The 3rd international scientific and practical conference “Spiritual and intellectual upbringing and teaching in the 21st century” was held

November 17, 2022 by the Scientific and Methodological Laboratory of Spiritual and Intellectual Education and Training of the Kharkiv National Pedagogical University named after G.S. Skovorody (KhNPU) with the public organization “World Scientific Noospheric Ontological Society” (WNNOO) in cooperation with the Department of Education and Innovative Pedagogy of the KhNPU, the Scientific and Methodological Laboratory of Adult Education and Pedagogical Design of the KhNPU held the 3rd International Scientific and Practical Conference “Spiritual and intellectual upbringing and teaching in the 21st century”.

This year, the conference is dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the birth of H. S. Skovoroda. Rector of KhNPU, Doctor Ped. of Sciences, professor, member-cor. In his greeting to the participants of the conference, Yuriy Boichuk of the National Academy of Sciences noted that the issue of spirituality in modern conditions is gaining more and more importance for each person and humanity as a whole. Modern education pays a lot of attention to the development of intelligence, it gives a person the opportunity to realize his desires and improve his life, but without spirituality, all this turns against him. Intelligence without spirituality creates weapons, erases individuality through globalization, rejects moral values as irrational. Only the development of the spirituality of the younger generation will prevent the world civilization from destroying itself. Yurii Dmytrovych mentioned about the tradition of education from the heart in Panna, which resists the devaluation of spiritual values.

This year, Kyiv University named after Borys Grinchenko, Melitopol State Pedagogical University named after Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, Volyn National University named after Lesya Ukrainka, Ternopil Regional Communal Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education, Cardiff Metropolitan University (Great Britain), Changchun University of Architecture (PRC) joined the conference.

It is good that not only domestic researchers are interested in the topic of the development of spirituality and intelligence of young people. Doctor of Philosophy Kate Atfield (Great Britain) presented the experience of educating children in a Waldorf school, the main idea of which is a harmonious influence on the child’s thinking, feelings and will in order to create favorable conditions for self-realization. Joan Aubrey, Ph.D. (Great Britain) spoke about research that revealed projective methods of working with children (drawing, photos, playing with dolls, stickers and stickers, emotional cards, research on children’s social media).

Domestic researchers also spoke about their experience of spiritual and intellectual education and training. During its implementation, great attention is paid to national and patriotic education. Dr. Ped. Sciences, prof., member-cor. Yuriy Boychuk, Doctor of Biol. Sciences, Prof. Maria Honcharenko, Ph.D. Sciences, Prof. Tamara Tyurin was offered a new paradigm of education based on the development of the spirituality of the individual — the pedagogy of spirituality. Dr. Ped. Sciences, Prof. Iryna Trubavina, Ph.D. economy of Science, Assoc. Oleksandr Cherednychenko, Ph.D. history of Science, Assoc. Kyrylo Nedrya shared the experience of forming Ukrainian identity in national education based on the Charter of a Free Man, which is built on the principles of freedom, independence, and future orientation.

Andriy Karas, the director of the secondary school No. 87, who obtained the third (educational and scientific) level of higher education, and Viktoriya Kryvsha, the deputy for educational work of the school, about the spiritual and intellectual education of schoolchildren in the difficult conditions of war, the creation and support of patriotic actions and initiatives of various levels. Dr. Ped. Sciences, Prof. Lyudmila Rybalko and Daria Ovsyuk, who obtained the third (educational and scientific) level of higher education – about the activities of comprehensive psychological support of schoolchildren during the war and the dissemination of the gained experience among future psychologists and teachers of higher education institutions by means of educational anti-crisis training.

Dr. Ped. Sci., prof., head of the department of theory and methods of teaching philological disciplines in preschool, elementary and special education of KhNPU Lydia Tkachenko – about the role of the Ukrainian language in the upbringing of the spirituality of youth, called to nurture and widely use the richness and diversity of the Ukrainian language in communication.

The geography of the conference was wide, participants from Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Kryvyi Rih, Uzhgorod, the Czech Republic, Poland, the People’s Republic of China, and Great Britain joined it. The following problematic issues aroused interest, such as: the concept of spirituality in a secular dimension, filling educational programs with the content of spiritual education, organizing interaction with students in distance learning, creating a space for practical learning, a favorable educational environment, using foreign experience of educational project activities of participants in the educational process, etc.

From year to year, the conference builds a unique trajectory of combining spiritual and intellectual components of harmonious personality development. It is the paradigm of spiritual-intellectual education that is the most promising for the development of the best qualities of youth and the formation of a moral and responsible attitude towards the family, social environment and the world as a whole.

Alla Tsapko, Oleksandr Khvostychenko.