No 2 (2019)

With increasing competition in the educational sector, higher education institutions are striving to become research centers where besides the traditional functions of education and science, knowledge is transferred to practical areas of the economy and society as a whole, responding to their needs. Ural Federal University focuses on project-based learning. The paper provides a rationale for the need to create a system of project activities based on interdisciplinary integration. The methodology of organizing interdisciplinary projects in a foreign language refers to the provisions of competence-based education and personality-based active learning approach. The described system of interdisciplinary projects is based on the classification of the project method in terms of project participants, implementation period, principles of interaction, ways of coordination, and basic methods of implementation. The study introduces interdisciplinary projects for teaching a foreign language as a set of educational and cognitive techniques and actions of students in various fields of knowledge, which, in turn, allow students to organize independent work using authentic sources in their professional field and involve the presentation of their findings in a foreign language. The paper describes a model of a phased system of the project work organization among students, which starts with the team-work on the project in the selected area in the freshman class as an option of the extracurricular activity, and ends with the independent implementation of the interdisciplinary project within the curriculum in the graduating class.

The introduction of the Industry 4.0 concept influenced significantly on the development of higher education and contributed to the appearance of new effective technologies in education. Students actively use various information platforms that are necessary for the development of knowledge and skills in modern conditions. The necessity of development and improvement of new training methods causes a number of problems related to the use of the learning management system (LMS), in particular, the opposition emerges at the level of adherence to traditional teaching technologies. In this regard, the topic of adaptation of lectures to the conscious using of LMS instrument in order to increase pedagogical efficiency becomes relevant. The aim of the study is the analysis of the effectiveness of teaching activities in the context of Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (MOODLE). The paper describes the features of the notion of pedagogical efficiency within the Industry 4.0 concept. The authors analyzed the educational conditions of the MOODLE learning environment and the implementation of these conditions on the part of a student and teacher. The authors identified and justified the impact of MOODLE instrument on the pedagogical effectiveness and professional identity of teaching staff. As a part of the evaluation of pedagogical effectiveness, the authors proposed the index of innovative educational technologies implementation. The paper presents the data of comparative analysis of the effectiveness of high school teachers who use and do not use LMS technologies in their activities and the analyses of students’ performance, the level of satisfaction with the course, and the students’ activity level.

The paper deals with the professional activity modeling technology on the example of case-study method focused on forming communicative competence of non-linguistic students, enhancement of professional outlook, forming of group work skills, and intercultural communication development. The discipline “Foreign language” is being structured on the basis of a modular system. As a structural unit, the module is characterized by goals setting, problematic presentation of curriculum materials, tasks for project activities, and application of intermediate tests. The main task of foreign languages teachers is to organize activities in cooperation with students, to apply active teaching methods that simulate situations of professional communication, to promote the acquisition of communication skills in the field of foreign language and forming a professional foreign language communicative competence.

The paper discusses the technology of modeling professional activity on the example of an integrated lesson and case-study method which is focused on the formation of the communicative competence of students of non-linguistic programmes, the expansion of their professional outlook, the formation of group-work skills, and development of intercultural communication. Integrated foreign language classes with the participation of teachers from the professional departments are considered as a means of intensifying the process of mastering knowledge in the professional and language fields. Such classes contribute to the students’ professional outlook and glossary of terms expansion, group-work skills forming cross-cultural communication development. The authors note that to model professional activity in the foreign language study, it is necessary to create a single space for integrated activities and to ensure the competence forming in professional and language spheres, as well as focusing students’ attention on understanding the peculiarities of foreign language communication for solving professional problems. Thus, professional activity modeling in the process of foreign language teaching to students of non-linguistic programmes is carried out under the condition that language training and speech development take place simultaneously. The proposed approach can be used in the modular construction of curricula with a wide range of elective courses, as well as contributes to the foreign language educational process intensification.

Today, the identity of a serviceman participating in local wars and armed conflicts is one of the most relevant research topics for the Russian military psychology, and the psychological consequences of combat psychological trauma are the area of mutual scientific and practical interests of both civilian and military specialists. The personality of senior officers-combatants is of particular interest. This is due to the fact that they face the influence of various factors and situations when solving their combat missions. To solve combat missions successfully, senior officers-combatants need to have both professional skills and certain psychological characteristics. The paper shows the results of the comparative analysis of individual psychological characteristics (stress resistance, anxiety, the ability to adapt to the new life conditions, the preferred forms of coping behavior) of the top commanders of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation who participated in combat operations (the experimental group) and their colleagues who did not participate in the hostilities. The study showed that senior officers who took part in hostilities were more prone to neuro-psychic breakdowns than their colleagues who did not take part in hostilities. Senior officers-combatants are characterized by a significantly higher level of personal anxiety expressed in the tendency to consider a wide range of situations as a threat to themselves; they show more pronounced indicators of social maladjustment. Moreover, the author identified that senior commanders who took part in hostilities were at most prone to use non-constructive strategies to overcome stressful situations.

It is impossible to solve the problem of efficient psychological prophylaxis of religious fanaticism without a comprehensive study of the psychological features of a fanatic religious person.

Today, the problem of religious fanaticism is important and significant what is proved by the numerous scientific papers and conferences on this topic. On the other hand, there are very few empirical studies aimed at the study of the personality and behavior of a religious devotee.

In our opinion, it is the description of self-identity of a fanatically-minded religious person which will help to explain the specificity of his or her cognitive and emotional sphere. And the most important is that self-identity, as the totality of all ideas of a person about itself, including the emotional self-assessment, is the main regulator of the motivational and behavioral sphere of a person.

The paper describes the empirical study of self-identity of a religious person with various levels of religious fanaticism. As a method of study of self-identity, the authors used M. Khun’s test “Who am I?” and S.R. Pantileev’s technique of study of self-attitude. The level of religious fanaticism is determined using the questionnaire of E.S. Guseva and A.Yu. Chernov. Men and women of Orthodox religion were the respondents of the study.

The results showed that with the increase of the level of religious fanaticism, the religious persons less and less identify themselves with the family and educational-professional social roles. It is more typical for men than for women. The higher the level of fanaticism is, the more rarely the religious people percept themselves in the context of any activity.

The determined features of the emotional and evaluative component of self-identity of religious people allowed describing three types of self-identity depending on the level of religious fanaticism. Self-identity of a religious person with a low level of fanaticism can be described as confident honest. Self-identity of a person with a middle level of fanaticism can be described as uncertain honest. Self-identity of a person with a high level of fanaticism can be described as confident dishonest.

The professional identity of a psychologist is formed in the situation of constant changes of the educational standards and in the context of the variety of occupational standards and psychological associations that specify different requirements regarding necessary knowledge and competencies.

The paper presents the results of the theoretical and empirical study of the professional identity of practicing psychologists and students of the bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Clinical Psychology. The aim of the work is the study of the professional identity of a psychologist as a structural-personal neoformation containing self-concept, the concept of personal and professional qualities and competencies. The main methodological approach to the research is the structural-genetic theory of L.S. Vygotsky and his key term of neoformation.

The author used the semi-structured interviews as the method of getting empirical data and carried out 44 interviews: 27 interviews with the students of bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Clinical Psychology of universities of Volgograd and 17 interviews with practicing psychologists. The respondents answered several questions about the activity of a psychologist, the qualities and abilities necessary to work as a practicing psychologist. The interview questions concerned as well the readiness of psychologists to start their career and to develop it as a part of their professional activity. The author processed texts using the method of data qualitative analysis (network analysis) when the answers are distributed according to the topics and then grouped regarding their generalization level.

The empirical research shows that the identity of psychologists as their self-concept, the concept of their personal and professional qualities and competencies depends largely on the experience of professional activity. Formed professional identity allows seeing the prospects and opportunities of career development. The existence of clear concepts of the future, the desired career of a psychologist turned out to be closely related to the satisfaction with the profession. The data obtained confirm the practical significance of the study: modern education system needs the creation of additional conditions for the successful formation of the professional identity of a psychologist.