The development of students' reflection in the paradigm of socio-cultural approach

Rivne state university of the humanities

Мета дослідження визначається необхідністю дати відповіді на такі запитання: по-перше, наскільки можливим є розвиток професійної рефлексії майбутніх учителів у сучасній системі вищої освіти; подруге, наскільки забезпечує розвиток професійної рефлексії зростання професіоналізму; по-третє, наскільки залежить специфіка професійної рефлексії від професійної спрямованості та комплексу особистісних характеристик.

Методи дослідження. Для розв'язання поставлених завдань використовувалися такі теоретичні методи дослідження: категоріальний, структурно-функціональний, аналіз, систематизація, моделювання, узагальнення. У якості експериментального методу використовувався метод організації емпіричного дослідження.

Результати дослідження. З метою формування рефлексії студентів у навчальному процесі закладів вищої освіти запропонуємо деякі психологічні принципи, зокрема, принцип протиставлення рідної та іноземної мов і культур; принцип автентичності навчальних матеріалів; принцип професійної спрямованості студентів, забезпечення іншомовного навчального спілкування під час навчанню читанню англомовних національних історичних текстів; принцип взаємопов'язаності рефлексивних засобів розвитку рефлексії в парадигмі соціокультурного розвитку студентів; принцип поетапності формування соціокультурної компетентності студентів.

Висновки. Педагог з високим рівнем розвитку рефлексії є фахівцем, що опанував високими рівнями професійної діяльністю. Ця особистість свідомо змінює і розвиває себе в ході здійснення діяльності, здатний до внесення індивідуального творчого внеску в професію. Це - людина, яка знайшла своє індивідуальне призначення. Професіонал - це фахівець, здатний стимулювати в суспільстві інтерес до результатів своєї професійної діяльності, підвищувати престиж своєї професії в освітньому просторі.

Ключові слова: рефлексія, соціокультурний підхід, професіоналізм студентів, професійна спрямованість, комплекс особистісних характеристик особистості.

Abstract

In recent years, a great interest for studying the problem of reflection has been grown significantly in contemporary Psychology. To our mind this is explained, first of all, by the importance given to reflection in the daily life of a modern person.

We've to say, that firstly nowadays in the most general form the problem of reflection in human life is the problem of defining the person's way of life. The value of an original, independent, and self-directed existence is in a great degree organic to European culture in the whole. Mastering this value, striving to cultivate it in oneself and others means accepting European cultural traditions, realizing oneself as its Subject.

Secondly, the current situation of social development is characterized by significant constant changes in socio-political, economic and spiritual life of the person. The restructuring of social relations is inextricably linked with the transformative processes in the person's consciousness, the rejection of fixed stereotypes of the individual thinking and behavior, the development of an active, creative attitude towards oneself, the transformation of one's own activity, the means and conditions of its implementation, etc. Psychological science and practice are called to play a leading role in the implementation of this task.

Thirdly, the problem of reflection in the last decade began to occupy a leading place in the Psychology of professional activity as a branch of science. This is due to the fact that one of the central psychological mechanisms for ensuring professional activity, both in terms of its implementation and in terms of its modeling, is reflection.

A significant number of psychological researches (Балл, 1995; Batel, 2020; Ivashkevych Ed. &Onufriieva, 2021; Івашкевич Ер. &Комарніцька, 2020; Rogers, 1983) deal with the problem of reflection. In Psychology the study of this phenomenon is carried out in the connection with the substantiation of the regularities of theoreticalthinking (Bredart, 1991; O'Brien, Segalowitz, Freed &Collentine, 2007; Максименко, Ткач, Литвинчук &Онуфрієва, 2019), with explaining theproblemofcommunicationandcooperation (Alahmadi, Foltz, 2020; IvashkevychEr., Perishko, Kotsur&Chernyshova, 2020). It is also solved in the context of the study of the peculiarities of theformationofthepersonality, his/herupbringingandselfeducation (de Bot, 1992; Blagovechtchenski, Gnedykh, Kur - makaeva, Mkrtychian, Kostromina, Shtyrov, 2019; Dijkgraaf, Hartsuiker&Duyck, 2017), according to the purpose of substantiating groupreflexiveprocessesandstructures, creating a ModelofReflexivePsychology (Михальчук, Івашкевич Ед. &Івашкевич Ер., 2023; Crookes, 1989; Ware, Damnee, Djabelk - hir, Cristancho, Wu &Benovici, 2017).

Therefore, we consider the methodical principle of interrelated language and culture training to be the leading one in the formation of reflection of students at high educational establishments in Ukraine. That's why the topic of our article is very actual topic nowadays.

Theaimsof our research are to show: firstly, how possible it is the development of professional reflection of future teachers in the modern system of higher education; secondly, to what extent the development of professional reflection ensures the growth of students' professionalism; thirdly, to what extent the specificity of professional reflection depends on the professional orientation and a set of personal characteristics of the individual.

Methodsoftheresearch

The following theoretical methods of the research were used to solve the tasks formulated in the article: a categorical method, structural and functional methods, the methods of the analysis, systematization, modeling, generalization. The method of organizing empirical research was used as an experimental method.

Resultsandtheirdiscussion

Socio-cultural approach to teaching students assumes, that in the educational process we need a close interaction of the language and the culture of its speakers (Derwing, Munro, Thomson &Rossiter, 2009), the inseparability of the linguistic and cultural picture of the world (Murphy, Melandri&Bucci, 2021; Zuniga &Simard, 2019), that exists in the mind of the student, in his/her worldview. In such a way, the reflection is created on the basis of the person's educational experience of learning the subject through the prism of cultural phenomena and explanation of cultural features through their embodiment in each scientific paradigm (Cilibrasi, Stojanovik, Riddell &Saddy, 2019).

We propose the principle of interactivity, that ensures the establishment of a quasi-dialogue between a student and the author of a text (we don't see the differences, what this text is: if it is scientific, or artistic, or narrative, etc.), during which the student creates his/her invariant content of the text, which can be presented in the form of an oral or written speech product under the conditions of integration of other types of speech activity. We think, that the methodical implementation of this principle takes place under the conditions of the organization of the reading process by the teacher and a student in such a way that the joint activity of students (in pairs, micro-groups, large groups, in the whole class) determines the solution of the set of problematic tasks, which will speed up and diversify the reading process, and the result of which can be presented in a form of an oral or written speech product (a discussion, drawing up a synopsis, participation in a project, etc.).

The principle of taking into account the native language according to the dictionary of methodological terms can be implemented within two approaches: the first approach is latent, that is there is a hidden reliance on the native language. In this case the material will be presented in such a way that would prevent

DOI (article): https://doi.org/10.32626/2227-6246.2023-60.119-140

the interference of cultural phenomena. According to another option there is a conscious comparison of the features of the native and foreign languages.

According to Socio-cultural approach, we have to note, that there is a huge difference between a written language and a spoken one in terms of patterns of the person's recognition. In a case of the written language the brain of the individual is recognized the letters, words, meanings, senses, but the process is more profound for the spoken language as our brain has to work harder and harder. If for the written language the brain could recognize different spaces between words giving the sentence some regular proper meaning in the spoken language. In this case people don't pause between words when they are speaking, and yet the brain has to be recognized by the differences between, for example, «greenhouse and green house» or the differences between «sea horse» and «see horse», such operation are related, in a great degree, to thinking (Mocanu&Negut, 2019; Valis, Slaninova, Prazak, Poulova, Kacetl&Klimova, 2019). At first, we'll state that the left hemisphere has a function mainly to manage language matters. A right hemisphere is used for other things. As we can predict from classical models of language organization based on lesion data, cortical activation is associated with language processing. This process was strongly lateralized to the left cerebral hemisphere and it is involved into a network of processes in the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes of the person's brain (Binder, Frost, Hammeke, Cox, Rao & Prieto, 1997). These processes look like more than gaining knowledge. They can be accepted in such a way, that our capacity will use some language, and these processes are usually located in the left hemisphere of the brain, specifically in two areas: Broca's area (it is associated with speech production and articulation) and Wernicke's area (it is associated with comprehension). Any harm can, in its turn, cause by a person stroking out or blunt force trauma or another injury. It also can lead to language and speech problems or aphasia; a language deficit can cause by damage of the brain, often

be stroke or accidental (Bernice, 2021; O'Donnell, MacGregor, Dabrowski, Oestreicher& Romero, 1994).

So, in order to form reflection of students in the educational process of high educational establishments we'll propose some psychological principles.

The first one is the principle of contrasting native and foreign languages and cultures in the formation of reflection of students. According to Socio-cultural approach, it is based on the principle of a dialogue between Ukrainian and English-speaking cultures, based on their comparison. As a result of the perception and personal assessment of cultural differences, the students of high educational establishments will have a deep understanding of both native and a foreign culture. We have to emphasize, that the object of studying at the lessons of Country Studies is linguistic, sociocultural, sociolinguistic, extralinguistic and metalinguistic information, which partially or completely does not coincide with the linguistic, sociocultural reality of any native culture, because students will learn English-speaking reality through the corresponding foreign language, which acts as a dominant, in some case a building material of the secondary picture of the world of a person.

The second principle is the principle of authenticity of educational materials. It is associated with a great need of the teacher to select and use authentic country studied texts for reading, which are a real product of the speech activity of native speakers. Also, they don't have to be adapted to the needs of students, and also have a high linguistic and sociocultural potential (for example, artistic texts, special essays about traveling by people to native speakers' countries, in our case - to Englishspeaking countries, which are often invited by foreigners from Ukraine. We mean a great need of teachers to propose students special material for reading newspapers, magazines, pragmatic texts (announcements, booklets, advertisements, tickets), texts from Internet sources (authentic sites, which contain information on the country, blogs, chats, electronic directories, etc.), which create different conditions for obtaining almost unlimited amount of country scientific or artistic information.

The third principle is theprincipleofprofessionalorientationof students, providing foreign language educational communication in teaching reading of English-language national historical texts. This principle is expressed in taking into account the interests of students, who have been chosen to study at the universities according to some scientific profile, for example for philological profile. Since the majority of students of high educational establishments studying in the philological profile classes, who are preparing for the foreign language external examination, international foreign language tests (TOEFL, FCE, CAE, IELTS, etc.), there is the admission to higher educational institutions according to the chosen profile of students, who are studying abroad. Students, who are studying specialized subjects, allow them to acquire the necessary linguistic and sociocultural knowledge with the purpose of a professional direction (we mean any profession related to use of a foreign language, and therefore to a foreign language culture). This point expands the range of linguistic and sociocultural training of students in the process of their studying.

We'll assume, that the spheres of communication for the use of a foreign language for the development of students' reflection in the process of intercultural communication can be professional contacts, the ways of trade, business, international exchanges, the possibilities of studying abroad, for travelling, migration, diplomatic activity and even for military actions, which are quite relevant in the conditions of the current political situation, of war, which is taking place nowadays in Ukraine.

The fourth principle is theprincipleofinterconnectedcommunicationandreflexivemeansforthedevelopmentofreflectionintheparadigmofsocio-culturaldevelopment. It actualizes the students' personality. It assumes that the result of the formation of reflection of students at the lessons is implied in the process of reading national texts with a lot of socio-cultural

lexical units. Also, the process of the formation of reflection is directed on the person's ability and his/her readiness for the development of intercultural communication, and the formation of linguistic and socio-cultural abilities (observation, impartiality, empathy, communicative flexibility, which must be developed). All these qualities facilitate the development of students' reflection as a personal characteristic by the students' qualities (cognitive, metacognitive, cultural, linguistic, sociocultural, politeness, tolerance and sensitivity). In such a way we see the process of implementation of the principle of interconnected communication and reflexive means for the development of reflection in the paradigm of socio-cultural development, proposed by us, into the presence of tasks of a multifunctional nature. Also, this process has the aim both at mastering the culture of forming the person's reflection as the individual characteristic, and the developing of foreign language communication, also the linguistic and sociocultural development of the student's personality. To achieve this goal, in the process of forming the person's reflection as the individual characteristic the main feature of mediated communication have to be reproduced at the English lessons.

The fifth principle is the principle of step-by-step formation of socio-cultural competence of students. It involves scientific theoretical orientation (in our research it is on the preparatory stage) and executive preparing (in our understanding, it is the main and the final stage of such a process).

The orientation stage begins with the analysis of the information of the text, which tells us about some country, gives studies about its history, the ways of its development. We have a deal with the extraction of cultural information, represented by «value capsules», which contain different types of information about the peculiarities of perception and understanding of foreign-language cultural reality, as well as national value orientations, which have been presented in foreign culture.

At the executive stage, students implement their linguistic and sociocultural knowledge into the processes of intercultural interaction, applying their linguistic and sociocultural abilities and qualities. So, at this stage reflection is formed as a personal characteristic.

Thus, thedidactic (interdisciplinary coordination and inter - cultural interaction) and methodical (interrelated learning of language and culture, interactivity, contrastiveness, authenticity of educational materials, professional orientation of foreign language educational communication, interconnected communicative and linguistic and sociocultural development of the student's personality, step-by-step formation socio-cultural competence) principles create a theoretical basis for the organization of reading education with the aim of forming socio-cultural competence of students.

The experiment was organized by us during 2022-2023 academic year. At this stage of the research, we formed two experimental and two control groups (117 students):

experimental groups:

a) E1 - 30 students of the 1st year of studying in Rivne State University of the Humanities;

b) E2 - 28 students of the 2nd year of studying in Kamia - nets-Podilskyi National Ivan Ohiienko University;

control groups:

a) C1 - 32 students of the 1st year of studying in Rivne State University of the Humanities;

b) C2 - 27 students of the 2nd year of studying in Kamianets-Podilskyi National Ivan Ohiienko University.

The course of the ascertainment experiment is determined by our need to answer the following questions: firstly, how possible it is the development of professional reflection of future foreign language teachers in the modern system of higher education; secondly, to what extent the development of professional reflection ensures the growth of students' professionalism; thirdly, to what extent the specificity of professional reflection depends on the professional orientation and a set of personal characteristics of the individual.

Questions, having been formulated by us, formed a problem complex in the plan of their experimental study. The solution of all these questions requires a step-by-step, consistent and logical analysis within the limits of the experiment, in which the system of variables represents the psychological content of the phenomena having been studied under certain conditions. Therefore, it was first necessary to expand the general experimental problem to the level of specific experimental tasks, hypotheses and methods of their verification. After that we have to set up the logic and the procedure of the experiment as a whole. The implementation of these procedures involved, first of all, the outline of the sequence of solving the selected research problems and the formation of experimental procedures according to the level of theoretical and quantitative, and qualitative analysis of the obtained data of the research.

The confirmatory experiment consists of seven stages. At the first stage it was investigated to what extent the topic of professional growth and reflection for teachers was relevant, which professionally important qualities were included into the space of actual or potential reflection. When starting the experiment, we considered it necessary to conduct a micro-research, deals to students' judgments about the role of the reflection in their professional activity. In order to obtain a more objective assessment of knowledge, we took into account not only the data from the questionnaire, but also the results of the conversation - interview, which included a number of questions with the aim of clarifying information (see Table 1).

Thus, students of both experimental and control groups have an insufficient level of knowledge about reflection. The students expressed the following opinions: «I didn't know what to think about my level of reflection» (Nataliia C., E1); «I've heard about reflection for the first time» (Maryna V., E2); «I've never tried to outline a great number of my problems» (Mykola E., C1); «I've done everything correctly, that's why I have no problems» (Olga O., C2).

Table1. Theresultsofstudents' judgmentsabouttheroleofreflection