The exploration of the level of pedagogical university students` motivation for using aesthetic therapy

Introduction

At the present stage of modernization of the educational system in Ukraine, the problem of training of primary school teachers for implementation of conceptual ideas of the New Ukrainian School based on a people-centered approach is particularly relevant. A modern primary school requires a teacher, who recognizes a pupil's personality as an active member of human life, directs pedagogical process to a harmonious, aesthetically comfortable entry of a child into the world of universal values and creates favourable conditions for his/her creative self-expressions in living space. Accordingly, the main purpose of professional activity of a primary school teacher is the multifaceted personal development of a child in accordance with his/her age and individual psycho- physiological characteristics, the formation of his/her general cultural, moral and ethical values, key and subject competencies, necessary life and social skills, ensuring his/her readiness for education in primary school and happy life in a democratic society [1].

An important factor for the implementation of key tasks of primary education is the development of humanistic orientation of a prospective teacher, which is reflected in recognition of a personality as the highest value, his/her right to freedom and happiness in pedagogical space, facilitative support for mastering general and subject competencies, promotion of personal and creative development of a primary school pupil.

Training and education of junior schoolchildren in the New Ukrainian school is carried out on the basis of a person-oriented model of education, according to which in educational process there is the maximum consideration of the abilities, needs and interests of each child, implementing the principle of child-centrism [4]. According to V. Kremen: “child-centrism in education is when training and education of each child is carried out on the basis of the development of his/her natural abilities. There is a requirement to bring a process of training and education of each child as close as possible to his/her essence, specific abilities, future life trajectory of a person. I call this phenomenon child-centrism in education” [2, p. 5].

The fundamental concepts of implementation of the principle of child-centrism in professional activities of primary school teachers are: providing subject-subject cooperation of all participants in pedagogical process; recognition of the uniqueness of a child, taking into account his/her individual and age characteristics, building on positive qualities of a pupil; creation of psychologically comfortable conditions for creativity of junior schoolchildren; pupils' creative activity, commitment to the interests and experience of children, their involvement in various types of artistic and creative activities (drawing, playing music, singing, designing, modeling, etc.); ensuring freedom of pedagogical creativity; leveling the destructive effects on a child's personality in an educational institution.

One of the conditions for the emotionality of educational process in the New Ukrainian school is the use by primary school teachers of innovative person-oriented technologies, characterized by anthropocentric, humanistic and psychotherapeutic orientation and aimed at multifaceted harmonious creative development of a junior pupil. Aesthetic therapy occupies an important place among many modern technologies for the implementation of conceptual foundations of the New Ukrainian School. We strongly believe that the lack of the aesthetic-therapeutic component in professional activities of a primary school teacher can lead to negative consequences: disturbance of the psychoemotional sphere of junior pupils (anxiety, school fears, uncertainty, etc.), increased socially destructive behaviour of pupils (aggression, cruelty, lack of soft skills, etc.), creation of a negative psychological climate in the classroom team and, as a result, loss of educational motivation among junior pupils. Therefore, there is an urgent need to prepare prospective primary school teachers for the use of aesthetic therapy in educational process.

We consider aesthetic therapy as a branch of psychological and pedagogical knowledge about the methods and means of creating a special psychologically comfortable atmosphere by activating emotional sphere of pupil's personality and developing his/her creativity in learning process. The main objectives of aesthetic therapy as a science are: 1) creation of psychological comfort for a child, that involves identifying destructive factors of individual and social development of a personality, as well as finding best methods and tools to harmonize his/her relationships with others; 2) creative self-expression of a child, offering a child the an opportunity to express him/ herself in various creative activities [6, p. 30].

An important condition for the implementation of this strategy is the formation of prospective teachers' awareness of the importance of goals, tasks, and functions of an aesthetic-therapeutic teacher in difficult conditions of computerization of education; understanding the need for pedagogical support for children who require increased attention, care, a sense of security and their own uniqueness in school; desire, interest, the need to master modern aesthetic-therapeutic technologies of developing competencies of primary school children. These characteristics constitute the motivational component of students' readiness to use aesthetic therapy in their future professional activities.

The purpose of the research is to explore the level of motivation of prospective teachers for using aesthetic therapy in their professional activity.

Results and discussions

Motivational component reflects the development of an emotional-volitional attitude of prospective primary teachers to their own educational and cognitive actions to form skills of using aesthetics in professional activities. Motivation is defined as a combination of psychological reasons that explain a person's behavior, and “determine his/her basis, orientation and activity” [3, p. 463].

Therefore, the formation of a motive to master aesthetic-therapeutic techniques as a professional tool is a determining condition that produces the desired result. We think that the knowledge of aesthetic therapy functions stimulates students to master aesthetic-therapeutic skills in professional and educational activities. At the same time, the knowledge of psychological and pedagogical potential of aesthetic-therapeutic tools provides a conscious awareness of their use in educational process of primary school. An expression of interest, as a sign of the motivational component of prospective teacher's readiness for aesthetic-therapeutic activity, is stability of interest, duration of its preservation and intensity. These characteristics of professional interest can serve as main indexes of the motivational component and can determine the state of its development. Taking into account the above-mentioned characteristics of motivation of professional activity, we distinguish the following indexes of the motivational component of the students' readiness for aesthetic-therapeutic activities: understanding of the usefulness of the implementation of aesthetic therapy in primary school; students' professional interest and desire to use aesthetic-therapeutic tools to influence pupils.

Thus, the aim of the study was to examine the level of prospective teachers' readiness for the use of aesthetic therapy according to the mentioned indexes. According to the aim of the study it was necessary to solve the following tasks: to estimate students' understanding of the importance of introducing the aesthetic-therapeutic component in professional activity of a primary school teacher; to design prospects for further research in the defined direction.

In order to determine the level of students understanding of the usefulness of the implementation of aesthetic therapy in primary school, we used the method of interviewing. Using this method, we collected the data concerning the first index based on verbal socio-pedagogical interaction between an interviewer and respondents. Students were offered to answer the following questions:

1. What are the negative factors influencing the development and formation of a personality in primary school?

2. Is there a therapeutic activity of a primary school teacher in an educational institution? What is the nature of this activity?

3. Do you agree that aesthetic-therapeutic means (fairy tale, play, nature, art, communication, labour, laughter) have powerful potential in the prevention, correction and overcoming psychoemotional and spiritual disorders of primary pupils?

4. What is the ranking place of the usefulness of the implementation of aesthetic therapy in professional activity of primary school teachers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (up to 1 - the highest rank, 5 - the lowest rank).

Let us analyse answers to the questions. So, our experiment shows that among the factors negatively affecting the harmonious development of a personality of a primary school student are: “difficult socio-economic conditions for the development of modern society” (18%), “uncontrolled influence of the media” (17%), “intensification of educational process” (28%), “computerization of social environment” (19%), “family problems” (15%), etc. 3% of respondents can not determine the problems. About 90% of students admit that the role of teachers is important in these conditions.

Answering the second question, most students believe that the therapeutic function of a teacher is significant in educational process of primary school, but not everyone could explain what the essence of this activity is. Mostly, students defined teacher's therapeutic activity as “pedagogical treatment of the child's spiritual sphere”, “prevention of psycho-emotional overstrain of schoolchildren”, “prevention of nervous system disorders”, “creation of an optimistic and comfortable environment”, etc. The analysis of the answers shows a weak prospective teachers' awareness of organization and implementation of therapeutic process with junior pupils. Accordingly, there is a requirement to include some special modules, topics and practical tasks on this issue in the content of professional training of students.

Almost 94% of respondents' answers to the third question of the interview are positive. Students believe that such means of pedagogical influence as a fairy tale, play, nature, art, communication are of great importance for child development, the formation of moral and spiritual qualities, the prevention of psycho-emotional disorders, the development of emotional-volitional and cognitive spheres and the like. Only 6% of respondents do not see pedagogical potential of these means to work with pupils, especially work therapy, communication therapy and laughter therapy. As students explain, these means of influence are not therapeutic and of the usefulness of their implementation for “therapeutic” purposes during the lesson is not justified.

Determining the ranking place of the usefulness of the implementation of aesthetic therapy in professional activities of primary school teachers, for 63% of students it is in the first place, for 27% -in the second place, for 10% - in the third place. This demonstrates a sufficient level of students' awareness of the significance of using aesthetic therapy to work with pupils.

In order to explore students' professional interest and desire to use aesthetic-therapeutic tools to influence pupils, we conducted a questionnaire. Students had three possible options to the proposed answers of the questionnaire: a) yes; b) not sure; c) no.

Here are the questions:

1. In your opinion, is there a primary need to use therapeutic methods to work withjunior schoolchildren in order to preserve and improve their psycho-emotional health and harmonize their environment?

2. Do you have a desire to use aesthetic-therapeutic tools to work with junior pupils?

3. Do you have a need to get and improve professional skills to use aesthetic-therapeutic tools to work with children?

4. Will you use aesthetic-therapeutic means of influencing a personality of a primary school pupil in future professional activity?

5. Will you study scientific psychological and pedagogical literature on this issue on your own?

In order to process the results of this questionnaire, we used the formula by S. Sysoieva and R. Vainole [5]:

Figure 1 Levels of readiness of students to use means of aesthetic therapy according to the motivational component

where kj - coefficient of readiness of prospective teachers in motivational sphere;

Q₁ - total number of questions in the questionnaire;

m_t - number of positive answers in the questionnaire;

p_t - number of partial answers in the questionnaire;

^Qj = ^mj + ⁿj + p_p

where n - number of negative answers in the questionnaire.

The coefficient of readiness level of prospective primary school teachers for using aesthetic-therapeutic means in educational process according to this criterion is in the range of 0 to 1. If it is in the range between 0.67 and 1, then the level of readiness is high, if it is in the range of 0.34 to 0.66 is intermediate, in the range of 0 to 0.33 - low one. The analysis of the results of the questionnaire of students' readiness levels of the motivational component shows that the predominant number of student have an intermediate level (61%) and a high level (27%) of interest and desire to use aesthetic-therapeutic tools to work with junior pupils. 12% of students have a low level of this index.

With reference to the analysis of the data of the interviewing, the questionnaire and the quantitative processing of the answers, we can make a conclusion about the levels of motivational readiness of prospective primary school teachers to use aesthetic-therapeutic means in educational process of primary school. The summarised results are presented in the Figure 1 below. The diagram shows that 30% of the participants have a high level of interest in aesthetic-therapeutic work with pupils, 59% - an intermediate level, 11% - a low level.

So, we can conclude that the experiment results shows a high percentage of the participants who are interested in modern aesthetic-therapeutic technologies and their introduction into educational process of primary school. However, the majority of students experience difficulties in cognitive and procedural readiness for this activity. Some students point to the difficulties in practical training to perform the functions of an esthetic therapist, they have limited knowledge of basic concepts of esthetic therapy and a low level of practical skills to use aesthetic-therapeutic means in educational process with junior pupils.

According to the results of the study, we can make a conclusion that students feel the need to master modern aesthetic-therapeutic technologies in the work with junior pupils in order to maintain and improve their mental, spiritual, social health, to prevent behavioral and psycho-emotional disorders and harmonize their environment. Also, prospective primary school teachers are interested in improving their practical skills of organizing a psychologically comfortable environment with the help of fairy tales, music therapy, nature therapy, art therapy and other aesthetic-therapeutic technologies that have a significant impact on the development of a personality of a primary school pupil.

Conclusions and perspectives

The development of professional motivation of primary primary school teachers to use aesthetic therapy with junior pupils is a topical issue in higher education system. After all, the effectiveness of creating a special emotionally comfortable atmosphere in primary school depends on internal needs, incentives, and interest of students to be engaged in aesthetic-therapeutic activity. And this, in turn, is a key of successful learning of children, the development of their educational motivation and interest in communicating with a teacher. We consider it appropriate to study and introduce aesthetic-therapeutic education in the process of training of prospective teachers as an effective factor in their overall professional readiness for the implementation of primary education tasks.

It should be mentioned that it is a necessary element of a humanistic pedagogical idea - creation of trustful, sincere relations and orientation of prospective teachers toward internal spiritual, aesthetic, and creative potential of an educatee, regardless of level of his/her aesthetic development, socialization, and intellectual-volitional activity in pedagogical process. We consider teacher's use of aesthetic-therapeutic tools as a system of psychological and pedagogical impact on creative, spiritual potential of a personality in educational process, where aesthetic therapy will act as an independent professional function of a teacher.

Bibliography

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References

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2. Kremen V. (2009). Pro “dytynotsentryzm”, abo chomy osvita Ukraiiny potrebuie strukturnykh zmin [About “Child-centrism”, or why education in Ukraine needs structural changes]. Daily All-Ukrainian newspaper “The Day”, 210 (3130). P. 1-6.

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6. Fediy O.A. (2012).Estetoterapiia [Aesthetic therapy]. Kyiv: Center of Educational Literature.

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