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THE PRACTICAL RELEVANCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL-PEDAGOGICAL CONDITONS AND METHODS INFLUENCING THE FORMATION OF STUDENTS’ CREATIVE THINKING
M.F. Lyovkina
The process of global changes and crises in policy and economy has also affected the system of education. The requirements to future graduates of pedagogical higher educational institutions have changed. Against the background of the growing unemployment, the major requirement is teachers’ competitiveness. The purpose of contemporary teachers is not just imparting concrete knowledge to their students, but also the development of their skills of independent thinking, creative approaches, their own resources, and the formation of an individual teaching style relying on the aggregate of the received knowledge and experience. The professional training of students of pedagogical higher educational institutions presupposes the development of their creativity on a par with the formation of such qualities and skills as knowledge of theoretical material and skills of practical work, skill of maintaining contact with the audience, of openness and friendliness.
Modern psychological-pedagogical science considers creativity as a personal category in the aspects of (1) manifestation of divergent thinking (J.Guilford, O.K. Tikhomirov), (2) actualization of intellectual activity (D.B.Bogoyavlenskaya, L.B. Ermolaeva-Tomina), (3) integrated quality of a personality (Ya.A. Ponomareva, A.V. Khutorskoy). The notion of “creative work” is closely intertwined with the notion of “creativity”. For example, creative work is interpreted as the process having certain specifics, and resulting in the creation of something new, while creativity is considered as man’s potential and internal resource, his ability to abandon stereotypical ways of thinking and his ability to discover new ways of problem solving. Creativity may also be defined as man’s ability for constructive, nonstandard thinking and behavior, comprehension and development of his experience [1].
Analysis of psychological-pedagogical literature shows that representatives of different schools agree that solving a creative problem is a thinking process consisting of mutually ensuing stages (cycles) of creative activity. In our opinion, the creative process is best characterized by the approaches of V.A. Molyakov and the representatives of the Wurzburg school. The representative of the Wurzburg school of “psychology of thinking” (O. Kulpe, K. Marbe) identified several stages of creative activity: (1) conscious work (preparation, prerequisite for intuitive search for a new idea); (2) unconscious work (maturation of the idea); (3) transition of the unconscious into consciousness (inspiration, insight); (4) conscious work (development of the idea and its finalization and testing). V.A. Molyakov identifies three main cycles in the creative process: (1) understanding of the conditions of the problem (assessment of conditions); (2) formation of a hypothesis (conception); (3) preliminary solution and testing of the hypothesis [2].
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After naming the stages of creative activity, it is necessary to pay special attention to the psychological-pedagogical conditions influencing the formation of the experience of creative thinking. These conditions can be divided into two groups: objective (situational) and subjective (personal) [3].
Subjective conditions - these are persistent traits of man’s character, capable of influencing the state caused by a certain situation. Subjective (personal) conditions are an aggregate of the personality’s characteristics, by influencing which (by pedagogical techniques, methods, and means), the experience of creative thinking of future specialists is formed. This aggregate includes: (a) the learners’ personal qualities; (b) persistent positive motivation for creative activity, motivation for success, level of the personality’s aspirations, need for cognitive activity, self-fulfillment; (c) a creative attitude including the system of emotional states; (d) a necessary and sufficient level of general and special theoretical training as the conceptual basis for successful solution of professional tasks; (e) professional personal orientation - the basis of formation of motives and attitude for professional-creative approach to tasks solution; (f) goal-setting.
Objective conditions include conditions of the environment and organization of the educational process when the students’ initiative is not suppressed, their confidence in their abilities and opportunities is formed, self-dependence is stimulated, and imagination is developed. Objective (situational) conditions ensure the possibility of goal-oriented pedagogical (forming) influence, and orient it in accordance with the set goals. This aggregate includes: (a) the teacher’s personality and behavior; (b) the moral-psychological climate in the group; (c) material and technical resources; (d) organization of the learning process.
The process of formation of the students’ experience of creative thinking involves goal-oriented interaction, co-creative work of the teacher, and students in adequate, specially organized conditions using the necessary mechanisms, forms and methods of organization of classes. We organized a workshop in “Methods of educational work” to prove the hypothesis of in-class formation of students’ creativity that can be most efficient in the case of creation of an optimal environment and conditions.
We created a creative environment and optimal conditions, ensured the availability of the necessary material and technical resources for conducting the creative class, and chose methods of conducting the class (methods of emotional influence). We identified the form of conducting the class (work in small groups), and offered a graphical method for finalization of the result. The students were to use methods at their discretion that were the closest to them at different stages of completion of their work. Analyzing the students’ activity, one can clearly identify stages of creative activity, and determine at which stage certain methods from the given classification were used to perform the task. Our hypothesis was proved and a competently created environment and comfortable conditions were the optimal basis for formation of students’ creative qualities.
We can conclude that for the successful professional achievement of personhood, teachers must remember that one of the principal roles in this process belongs to the creative potential that must be both developed and encouraged, and supported in the process of students’ learning at the higher educational institution. Teachers must also competently organize the learning process using technologies
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and methods of formation of creative thinking to achieve higher results. In our case, these results are teachers with developed creative thinking as the end product upon graduation from a pedagogical higher educational institution.
References
1. Дружинин В. Н. Психология общих способностей. - 2-е изд. - СПб.: Питер, 2000. - 368 с.
2. Ильин Е. П. Психология творчества, креативности, одаренности. Мастера психологии -СПб.: Питер, 2009 - 443 с.
3. Кохановская Д. Р. Теоретический анализ проблемы развития креативности у студентов // Актуальные вопросы современной педагогики (II): материалы междунар. заоч. науч. конф. (г. Уфа, июль 2012 г.). — Уфа: Лето, 2012.
Translated by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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