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20International Annual Edition of Applied Psychology : Theory, Research, and Practice Volume 5, Issue 1, 2018.
THE INTERETHNIC RELATIONS CULTURE EDUCATION OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS BY MEANS OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES
Anna A. Matveeva
Saratov State Agrarian University, 1, Theater Square, Saratov, Russia [email protected]
Svetlana N. Filipchenko
Saratov State University,
83, Astrakhanskaya Street, Saratov, Russia
Abstract
The increasing number of international students at Russian universities every year puts on the agenda not only the regulation of organizational and legal issues and changes in the syllabus, but also changes in the content of the education and the educational process at universities. The interaction of students from different countries, the conflict of nationalities and cultures raise the issues of the interethnic relations culture education. The article highlights the contradictions between the need of the modern society in the interethnic relations culture education of international students and the small amount of studies in the educational theory and practice, the ability of universities to educate the interethnic relations culture of international students and the insufficient level of scientific and methodological support of this process.
The necessity to deal with the identified contradictions has pinpointed the problem of the research and scientific justification of the content of the interethnic relations culture education of international students in the conditions of the University Preparatory Department.
The article discusses the meaning of the concept "interethnic relations culture of international students" and analyses the value of innovative technologies in the process of the interethnic relations culture education of international students. The analysis of various innovative technologies allowed us to justify and test the author's technology of the interethnic relations
ISSN 2313-4097
culture education of international students. The results confirmed the importance of practical implementation of the innovative technology of the interethnic relations culture education of international students into the educational process of the University Preparatory Department.
Key words: interethnic relations culture; interethnic relations; Russian as a second language; educational process; innovative technology; international students; education.
One of the priority tasks of the Russian higher education development today is internationalization of the educational process and export of educational services, which are reported in the Russian Federation Education Act № 273-FA dated 29.12.2012 and other legal documents.
The increasing number of international students at Russian universities every year puts on the agenda not only the regulation of organizational and legal issues and changes in the syllabus, but also changes in the content of education and educational process at universities. The interaction of students from different countries, the conflict of nationalities and cultures raise the issues of the interethnic relations culture education.
Various aspects of the interethnic relations culture were studied in the works of the following teaching scholars, psychologists, ethnologists and sociologists: R.G. Abdulatipov [1], A.A. Absalyamova [2], V.Kh. Abelian [3], Z.T. Gasanov [4], S.D. Gurieva [5], I.A. Dadov [6], R.I. Kusarbaev [7], A.V. Mudrik [8], T.G. Stefanenko [9], etc.
The initial methodological basis is presented by such researchers as M.M. Bakhtin [10], L.N. Drobizheva [11], L.N. Kogan [12], I.S. Kon [13], who gathered the significant theoretical and experimental material that makes it possible to determine the direction of psychological and pedagogical work on the interethnic relations culture education of international students.
However, the analysis of theory and practice of higher education shows that the mechanisms of the interethnic relations culture education are still not evidence-based
and theoretically developed. This is especially true for preparatory faculties and university departments.
Preparatory faculties (departments) for international citizens are becoming the first step on the way to higher education in Russia. At the same time, the issues of adaptation and socialization of international students, effective interaction and communication between representatives of different ethnic groups and interethnic relations culture education remain insufficiently developed and require more search for new opportunities and solutions.
We define "culture" as an integrative personal formation designed to regulate interactions and relations between representatives of different nationalities and allowing them to preserve their needs and interests as well as to acquire and reinforce positive experience of interethnic communication in the process of studying at university [14].
The scientific analysis of psychology and education literature as well as specific features of working with international students allowed us to identify three interrelated and interdependent components of the interethnic relations culture: cognitive-intellectual, value-motivational and reflexive-active.
One of the main terms of the interethnic relations culture education is the use of innovative technologies, namely information and communication technologies, technologies of pedagogic communication, personality-oriented learning, technologies of group creative work, communicative teaching second language culture, ethnopedagogic technologies, etc.
The innovative technologies mentioned above have the following educational opportunities in terms of the interethnic relations culture education of international students:
- the coordination of classroom and extracurricular activities during training sessions on the interethnic relations culture education of international students by increasing the level of knowledge of ethnic and cultural particularities of people, orientation to universal moral values, formation of skills of positive and productive
communication and maintenance of relations with representatives of other nationalities;
- significant changes in students ' activities by providing management of the process of the interethnic relations culture education of international students by means of selected texts and illustrative material for lexical and grammatical topics of the Russian language, by introducing various forms of classroom and extracurricular activities into educational process, etc.
The analysis of the essence and content of various innovative technologies allowed us to justify and test the author's technology of the interethnic relations culture education of international students.
The innovative technology of the interethnic relations culture education of international students is defined as a system of teaching methods and techniques, as the result of using of which the level of knowledge of ethno-cultural specific features of African, Arab and Central Asian people increases, as well as educational tools that focus on human values (friendship, support, respect, ethnic and family links, moral and aesthetic viewpoints, cognitive interests, etc.) and productive interaction with representatives of different cultures.
To test the effectiveness of innovative technologies of interethnic relations culture education of international students we carried out a pedagogical experiment at the Preparatory Department of the Institute of International Educational Programs at Saratov N.I. Vavilov State Agrarian University during 2016-2018.
In accordance with the plan of the study and the logic of the innovative technology implementation of the interethnic relations culture education of international students we distinguished the following criteria and indices: cognitive -intellectual - the knowledge of culture and history, language characteristics, religion, generally accepted norms and rules of behavior, etc.; value-motivational - the motivation in actions and communication of students with representatives of different nationalities, human values orientation, etc.; reflexive-active - ethnic tolerance
manifestation, willingness to engage in a dialogue and contact positively with students of other nationalities, etc.
On the basis of the above criteria and indices we identified the following levels of education: high, low, average.
In the experiment there were 62 participants: 32 international students in the control group and 30 - in the experimental group. The choice of diagnostic procedures was determined according to the age of the testees, which allows to use the diagnostic techniques (V.S. Sobkin and D.V. Adamchuk's test to measure ethnic tolerance; G.U. Soldatova's questionnaire "Index of tolerance"; D.A. Bogdanova and S.T. Posohova's technique of unfinished sentences; K. Rogers and R. Diamond's diagnostics of socio-psychological adaptation; author's questionnaires to identify the knowledge of culture and history of Russia and other native countries, etc.) and carry out the experiment in natural conditions.
The real state of the level of the interethnic relations culture education of international students was revealed at the first ascertaining stage of the diagnostic experiment. The results of the study showed approximately the same level of the interethnic relations culture education among international students in the control and experimental groups: low level-56.3% and 50.0%; average level - 28.1% and 33.3%; high level - 15.6% and 16.7% correspondingly.
This let to conclude that international students have shallow, fragmentary knowledge about the interethnic relations culture, the rules of behavior and interaction in a multinational team, the peculiarities of communication of representatives of different cultures.
At the second formative stage of the experiment the innovative technology of the interethnic relations culture education of international students, aimed at changing and supplementing the content of classroom and extracurricular activities, was introduced in the experimental group and tested. In the classroom activities the introduction of this technology was carried out in the course "Russian as a second language" with the help of specially designed tasks and illustrative material for
lexical and grammatical topics, selected texts for reading and listening, dealing with features of any country, nationality, mentality of different people, national and religious issues, universal values. In addition, various techniques were used in class ("Family photo", "Problem situation"," Agree - disagree", etc.), kinds and forms of group work with the team-building aim.
The extracurricular activities were led in two directions: acquaintance with the country and the host city and acquaintance with the countries and culture of students. These directions were put into practice through the following kinds of activities: participation in Russian national and state festivals, meeting with representatives of law enforcement agencies on the issues of international citizens location in Russia, meetings with representatives of various denominations, excursions to museums and theaters of the city, contest on the best photo on "The City where I study", contest on the best presentation on "Live and study in Russia", workshops on "The Russian cuisine", celebration of The Independence Day and other national days of other countries, University festival "The day of Africa", including the show of national dance, songs, clothes, cooking, meetings of "Inter-club" and "Russian cinema club", intercultural communication and intercultural interaction training sessions, games and tasks on team-building and tolerance in the group during curatorial classes, etc.
The control stage was conducted as a part of the formative experiment. The assessment showed that the indices of the average and high level of the interethnic relations culture of international students in the experimental group increased to 23.4% and 16.6% correspondingly, while in the control group the positive dynamics was 6.2% and 3.2% for the same indices.
Based on the results of the experimental work we can conclude that the offered innovative technology of the interethnic relations culture education of international students increases the indices of the culture level of the studied quality.
This article is devoted to the current problem of the interethnic relations culture education of international students in terms of growing number of international citizens at Russian universities.
References
[1] Abdulapitov, R.G. (1991) Human. Nation. Society. Moscow, Politizdat Publ. 224 p. (in Russian).
[2] Absalyamova, A.A. (2007) Development of Interethnic Relations of Students in the System of Higher Pedagogic Education. Author's abstract. Ufa. 21 p. (in Russian).
[3] Abeliyan, V.Kh. (1998) Social Pedagogical Aspects of the Interethnic Relations Culture Development of Students in the Educational Process. Author's abstract. Maykop. 24 p. (in Russian).
[4] Gasanov, Z.T. (2000) Education of Interethnic Communication Culture: Methodology, Theory, Practice. Makhachkala, Epokha Publ. 338 p. (in Russian).
[5] Gurieva, S.D. (2011) Interethnic Relations: Theory, Conception, Methods. Germany, LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing GmbH &Co. KG. 328 p.
[6] Dadov, I.A. (2001) Adyghe Ethnopedagogics in Education of Patriotism and Interethnic Relations Culture among Schoolchildren in the Conditions of Bilingual Education (on the example of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic). Author's abstract. Vladikavkaz. 25 p. (in Russian).
[7] Kusarbaev, R.I. (2009) Theory and Practice of Interethnic Interaction Culture Development among Students of Higher Educational Institutions: monograph. Chelyabinsk. 209 p. (in Russian).
[8] Mudrik, A.V. (2000) Social Pedagogy: Manual for Students of Pedagogic. Moscow, I.Ts. "Akademiya" Publ. 200 p. (in Russian).
[9] Stefanenko, T.G. (2007) Ethnopsychology. Moscow, Institut Psikhologii RAN, "Akademicheskiy proekt" Publ. 320 p. (in Russian).
[10] Bakhtin, M M. (1979) Aesthetics of Verbal Creativity. Moscow, Progress Publ. 391 p. (in Russian).
[11] Drobizheva, L.N. (2003) Social Problems of Interethnic Relations in Post-Soviet Russia. Moscow, Tsentr obshchechelovecheskikh tsennostey Publ. 376 p. (in Russian).
[12] Kogan, L.N. (1991) The Full Development of Personality and Culture. Moscow, Znanie Publ. 346 p. (in Russian).
[13] Kon, I.S. (1999) In Search of Yourself: Personality and Self-Awareness. Moscow, Politizdat Publ. 335 p. (in Russian).
[14] Filipchenko, S.N., Matveeva, A.A. (2017) Specific Features of Interethnic Relations Culture Education of International Students at University. Bulletin of Udmurt State University "Philosophy. Psychology. Pedagogy". Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 496-502. (in Russian).
