Rudenko N,V., Bumar S.

Kharkiv national automobile and highway university, Ukraine

EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS OF FOREIGN STUDENTS ADAPTATION

The international nature of modern education is reflected in the growth of academic mobility of students, increasing number of foreign students in the world. The problem of adaptation to the conditions of foreign students studying in Ukrainian universities is one of the important issues that the leadership of the university, psychologists and lecturers must solve. How is a student from another country feeling in his/her new environment? How to help him/her to adapt to the new environment? How to speed up the process of adaptation?

Students need special help from psychologists and lecturers to overcome the difficulties during training in Ukrainian universities. There is no doubt that the adaptation of foreign students is a complex, dynamic, multi-level and multiparty process of restructuring the motivational sphere, a set of acquired skills, abilities and habits according new educational and psychological conditions.

Bear in mind that each individual person personifies the social groups, social institutions, social organizations and systems adopted in the social norms and values. [2] That is, every person is the result of a particular culture, attitudes, stereotypes.

In broad terms, a person’s personality is an integral integrity of sociogenic and psychogenic elements. In this case, the most important sociogenic elements of personality are social roles performed by him/her in various communities (family, school, peer group). Indeed, social, economic, political relationships, ideological types of society become apparent in different ways, determining the social quality of each person, the content and the nature of his/her activity. [3] On the one hand, people integrate the social relations of the environment and, on the other - produces their special relationship to the outside world.

The elements constituting the social qualities of a person are socially defined by the purpose of his/her activity, social status and social roles performed, expectations to these statuses and roles, norms and values (culture) guided in the activities, system of signs that he/she uses, knowledge, the level of education and specialized training, socio-psychological characteristics, the degree of self-dependence in decision-making.

A person can be as a social and historical value, its structural elements are in constant interaction and development, form a system. The interactions of these elements are beliefs. Personality beliefs are the standard by which people display their social skills. Otherwise, these standards are referred to stereotypes. Stereotyping depends on the individual, social environment and man's place in it, on the system of individual inclusion in the society as well. The basis for a stereotype can serve needs, interests, attitudes, etc.

Socialization of an individual can be divided into two phases - the social adaptation and internalization. The first is an individual adaptation to the social and economic conditions, to roles, social norms prevailing at the various levels of a society, to social groups and social organizations, social institutions, serving as a environment of person’s life. The process of adaptation is the first phase of the individual socialization. Its second phase - internalization is the incorporation of social norms and values of the human inner world. Personality does not dissolve in the social environment, and refers to it as a separate unit. Socialization of the individual involves only a subjective form of ingrowth of an individual in the society and a normative value system acts autonomously in relation to the individual.

It is clear that in the process of learning foreign students must take into account the characteristics of their learning motivation, unlike their Ukrainian students learning motivation. [4] In addition, it is important to take into account the specifics of the correlations of learning motivation with a set of individual psychological and socio-psychological conditions. This determines the direction of our study. The research problem is to identify the characteristics of learning motivation of foreign students. In our opinion, it can be searched in connection of individual psychological and socio-psychological characteristics.

“Pilot” study was carried out on the basis of the international department of the Kharkiv national automobile and highway university. The results of our study can highlight the most interesting figures relating to the process of adaptation of foreign students:

1. the ratio of friends (Diaspora) was significantly correlated with self-esteem and emotional well-being of a foreign student in another socio-cultural environment;

2. important parameters affecting the process of adaptation is the thrust of the claims. In this case, high aspirations are associated with increased intelligence, and low - with the acquisition of authority from the lecturer;

3. the degree of "rigidity" in interpersonal relationships varies and depends on the communication partner: higher "rigidity" was revealed on the Ukrainian, rather than to the countrymen);

4. interpersonal strategies change when they are hit by another socio-cultural environment: foreign students become less dominant and more generous towards the representatives of the host country, while in their relation to the countrymen they are more dominant.

References:

 1. Сурыгин А.И. Педагогическое проектирование системы предвузовской подготовки иностранных студентов / А. И. Сурыгин. – СПб : Издательство «Златоуст», 2001. – 128 с.

2. Асмолов А. Г. Психология личности ∕ А. Г. Асмолов. − М. : Изд-тво Моск. ун-та, 1990. − 367 с.

3. Хекхаузен Х. Мотивация и деятельность ∕ Хайнц Хекхаузен. – СПб .; М.: Питер: Смысл, 2003. − 860 с.

4. Маслоу А. Мотивация и личность ∕ А. Маслоу. – СПб. : Питер, 2003. − 352 с.