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HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES:
THE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT
OF LIFELONG EDUCATION
AND CIVIL FORMATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE
L. V. Alieva
N. А. Nefedova
National higher educational institutions have gained considerable positive experience in education of students through extracurricular activities based on the creative use of domestic social and pedagogical traditions and innovations. This specific educational potential of extracurricular activities of a higher educational institution is the result of integration and interaction of values of basic higher professional education, advanced professional education and public education of young people, which makes education ongoing, continuous and efficient from the point of view of its quality.
A higher educational institution’s extracurricular activities can be determined to be an organic unit of its core educational and socially important operations, which incorporate objectives, content, organization, and business and interpersonal communication carried out beyond the limits of the main class timetable and training programs, on the basis of lifelong free education and selfeducation, using principles of voluntariness, personal interests, needs, abilities and capabilities of individual students and teachers. A student is of particular value in the extracurricular activities of a higher educational institution, in terms of his/her special role and position in determining the purpose, content and organization of lifelong education. Involving a student in extracurricular activities (activity, initiative, a variety of roles and positions, results) is an important indicator of his/her adaptation to a future profession, and the efficiency of basic professional education; readiness for practical independent professional and social activities. Participation in extracurricular activities allows a student to find practical application of his/her knowledge and professional skills already during the period of training. A well-developed system of students' creative societies (in manifold form, content and structure) is a form of lifelong education, an important factor of renovation of basic professional education through the use of links of these societies with the real-world, and innovation in professional and social life and its needs (creation of networking societies of students and professional society representatives). A student acts in a new role in extracurricular activities as a subject of these activities (an initiator, an organizer, an active and creative party, an appraiser of results), unlike his/her role in main learning activities, where a student is an object of the pedagogical and professional work of a teacher. This is the base of professional self-determination of a student, revealing his/her identity, verification of personal qualities, and acquisition of new competencies (social, public, cultural, managerial).
Extracurricular activities are also a space for personal and professional development of a teacher, and his/her more complete self-realization (scientific and professional, personal, social and public).
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The perspective directions of a higher educational institution’s extracurricular activities can be defined as follows: (1) priority of value-oriented content of extracurricular activities - professional education by “dipping” a student into the professional environment, into his/her future profession and related specializations, and through practice - testing individual opportunities and abilities; (2) advanced education in the system of extracurricular activities of a higher educational institution - continuing professional development of new competences and specializations that suit the student’s personality and are related to the main mastered specialization. Continuing professional education within the scope of extracurricular core activities is a reality of young people’s lifelong education , and an indicator of students’ development of a vital need in education and selfeducation; (3) extracurricular professional activities of students as a form of selfreliant non-formal continuing education (self-education), and practice-oriented creative (development of innovative vocational training programs, professional advice for the community, etc.) activities; (4)
In pedagogic science, the practical effectiveness of the educational potential of an educational organization is represented by the educational environment - the socio-cultural pedagogically organized environment for positive development of students and training within the scope of jointly important activities. A study of value-oriented experiences allows us to characterize modern extracurricular activities of a higher educational institution as a special educational environment of life activities of a student and a teacher, the basic foundation of which are: core values of basic professional education at a higher educational institution, individual, age-based needs and capabilities of participants; voluntary joint personal and socially important public activities (in the variety of its objectives, content, results); interpersonal and business relationships; democratic communication.
The extracurricular activities of a higher educational institution provide the educational environment of the non-formal professional education and civil education of a student. This is an environment for “dipping” students into personal creative practice in real professional activities in its organic relationship with other activities (social and public, cultural, etc.), which is an essential condition for learning new general and specific competencies.
Published with the support of the Russian Foundation for the Humanities grant, project No. 12-06-00031 а
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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