A.A. Opletin, associate professor, Ph.D.
Perm National Research Polytechnic University, Perm

Key words: individual, self-development, readiness, levels.

The relevance of the research topic is stipulated by the socio-economic changes taking place in the country, which resulted in changes in education, initiating the search for new ways and means of activization of an individual as a subject of self-determination.

The purpose of the research was to scientifically prove the concept of "individual's readiness for self-development" and to identify the ways to enhance this process at physical education classes.

Materials and methods. As seen from the analysis of the theory and practice, there is no definite concept of readiness in psychological and pedagogical literature. This is due to different approaches to its disclosure and various aspects of research, which address specific tasks. Physiologists consider readiness as a special state of the human body (I.P. Pavlov), as a selective activity in future work (N.A. Bernstein), as neurophysiological grounds for purposeful actions and the state of readiness for it (P.K. Anokhin, K. Megun, A.R. Luria). This method of the concept disclosure reveals the process of formation of readiness with regard to physiology. Psychologists define readiness as a mind-set mechanism, expressed in pre-readiness for a specific type of behavior in certain circumstances (A.G. Asmolov, I.F. Bzhalava, A.S. Prangashvili, D.N. Uznadze et al.), as general psychological readiness to work (K.K. Platonov, A.A. Smirnov, V.V. Serikov et al.), as a short-term (pre-start) and long-term (“ability to learn in specific area) state of readiness (N.D. Levitov), as a quite complex formation, distinguishing the importance and necessity of the personality-centered approach in the study of this phenomenon (P.A. Rudik). Readiness as a social directive is considered by social psychologists (N.K. Shikharev, Yu. Sherkovin, V. Yadov et al.). On the whole, readiness is characterized as a symbiosis of general, socio-psychological readiness of an individual for various activities, including self-development.

General psychological activity is described by V.V. Serikov as an essential pre-condition for any goal-directed activity, its regulation, stability and effectiveness. It contributes to the successful performance of one's duties, correct use of knowledge, experience, personal qualities, maintenance of self-control, reorganization of own activity in case of any contretemps. M.I. Kryakhtunov considers readiness not only as a mechanism of drive to act, he believes, readiness means taking an active part in own self-improvement.

The study of the phenomenon of "readiness" with regard to self-development in such a specific activity as physical culture and sports conditioned the adjustment of this concept, its structure and diagnostics in view of psychological features of the early youth age. The definition of readiness as a means of an individual's self-realization, as a unity of integration of psychological and physical readiness (S.I. Filimonova), is related to our research topic. The data of psychological and pedagogical literature suggest various approaches revealing the structure of readiness. In our research, the structural component of readiness was singled out basing on the literature analysis. The works of the scientists who studied students' readiness for self-development of creativity whilst learning (V.V. Korobkova, T.A. Ratt, A.I. Sannikova et al.) are the closest to our research topic. By criteria, the indicator of readiness, proposed by the above mentioned authors, was taken as the basis when determining the components of readiness complying with the goals and tasks of our research, which were determined by experiment during the pilot study. Readiness includes in its structure the following components: orientation, operational and psychological, motivation-value (Table 1).

Table 1. Criterion indicators of students' readiness for self-development                                         

The study of the level of readiness for self-development basing on its structural components was conducted using those teaching methods that reflect the ratio of the subjective understanding of this phenomenon by students to the objective data showing the display of readiness for self-development during educational activity. The analysis of the findings revealed four levels of readiness for self-development: low (indifferent), average (relative), sufficient (high), highest (superior).

Low level. A student is not interested in self-development. He goes with the stream and, though he has heard a lot about this process, he imagines it at a rather narrow mundane level: "If I want to - I will do". He is sure that it will not be a problem for him. He does not differentiate between the concepts of "self-development", "self-education", "self-determination" and "self-motion", and believes that there is no point in doing it. He knows everything about himself, knows "how to move on", and is absolutely indifferent to his status in the community, thinks he is doing everything right. Inflated self-worth is typical at this level. In critical situations a negative volitional set is displayed. He does not care about his position in the community, prefers to stand aside, thinking that he goes to college to study, nothing more. The lack of self-control and striving for self-assertion are typical here. He is emotionally disinhibited in critical situations, frequently in the heat of passion. A negative volitional set is typical for abnormal situations. With his inadequate self-esteem he imagines bright future, where he sees himself as a creative personality who will always succeed in everything. He is absolutely not ready for self-development.

Average (relative). The issue of self-development is of interest for a student as long as the information on this topic is available. Interest is quickly awoken, but it decreases soon. From time to time, there is a need for changing something in own life somehow, but he has no particular striving for any specific self-modification  and by no means he associates it neither with his future profession nor with his future role in society and in the world in general. He lives by the formula "Here and now". The concepts of "self-development", "self-education", "self-assertion" are of declarative nature for him. Self-esteem changes often: it is high in some activities, where personal interest is predominant, and adequately low - in others. The level of aspiration is not high. Communication is mostly distance. Self-control is weak and is displayed occasionally - only in intimate situations. In critical situations he goes into his shell and prefers to stay aside. In very important situations he may display a volitional effort. He is highly emotional in success situations and depressed in failure ones, has a very vague idea of his future – be it as it may, yields to public impulse - if everyone is engaged in self-development, then he, as an individual, will join in. Rarely tries to analyze own behavior and own place in the world and society. His own position is unstable, he prefers to hold to the majority, takes an active part in the matters of self-development only provided that this is a group discussion, hardly ever strives for self-modification. He seeks to look into the issue, to change something in his own behavior, to assert oneself in something, but he does that more in word only rather than in practice and occasionally.

Sufficient (high). A person is quite interested in "self-development", in the themed literature. He has a general idea of the self-development process and implements it towards himself - here and now and in desirable future. He is experienced at self-action when dealing with simple problems, for the most part handling the formula "I will try to do that". He tries to self-actualize, has an adequate self-esteem, is emotionally stable, except for particular negative intimate situations, balanced in interpersonal relations. In some cases, he is tolerant towards other people’s opinion. In general, he is goal-oriented, though spontaneous in altering decisions. In critical situations self-restraint is more typical him rather than emotionally negative reactions. Self-control is characteristic only for critical private situations. Volitional qualities are displayed unsteadily. He is capable of self-reflection, tries to analyze, especially failures, in most cases has his own opinion as for the problems being resolved. The level of claims is sufficient. There is a desire for self-improvement both in personal and in professional spheres, however, there is no system. He is familiar with the techniques and methods of self-development, uses them when consulting a teacher.

 Highest (superior). He knows the ropes of the theory of self-development, associates this concept with his position and own future, tries to study this aspect by himself, is especially interested in its practical implementation, understands the process of own self-development as a personal, professional and social one. He speaks rather freely in terms of "self-consciousness", "self-improvement", "self-assertion" and realizes their importance, able to analyze own behavior, activity, future, although for the most part this process is of personal nature. However, he associates it with social problems. He can control himself, which is especially typical for critical situations. He is emotional, not always able to quit while one be ahead, but this concerns mainly success situations. Communication is mostly fluent, but he has an excitable temperament, though it never comes to nervous breakdowns. Self-esteem is high but adequate. The level of aspiration is high. Display of volitional qualities in most situations is stable. He seeks to learn how to control own emotions, mental state, behavior and own self-assertion in general, is ready enough for self-development.

 The level of readiness of students for self-development was analyzed according to the method of the goal-directed pedagogical observation by the designed chart and the display of readiness, which was fixed by the method of independent characteristics and evaluated in points by the degree of display of the qualities of readiness. A total of 183 second-year students took part in the experiment. Total points, the basis of which was formed by the characteristics of the level of readiness, are represented in Table 2.

 Table 2. Criteria for assessments of level of students' readiness for individual’s self-development

 Results and discussion. According to the subjective data, students' readiness for self-development is heightened. Neither of students displayed the low level. Over half of the respondents (54%) think that they possess the necessary information about self-development, are interested in it, associate its importance with the concept of self-improvement and often discuss these questions. The other, rather considerable part of students (46%), considers their readiness for self-development as sufficiently high. They are quite interested in the information about self-development. They not only strive for it, but also cultivate their abilities, if such need arises. They are willing to self-actualize, draw prospects for their development, have good self-control in this activity, try to analyze own success and failure. The represented data are characteristic of the heightened level of readiness for self-development. According to the objective data, such level of readiness is inadequate, as it is untrue. The predominance of the low level of readiness for self-development in most of the students of the course was recorded in these tables (59%). The rest of them (49%) displayed a relative level. Neither high nor superior levels were observed. Basically, the whole course did not come off in the self-development activity. The analysis of the obtained data implies that students are not ready for self-development. In this situation the question is that striving for self-development, self-modification and self-assertion, which are, according to the psychologists, characteristic of the given period of the developmental age is not implemented in practice due to the absence of demand. The obtained data actualized the issue of students' attitude to physical education (classes were given according to the traditional program). An additional study was carried out in order to evaluate their attitude, which actually determined students' motivation to exercises. The analysis revealed the following picture (Table 3). The data in the table prove that average (relative) attitude towards physical education classes is characteristic for most students (64%), i.e. there is orientation for a situation and the immediate circle. One third of the students (34%) displayed the indifferent level, i.e. they are generally not interested in the classes and attend them as it is an obligatory educational form. And only a small part of the examined students (2%) exercises eagerly and associate these classes with their future.

Table 3. Students' attitude to physical education classes (183 persons), %

Conclusion. Preadult age is sensitive to awaken the desire for self-development. According to our research, the readiness of young men for this kind of activity is weak, at the level of desire, they are lacking the in-depth knowledge about the nature of this phenomenon. Age-related psychological characteristics of youth are an important prerequisite to the study of the problem of students’ self-development. This requires designing a targeted educational program, teaching methods and identifying the mechanism of self-development and monitoring.

References

1. The concept of self-organization in a historical retrospective / RAS. Inst. History of Natural Science and Technology named after S.I. Vavilov; Ed. by A.A. Pechenkin. – Мoscow: Nauka, 1994. – 236 P. (In Russian)
2. Opletin, A.A. Physical education during formation of the self-development competence of university students. P. 2: teaching aid. - Perm, 2012. – 67 P. (In Russian)

Corresponding author: opletin.a@yandex.ru