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INTEGRATION OF BIOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL KNOWLEDGE AS A MEANS OF SPIRITUAL AND INTELLECTUAL UPBRINGING OF SCHOOLCHILDREN

The article reveals the importance of the problem of spiritual and intellectual education of schoolchildren based on the unity of universal or biosphere values. The factors that ensure the integration of biological and ethical knowledge are highlighted. The conditions for creating an educational environment that allows for the spiritual and intellectual education of schoolchildren are characterized.
Keywords: integration, bioethical knowledge, analogy, values, schoolchildren.

Stepaniuk A. V.
Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor,
Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, Ternopil, Ukraine
Bak V. F.
Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, biology teacher,
Educational Complex No. 11, Bakhmut, Ukraine

10.34142//2708-4809.SIUTY.2022.135

The events of the last decade convincingly demonstrate that the current period in the development of humanity should be characterized as a crisis. In the twenty-first century, contradictions between the civilizational system of mankind and the global ecosystem of the Earth have become more acute. In today’s postmodern society, universal human values, which do not inherently contradict the values of nature, are only declared. At the same time, society is becoming a post-truth society, one in which manipulation and fakes prevail, and values are adjusted to the interests of dominant groups or corporate associations.

Such a state of civilization is unstable and cannot exist for long, so crises, wars, natural disasters, and man-made disasters will continue to “push” humanity to new meanings, which are essentially just a return to the original values of life. We believe that the heroic resistance of the people of Ukraine to Russian aggression is a mechanism of self-regulation of the civilization system of mankind aimed at restoring universal values, which we will call biosphere values. They do not contradict the general laws of nature, but logically follow from them, forming a kind of integrity of knowledge about nature and ethics. Such concepts as goodness, love, dignity, freedom, and mercy need to be restored to their original essence through the specific actions of specific people, and thus change the catastrophic direction of civilization’s development from postmodern to metamodern.

In our views, we are based on the views of the American physicist F. Capra, who argues that the system of values forms the basis of science and is its driving force. The researcher considers it expedient to form a new worldview of humanity, which stems from a deep knowledge of nature and recognizes the inherent value of life of any living system, not just humans. All living beings are members of ecological communities, united by a network of interconnections, and form a higher level of complexity.

When this idea becomes part of our everyday consciousness, a new system of ethics emerges. The understanding that a system of values is inherent in all living nature is born in the spiritual experience of the unity of nature and the self. This expansion of our “I” to the point of identification with nature becomes the basis of deep ecological thinking [3, p. 150].

We interpret students’ integrated knowledge of biology and ethics in the context of values and meanings of human life and culture as bioethical knowledge.

This is a manifestation of the integration of this knowledge within the moral values of society, an ethical reflection on biological knowledge. They are formed by revealing analogies between the laws of nature and moral categories and contribute to the development of students’ ethical attitudes toward life in all its manifestations. Ethical rules and norms of the human world, ethical values, should apply to both interaction with people and interaction with the natural world [2].

In general, we consider the integration of biological and ethical knowledge as a means of spiritual and intellectual upbringing of schoolchildren, a factor in shaping the worldview of the younger generation, knowledge that will not allow the connection between humans and their environment to be broken [6]. At the same time, we believe that the cross-cutting content areas of science education should be integrated with biosphere values. This will give the teaching an ethical orientation and ensure the establishment of new meanings in science education.

Comparison of the results of the analysis of the content of the educational material of specialized biology and the essence of moral categories allowed us to identify the possibility of drawing analogies, for example, between biological concepts: homeostasis, preservation and moral categories of love, goodness; metabolism, energy and information, the very essence of life – harmonious unity of dual categories (life-death, development-aging, state of activity-state of rest, etc.); interaction of body cells – cooperation and altruism, levels of organization of living matter – hierarchical structure, etc. In general, the general laws of nature, which are studied using the method of analogies with moral categories, become more accessible and understandable to students, since the laws of nature are realized not as abstract concepts, but as the basis of personal life [2].

In order to implement spiritual and intellectual upbringing, it is necessary to create an educational environment that would ensure the study of living systems based on a modern interpretation of the attributes of life and give the educational material a personal and value meaning.

By the integrity of knowledge about living nature, we mean the result of the essential integration of biological knowledge on the basis of cross-cutting regularities, which are the general laws of nature (conservation, periodicity, direction of processes towards an equilibrium state).

A sign of the integrity of knowledge about wildlife is students’ understanding of the general laws of nature as a basis for explaining phenomena, properties, objects of wildlife, their interaction; as a foundation on which ideas about the relationship of wildlife components are based [4, p. 8].

Formation of students’ holistic knowledge about wildlife allows students to realize that they are an integral part of nature and that all their activities and behavior should be subordinated to the interests of higher-level systems [6].

The relevant educational environment should be designed in such a way that students can feel a sense of shame, pity or reverence and consciously choose ethical behavior on their own. This can be achieved through a model of educated influence such as facilitation. According to M. Smetansky, it is based on the belief in the constructive, active, creative nature of human nature, in its original morality and kindness, altruistic and collectivistic orientation, in the child’s ability to direct his/her own development, to understand his/her own self [5, p. 15].

In order to test the effectiveness of our proposed approach to the implementation of spiritual and intellectual upbringing of schoolchildren, we have created an integrated program “Natural Sciences”, which is implemented in the relevant textbook [1]. At present, the proposed teaching and methodological materials are being tested, and the criteria for the effectiveness of the described approach to the implementation of spiritual and intellectual upbringing of schoolchildren are being developed.

According to the results of the experimental study, it can be argued that the content of biological education should be covered in such a way that not only knowledge of the basics of science is transmitted, but also opportunities are created to get answers to questions about the essence of life (the meaning of life, relationships between people, moral concepts of good and evil, ideal, love, dignity, etc.), which should help an individual understand himself or herself, as well as create an image in the direction in which he or she would like to develop. This is nothing more than an indirect goal of spiritual and intellectual upbringing. At the same time, moral and ethical education and teaching the basics of biological sciences are two interrelated processes that, with the appropriate organization of education, have a complex effect on the student’s personality, creating conditions for activating the processes of self-development and self-education.

List of references

1. Buck VF Natural sciences: an integrated natural science course. Dnipro: Dominanta Print LLC; All-Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Association of Humane Pedagogy; M. Glinka Dnipro Academy of Music, 2020. 155 с.
2. Buck VF, Danyuk MI, Stepaniuk AV Highlighting trends in the integration of natural sciences and ethics in the content of biological education of high school students: monograph: TNPU named after V. Hnatiuk, 2015. 216 с.
3. Capra F. The web of life. New scientific understanding of living systems. Kyiv: Sofia; Helios Publishing House, 2002. 336 с.
4. Rybako L. M. Continuity in the formation of holistic knowledge about living nature in pupils of 5-7 grades: PhD thesis: 13.00.09. Kyiv, 2008. 21 с.
5. The essence of education as a component of the pedagogical process. The way of education. 2006. № 4. С. 14-17.
6. Stepaniuk A. V. Formation of holistic knowledge of schoolchildren about wildlife: monograph, 2nd ed. 228 с.