Modern specialist training model in higher education institutions

Abstract

The article aims to characterise the modern model of specialist training in higher education institutions. The author considers the phenomenon of transition from adaptive education to critical-creative education, whose values are associated with the individual. The article highlights the importance of a holistic view on human psychology and the significance of the methodology developed by Vladimir Panferov. In this approach, the faculty working in higher education face complex and demanding tasks. Particular attention is paid to the most significant components of the structure of higher education today and the development of professional competence in in the course of training students for work in the “person-to-person” context. The most important component within professional competence is the specialist’s psychological maturity. The author suggests that the most important characteristics of a psychologically mature individual are independence and a high level of mental development, the ability to actively and consciously control one’s self; a well-developed sense of responsibility and well-defined values, the ability to effectively apply knowledge and skills, an active life stance, responsibility for one’s choices, the ability to exercise one’s life strategy. A psychologically mature individual is a person capable of self-reflection; a person with a dominant positive attitude and a high value position in relation to one’s self and to other people; a person capable of finding constructive solutions to problems. The article defines the most important indicators of personal maturity, such as the age-appropriate level of maturity of the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral sphere, adaptability in microsocial relations, the correspondence of subjective images to the reflected objects of reality, and the nature of reactions to external stimuli. The indicators of insufficient personal maturity, i.e. inner conflicts, anxiety, self-doubt, and an insufficient level of maturity of different personality spheres, are also highlighted. In conclusion, the author emphasizes that investments in human potential are the most cost-effective investments today.