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ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES AS A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF SPIRITUAL AND INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION OF FUTURE TEACHERS

10.34142//2708-4809.SIUTY.2022.08

The article determines that the professional profile of the future teacher must take into account the methodological principles of the concept of coevolution: components of the system of ecological values (universal; ecological-ethical; ecological-humanistic; socio-productive ecologically-oriented activity as a value; personal-ecological).
Keywords: spiritual and intellectual education, future teachers, professional profile, ecological values.

Varenichenko A. B.
Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Primary Education,
Melitopol Bohdan Khmelnytsky State Pedagogical University,
м. Melitopol, Ukraine
Dubiaga S. M.
Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Primary Education,
Melitopol Bohdan Khmelnytsky State Pedagogical University, Melitopol, Ukraine,
м. Melitopol, Ukraine
Melash V. D.
PhD in Pedagogy, Associate Professor of the Department of Primary Education,
Melitopol Bohdan Khmelnytsky State Pedagogical University, Melitopol, Ukraine,
м. Melitopol, Ukraine

A future specialist in education of the twenty-first century must become a person with a new philosophy, with a high level of environmental values. The process of forming a new personality should begin with the formation of environmental values as a necessary determinant of the coevolutionary project of humanity, capable of organizing sustainable development in the human-environment system. Accordingly, the purpose of modern spiritual and intellectual education of future teachers, in this context, is to form ecological values in them that would not disturb the ecological balance in nature and contribute to the implementation of the ecological imperative in professional activities.

A value is an expression of people’s effective and interested attitude to the phenomena of reality.

The worldview and methodological foundations of the concept of coevolution, based on human dimensionality, can be recognized as dominant in spiritual and intellectual education, the formation of an eco-holistic personality of the future teacher.

When creating a professional program in the aspect of spiritual and intellectual education, it is necessary to take into account the components of the system of environmental values:
– universal ecological values (appreciation of life in all its manifestations, nature and harmony with it, attitude to the Earth as a unique ecosystem)
– ecological and ethical values (caring for fauna and flora, self-awareness and experience of one’s unity with nature, economical attitude to nature, limiting one’s own consumer needs and controlling one’s own practical behavior and the behavior of students in the environment);
– ecological and humanistic values (human health protection in the face of environmental degradation, understanding of man as a creator according to the laws of nature, man as an integral part of nature)
– ecological and aesthetic values (the beauty of nature as a value and a necessary condition for human life);
– socially productive environmentally oriented activities as a value (mastering knowledge about the main ecosystems of the Earth and providing this knowledge to students; participation in environmental activities and involvement of students in them; readiness to perform play, work, research, nature protection, local history, leisure, creative and recreational environmentally oriented activities);
– personal and ecological values (charity, spiritual and physical unity with nature) [3, p.34].

No less important for the development of environmental awareness and self-awareness of the future teacher’s personality are the values-goals of the ideal image of “I” as an ecologically and culturally aware person. It is about the education and self-education of three higher, in spiritual terms, feelings: belonging to the great world of nature, love for it and personal responsibility for the preservation of its values.

The feeling of belonging to nature arises in a person as a result of the experience of a whole range of feelings of a more local nature: fear for one’s own future and the future of one’s family in the face of an impending global environmental catastrophe; anger at people who, by their actions or inaction, worsen the environmental situation in the region and the country, and at oneself as an insufficiently active nature protector; amazement at the potential and greatness of nature, awareness of the place and role of man in it – man-destroyer and man-creator; joy at one’s own success in environmental protection, one’s own dignity as a person who victoriously forms specific elements of environmental culture [1, p. 23].

The great feeling of love for nature is responsible for the development of ecophilic thinking and also has its own components-indicators – other feelings of which it “consists” and which play the role of indicators of its truth. These are such basic feelings as the awareness of choosing nature as an object of love; comprehension of the main purpose of one’s existence in the natural world, the degree of truthfulness of the conclusion: “I am the source of active love for nature”; awareness of one’s own direct connection with nature, the justice of the idea of fraternal mercy towards its representatives: animals, plants; involvement in birth as a personal value of the formula: true love for nature is expressed by practical deeds, not words; joy from communicating with nature; satisfaction from any environmental work; enjoyment of the opportunity to serve nature; admiration for the beauty of nature, its omnipotence and wisdom; compassion for representatives of the animal and plant world who are threatened with extinction, or simply for individual hungry and sick animals, withering plants; creative inspiration from communicating with the object of love – nature, etc. [2, с. 49].

The sense of responsibility for the preservation of nature’s values, on the one hand, is the result of the development of the motivational, need, cognitive spheres of the future specialist’s personality in the environmental aspect, and on the other hand, it is a derivative of the development of the spiritual and moral sphere in the same aspect, because responsibility is one of the volitional qualities of a personality. The concept of “sense of responsibility” merged two functions of this concept: value-oriented and activity-regulatory [4, p. 229].

The sense of responsibility for the preservation of nature’s values, on the one hand, is the result of the development of the motivational, need, and cognitive spheres of the future specialist’s personality in the environmental aspect, and on the other hand, it is a derivative of the development of the spiritual and moral sphere in the same aspect, because responsibility is one of the volitional qualities of a personality. The concept of “sense of responsibility” merged two functions of this concept: value-oriented and activity-regulatory [4, p. 229].

The emotions of the individual, which are associated with the awareness of the moral, cognitive and motivational aspects of the relationship with the system of values of ecological science and practical communication with nature, serve as a determinant of the direction of ecological, cognitive and environmental actions.

They act as a phase of emergence and maturation of relevant feelings, direct experiences that are important for the formation of a humane attitude towards nature. Ecologically oriented feelings are the very attitude towards nature. The dominant function of volitional qualities is the direct influence of a person on the environment. The will is reasonably understood by experts as the action itself, a special mental function of regulating one’s behavior in accordance with the most significant motives. In other words, the concepts of “feelings” and “responsibility” are rightly noted in the categorical apparatus of characterizing an environmentally oriented personality and are a human-dimensional marker of modern spiritual and intellectual education.

Thus, it can be determined that the modern spiritual and intellectual education of future teachers should be based on environmentally oriented values and on feelings of belonging to the great world of nature, love for it and personal responsibility for the preservation of its values. This human dimensional aspect of spiritual and intellectual education gives hope for harmonization in the human-nature system and is the main condition for human survival in modern realities and the emergence of a new ideology of humanity and a new system in education.

List of references

1. Formation of environmental values of future primary school teachers: theory and practice. Zaporizhzhia: KPU, 2014. 380 с.
2. Kucheriavyi O. Pedagogy: personal and developmental aspects: a textbook. Slovo, 2014. 440 с.