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SPIRITUAL AND MORAL UPBRINGING OF PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS IN UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE LESSONS

The article substantiates that the priority area of primary education in Ukraine is the spiritual and moral education of students, which involves the adoption of moral norms and national values by younger students. In the context of the study, we consider the ethno-pedagogical aspect to be a priority, which involves teaching the Ukrainian language on the basis of folk pedagogy and didactics.
Keywords: spiritual and moral education, primary school, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian paremia.

Kaptur H. A.
Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor,
Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, Lutsk, Ukraine

10.34142//2708-4809.SIUTY.2022.87

The problem of comprehensive harmonious education of a person is gaining new meaning and social significance in the context of socio-economic development of society in the XXI century [1]. Today, in the period of political, economic and social changes, the problem of education of spiritual and moral qualities of a personality, namely the education of spiritual qualities of primary schoolchildren, remains vital for the whole society.

The successful development of an independent Ukrainian state, its full integration into the European and international community require due attention to the education of the younger generation of Ukrainians. Today, moral competence is one of the main and most important components of the formation of a new generation of Ukrainian citizens.

The State Standard of Primary Education prioritizes the spiritual and moral education of students, which involves the adoption of moral norms and national values by younger students [3].

The definition of the concept of “spirituality of the individual” was made by prominent domestic teachers of the past years, such as: H. Vashchenko, I. Ogienko, V. Sukhomlynskyi. The scientific works of modern teachers are devoted to the study of the issue of education of spiritual qualities of a personality: I. Bekh, I. Karpenko, L. Kulikova, I. Sidanich, H. Shevchenko [5].

An important factor in spiritual revival is morality, which is defined as an ethical concept motivated by moral ideals, beliefs, norms, and principles.

We adhere to the point of view of scholar Tamara Demianiuk, who defines spiritual and moral education: “Spiritual and moral education is an organized, purposeful educational process of promoting the spiritual and moral formation of the individual, leading to the mastery and acceptance of the hierarchy of spiritual values by children” [2, p. 205].

Spiritual and moral education involves the formation of the following features of spiritual consciousness in primary schoolchildren feelings (conscience, duty, faith, responsibility, patriotism); individual spiritual accounting (patience, obedience); personal position (ability to distinguish between good and evil, manifestation of selfless love (for neighbors), readiness to overcome life’s trials); spiritually determined behavior (readiness to serve people and the Motherland, manifestations of spiritual prudence, mercy, good will).

Thus, the main goal of spiritual education is to awaken the child’s desire to be moral.

One of the ways to form universal moral values in primary school is through textbook material, in particular in the subjects of Ukrainian language and literary reading.

In the course of studying the subject “Literary Reading”, students’ speech, moral, aesthetic, literary, and intellectual development is carried out, and a child’s personality is brought up. While reading, the child’s attitude to the surrounding reality, his/her civic position are formed, feelings are enriched, creative imagination is developed, and the cognitive interests of the younger student are largely satisfied.

Interesting in the context of our study is the ethno-pedagogical aspect, which, according to M. Pentiliuk, involves teaching the Ukrainian language on the basis of folk pedagogy and didactics [4, p.14].

Given that the speech of the Ukrainian people is based on such universal norms and moral and ethical values as benevolence, love, gentleness, friendliness, respect, only those verbal formulas that would contribute to the formation of the vital language minimum of a primary school student can be distinguished from ritual speech. These include: greetings, farewells, wishes, apologies, forgiveness, and gratitude. We have chosen the materials of M. Nomis’ collection [6] as the basis for the verbal norms established by Ukrainians.

Here is an example of the use of some samples of verbal forms in combination with a motivated explanation by the teacher:

— “In the life of Ukrainians, greetings are of particular importance. According to the custom, as many times as you greet people, so many times the Lord will give you health (Be healthy with what is today. Be healthy and be nice to people. Good health and peace to your home! Happy holiday!”) [6, p. 518].

— The goodwill of the Ukrainian people is conveyed in a special way in wishes (Give, God, from the dew, from the water! May God add a little to your arms, legs, and tummy, child! May God bless you with your mother’s and father’s prayers! May God give you a happy and long life!” [6, p.225].

The next step is to learn proverbs by heart, which we recommend using the method of collective reading and studying the written proverbs from the board, with the teacher taking turns wiping out one key word at a time. For example:

— Read the proverb on the board together:
A tree is known by its fruit, and a person by his deeds.
— Read it again, filling in the missing word on your own:
You can tell a tree by its fruit, but you can tell a person by his or her deeds.

Then the teacher continues to erase the key words until the board is clear and the students repeat the words several times, completing the sentence:

… is seen by its fruits, and … is seen by its deeds.
… can be seen by …, and … – by her …. .
… …. by …, and … – by her …..

Vocabulary and logic exercises are interesting and useful, as they are required by the methodology of teaching the Ukrainian language in primary school and are conducted before writing an exercise and completing its grammatical tasks, as well as have an educational purpose:

Task: Read the proverb and write it down, inserting antonyms for the words highlighted. Explain when they say.
1. A little work is better than … idleness. 2. A man’s work feeds his family, but … wastes it. 3. Early birds drink the dew, but … shed tears. 4. Hands are white, but the conscience is …. 5. The swallow starts the day, but the nightingale ….
Initially, you can draw students’ attention to the lexical meaning of new words, such as idleness, laziness, and conscience.

This exercise is also valuable because such a concept of moral consciousness and ethics as “conscience” can be presented to fourth-graders in its two meanings: diligence in doing work, which characterizes hard work [6, p. 16]; conscience [6, p. 39].

Younger students have the opportunity to reflect on how our people have spoken about work, diligence in work, and its importance to humans in other ways: Time passes quickly at work. The work is good, but the day is short.

You can do this work by brainstorming: name the greatest values of Ukrainians, write the words on the board in a column (words: land, language, people, nation, homeland, etc.).

Then hold a multi-vote, i.e., ask each student to name only two values that they consider the most important. Place each student’s “vote” next to the word they chose on the board. When all students have chosen 2 values, count which values have received the most votes. Highlight 4-5 words by underlining them.

Form 4-5 small groups. Each of them receives the name of one of the selected values, for example, group 1 – “land”, group 2 – “people”, group 3 – “language”, etc. and for 2-3 minutes discuss the content of “their value”. The groups present their thoughts, starting with the words: “We believe that (for example) language is the most important value of the Ukrainian people because… “So in a picture representing Ukraine, we would draw…”.

Project technology became especially popular at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and it significantly encourages younger students to engage in independent research activities. For example, the result of working with paremic material in the 4th grade can be a project called “Paremic Wisdom.”

The key question for this project could be: “How can sentences affect our lives?”, and the thematic and content questions could be as follows: “How do proverbs, sayings, and riddles affect our lives?”, “What is the appeal of proverbs, sayings, and riddles?”, “What are the features of proverbs, sayings, and riddles?”, “How can proverbs, sayings, and riddles change our lives?”.

Thus, fostering the spiritual qualities of a person is the main goal of modern education. Spirituality is the true essence of a person, which absorbs the centuries-old cultural and aesthetic experience of mankind, its ideas about the values of life, and the inner world of the individual.

Spiritual and moral qualities of a personality are a system of intellectual, moral, artistic and aesthetic, emotional and sensual development of a person. In the context of the psychological and pedagogical understanding of the development of the personality of a primary school student, the creation of an educational environment becomes the main thing. The spiritual and moral qualities of primary school students’ personality develop in the process of forming their consciousness, worldview, inclusion in the economic, political and cultural life of the family, people, nation.

List of references

1. Bekh I. Personality on the way to spiritual values: monograph: Bukrek, 2018. 296 с.
2. Demianiuk T. Spiritual and moral education of the individual: an innovative approach: a study guide. Kyiv: Volynski oberehy, 2007. 316 c.
3. State standard of primary education. Typical educational programs for general secondary education institutions. Kyiv: TD “Osvita-Center+”, 2018. С. 92-121.
4. Conceptual foundations of language education as a means of intellectual and spiritual development of the individual. Series: pedagogical sciences: a collection of scientific papers. Kherson, 1998. С. 14-18.
5. Sidanich I. Spiritual and moral competence of the teacher as a prerequisite for ensuring the spiritual and moral orientation of teaching subjects in educational institutions. Pedagogical sciences: theory, history, innovative technologies. 2017. № 10 (74). С. 126-138.
6. Ukrainian proverbs, sayings and so on / compiled by. M. Nomis. Kyiv: Lybid, 1993. 612 с.