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ON THE ISSUE
OF DEFINITION OF THE NOTION
OF THE CULTURE OF ECONOMIC THINKING
O. V. Bondarenko
The National Doctrine of Development of Ukrainian Education in the XXI Century says that one of the vital tasks faced by contemporary higher educational institutions is the creation of conditions for the formation of the professional economic thinking of future specialists. This educational task can be fulfilled by geographical subjects, during the study of which, future teachers learn about the specific features of the national economy, international geographic distribution of labour, present spatial structure of the economy, and sectored makeup of economy. The works of many psychologists and teachers are dedicated to some aspects of the problem under study. Scientists actively search for ways of the effective formation of economic thinking and economic culture of students of secondary educational institutions. However, the problem of the formation of the culture of economic thinking of students of higher educational institutions, and future geographers in particular, has not been the subject of special pedagogical research.
Teachers lack a common approach in defining the essence of the notion of “the culture of economic thinking”, which is primarily explained by the variety of the researched aspects of this phenomenon. We will consider in brief the essence of the basic notions of the problem of “economic thinking” and “economic culture”.
There are several approaches to understanding the essence of the notion of “economic thinking”. According to the first approach, it is considered to be the process of mediated and generalized imaging of the state of economic life in the form of notions in people’s minds; understanding of the regularities of development of the society; assimilation of empirical experience, economic knowledge, and their application in conscious activity (L. Blyakhman, K. Ulibin, B. Shemyakin et al.). L. Ponomarev, I. Klepach and V. Popov consider economic thinking as an intellectual quality, the human ability to image, to comprehend economic phenomena and relations, to understand their essence and ties, to assimilate and to correlate economic notions, theories, and requirements of economic laws with reality, and to build their activities appropriately [1].
Based on the analysis of scientific literature, we will understand economic thinking as the process of mediated and generalized cognition of the phenomena of economic reality in their essential properties, ties and relations, which take place on the basis of preparedness for their comprehension using the techniques of mental activity, and is completed with the formation of economic knowledge, its transformation into convictions, and implementation in practical activities.
Of no less significance for understanding the essence of the notions studied by us, is consideration of the approaches to the definition of the personality’s “economic culture”. S. Matveev and L. Lasota define economic culture as a complex of ideas, convictions, habits, and behavioral stereotypes, which are
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implemented in the economic sphere of society and are related to economic activities [2]. According to K. Stepanov, economic culture is the permanent system of values and stereotypes of behavior, cultural criteria, traditions, social customs and skills, recreating the specimens and models of economic activities dominating in society. From the pedagogical point of view, economic culture is the socially conditioned level of development of the personality, ensuring its preparedness in the sphere of economic activities.
Summing up the approaches to the definition of the basic notions of the problem under study which are available in scientific literature, as well as considering the specific features of the teacher’s work and the requirements set to the personality of the graduate of the geography department of the pedagogical university under “the culture of economic thinking”, we understand the socially conditioned level of development of the personality of the future geography teacher. The culture of economic thinking unites the following components: special economic knowledge (knowledge of economic laws and regularities, economic terminology, competence in issues such as economic changes taking place in the country); qualities of economic thinking and consciousness (ability for economic analysis, acceptance of economic values and their correlation with general human ones, critical attitude to reality and economic behavior (active participation in economic activities at different levels, ability of rational organization of one’s activity, search for an optimal solution to problems).
References
1. Лукаш С. В. Педагогическое понимание экономического мышления // Педагогика и психология. - 1999. - № 1.
2. Матвеев С. О. Экономическая социология Электронный ресурс. Режим доступа: http://tourlib.net/books_others/ matveev101.htm
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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