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DOI: 10.14526/2070-4798-2021-16-1-155-162
The future physical education teachers training improvement in ecological self-education as an important component of ecological and pedagogical
training
Anna I. Kolesnik*
IN. Ulyanov State Pedagogical University, Ulyanovsk Ulyanovsk, Russia ORCID: 000-0002-3065-2750, [email protected]*
Abstract: The state of the nature is catastrophic. Humanity is now on the verge of extinction. We need a set of measures aimed at improving the quality of environmental education and education of various categories of the population. The leading component of this should be environmental self-education. Methodology and study organization. The study involved 46 students of the Natural Geography Faculty in the Ulyanovsk Pedagogical University. The survey methods were used to identify the readiness of future teachers for environmental and pedagogical activities: questionnaires, conversations; pedagogical observation, pedagogical experiment; method of expert evaluation. During the pedagogical experiment, field trips were conducted. Future teachers acquired the skills to assess nature's condition, offered their own recovery options, and developed special programs as part of the "Help Nature «campaign. Results. The indicators of future teachers' readiness for environmental and pedagogical activities, including environmental self-education, were compared. The EG (experimental group) students significantly improved their results by the end of the pedagogical experiment. The initial level of readiness in the EG and the CG (control group) was equal, about 2.8±0.17 points. After the end of the pedagogical experiment in the EG the score increased to 3.6±0.25 points (p>0.05) while maintaining the same score in the CG. A similar increase in indicators of the EG was noted for the development of socially significant personal qualities; motivational sphere; practical environmental skills. Conclusion. The development and use of criteria for assessing the students' readiness for environmental self-education at the pedagogical University contributes to the improvement of the educational process. This ensures the improvement of their professional training. Increasing the readiness of future physical education teachers for environmental self-education should be attributed to the category of applied scientific research of a practical orientation. Keywords: future teachers, environmental protection activities, environmental education, environmental upbringing, environmental self-education, students ' readiness for self-education.
For citation: Anna I. Kolesnik*. The future physical education teachers training improvement in ecological
self-education as an important component of ecological and pedagogical training. Russian Journal of
Physical Education and Sport. 2021; 16(1): 122-127. DOI: 10.14526/2070-4798-2021-16-1-155-162.
INTRODUCTION
The task of increasing the readiness of all population groups for practical environmental activities is put forward in the conditions of a sharp nature deterioration [1, 7, 9, 11, etc.]. Environmental education acquired the status of an integrating scientific discipline when the Law of the Russian Federation "On Environmental Protection" was carried. It became the discipline which was to ensure the orientation of academic subjects in all educational institutions on the basis of:
- the establishment of close relationships with the environment; the assimilation of environmental concepts, ideas, patterns by students,
schoolchildren, and students;
- Adoption of environmental education in all state educational institutions.
The analysis of scientific and methodological literature, the materials of our own research show that the formation of practical environmental skills should begin with the establishment of continuous interaction in environment, the assimilation of knowledge about ecology, its role and place in human life; the laws of nature development; the state of its parameters. When studying the nature's problems, there comes an understanding of the universe objective laws; understanding the need to radically change relationships with the environment
[12,13,14].
The purpose of this work is proving the importance of criteria development for assessing the degree of students' readiness for ecological self-education.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
One of the most important tasks of students' professional training, which increases their competence and professional readiness for the practical environmental activities organization is the assimilation of students ' knowledge about the unity of man with the outside world, by V.A. Slastenina, 1998.
Ecological and pedagogical readiness has a complex content, including:
- motivational-value component that ensures the formation of the student's belief in the need to unite the efforts of the entire society to preserve the decaying nature;
- the gnostic component, which allows future teachers to learn a knowledge system that reveals changings of person with the environment interaction; the alienation causes of people from the outside world; ways to correct mistakes; the acquisition of knowledge about environmental education;
- operational-activity component, indicating the degree of skills and abilities formation in organizing and conducting environmental-pedagogical activities; the use of a means system, methods and technologies of developmental training; the acquisition of personal experience in environmental-pedagogical activities (4, 6, 8).
In the pedagogical space, it is important to form the motivational sphere of future teachers. We tried to identify the main motivations that are necessary for the effectiveness of ecological and pedagogical activities and for ensuring readiness for ecological self-education. The materials of our research show that such motives are:
- attitude to ecological and pedagogical activity as an important component of teachers ' work;
- perception of the surrounding nature as a habitat outside of which human existence is impossible;
- deep belief that the state of nature determines the quality and duration of people's lives;
- awareness of the values importance for the preservation and further development of modern civilization;
- the need to learn the basic concepts: ecological worldview, ecological consciousness, ecological thinking, ecological culture, ecological education, ecological self-education, etc. as conditions for improving environmental and pedagogical competence;
- the belief in the leading role of the teacher in solving the problems of environmental education and environmental education of the younger generations;
- future teachers' awareness of their responsibility for the environmental education of schoolchildren.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
An integral part of the students' environmental pedagogical readiness is the formation of skills for managing the psycho-emotional state; an objective assessment of the achieved level of professionalism and competence. It provides the ability to self-realization in the process of environmental pedagogical activity [5,7,etc.]. The development and use of criteria for assessing the readiness of future teachers for environmental self - education is important and relevant.
In research, the following criteria were developed:
1 - the degree of professional suitability of the student for environmental pedagogical activity;
2-indicators of the personal qualities development;
3 - the formation of the motivational sphere for environmental activities;
4 - the degree of assimilation of the special environmental knowledge system;
5-indicators of practical environmental skills and readiness for environmental self-education.
The degree of students' readiness for ecological and pedagogical activities was evaluated by an expert group of 5 environmental specialists
according to a 5-point system.
The pedagogical activity's specificity is that its results are manifested after a certain time in the life of a person, his interactions and relationships with people and the surrounding world.
The teaching profession requires constant, continuous work on self-development and self-education throughout life. I. A. Zimnaya, 2005, emphasizes that education is, in essence, managed self-education. Education is also organized self-education through the use of specific means and methods, depending on the situation or pedagogical conditions.
The deterioration of the environmental situation in the world and in Russia put humanity on the verge of survival. The problem of ecological and pedagogical readiness of future teachers, which S. N. Glazachev, 1998; G. N. Serikov, 2002; S. S. Kashlev, 2007, and others consider as a highly demanded characteristic of the teacher's personality, becomes more urgent.Readiness for ecological self-education is one of the basic components of a teacher's professional activity.
In determining the degree of professional competence of students teaching activities evaluated the following parameters (in points):
5 points - the realization of the need to be an example for children in all activities; ability to establish trusting relationships with students; understanding the internal state of the child in difficult situations; the willingness to put yourself in his place; the ability to organize the upcoming environmental educational activities in a fun way;
4 points - readiness to control and manage their own psycho-emotional state; the choice of a friendly tone in a conversation with students; the ability to listen to the arguments of the student; to interest children in the upcoming business;
3 points - the ability to distribute attention to all students of the class; to subordinate the children's team; the predominance of orders, instructions, orders in the organization of practical activities of schoolchildren;
2 points - lack of readiness to control their psycho-emotional state in dealing with children. The belief that students should complete each teacher's task without explaining its importance;
1 point - focus on the leaders of the class team; lack of willingness to interest children in the upcoming activities.
The effectiveness of the future teacher's work on self-education, including environmental self-education, is largely due to the development of socially significant personal qualities: purposefulness, independence, responsibility, hard work, etc. We have proposed the following criteria for their evaluation:
5 points - organization of all activities types with a focus on achieving the goal; readiness to independently set the task and find effective ways to solve it; ability to make your own decisions in a difficult pedagogical situation; responsibility for your actions; ability to predict their possible consequences.
Willingness to rationally allocate their time and effort to all types of activities and objectively evaluate their effectiveness.
4 points - the willingness to achieve the goal through the rational organization of their activities. The ability to have your own opinion on the issues discussed; performing the assigned task in accordance with the task and summing up the results. Readiness to perform tasks in difficult conditions of life;
3 points - the implementation of the goal with personal interest; the manifestation of independence for their own achievements; lack of readiness to bring the matter to an end in a changed situation. Willingness to perform the assignment in good faith when receiving remuneration;
- 2 points-striving for the goal by any means; showing independence in personal interests; lack of willingness to admit own mistakes; high level of hard work provided personal benefit;
1 point - lack of readiness to search for effective ways in achieving the goal; manifestation of independence in activities that do not require intelligence and creativity; lack of willingness to correct mistakes; desire to get the simplest tasks.
To identify the rate of the motivational sphere, the criteria are proposed:
- 5 points selection of the proposed activities, taking into account their significance; readiness for pedagogical work as the main condition for
self-realization of the abilities to teach children, awareness of personal responsibility for the effectiveness of the educational process at school; understanding of the need to unite the efforts of the entire society to save nature;
4 points - readiness to use personal example to form responsibility for the environment in children; understanding of the importance of environmental self-education as a leading condition for the effectiveness of environmental and pedagogical activities; readiness to form environmental self-education; readiness to form an ecological worldview in schoolchildren;
3 points - readiness for environmental and pedagogical activity as a task that does not require discussion; attitude to environmental education as a forced form of improving the effectiveness of pedagogical activity;
2 points-understanding of ecological and pedagogical activity as a temporary phenomenon until the situation with the nature improves;
1 point - lack of readiness for environmental and pedagogical activities.
The assimilation of the environmental knowledge system was evaluated according to the criteria:
5 points-knowledge of the natural forces influence mechanism on the human body; acception of the people's spiritual and physical health dependence on the state of the environment; readiness to identify and analyze the causes of nature's deterioration; awareness of the need to assimilate harmonious relations with the environment through environmental education and environmental self-education;
4 points - a person's awareness of himself as a part of nature, whose health and quality of life is determined by its parameters. Understanding the need to learn the laws of its development; the system of ecological knowledge, the formation of the responsibility of each person for the state of the environment. Readiness for ecological self-education;
3 points-acception of the need to change the consumer attitude to environmental protection, the participation of the entire population in its restoration;
2 points - the belief that environmental problems should be dealt with by specialists in this field;
1 point - lack of readiness for ecological self-education.
The practical environmental activity skills were assessed according to the following indicators:
5 points - acceptance of the nature development laws and the conditions of its self-restoration in interaction with the environment; compliance with rules, norms and requirements in various forms of outdoor activities. Participation in organized mass events to improve the state of the environment;
4 points - active participation in the landscaping of the territory of own educational institution, street, city; participation in the improvement of summer recreation areas; readiness for environmental self-education and environmental self-education;
3 points-understanding the need to conduct and participate in various activities to improve the state of the external environment. Lack of willingness to show creative initiative;
2 points - the belief that environmental problems should be dealt with by specialists in this field;
1 point - lack of readiness for ecological self-education.
The scientific hypothesis consists in the fact that the use of objective criteria for assessing the environmental and pedagogical activities, including environmental self-education, will contribute to its significant improvement. To test this hypothesis, a pedagogical experiment was conducted with the participation of 46 students. Control (CG) and experimental (EG) groups were organized, each with 23 people. Before the beginning of the pedagogical experiment, the initial level of future teachers readiness for environmental and pedagogical activities as an integral part of the teacher's professional work, including readiness for environmental self-education, was revealed. The expert commission, consisting of experienced environmental specialists in the number of five teachers of the pedagogical university, did not reveal significant differences in the students' readiness for
the upcoming independent activities (p>0.05).
In the CG, the training process continued as usual in accordance with the training program. In the EG, students were offered additional information about the history of the ecology creation; various types of interaction between people and the surrounding nature; the reasons for their changes; the dynamics of environment deterioration, the state of health, as a result of incompetent human influence.
EG students get acquainted with the facts confirming the dependence of the person's spiritual and physical health, the quality and duration of his life on the state of nature; a sharp decline in the quality of water, air, food, etc., a critical level that threatens the death of modern civilization. On weekends and holidays, EG students were given field trips, excursions, and one-day hikes. This allowed us to get an idea of the habitat destruction scale, to realize the need to unite all members of society in solving the problems of improving the environment.
Re-evaluation of the indicators of the CG and the EG students for ecological and pedagogical activity and ecological self-education showed the following: in the CG, there were no significant changes (p>0.05); in the EG, future teachers more deeply realized the degree of their professional suitability for pedagogical activity, the need to learn the skills of organizing and conducting various forms of interaction between children with nature, as conditions for ecological self-education. Before conducting the pedagogical experiment, the initial level of students' readiness in both groups for environmental self-education was estimated by the expert group at 2.8±0.19 points. By the end of the pedagogical experiment, the score in the CG remained unchanged, in the EG-improved to 3.6±0.25 points (p<0.05). EG students also had an increase in the level of the motivational sphere: from the initial indicators of 2.8±0.15 points; to 3.7±0.30 points (p<0.05); significantly improved knowledge in the field of ecology from 2.6±0.18 points to 3.8±0.24 points (p<0.05); indicators of practical environmental skills increased from 2.0±0.22 points to 3.1±0.17 points (p<0.05); readiness for environmental self-education from 2.0±0.14 points to 4.3±0.33 points (p<0.05). In CG, these indicators
remained at the same level (p>0.05).
CONCLUSION
The results of the pedagogical experiment showed that the criteria for assessing the future teachers' readiness for environmental and pedagogical activities and environmental self-education allowed us to specify the types of professional readiness, their main parameters and content. The main forms, means and methods of the ecological knowledge system assimilation - the basis for the formation of an ecological worldview; skills of practical ecological activity, education of ecological culture in schoolchildren and students are determined. This helped to increase the readiness for the upcoming ecological and pedagogical activities, including environmental self-education, as its important structural component.
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Submitted: 20.02.2021 Author's information:
Anna I. Kolesnik - Senior Lecturer, I.N. Ulyanov State Pedagogical University, Ulyanovsk, 432700, Russia, Ulyanovsk, Lenin Square, House 4/5, e-mail: [email protected]
