Rean (2006) and others, devoted their works to the problems of social adaptation and its role in the creation of a person.
The phenomenon of "adaptive capacity" was the basis of intellectual development in the theory of Jean Piaget and is presented in the pedagogical concepts of social and psychological adaptation of K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya (1980), A.A Nachaldzhan (2010) and others.
In pedagogical discipline, the term social integration is used as "a way of a person to exist in the society in accordance with its requirements and his own needs, motives and interests". Features of social adaptation studied by many Russian and foreign authors as William James (1883) (theory the of self- concept), E. Claparede (1984) (adaptive intelligence functions) and others. The phenomenon of co-adaptation is known as a joint adaptation of organisms, in
social psychology and pedagogy the term is usually used to indicate an active strategy of cooperation – the adaptation process activities (professional, cognitive, communicative, etc.). Active adaptation is an innovative process for a person. It does not reveal executive behavior, but the new leadership development. Co-adaptation is the search for new solutions, new strategies of behavior that would reveal the possibility of realization for the person himself and others (colleagues, staff). The innovative processes of co-adaptation meets on the social, external and internal personal levels. The concept of co-adaptation is a unique property of the human psyche – changing the reality and even the person himself without changing his moral principles, values and attitudes. This strategy of behavior characterizes a person with a high level of critical and system thinking.
Materials and Methods
Research methods
In order to explore the problem we use theoretical and empirical methods of research. In general, research methods in pedagogy differ from other sciences because research "the material" both the teaching and the taught personality in the process of development. At the same time, it is difficult to evaluate and interpret the quality of the person and his complex thinking features.
In the process of studying the course of «Journalism Psychology" in order to encourage the students’ self-knowledge and self-control, they were offered several widely used tests of socio-psychological adaptation. While the discussion, many students were surprised by the results of a high degree of aggression, rejection of others and the desire to dominate. Overall, future journalists demonstrated low levels of adaptability (37% of the students tested in 2016 got below 68 points). The level of development of thinking style was assessed on a 10-point scale.
The results were processed using mathematical statistics methods and graphical results.
The experimental base of the research
The study took place from 2011 to 2016 and was attended by the students of three higher education institutions: Kazan Federal University, Kazan Theological Seminary and Kazan National Research Technical University after Tupolev.
Eighty- nine students of different years of study took place in the experiment.
Results
The structure and content of the model
The author's group conducted a special study to evaluate the features of students thinking. Thus, in the process of debates, discussions and personal conversations, some psychological and pedagogical characteristics of a new style of thinking of modern students are collected.
Psychological characteristics of a person in the era of new information technologies 1. The students formed a special style of thinking (synthetic, information, hyperactive reference and search). Another characteristic of a new style of thinking is a "perceptive" thinking – selective, fragmented understanding of the world.
2. The truth existence is called into question. The behavioral scenario fixed by the Internet: having addressed for an information, we receive hundreds of possible answers and alternatives.
3. High "informational and intellectual immunity" prevents understanding the reality and a decision-making. That is why, it is very important to form the skills of information management.
4. Identity, creativity, presentation, novelty and variability should be criteria of the assessment system and it will be possible to select appropriate information.
5. Students form the abilities to distant creativity through communication, which has no linguistic and cultural boundaries.
6. The multivariate behavior is an ability to do several kind of work simultaneously. The new generation is able to take multi-channel information, to give feedback, make decisions, and learn new virtual routes and ideas.
7. The new generation has a new language – the language of network. Stages of the model introduction
Understanding of the modern style of thinking will allow choosing effective teaching methods.
Meanwhile, high information intelligence of students is not accompanied by a high level of system and critical thinking development, it is rather the opposite; students are experiencing problems in this field. In order to assess students’ readiness to the system and critical thinking, the following characteristics were taken: the level of generality, degree of reflexivity, degree of automation, etc.
The results of the research are in the figures 1 and 2.
Figure 1. The degree of a system approach knowledge.
1 - Theoretical information about the concept system, 2, 3 – the concepts of "analysis" and "synthesis", 4 – knowledge of the system principles.
To identify the ability of system analysis, the students were asked to answer to the 21 question. They needed a special knowledge, skills, abilities to solve professional problems. At the beginning of the questionnaire household situation requiring a system approach were proposed. Therefore, solving this problem was the most successful (63%) of viewers found the correct way out of the situation, but only one student (0.8%) gave the reason to his response.
The students solved the problem spontaneously, because they did not have system analysis skills. Thirty nine percent of the respondents coped with the task. While analyzing professional situations, the students did not use full, consistent skills and knowledge.
In order to explore the level of system analysis usage, a special questionnaire was developed, it includes the claims approving the system approach and it’s reducing role. The essential difference in motivation of students’ system analysis usage was not revealed; the highest motivation is shown in comprehension and usage in practice the relationships of cause and effect. All students are highly motivated to the development of new techniques, methods, thinking styles (Figure 2).
Figure 2. The level of motives development to the application of different types of critical and system analysis.
The studying of the level of students’ critical thinking development led to interesting results. Different tasks such as self-evaluation of previous tasks, critical evaluation of practitioners, etc. were used to assessment. Seventy- two present of participants showed the initial level of critical thinking development.
The analysis of the experiment results allows drawing a conclusion that, students are not ready to solve their professional tasks, which demand a high level of system and critical thinking development. Students make tasks spontaneously, inconsistently, fragmentary, without deep reflection, a comprehension of the process and prediction of the personal result. Students cannot form basic components of system and critical thinking without application of express methods: i.e. they are not able to see the phenomenon as a process, a situation as a system, pointing out basic elements and interrelations in statics and dynamics.
Conclusion and Perspectives
Nowadays the society has changed the goals and objectives of education. It is not only the knowledge accumulation but also creation of the personal development and realization of intellectual potential.
The main pedagogical principles that help to develop the heuristic, critical and reflective function of students’ thinking are the principles of consistency, competitiveness. A lecturer developing thinking skills needs to work at his own development constantly. He must be ready to change, to develop his ideas and concepts.
Critical and system thinking is characterized by the ability to give the assessment to the offered information, facts or events, to recognize and separate truth and false, the desire for deep analysis, ability to reason the choice and the ability to make the right decision and take responsibility for it.
The system and critical thinking skills can be taught. The algorithm of thinking development is universal: a problem statement, collecting the relevant information, its careful analysis and choice of the right decision. There are several stages of students’ thinking development:
1. Mainstreaming – the evocation (motivation to learn new skills, abilities, information)
2. Realization of meaning (understanding and interpretation of the information) 3. Reflection (analysis and introspection)
The methods developing students’ thinking should be used in accordance with the individual stages of development. So, at the first stage it is better to use such techniques as puzzles, clusters, discussion, brainstorming, etc. Their aim is to increase students' motivation, get and interpret the new information and activate the cognitive sphere of personality.
At the second stage is an updating the motivation to solve the complex tasks. It is necessary to create the conditions for logical and deep understanding of the received information. Such techniques as questions and associations, insert, diaries and interviews will help to realize it.
At the third stage, it is advisable to use such techniques as creative tasks, essays, sequin, intellectual maze, logic and others. The main aim of them is to activate the reflection, find creative and original ways of problem solving. Most of the techniques and methods should be alternated and applied at any stage.
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