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6Психология человека в образовании, 2019, т. 1, № 4 Psychology in Education, 2019, vol. 1, no. 4 _www.psychinedu. ru
Психологические технологии в образовании
UDK 159.9 DOI: 10.33910/2686-9527-2019-1-4-364-367
Evgeny P. Ilyin's views on communication and their importance
for the educational process
S. Ivanov™
1 Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", 15 Tzar Osvoboditel Blvd, Sofia 1504, Bulgaria
Author
Stoyko Ivanov,
e-mail: stoyko.v.ivanov@gmail.com
For citation: Ivanov, S. (2019) Evgeny P. Ilyin's views on communication and their importance for the educational process. Psychology in Education, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 364-367. DOI: 10.33910/2686-9527-2019-14-364-367
Received
15 October 2019; reviewed 28 November 2019; accepted 28 November 2019.
Copyright:
© The Author (2019). Published by Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia. Open access under CC BY-NC 4.0.
Abstract. Communication is a complex, holistic, and multifaceted process that is unique to humans alone. It is based on establishing mental contact between real and directly interacting individuals to express their inner world (ideas, feelings, thoughts, needs, intentions, values, etc.), coordinate their actions, express their relations, demonstrate their individual uniqueness and constantly improve themselves. The review of topic-related specialized literature shows that communication is central to the mutual activity of people, establishment of certain relations between them and for the existence of large human communities. It is a necessary condition for the normal development of every human individual as a member of society. Through communication, the individual interacts with the social environment, absorbs social experience and is embedded in society. Without it, we would not be able to adopt moral, cognitive, practical and aesthetic experience from previous generations. In communication, human values are built and developed and their essential personal characteristics are revealed.
This article aims to present the views of Evgeniy P. Ilyin on the psychological components of communication on the basis of his fundamental works "Psychology of Communication and Interpersonal Relations" (2014) and "Psychology of Informal Communication" (2015). Ilyin defines it as a specific type of interconnection based on the psychic contacts between real subjects thus creating a domain of mutual influence, experience and understanding. The article aims to reveal some of the psychological aspects of professional pedagogical communication. It provides the definition of this concept and explains its significance for the pedagogical and educational process. The article discusses the varieties and indicators that determine these two processes. It explores the characteristics of effective vocational pedagogical communication, its mechanisms of influence as well as its goals.
Keywords: communication, professional pedagogical communication, varieties, students, teachers.
This article explores the views of Evgeniy P. Ilyin on the psychological components of communication on the basis of his fundamental works "Psychology of Communication and Interpersonal Relations" (Ilyin 2014) and "Psychology of Informal Communication" (Ilyin 2015). Achieving this goal is a difficult task, not so much because of the requirement for a certain length of the publication, but because of the richness of the ideas presented and their interconnectedness. In these works, the author reveals himself as a subject matter expert. No less impressive is his ability to interpret and
combine different aspects of knowledge about interpersonal communication and to present valuable ideas on educational practices.
The review of the specialized literature on communication allows E. P. Ilyin to reveal that communication is central to the mutual activity of people, establishment of certain relations between them and for the existence of large human communities. He points out that communication shapes a number of factors of mass consciousness that have a major impact on the processes taking place in society (public opinion, traditions, moods, fashion,
etc.). These factors need to be taken into account in all actions aimed at changing social processes, i.e. the groups a person belongs to based on their communication patterns in the daily interaction with others. These communities influence the formation of the person's assessments, relationships, and communication styles. The power of their influence on the communicative features of the individual is directly proportional to their relevance. According to Ilyin, information is one of the most valuable commodities. The most progressive societies are those that make the maximum use of modern information technologies.
E. P. Ilyin reveals that communication is a necessary condition for the normal development of every human individual as a member of society. Through communication the individual interacts with the social environment, absorbs social experience and becomes embedded in society. In short, communication is fundamental to the socialization of the individual. Without it, we would not be able to adopt moral, cognitive, practical, and aesthetic experience accumulated by previous generations. Communication facilitates human socialization, the development of values and basic characteristics of a personality. It is a social way of forming psychiatric neoplasms — a factor for the functioning of the individual and one of the most important conditions for his or her inclusion in society. It causes the emergence and refinement of consciousness and speech unique to humans alone. It is a means of information exchange. It creates reasonable understanding between humans in the course of their mutual activity. When interacting with each other, people get to know each other revealing their basic characteristics. It should be emphasized that depending on the type of neural activity and temperament, different people evaluate the importance of communication for their personal development differently.
Communication is directly related to the individual's consciousness. This connection is expressed in a person's desire for self-knowledge, self-expression as well as in a person's ability to take the place of others. Through imitation, suggestion, identification, and reflection, the individual is given the opportunity to transcend the boundaries of their own self, to expand and deepen their connection with others and with the society at large. By influencing other people, the personality also changes under their influence. When communicating with others, the individual recognizes oneself and develops to form a distinctive personality. Communication is an opportunity to perceive the experience of others, always reconsidered and enriched from the person's own perspective. The importance of
communication is revealed in the recognition of the human personality by other people and how it reflects this recognition or non-recognition. Not being recognized individually by others always becomes a tragedy regardless of age. In the process of interacting with the people who relate to us individually, we get an assessment of our own significance and value.
People with good communication skills can quickly navigate interpersonal interactions, correctly diagnose the mental state and qualities of their interlocutors, correctly predict their actions, etc. All these help them to be more effective in achieving their goals. Lack of information can cause mental disorders. Therefore, communication, in certain cases, has psychoprophylactic and psychotherapeutic effect and significance.
Communication has a direct effect on people's mental states (aggression, affect, depression, shame, fear, stress, personal or situational anxiety, etc.), their interpersonal and business relationships. It could also be the reason for a person's satisfaction or dissatisfaction, their happiness or sorrow. The need for communication and its importance becomes especially clear when one is isolated from their beloved. Historical facts and daily experience reveal that depriving a human of social contact depersonalizes the individual and affects their social qualities. Special studies reveal that prolonged loneliness, alienation and isolation can cause serious distortions in the processes of attention. It can also lead to the deformation of the person's emotional state, one's perception of oneself, perception of time and the surrounding reality (Ilyin 2014, 200-204).
From personal experience, people know how a certain remark or gesture of a significant person may become a source of energy and inspiration or, on the opposite, become a source of discouragement and apathy for a long time. It is no coincidence that some people in defining what happiness is often say, in addition to having an inner spiritual balance and creative self-realization, the communication with people they love or find interesting. Besides, the psychological culture of a modern personality includes the following three components: adequate knowledge of the self; objective understanding and appreciation of other people; the culture of behavior and communication. Obviously, all three components are directly related to interpersonal interactions.
In his monograph entitled "The Psychology of Communication and Interpersonal Relations", E. P. Ilyin explores the essence of personal connection. He (Ilyin 2014, 29) defines it as a specific type of communication related to the mental contacts between real subjects which provoke influence,
Evgeny P. Ilyin's views on communication..
mutual experience and mutual understanding between them. According to Ilyin (Ilyin 2014, 18), it is a process that embraces complex and versatile manifestations such as interaction, exchange of information, expression of relationships, mutual influence, empathy and mutual understanding.
It is clear that communication is related to the exchange of information between people, the interactions between them, the formation of certain relationships as well as their mutual exploration and understanding. Interconnection is defined as a complete, complex and multifaceted process unique to humans alone. It establishes spiritual contact between real and directly interacting personalities to express their inner world (ideas, feelings, thoughts, needs, intentions), values, etc. The individuals coordinate their actions, express their relations, demonstrate their individual uniqueness, and constantly improve themselves.
One of the most important factors that influences modern education is pedagogical communication. It has all the basic characteristics of interpersonal communication, but, at the same time, has its own specific characteristics related to the nature and ultimate purpose of the pedagogical and educational process. It is manifested mainly in the interactions during a lesson and during the presentation of new teaching material, in class discussions, in the individual assessment of students' knowledge and in their assessment, as well as in extracurricular contacts. It is a form of relationship, partnership and cooperation between the subjects of the educational process. Pedagogical communication has specific regulations and goals. It should take into account age as well as cognitive and individual difference of the interacting subjects. The value aspects of this type of communication are expressed in the transmission and assimilation of certain social norms of attitude and behavior. They facilitate the construction of the adolescents' personality in accordance with the set socio-cultural models.
According to E. P. Ilyin, pedagogical communication is a professional, purposeful interconnection between teachers and students and their parents in order to achieve effective educational work. It manifests itself through several functions: cognitive (transfer of knowledge and skills to students), expressive (understanding students' experiences), regulatory (aimed at changing or preserving students' behavior, thinking, values, etc.), social control (regulates student behavior through positive or negative sanctions), socialization (formation of students' skills to act according to the interests of the team, to understand the interests of others, to express benevolence). Based on specific indicators,
we distinguish the following types of pedagogical communication:
- Depending on the sign system used in the communication process: verbal and non-verbal.
- Depending on the role and activity of the communicators: symmetrical and asymmetrical.
- Depending on the number of communicators: communication between two or more persons; individual or group; two or more groups.
- Depending on the set goals: deliberate, purposeful, pre-organized, unintentional, spontaneous, disorganized.
- Depending on the gender of the participants in the communication process: same-sex, mixed-sex.
- Depending on the style and discourse: careful, tactful, polite, rude, vulgar, cynical.
- Depending on the expected results: emotional, spiritual, utilitarian, pragmatic.
- Depending on its educational value, content and focus: useful, harmful.
- Depending on the emotional tone: pleasant, desirable, unpleasant, undesirable, forced.
- Depending on whether or not special mediators of communication are present: direct or indirect, mediated by written text, telephone, telegraph, internet, radio, telecommunication, etc.
- Depending on how the goals are achieved: imperative, manipulative, humanistic.
Effective pedagogical communication is marked by concreteness, authenticity, cordiality, initiative, tact, tolerance, etc. The positive reactions of teachers in the process of pedagogical communication are reflected in observation, respect, empathy, sense of humor, reflection of the emotional state of the students, listening and paraphrasing. Teachers facilitate pedagogical communication by reflecting, explaining, encouraging, affirming, paraphrasing, and summarizing. The mental impact mechanisms they use are requests, recommendations, requirements, guidance, and feedback through assessment, providing attention to students, emotional contagiousness, evocation, and persuasion.
A number of competences, qualities and skills contribute to the achievement of effective pedagogical communication. Among them are assertive-ness, creativity, flexibility, emotional resilience, proper use of specialized terminology, questioning skills, feedback skills, teamwork skills, effective conflict management, and more. Weaknesses in teachers' pedagogical communication are being quick-tempered, overconfident, displaying shabbi-ness, ignoring students' individual personality traits, expressing preferences for those who are more academic, more disciplined or more attractive.
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DOI: 10.33910/2686-9527-2019-1-4-364-367
According to E. P. Ilyin, the building blocks of pedagogical communication are determined by a number of factors such as gender, age, temperament, needs, motives, goals, self-esteem, and other characteristics of the parties involved. The analysis of the studies in pedagogical communication (Ilyin 2014, 235-236) shows that male teachers are more practical and earnest. They pay more attention to the outside and the formal side while the motives expressing the substantive side of students' behavior remain beyond their sight. They are characterized by a more authoritarian way of influence than their female counterparts.
E. P. Ilyin distinguishes between functional and objective goals of pedagogical communication. The former include: providing assistance; looking for a partner to talk to, play together, work together, etc.; seeking understanding, sympathy, emotional response, praise, etc.; integrating the other(s) general human values or their own values (education, training); change of opinion, intentions, behavior of a partner in the interaction processes. E. P. Ilyin highlights that among children the most common factor for choosing a long-term partner for communication is the attractiveness of a person's personality depending on their moral or physical qualities and their attitudes towards them (sympathy, goodwill, love, etc.). He points out that preschool children are affectionate to those peers who are attentive, responsive, friendly, and caring. The need for students to communicate with teachers during a lesson is conditioned by the presence in the latter of such qualities as humanity, kindness, sense of humor, tact, erudition, ability to make contact and empathize with students. Attractive to the latter are also the display of devotion, organizational skills, intelligence, physical attractiveness, etc.
The survey reveals that in the course of pedagogical communication with their teachers, students appreciate such qualities as honesty, pedagogical sociability, culture of speech, forms of conversion, etc. The analysis has identified three groups of
qualities which create a particularly favorable attitude in students towards their teachers. The first group concerns the moral qualities of the teacher with "purely human qualities" as the main virtues, i.e. trust, benevolence, kindness and responsiveness, friendliness and amiability. Guardianship, lack of tact, having a "teacher's pet" (a student who is the teacher's favourite), lack of interest in students' problems — all these diminish the authority of teachers. The second group of qualities is related to their professional competence. The knowledge and skills relevant to the subject are an important prerequisite for their professional realization. The third group of qualities that students value concerns the dynamic features of teachers' behavior such as vigor, reactivity, courage, perseverance, etc.
E. P. Ilyin reveals a number of essential features of pedagogical communication and performs a comprehensive analysis of the results of his own and foreign studies in this highly important phenomenon of the educational practice. Through his works "Psychology of Communication and Interpersonal Relations" (Ilyin 2014) and "Psychology of Informal Communication" (Ilyin 2015), Ilyin promotes experiences, ideas and opportunities that are valuable for the educational activities of current and future teachers. He makes successfully transformations and adapts the knowledge about interpersonal communication to the educational environment. He identifies and analyzes the prerequisites for distinguishing pedagogical communication as an independent and relevant issue in pedagogical psychology, didactics, and the theory of education. He reveals its nature, structure, functions and varieties. Ilyin focuses on the mechanisms of mental influence in the process of pedagogical communication and to the factors that influence them. The analysis of the individual styles of pedagogical communication of teachers as well as the communicative competences, skills and qualities that determine them make a valuable contribution to modern practices of education systems.
References
Ilyin, E. P. (2014) Psikhologiya obshcheniya i mezhlichnostnykh otnoshenij [Psychology of communication and interpersonal relationships]. Saint Petersburg: Piter Publ., 573 p. (In Russian)
Ilyin, E. P. (2015) Psikhologiya neformal'nogo obshcheniya [Psychology of informal communication]. Saint Petersburg: Piter Publ., 384 p. (In Russian)
