https://doi.org/10.53656/ped2021-8.04

Резюме. Theoretical and empirical research which was provided a study of influence of psychological and pedagogical characteristics of students as a separate socio-age group on their activity in self-education. Theoretical analysis of potential opportunities for activating students self-education due to age and social aspects of their lives are carried out. Empirical study of goals and motives, life plans, awareness of personal and professional "self-concept" of humanities students showed high interest in self-education in the vast majority of students against the background of partial formation of motivation for personal and professional selfdevelopment and generally low awareness of their own characteristics. The positive influences on the self-education of students of humanities faculties of the following psychological and pedagogical factors are revealed: conscious life creation; activity in self-development; ability of self-actualization, self-organization and selfregulation of own development; formation of a humanistic worldview. Тo enhance the self-education of students with purposeful use of this factors can affect the overall quality of future professional trainings.

Ключови думи: self-education; value orientations; life plans; personal and professional self-concept

Introduction

Characteristic features of modern educational space are its globalization, the growing importance of the humanitarian sphere, the assertion of the priority of basic principles of sustainable development of society. The development of science and technology, the exacerbation of global problems requires young people not only to develop intellectual abilities and beliefs, but also to increase responsibility for themselves and their actions and deeds, the formation of a humanistic worldview. Modernization of educational activities in the context of European requirements requires special attention to the training of future professionals. Modern university graduates must be competent, mobile, competitive in the European and global labor market. Therefore, the formation of comprehensively developed, highly educated, creative professionals capable of self-development and self-improvement throughout life becomes especially important.

The analysis of scientific researches confirms the relevance of problem of the person self-education at various ages and social stages in particular students selfeducation. At the beginning of the XXI century, the search of modern technologies of organizing and intensifying self-education for student youth was intensified.

An important part of recent years world research, such as the works of A. Amirkhanova (2015), A. Bandura (1997), P. Beach (2017), Stefanie L. Boyer (2014), A. Gil (2015), Frank G. Giuseffi (2018), E. Deci (1980), A. Cazan (2014), R. Clark (2012), R. Ryan (2000), R. Sagitova (2014), C. Slater (2017) and others, actualize mainlythe direction of students, self-educational activities and the development of their self-efficacy. Scientists study the issues of self-learning of future specialists of a certain educational level or specialty, models of self-education skills in higher education, self-directed learning as a tool for lifelong learning also the role of the Internet in self-learning, independent online learning, self-learning strategies in the digital age determinants of students self-efficacy development as a factor of their personal potential, vitality, subjective well-being, etc.

The students’ self-education problem is actively studied by such scientists as R. Garifyanov, I. Vnukova, S.Yelkanov (1989), A. Kagalnyak, A. Kalinichenko, O. Kucheryavy (2002), Z. Sepcheva, T. Sidorenko, etc. The vast majority of them study such aspect as professional self-education future teachers. The scientific interests of modern researchers include the problems of professional self-education of future professionals, the effective ways of organizing students self-education, their social maturity and self-realization, becoming students as subjects of life, their self-education in the context of humanistic values, forming the ability to conscious self-organization and self-regulation.

The research results сconvince that the modern understanding of the psychological and pedagogical phenomenon of self-education is based on the problems of conscious life creation of the individual, its ability to self-organization and selfregulation, self-actualization of own development. Thus self-education is considered not only as a system of special methods and receptions of self-improvement, but also as the organization of person’s way of life for the purpose to achieve a high level of personal and professional development. In the modern education dimensions the capability of the future specialist to self-education acts as a necessary condition for its quality training. Therefore, it is important to maximize this process while using the potential of students as a certain socio-age group, due to their psychological and pedagogical characteristics.

The purpose of the article is to represent the results of theoretical and empirical research on the impact of psychological and pedagogical characteristics of students as a separate socio-age group on their activity in self-education.

Theoretical basis of the study

Modern psychological and pedagogical researches interpret self-education as a conscious, active, systematic human activity, directed to self-improvement. The scientists of various fields consider that the most favorable sensitive period for active self-education is the student age. There are several approaches of determining the characteristics of student age in the psychological and pedagogical literature. According to one of them, students belong to the category of adults – B. Ananiev, according to another - to the so-called second adolescence – I. Kon, N. Mansurov, Y. Samarin, S. Zinoviev, which is characterized by the formation of personality, manifestation of independence, mastering a profession.

Scholars consider students as a special social group O. Dubaseniuk (1996), S. Yelkanov (1989), L. Mishchyk, A. Mudryk, S. Pashchenko, M. Stanchych, that is formed from various social formations of society and is characterized by special conditions of life, work and life, special social behavior, for which preparation for future work in production, science, culture is the main and the mostly one occupation.

Investigating the students personal characteristics, the scientists consider the age of 17 – 20 as the period of the most active development of moral and aesthetic feelings, formation and stabilization of character, mastering the complex of social roles as adult such as civil, labor, etc. This period is associated with the beginning of the inclusion in the independent production activities, the beginning of a work history, the creation of his own family. The motivation of reforming the whole value orientation systems on the one hand is the intensive formation of special abilities in connection with professionalization but on the other hand distinguish this age as the central period of character and intelligence (Lisovskij and Golod 1981). According to L. Stolyarenko (1999) students can be characterized as people of a certain age and as individuals from different positions: biological (includes the type of higher nervous activity, body structure, facial features); social (personality embodies social relations, qualities that are generated by the students belonging to a particular social group, nationality) and psychological (personality is the unity of psychological processes, states and properties).

The results of the study and analysis of scientific sources allowed to make some theoretical generalizations about the characteristics of students as a certain socioage group.

1. The transition from school to university education system requires a student of higher education high skills of independent cognitive activity. Therefore, it is important to form a student, starting from the first year, the scientific organization of work in the high school, readiness for self-education, self-actualization and selfrealization in various activities.

2. Changes in the social environment (family, school), lack of constant control and insufficient development of self-control can lead to the antisocial behavior. These negative manifestations can be counteracted by the activating students' selfeducation, prerequisites for which are created by the characteristics of this age: strengthening conscious motives of behavior, purposefulness, determination, independence, self-control, perseverance, initiative, etc. (Rejnval`d 1990).

3. During the student period, most boys and girls are focusing on the life prospects. According to N. Bondar (1998), every second young man or woman has a conflict of values between professional and non-professional values. Among the dominant values prevail “eternal” for this age: “interesting work”, “friendship”, “happy family life”, “love”. One of the main socially significant features of students is the search of meaning in life, the desire for progressive change in society.

4. From a psychological standpoint, then at this age there is an optimal sensitivity of analyzers, the highest speed of RAM, attention and solving verbal-logical problems. According to the research by psychologists, adolescence is characterized by increased self-control and self-regulation, which contributes to the active development of self-education (Kon 2013, 58). L. Vygotsky (1991) considers that the quintessence and the main result of this age is the formation of self-awareness.

5. A great influence on the development of consciousness and self-awareness are the features of physical growth. According to R. Burns (1986), the main component of the self-concept of girls is interpersonal relationships. In young men, on the contrary, the self-concept is formed on the basis of their own individuality. Increasing attention to their appearance often acts as an incentive for physical self-improvement, sports. But it is important that young people do not simplify the purpose of self-education, admiring only the outside.

6. Significantly affects the process of self-education change role behavior. According to R. Burns (1986), adolescence is a period of socialization and assimilation of new social roles. Adolescence is characterized by a blurred “I”, active, sometimes chaotic search for identity, which is accompanied by uncertainty, conflict and other difficulties of role choice. According to E. Erickson's (1996) life cycle theory, young people try to integrate numerous role images of childhood and adolescence into a personal identity. Identity crisis can manifest itself in three main areas: choosing a future profession, gaining a certain status in peer groups or in the use of alcohol and drugs.

7. One of the important signs of youth is the formation of life goals. According to I. Bech (2018), the life plan is, on the one hand, the result of generalized goals set by the individual, on the other hand – the result of concretization of goals and motives. V. Lisovsky and S. Golod (1981) conditionally divides the life plans of young people into: vocational and educational (get higher education, interesting work, etc.); socio-political (expand their political worldview, participate in public life); romantic-cognitive (visit and get acquainted with other cities, countries); personal and family (find true friends, create a happy family); material and household (to achieve a high financial position, to create good living conditions).

However, the student’s age is characterized by a number of significant contradictions. On the one hand, modern students are characterized by broad scientific and cultural awareness, the desire for creative self-expression and self-affirmation, interest in all progressive things, on the other hand it’s a manifestation of skepticism as a consequence of superficial worldview. Y. Samarin identifies three groups of contradictions: between the flowering of intellectual and physical strength of student and the rigid time limit, economic opportunities for their implementation; between the desire for independence in the selection of knowledge and rather rigid forms and training methods of a specialist certain profile; between a large amount of diverse information and lack of time, and sometimes the desire to rethink it, which can lead to a certain superficiality in knowledge and thinking. Students as representatives of a particular age and social group have certain contradictions, both internal and external, due to the influence of economic, social, cultural and other factors. Consider the main ones.

1. Modern youth functions in an extremely complex and dynamic society. Serious social changes, economic instability, devaluation of prestigious professions in the past – all this leads to changes in the system of human values, complicates the life and professional choices of young people. Thus, according to the Center for Public Opinion, 80% of respondents see in their professional activities not ways of self-realization, but only a means of increasing profits (Lisovsky and Golod 1981). To a certain extent, such values as the realization of one's own abilities, creativity, and the desire to be useful to people lose their significance. Characteristic features of modern youth are spirituality, practicality, blurred social ideals, which is reflected in the dynamics of negative manifestations of society - the growth of crime, alcoholism and drug addiction, the incidence of AIDS (Ohneviuk 2003).

2. A significant factor influencing the formation of modern young people, and especially students, is the influence of the media, television, the Internet. And this factor does not always play a positive role. Fifty years ago, E. Erickson (1996) drew attention to the negative impact on the personality of excessive identification of young people with illusory patterns (movie heroes, rock musicians, etc.). Today, this problem is much more relevant. Thus, the American scientist Le-Masters has identified a whole list of topics whose images in the media differ significantly from the patterns of behavior offered by the traditional system of education: idealization of social infantilism; violence; focus on material values; hedonism, etc.

3. A characteristic feature of modern students is a fairly high level of mastery of information and communication and digital technologies, in particular, using computers and other devices, the world information network Internet. On the one hand, it is difficult to overestimate the wide range of possibilities of using modern computer programs to find information, process it, design educational, research and creative projects. On the other hand, the computer, and especially the smartphone, is becoming a kind of very large sphere of communication. Unbalanced virtual communication in social networks develops in the individual an indirect perception of the world, destroys intuition, forms a situation of alienation from ethical roots (Rejnval`d 1990). It does not contribute to the development of personality, does not help to develop an active life strategy and its implementation.

In the conditions of modern global crises – political, ecological, economic, moral and spiritual, when the society, the state, people change, student youth has to become active in the activity, creativity, self-improvement. As I. Bekh (2018) notes, it is a question of search and realization of both theoretical, and technological and methodical ways which would provide higher achievements of the person in the basic spheres of its vital activity. It is for this fundamental goal that modern education should work.

Modern scientific approaches to the activity of the student's personality define it as the unity of external and internal tendencies of his personality (Krasnoshchok 2002). It is the result of the interaction of the objective process of determining “others” and the subjective internal process of self-realization and also includes the improvement of their own capabilities and abilities. A specific feature of the activity of students of pedagogical university I. Krasnoshchok (2002) defines the conscious pedagogical orientation of the individual, which is manifested in the understanding of the social significance of the teacher's work, in the socially valuable motives of his choice, in the presence of interest, inclinations and abilities to pedagogical work in the students’ years.

Some scientific papers on the problems of self-education use the term self-educational activity. The phenomenon of self-educational activity is that this activity has not one but two vectors of orientation. The first vector is focused on the development of personality, and the second – on the result of this self-development: on self-realization and self-actualization of the individual in the process of improving the surrounding reality (Kucheryavy 2002, 50).

Domestic scientists study mainly the direction of professional self-education in the field of education. Traditionally, the problem of professional self-education of future teachers is considered from the standpoint of students' compliance with the system of professional and pedagogical qualities, so-called. teacher's profile – L. Spirin, K. Platonov, A. Shcherbakov, S. Klimov, N. Kuzmina. For example, K. Platonov offers the following identity card of future teachers, which contains general pedagogical, professional and individual psychological qualities (Yelkanov 1989).

However, some scientists, in particular, O. Kucheryavy (2002), study the process of professional self-education as a process of self-creation. In our opinion, this approach is more balanced. After all, each specialty requires future professionals to develop both specific personal and professional qualities and universal humanistic values. This aspect acquires special significance in the process of self-education of students of humanities, who in the future will educate young people in the relevant moral and aesthetic values.

Considerable attention is paid to various aspects of intensification of selfeducation. Regarding the definition of its mechanism, some scholars believe that self-education is not caused by the need for it as such, but the subject of this need (Kucheryavy 2002, 51). B. Dodonov (1980) considers the call of the subject of need as a value of the act of goal-setting as a condition for the transformation of the object of need into a motive. O. Kucheryavy (2002) notes that the subject of the need for self-educational activity only becomes its motive when it becomes a personal value for students, which stimulates the processes of further formation and development of personal emotional and semantic formations in relation to professional self-education and formation. These formation acts as motivations for students to design self-educational goals and objectives.

Research on the theory of self-determination of the personality of R. Ryan and E. Desi (2000) plays an important role in determining the factors of activating students' self-education. Self-determination is seen by them as the ability to choose and have a choice, in contrast to reinforced reactions, the satisfaction of aspirations and actions under the influence of other forces, which can also be seen as the determinants of human behavior. In fact, self-determination acts as the ability to choose independently the direction of self-development. This postulates the presence of human abilities and opportunities for a healthy and fulfilling life. E. Desi (1980) notes that self-determination is not only an ability but also a need. He defines it as the main innate tendency that leads the body to the involved behavior, which usually has advantages for the development of skills to interact flexibly with the social environment. Self-determined behavior involves a person decision about how to behave, based on the assumption of how to meet their needs. In this case, behavior is determined by the information coming from the environment, as well as the person who perceives and interprets this information. The psychological criterion of self-determination is the flexibility of man in managing his own interaction with the environment. Being self-determined person acts on the basis of its own choice, not on the basis of obligations or coercion, and this choice is based on awareness of one own needs and comparing them with external conditions.

An effective factor in enhancing students' self-education may be the implementation of a competency-based approach to education, according to which the general and special competencies of 2 levels (in the system of bachelor – master). General competencies are common to all levels of high education and consist of 3 categories: instrumental, interpersonal and systemic (Kremen 2004, 153). In our opinion, this approach covers a significant number of skills and abilities of selfeducation of the individual: the ability to organize its time, make decisions and exercise self-criticism, form relationships with others, plan changes to improve, strive and succeed.

The tutoring system arouses a great interest for understanding the possibilities of pedagogical support of students' self-education. According to T. Koycheva (2004), a tutor is a professional of the highest level, who is also the organizer of the student's education, his educator, leader and controller. This is a teacher who simultaneously performs the functions of coordinator, provides support and support of educational activities of each student. This system reveals new, non-traditional (individual-consultative) forms of interaction between teachers and students, allows to expand the possibilities of creating subject-subject relations between them, provided that the teacher (tutor) has the necessary individual and personal qualities and skills.

V. Radul considers self-realization as one of the criteria of social maturity of the personality of a student-future teacher. He notes that "self-realization is a process that involves an individual's awareness of what he possesses and what he would like to achieve, as well as the choice of practical actions to turn experience into reality, enshrined in the recognition of these achievements by others" (Radul 1997, 25). Personal self-realization necessarily contains an active life position of the student and can be effectively formed only in the close relationship of education and selfeducation, in the active constant pursuit of faster achievement of higher levels of self-realization, in need of self-development (Krasnoshchok 2002, 28). The realization of the active life position of the student in the activity depends on the degree of formation of relations, interests, attitudes and skills of the activity. According to I. Ilyasov and V. Lyaudis (1981), becoming a professional is possible only as a result of the unity of professionalism and personal development. The training of the future specialist should be associated with the formation of a certain system of values characteristic of a representative of a particular profession (Pichurin 1992).

According to research on youth self-education (Orlov 1987) this activity often is situational and unstable. So, the pedagogically expedient organization of students' self-education becomes especially important. L. Ruvinsky (1984) note that “an optimally organized educational process should include special guidance for the work of young men and women.

It should be assumed that the social environment, education can accelerate or slow down this process. I. Kostyuk (1989) emphasizes that "a correct understanding of mental development as a self-movement does not contradict the educational conditionality of this development, and… must be assumed. It is pedagogically inexpedient to wait for the moment when a person has a need for self-education. We share the opinion of V. Slastyonin (1997) that when education takes into account the driving forces of development, age and individual characteristics of man, uses the positive effects of social and natural environment, the negative and adverse effects of the environment weakens and achieves unity and coherence of all social institutions – the individual previously shows the ability to self-education.

To determine the features of the activation of self-education of students of humanities faculties of the university, we turned to the “Conceptual foundations of domestic humanitarian education in Ukraine (higher school)” (1996), which states that the humanistic direction of the educational process creates favorable conditions for young people of high humanistic qualities: humanity, respect for people, human dignity, culture of communication, civilized coexistence. Humanities education is defined by scholars as a set of knowledge in the field of social sciences (philosophy, history, philology, law, economics, and art history) and related practical skills and abilities (Gubskij 1997); as a process aimed at both the formation of humanistic values of youth and the expansion of young people's choice of life. The purpose of humanities education is not to inform the student a certain amount of knowledge, but to develop his abilities, to delve into the essence of phenomena, subjects (Kuznetsova 2001, 58).

The formation of humanistic values and beliefs (humanity, spirituality, honesty, sincerity) determine the humane attitude of the individual to the world around him: to nature, to other people, to work and so on. The task of forming humanistic values in students-future teachers V. Kuznetsovа (2001) defines as follows: the formation of young people's objective views on the place and role of man in society, ensuring that they become beliefs, norms of attitude to the world and society; educating future teachers of the needs and abilities to independently develop objective views on the phenomena of life, to draw conclusions for their practical attitude to life; desire for self-education. E. Bondarevskaya (1991) considers the following components of humanistic values: understanding and perception of universal values; comprehension of the unity of humanity and oneself as its inseparable part; responsibility to future generations; mastering all spheres of modern human life, which humanize the personality and relations between people; formation of experience of public behavior, participation in socially useful affairs, protection of human rights; self-education and self-assessment, mastering the means of self-improvement; mastering situations of real behavior, independent decision-making, etc. Substantiating the essence and directions of humanization and humanization of vocational education, I. Zyazyun, V. Zaychuk, V. Doniy, N. Nychkalo and others (1995) note that the humanization of education is a multifaceted process of reorientation of consciousness not only of society but also of every teacher, pedagogue, mentor, and also requires a radical change in human consciousness in general.

Thus, the study of general psychological and pedagogical characteristics of students allows us to consider them as a separate, unique socio-age group, which has significant potential for self-development.

But, at the same time, it is characterized by numerous contradictions that require some psychological and pedagogical support of university teachers in deepening the knowledge, skills, interests of students, and in helping to choose their own ways of self-improvement and self-realization. One of the main tasks of university teachers, in our opinion, is to help in the formation of value orientations, identifying the best personal and professional qualities of students, finding ways to improve them.

There are objective preconditions for intensifying the self-education of students at the humanities faculties. Students study a wide range of sciences (humanities, natural sciences, social sciences), receive a deeper substantial analysis of important phenomena of the world. Their cognitive interests in a particular field of knowledge and practice are combined with a broader cognitive attitude to reality, with the need to comprehend it. This category of students has more opportunities for the formation of humanistic values, an important place among which is self-education and self-development of the individual.

We believe that self-education of a personal student of the Faculty of Humanities should not be considered only as professional self-education. It should be a process of life creation, self-movement to the maximum personal and professional self-realization. Therefore, the intensification of self-education of the future specialist should cover both its essential components - both personal and professional. The appropriate level of teaching the disciplines of the psychological and pedagogical cycle has great potential for this, as well as educational work at the university aimed at actualizing the values of self-education.

Methodology of the study

Theoretical and empirical study of the impact of psychological and pedagogical characteristics of students on their activity in self-education was carried out in the framework of the ascertaining stage of research on “Organizational – pedagogical conditions for activating the process of self-education of students of the humanities faculties of the university”. The general purpose was determined the theoretical substantiation and introduction into the pedagogical process of the humanities faculties of the university of organizational and pedagogical conditions, which ensure the activation of the process of self-education of students.

The hypothesis of the study was that the activation of the process of selfeducation of students of humanities faculties of the university will contribute to the implementation of such organizational and pedagogical conditions: expanding the value-motivational field of students by updating the values of self-education by means of educational space of the humanities faculty of the university; enrichment of the content of classroom and extracurricular educational work of the teacher of pedagogical disciplines by concepts of development and self-development of the person, technologies of self-improvement and life creation; introduction of interactive-reflexive forms, methods and means of personal-professional selfeducation of students during the teaching of the special course "Fundamentals of self-education of a university student"; formation of experience of self-educational activity of students on the basis of creation of personal and professional selfportraits, diaries of self-improvement, programs of life creation.

The main tasks of the ascertaining stage were:

1. Analysis of the state of development of the problem of self-education of students in psychological and pedagogical theory and practice of universities.

2. Determining the criteria, indicators and levels of self-educational activity of humanities faculties students of the university.

3. Development of a theoretical model of activating the process of self-education of university students.

During theoretical model development of students self-education activating, we took into account that the opportunities of self-education of the individual are growing with increasing level of self-awareness; enrichment of the motivational sphere with motives and needs of self-improvement; accumulation of knowledge and personal experience of self-educational activity; the ability to make optimal use of methods, tools and techniques of self-improvement; development of the volitional sphere.

Analyzing the influence of external and internal factors on the activation of self-education (Sereda, 2020), we concluded that the effectiveness of this process is significantly increased if it is influenced by both external and internal activation factors. Therefore, in our model, we set a goal to activate external factors, and in such a way stimulate internal factors of students' self-education.

The model of activating the process of self-education of students of humanities faculties of the university displays the development dynamics of their self-educational activity. Self-educational activity is an integral indicator of the activation of the process of self-education and consists of 4 interrelated components: motivation of self-educational activity; valuable nature of knowledge on the theory and practice of self-education; possession of technological aspects of self-education; self-awareness of the individual as a subject of their own development. There are 4 stages of development of self-educational activity of students: organizational-motivational, information-content, operational-activity and integration-creative. The content of each stage defines the leading organizational and pedagogical condition that is introduced the main forms and methods into the educational process which used and designed the intermediate result of the development of self-educational activity.

The study of the peculiarities of student age and their impact on the activity of self-education was carried out in the analysis of the state of development of the problem of self-education of students and included two stages.

At the first stage it was carried out a theoretical analysis of scientific sources on the problems and potential opportunities caused by age and social aspects of life of this socio-age group. Our expectations were based on the assumption that the general psychological and pedagogical features of adolescence in combining with the social characteristics of students as a separate professionally oriented group create conditions for the actualization of higher human values such as the need for self-development and self-education. With regard to students of humanities, it was suggested that this category of higher education seekers has more potential opportunities to enhance self-education, embedded in the very content of educational programs in the humanities.

At the second stage the empirical research of psychological and pedagogical features of students of humanities faculties of the Mykolaiv V. O. Sykhomlynskyi National University in the context of activization of their self-education was carried out. It involved the study of value orientations of students, their motivation for self-educational activities, life plans, professional motives, the ability to compile programs of personal and professional self-development. We suggested that the results of such a study will identify the initial level of self-education of students and identify aspects that will positively influence to the activation of self-education, given the professional and socio-cultural context of training students in the humanities.

To implement the goals and objectives of this stage of the study, a set of empirical and theoretical methods was used: study and analysis of modern psychological and pedagogical sources on the problem of self-education of students; pedagogical observations during classes and extracurricular activities, conversations with students, studying the results of their questionnaires and creative work of self-education conducting a study of value orientations, systematization and generalization of the obtained results. Used psychological method of research of value orientations of M. Rokych (2013) is based on direct ranking of terminal (values-purposes) and instrumental (values-means) value orientations of the person, is widely applied in psychological and pedagogical researches for diagnostics of dominating values, personal orientation or cost tendency representatives of certain socio-age and professional groups and is valid for the studied cultural environment. While using questionnaires and creative work of students based on self-analysis and self-assessment, we relied on the external validity (face validity) of such research methods, which significantly improves the use of formulations and terms, as well as tasks that are understandable in content and are most natural, the professional specifics of the subjects. We sought to prevent an inadequate increase in this validity to avoid a pronounced effect of criterion contamination – a situation when information related to the results of the study, which the subjects themselves may disclose, may affect the subjective attitude to them of other students or teachers. We also sought to prevent this impact on assessments of overall student achievement.

The procedure of empirical information Collection provided for students to fill in written questionnaires developed by us and prepared forms of research of value orientations, to perform their relevant creative work as independent homework. The results of interviews, general cognitive and social activity of students and their behavior in the conditions of educational and extracurricular employment were considered, also all information was fixed by the researcher.

The generalized results of the research ascertaining and formative stages were entered into the individual analytical card of determining the level of the student self-educational activity for each component at the beginning and at the end of the experiment.

Analytical card determining the level of self-educational activity of students

Full name _______________________________________________________

Group __________________________ Course __________________________

State and level of motivational component of self-educational activity (according to the results of questionnaires, test "Value orientations" and students creative works):

at the beginning of the experiment ____________________________________

at the end of the experiment

_________________________________________

2. State and level of meaningful component of self-educational activity of the student (based on the results of studying the special course "Fundamentals of selfeducation of a university student" and writing a comprehensive diagnostic work):

at the beginning of the experiment ____________________________________

at the end of the experiment ________________________________________

3. State and level of the operational component of self-educational activity (based on the results of creating life programs and plans for self-education, work with diaries of self-education, questionnaires, diagnostic work):

at the beginning of the experiment ____________________________________

at the end of the experiment _________________________________________

4. State and level of the integration component of self-educational activity (based on the results of creating self-portraits and life programs of students, questionnaires and tests “level of subjective control”):

at the beginning of the experiment ____________________________________

at the end of the experiment _________________________________________

The general level of self-educational activity of the student:

at the beginning of the experiment ____________________________________

at the end of the experiment _________________________________________

Results of the study

Students of 1 – 4 courses of humanities (foreign philology, psychology, philology) educational level “Bachelor” took part in an empirical study of psychological and pedagogical features of students and their impact on activity in self-education, a total of 593 people took part in it. Age of respondents: 17 – 21 years. The main tasks in accordance with the purpose of the study were to determine the value orientations of students, their goals and life plans, motives and ways of personal and professional development and tracing the relationship between the traits and qualities of future humanities professionals and their focus on self-development and self-education, active in this process.

Value orientations are an important psychological indicator and an internal factor of students' self-education. In essence, they are precisely the important feature that determines the strategic purpose of human life and tactics to achieve it, determining the regulatory function of behavior.

The study according to the method of M. Rokych “Value Orientations” (2013) was carried out on the principle of direct ranking of students' value orientations: from the most important values to the least important. The results of their selection showed the following arithmetic mean distribution of terminal (value-goals) values of students of humanities (Table 1).

The obtained general picture of the priority of life values fully corresponds to the general features of the studied socio-age group and reflects the somewhat idealistic views of young people. It should be noted that such important values for self-education as active life, development, self-confidence, cognition took only 7th, 9th, 10th and 12th place in the ranking, respectively. This state indicates the lack of values of self-education of students and in accordance of actions of teachers to intensify such activities.

A questionnaire was conducted to analyze the motives and goals of students in the context of self-education. The questionnaires developed by us consisted of 10 questions (closed and open type), divided into several meaningful blocks: motivation of self-education and factors that positively and negatively affect it; content and main directions of self-education; results and regularity of selfeducational activity; long-term goals and objectives of self-education and ways to achieve them.

Respondents were asked questions of the motivational block to identify and justify the role of self-education and self-development in their own personal and professional development. Their answers showed that 86% of students are awared of the social importance of self-education. However, the personal motives of such activities among students of different ages differed slightly (Table 2).

Analysis of students' responses showed that 1st year students are more interested in self-education issues (94%) than 2nd year students (90%) and 4th year students (80%). At the same time, the motivation for self-education is much deeper, more personally directed among senior students. It is obvious that due to the development of self-awareness, greater social and personal maturity, the motivation of self-education of a student of the Faculty of Humanities becomes deeper, but the interest in this activity decreases. Respectively, 6% of 1st year students, 10% of 2nd year students and 20% of 4th year students stated that they are completely satisfied with the level of their own development and do not see the need for self-education classes or did not answer the questions at all. We see the reasons for this situation primarily in the lack of awareness of the personal significance of self-educational activities for students and insufficient activation of self-education in the traditional conditions of the educational process of the university.

Based on conversations with students and their creative work (“Life creation Program” – a work of a psychological direction, which provided for the definition of their own life goals in the short and long term, as well as justification of ways and necessary resources to achieve them), the life plans of 4th year students (178 people) were identified. They were distributed as follows (Table 3).

The analysis of the obtained results allowed to determine 3 types of the main motives of students: educational, professional and personal. At the same time, we state the lack of expression of motives for self-development and self-improvement of the individual. But we must emphasize that a graduate of a modern university according to world standards is required to possess not only purely professional but also general cultural competencies, technological skills, ability to continuous selfdevelopment and lifelong learning, self-design and successful problem solving in personal, professional and other areas.

In order to identify professional motivation, first-year students of philological faculties were offered to write a creative work: “I am a future philologist” (essay of professional orientation with the definition of the main motives for choosing a profession).

For third-year students there was a task to compile their own personal and professional self-portrait (psychological and pedagogical characteristics in a creative form based on the results of self-study and self-analysis of personal qualities and professional characteristics). The study of student creative works made it possible to identify and compare the motives of their future professional activity (Table 4).

As we can see from the table, 1st and 3rd year students have the same motives, but their ranking is different. It can be stated that during their studies at the university students deepen their motives for professional activity, transformation from simple interest and interest to awareness and assessment of their own ability to teach. We also observed some shift of motives from purely professional (interest in philology and foreign languages) to general humanistic (love for children). However, unfortunately, among the motives of students were insufficiently traced the development of their own personality as a condition for professional growth.

Analysis of the goals and motives of personal and professional development of students of philological faculties allowed us to conclude that the traditional conditions of the educational process of the humanities faculties of the university do not always contribute to the formation of stable motives for self-education. We observed a high level of formation of such motives among students who are clearly aware of the priorities and goals of their own lives; have a wide range of interests; systematically read (educational, fiction, scientific literature, periodicals); attend out-of-school educational institutions (clubs, clubs, studios, sports sections); get mostly high learning outcomes; conduct active social activities within the university and faculty; enjoy authority in the student group.

Based on the study and analysis of creative works of students of humanities faculties (86 respondents), it was concluded that the students have insufficient knowledge of their own personality and skills to compile programs of personal and professional self-development. Quite a significant number of students (18%) limited themselves to a list of existing, in their opinion, character traits, failing to identify any links between them and the prospects for their own development.

Here are some fragments of such works. “I'm quite sociable, sometimes even too much. I belong to the type of temperament – sanguine. The dominant traits of character are kindness, openness, truthfulness, determination, the ability to forgive, strength of will” (Anna K.) “I am determined, courageous and sociable. Negative traits include excessive curiosity. I believe that in the future I will become even more determined, I will strive for more in personal and professional terms” (Olena K.). “By temperament I am a choleric – an aggressive person, fickle, impulsive, active and optimistic. My positive traits are sensitivity, kindness, honesty, neatness. Negative traits: restless, aggressive. Value orientations in life are my family and friends. Forecast for the future: to succeed in education and get a good job” (Kateryna N.).

The largest group was students (67%), who tried to present a holistic picture of their own “I”, to identify the causes of their own behavior, to outline ways of self-improvement. However, they failed to do so at a high level due to a lack of clarity of self-image and low technological readiness for such activities. “In my vision, I look very different. I like to communicate with people, and they often turn to me for advice and support. It happens that in some situations I take offense, and only then I realize that I was wrong, but my pride does not allow me to take the first step towards reconciliation” (Natalia G.). “I am a blonde, green-eyed girl with a soft character. It is as difficult for me to offend another person as it is to deliberately pour boiling water on myself. I find peace of mind only when I am in nature, forgetting about daily worries, dreaming of a better life for my family and friends. I am a believer, and therefore I try to build my life by keeping the commandments of God” (Anna L.).

A relatively small number of students (15%) still managed to combine personal and professional qualities into a holistic picture of their “self-concept”, outlining the ways and prospects of their own development. “I belong to the type of people who understand early on what they need in life. I'm not afraid of hard work, but I think for a long time before I start something. I'm рatient and purposeful. I can work from early in the morning until late in the evening, but provided that no one interferes or points out мy shortcomings” (Maria S.). “It's easy to offend me, but no one will ever see it. Sometimes I let go of tears, but only when I am left alone. I consider myself strong and enduring. I do not like weak people and those to whom everything “falls from the sky”, because I achieve everything in this life with my own strength and mind” (Kateryna I.). “Sometimes I don't finish the job. I really do not like monotonous work. I like creative and artistic things more than scientific ones. I have many abilities. I can recite well, decorate, dance, play sports, show organizational skills. I think it will be useful in my professional activity. But sometimes I am overwhelmed by laziness, and then it seems that I do not know anything at all” (Elena G.).

Indicative is the fact that the high level of knowledge about one's personality was shown mainly by the students of the Faculty of Psychology. This is due to the fact that in the content of their professional training is the mastery of diagnostic tools to determine their own characteristics of mental processes, character traits, personal qualities, as well as the ability to carry out psychological self-correction. Among students of philological faculties, the level of knowledge about one's own personality turned out to be somewhat lower, but the programs of personal and professional self-improvement were presented more holistically, reasonably, creatively. Some students (10%) expressed their creativity by composing artistic or poetic self-portraits, illustrating them with drawings and photographs.

As evidenced by our observations of the educational process of the university and their own experience, some students from the first year of study have the necessary techniques and tools for self-education, develop long-term plans for self-improvement in various fields and implement them. However, this activity is carried out intermittently, purposelessly, does not always have the desired results, as insufficient motivational, semantic and technological readiness for self-education complicates the development of self-educational activity of students.

Thus, the results of the study confirmed the relevance of the problem of self-improvement for students of humanities faculties of the university. It was stated that they have a wide range of potential opportunities for purposeful selfeducation as a condition of personal and professional development, due to the influence of the peculiarities of student age, and the content of training in the humanities. However, in general, the insufficient level of motivation of personal and professional self-development and awareness of their own characteristics, opportunities and prospects for improvement indicates the need to create a system of psychological and pedagogical support of self-education of students in the traditional educational process.

Conclusions and perspectives for further studies

The analysis of psychological and pedagogical features of student’s age allowed to define it as the period of the most active formation of the personality and its self-improvement. Common features of students as a social group are: changing the social environment, inclusion in independent educational and employment activities; high intellectual and physical indicators; strengthening self-control, expanding the range of emotionally significant relationships; development of moral and aesthetic feelings, optimism, cheerfulness, idealism; development of selfawareness, search for the meaning of life and formation of one's own individuality. However, modern students function in an extremely complex and dynamic society, which is characterized by significant changes in the system of human values, the difficulty of realizing their own abilities, creativity, desire to be useful to people. Meanwhile, the lack of certainty of value orientations, prospects in adolescence – is the first step towards deviations in the development of personality. Therefore, it is very important to create in young people real personally significant life prospects, the implementation of which will give them self-esteem and self-confidence. And so there is an urgent need for pedagogical support of self-education of students, to create favorable conditions for the intensification of this process. In this case, the teacher is given the role of facilitator, student assistant in the implementation of self-educational activities.

It was found that the activity of students' personality is understood as the unity of external and internal tendencies of personality, which includes the improvement of their capabilities and abilities. This creates the necessary prerequisites for enhancing student self-education. But, at the same time, the representatives of this socio-age group are not yet socially mature individuals, they have insufficiently developed ability to consciously regulate behavior, as a result of which the ways of their own personal and professional development are not always correctly chosen. The study revealed objective prerequisites for enhancing self-education of students in the humanities. They are created by the purpose and content of humanities education, which consist in mastering humanistic values, developing their abilities, delving into the essence of phenomena, objects, creating a holistic picture of the modern world and forming a humanistic worldview. Students' cognitive interests in a certain field of knowledge are combined with a deeper and more responsible attitude to reality, with the need to comprehend it. It is established that a fairly wide potential for self-education of students creates the implementation of a competency-based approach to education, which provides a high level of activity and independence of students in the educational process and high personal responsibility for its results.

Empirical study of goals and motives, life plans, awareness of the picture of their personal and professional "I" students of humanities showed high interest in self-education in the vast majority of students against the background of partial formation of motivation for personal and professional self-development and generally low level of self-awareness and weaknesses, opportunities and prospects for improvement. We noted a slight increase in these indicators among senior students, as well as a significant increase in their psychological specialties, which is embedded directly in their educational programs. A high level of formation of such indicators, regardless of the course and specialty, was observed in students who are clearly aware of the priorities and goals of their own lives; have a wide range of interests; systematically read, in addition to educational, fiction, scientific and journalistic literature, periodicals; attend out-of-school cultural and educational institutions; show mostly high learning outcomes; conduct active social activities; enjoy authority in the group among other students.

Thus, the analysis of the results of the study of psychological and pedagogical characteristics of students of humanities faculties revealed that the possibilities of their self-education potentially increase in the presence of a number of factors, including: conscious creativity; activity in self-education; ability to selfactualization, self-organization and self-regulation of own development; formation of a humanistic worldview. Activation of students' self-education is connected, first of all, with increase of their level of self-consciousness, enrichment of motivational sphere, accumulation of knowledge and experience of self-educational activity, ability to optimally use methods, means and methods of self-improvement. Of course, the study does not cover all aspects of the problem. An important area of ensuring effective self-education of students as a condition of personal and professional development is the creation of a system of their psychological and pedagogical support in this process.

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