Pupils’ economic thinking and education formation at secondary educational institutions of Ukraine

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Academician-Secretary of the High School Department of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine

K. D. Ushynsky Chernihiv Regional Institute of Postgraduate Education

Pupils' economic thinking and education formation at secondary educational institutions of Ukraine

Yevtukh Mykola Borysovych - Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences (Ed.D. in Pedagogy), Professor, Current Member of of National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine). Е-mail: 481376@ukr.net

Pronikova Iryna Viktorivna - Senior Lecturer of the Department of Natural and Mathematical Disciplines and Methods of their Teaching

Е-mail: irinapronikova@gmail.com

Chernihiv, Ukraine

Annotation

The article analyzes the Ukrainian secondary schools pupils' economic thinking formation. The basic aspects of school children economic education in the current socio-economic situation of the country, their preparation for the future career choice are analyzed in the article. It has been found out that the pedagogical theory and practice have not been focused sufficiently at pupils' economic thinking formation. We have determined school economic education purposes. It is noted that the economic-oriented secondary and vocational schools practice proves the existence of three levels of young people training for the entrepreneurship: ideological; profound training in the economic disciplines; preparation for the entrepreneurial activity related to the personality qualities formation such as entrepreneurship, mobility, readiness and orientation under the dynamic market economy conditions.

Key words: Economic education, economic training, pupils.

Introduction

Challenge problem. Ukrainian society transition to a new paradigm of economic development, beliefs, orientations, mentality system drastic change determined the need to incorporate young children to the economy. The primary economic education should be viewed as one of the main economic socialization conditions that have a significant impact on the child's attitude to material and spiritual values and identity formation in general.

The urgency of the economic education of pupils in modern society is due to the necessity of adaptation to dynamically changing socio-economic conditions, increased requirements to personal qualities of future market economy specialists - their activity, independence, competence, efficiency, responsibility.

Research and publications analysis. Pupils' knowledge in economy issues is not new for the Ukrainian national history, theory and practice. But the 90's of 20^th and at the beginning of the 21^st century this problem became particularly important and urgent. The theme of our research is relatively new and little explored considering the economic situation of Ukraine. Many teachers, psychologists, economists used to study this issue. The most important scientific researches worth to mention are: O. V. Aksonova Economics Teaching Methodology, M. V. Vachevskyy and V. M. Madzihon Principles of Economics, A. S. Nisimchuk and O. S. Padalka Modern Educational Technologies, O. T. Shpak Teaching Staff Economic Training Within The Continuous Education System. These works describe and analyze current issues of pupils' economic education, training and improvement of tutors who teach economic subjects at school.

In the scientific literature, some authors consider economic education as «...the knowledge and skills acquisition process in order to create social and psychological personality traits with economic thinking ...» [1]; as an «important component of employees' general, vocational and technological culture, which involves the formation of economic thinking, economically conscious attitude to work, nature, material values» [7]. Some researchers giving the definition of «economic education» specify what knowledge, skills, skills young people should acquire: knowledge of economic laws and categories, the role of labor in society, knowledge of economic policy of the country, master economic calculations, develop skills to analyze economic processes and events, ability to organize economic activity [2].

Purpose of the article is to analyze the formation of economic thinking and education of students in secondary schools of Ukraine and determine this process development trends.

Objective of the article: 1. To analyze Ukrainian and foreign scientists' researches and publications on the organization and content of pupils' economic education; 2. Determine school economic education goals.

Main material presentation

Economic system reforming has radically altered the importance of economic knowledge in the social life of Ukraine. Secondary schools of Ukraine, where, together with parents, the pupils' economic formation starts, play an important role in this process.

During the economic crisis and the stagnation of the world economy, global changes in modern Ukrainian society, including the transition to a market economy system, the issue of sustainable economic education of the younger generation in the family and educational institutions has become urgent. This education involves not only the formation of professional qualities such as thrift, entrepreneurship, reasonableness, as well as the accumulation of knowledge concerning issues of ownership, business development etc.

Having started to reform the economic system immediately after independence proclamation, Ukraine has made, of course, the right choice in favor of the natural development of society provided by market mechanisms. Economic science in countries with market economies serves as a pointer basic for the economic policy development aimed at the national economy development and formation of a fundamentally new economic thinking, which is essential for new economic psychology, new economic culture and new economic behavior. The adequate economic behavior becomes mandatory for all members of society.

To change the outlook of people in the new historical conditions it is necessary to improve the value of economic knowledge in the spiritual life of Ukrainian society. Despite the rotation of the authorities it hasn't been done. Without a coherent, consistent and clear action plan, the authorities of Ukraine instead of strategic objectives implementation focused at current problems solution. This is so-called «small cases» economy [3].

Low living standards and economic gap between Ukraine and the countries that at the same time started to reform economic systems was caused by the fact that we were not able to fill new economic forms with the new content. Economic life formalism, when the form overweight content, doesn't permit to use the full potential of the market mechanism. As practice shows, Ukraine has not managed to form market psychology, market thinking, market value system that are vitally important to fill the form with real content. Immature market system is not able to ensure economic stability.

Instead of increasing the value of economics as a science and economic knowledge spreading to all segments of the population, which requires a new philosophy of public life, everything is happening vice versa in Ukraine.

It is necessary to have economic education at schools to create economic culture of pupils, their ability to understand properly socioeconomic processes taking place and to participate actively in the society activity. In terms of market relations, the principal feature is the free orientation and students' adaptation to the economic mechanism of market regulation. Today no one disputes whether a historian, philologist, mathematician or physics needs the economic background. Economic knowledge is universal as such and applicable in various fields. Each of us advocates in life as a producer, consumer and citizen.

Current economic, political and social changes in the society put forward new requirements for schoolchildren, their ability to coexist in harmony with society, know their rights and obligations, choose their path in life, and know how to take decisions in terms of choice, realization of their talents.

Due to this fact human formation and development is one of the urgent problems educational science and practice have faced. We share M.V.Vachevskyy and V. M. Madzihon opinions that «... teaching economics at schools is not a fad, not the current situation, not a reaction to the increasing demand for economic knowledge. Economic education affects the overall person outlook, his cultural level, contributes to adequate perception of the surrounding reality. Economic subjects study helps pupils to get a better understanding of the formation and development of society and allows them to form a complete picture of the world, determine their life position» [3, p. 302].

According to the foregoing, it is necessary to bring learning content to life content; to orient training at life situations explanation, competent person preparation. The economic education contents must be modernized. Graduates of schools should be able to adapt quickly to independent living, purposefully use their potential for self-realization in professional and personal terms as well as in the interests of society and state.

Introduction of basics of economic course to the curriculum should partially help to resolve these issues. Unfortunately, these programs emphasis pupils' preparation to enter economically oriented universities. Soon public and private schools with economics specialization appeared. Basics of economic theory books were mainly translated from Western educational and methodical literature. All these led to a glut of labor market with the economists with higher education. However, not only future economists need the economic background. All the pupils, without exception, need to have the economic thinking formed. Having a competent economic thinking young people will choose then the most rational behavior. Practice shows that it is impossible to live in the market environment without basic knowledge of the laws of the surrounding.

Defining the notion of «economic education» we will base on A.F. Amend point of view, who interprets it as «pupils' process and result of acquisition of systematic economic knowledge and skills, formation principles and their practical application» [2, p. 178]. Thus, the definition of «economic education» permits to conclude that it is the background for economic education of pupils and basis for economic culture formation contributing to economic thinking development; it is vital for effective economic activity.

Acknowledging research on economic education, it is worth to note that the management of pupils' economic education has not been developed in pedagogical theory and practice. Analyzing various scientific sources we revealed a number of existing contradictions:

- between the need of schools to have graduates with good socioeconomic background, ready for future profession choice and teachers' and school management low level of preparation to control pupils' socioeconomic formation process;

- between the rapidly spreading economic education, its quality changes and absence of theoretical and methodological materials for effective mechanisms of its development management.

In this regard, the problem of rapid development and reorganization of economic education is becoming more important, which set the task not only to train high skilled professionals in economics, but also to retrain and improve specialists' qualification and economic education of all sectors of society.

Research of the whole variety of economic relationships where members of society participate, helps to determine the economic goals of school education:

- students' mastering of basic knowledge and skills needed for further studies that will help to generate reasonable economic needs of the individual, economic thinking, therefore effective solutions to economic problems, the ability to efficiently use of the available material values;

- assess their own capabilities, disclose the nature of economic processes and laws related to the daily life of the individual, mutual use, use mutual assistance, mutual revision during collaboration at the learning process, make verbal analysis of educational material, sum up learning activities, improve logic operations;

- to characterize the mechanism of needs satisfaction, the importance of economic activity and factors that determine economic thinking and its application in practice, understanding the necessity of healthy way of life, mass media materials and the internet opportunities use as sources of information about economic indicators and events ;

- To choose their own way of obtaining future revenue, analyze and evaluate their own professional opportunities, abilities and correlate them with labor market needs to determine the scope of future employment, expand your vocabulary through terminology database object, use innovative approaches to solving problems.

In order to realize certain goals of school economic education, to deepen and expand the core subjects content, to provide a profession oriented applied and primary professional specialization of studies in high school, there are elective courses that take into account the interests, abilities and life plans of students on the one hand, and meet with the school profile on the other. Such economic courses as «Basics of Entrepreneurship», «Own Business», «Fundamentals of Management», «Fundamentals of Intellectual Property», «Consumer essentials», «Curious Economics», «Globalization» belong to the variable-based part of specialized school.

Not only the development of economic thinking but also the development of financial competence and culture should provide a new course «Financial Literacy», which has been tested in some schools in different regions of Ukraine. According to the elective course «Financial Literacy», prepared by the University of Banking of the National Bank of Ukraine, 10^th grade pupils should study modern financial products and services, it involves the development of skills to use such products, the ability to plan their own financial future. According to the general goals of the course, the main problem is to form certain pupils' competences through practice. Teaching kit prepared edited by professor's T.S. Smovzhenko includes a course program, textbook, workbook for pupils [4].

Entrepreneurship development problem as part and parcel of personality development in the modern world has increased the pupils' interest. The state is interested in business development, and it meets the national interest, as promotes market economy, create jobs and reduce unemployment, increase the volume of manufactured goods and services, social programs and contributes to other social and economic problems solution. This causes the social requirement of society to prepare young people for entrepreneurship.

Nowadays, in many countries economic disciplines and basics of entrepreneurship studies in schools prepare students for life under the market economy conditions. According to global trends high school students' preparation for entrepreneurship is one of the major modern education directions in our country. Therefore K. D. Ushynsky Chernihiv Regional Institute of Postgraduate Education together with the colleagues from Ukraine took part in the Ukrainian-Polish project «School Academy of Entrepreneurship.» The overall goal of this project is to support the sustainable socio-economic development of countries with the transition economy to improve education and vocational training through the introduction of social entrepreneurship education in schools. Specific objectives of the project are: the development of students and teachers entrepreneurial culture and competencies necessary for success in business or career; exchange of experiences in the implementation practice in school activities related to the development of professional activity and entrepreneurship. The ultimate target group of the project is teachers and secondary schools senior pupils who want to form ability to implement ideas to life [9].

Conclusions

Synthesis of scientific and pedagogical sources indicates that the formation of economic thinking and economic education of students in Ukraine will be most effective if during this process the interest to economy as a sphere of human activity is awakened, and the school will perform a systematic approach to its obtaining. It is necessary to pay more attention to pupils' entrepreneurship education. It is necessary to introduce the subject «Financial Literacy» as a mandatory for secondary school curriculum. The investigated issue needs further study and development. education student school economic

References

1. Aksionova O. V. Metodyka vykladannia ekonomiky / O. V. Aksionova // Navchalnyy posibnyk. - K: KNEU, 1998. - 280 s.

2. Amend A.F. Problemy vospitaniya, obucheniya i razvitiya podrastayushchego pokoleniya / A. F. Amend // Izbrannyye stat'i: v 2 t.; pod obsch. red. A.A. Salamatova, A.A. Gorchinskoy. - Cheliabinsk: Izd-vo Cheliab. gos. ped. un-ta, 2010. - T. 1. - 505 s.

3. Vachevskyy M. V. Osnovy ekonomiky / M. Vachevskyy, V. Madzihon // Navchalnyy posibnyk dlia uchniv litseyiv, koledzhiv, gimnaziy ta zahalnoosvitnikh shkil 10 - 11- 12 klasiv. - K: Pedahohichna dumka. - 2007. - 612 s.

4. Ekonomika. Prohramy kursiv za vyborom ta fakultatyviv / T.S.Smovzhenko //.- K., 2010.- 16 s.

5. Zbirnyk prohram z ekonomiky dlia zahalnoosvitnikh navchalnykh zakladiv (kursy za vyborom). Chastyna І. 10-11 klasy (dlia 11 klasu). - Kamyanets- Podilskyy : Aksioma, 2008.- 56 s.

6. Zbirnyk prohram z ekonomiky dlia zahalnoosvitnikh navchalnykh zakladiv (kursy za vyborom). Chastyna ІІ. - Kamyanets-Podilskyy: Aksioma, 2008.

7. Nisimchuk A.S. Suchasni pedahohichni tekhnolohiyi. / A.S. Nisimchuk, O.S. Padalka, O.T. Shpak // Navchalnyy posibnyk. - K: Vydavnychyy tsentr «Prosvita», 2000. - 368 s.

8. Prohramy dlia zahalnoosvitnikh navchalnykh zakladiv. Ekonomika. 11 klas. Riven' standartu, akademichnyy riven'. - K., 2010.- 14 s.

9. Pronikova I.V. Vykhovannia pidpryyemnytskykh rys na urokakh fizyky / I. V. Pronikova, A. A. Davydenko // Uroky z pidpryyemnytskym tlom: navchal'ni materialy // Za zag. red. Ye. Bobinskoyi, R. Shyyana, M. Tovkalo - Varshava: Sova, 2014. - S. 90-91.

Анотація

Формування економічного мислення та виховання учнівської молоді в загальноосвітніх навчальних закладах України

Євтух Микола Борисович - академік-секретар відділення вищої освіти НАПН України, доктор педагогічних наук, професор, дійсний член НАПН України (м. Київ, Україна). Е-mail: 481376@ukr.net

Пронікова Ірина Вікторівна - старший викладач кафедри природничо- математичних дисциплін та методики їх викладання ЧОШЛО імені К.Д.Ушинського (м. Чернігів, Україна). Е-mail: irinapronikova@gmail.com

В статті проаналізовано процес формування економічного мислення учнівської молоді в загальноосвітніх навчальних закладах України. Представлені основні аспекти економічного виховання учнівської молоді в умовах сучасної соціально-економічної ситуації в країні, її підготовка до вибору майбутньої професії. Встановлено, що питання формування економічного мислення учнів залишається недостатньо дослвдженим у педагогічній теорії і практиці. Визначено цілі шкільної економічної освіти та виховання. Зазначено, що практика економічно орієнтованих загальноосвітніх шкіл і професійних навчальних закладів свідчить про існування трьох рівнів підготовки молоді до підприємницької діяльності: світоглядного; поглибленої підготовки з дисциплін економічного спрямування; підготовки до підприємницької діяльності, пов'язаної з формуванням особистісних якостей підприємливості, мобільності, готовності й орієнтації в динамічних умовах ринкових відносин.

Ключові слова: економічне мислення, економічна освіта, економічне виховання, учнівська молодь.

Аннотация

Формирование экономического мышления и воспитание учащейся молодёжи в общеобразовательных учебных заведениях Украины

Н. Б. Евтух, И. В. Проникова

В статье проанализирован процесс формирования экономического мышления учащейся молодежи в общеобразовательных учебных заведениях Украины. Представлены основные аспекты экономического воспитания учащейся молодежи в условиях современной социально-экономической ситуации в стране, ее подготовка к выбору будущей профессии. Установлено, что вопрос формирования экономического мышления учащихся остается недостаточно исследованным в педагогической теории и практике. Определены цели школьного экономического образования и воспитания. Отмечено, что практика экономически ориентированных общеобразовательных школ и профессиональных учебных заведений свидетельствует о существовании трех уровней подготовки молодежи к предпринимательской деятельности: мировоззренческого; углубленной подготовки по дисциплинам экономического направления; подготовки к предпринимательской деятельности, связанной с формированием личностных качеств предприимчивости, мобильности, готовности и ориентации в динамичных условиях рыночных отношений.

Ключевые слова: экономическое мышление, образование, экономическое воспитание, ученическая молодежь.

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