The object of pedagogical research – a student’s personally – is very complex. There is a necessity to obtain more precise characteristics of the object itself and analyze them. Humanitarian sciences don’t explain the facts, but generally interpret them, and it doesn’t allow an educator who makes a research to obtain the reliable confirmation expressed in the quantitative indexes. Социологические методы позволяют получить более достоверные данные. Usage of sociological methods helps us to obtain the data of the extent of each student’s set of qualities’ being expressed, in particular, such important qualities as reflective and creative; it helps the educator to work out individual educational trajectory for each student. Using the method of observation, which is traditional for pedagogy, it is practically impossible to measure the extent of the development of a student’s reflective skills. We can say the same about a student’s creative potential which is often blocked and difficult to diagnose.
Questioning, one of the methods of sociological research, is used by us for complex evaluation of a student’s extent of both creative and reflective skills being expressed. We were using S.A. Mednick’s test (test of verbal creativity), A.V. Karpov’s questionnaire of the level of reflectivity, Johnson’s questionnaire of creativity and H.J. Eysenk’s test ‘Verbal abilities’ in order to achieve this aim.
The reason of studying the extent of the student’s expression of reflectivity was the results of the survey of the health care providers about the necessity of reflection and reflexive culture for their professional activity.
In order to confirm the extent of the importance of the reflexive culture’s components we have invited 32 experts – the teachers from the clinical departments of Kursk State Medical University and the practical healthcare workers (physicians, dentists and pharmacists). The experts were asked to point out the components of reflexive culture most important for their professional activity, less important components and those not necessary for healthcare workers.
Taking into account the results of the survey of the experts we have chosen the most important components of reflexive culture: the ability to communicate clearly and competently, the ability to analyze professional knowledge in order to improve it, creative professional thinking, not standardized thinking, the ability to establish and support the contact with an interlocutor, the ability to focus on the irreversibility of professional activities, to take into account the limited time factor.
The components of reflexive culture marked by the specialists as those making maximum influence on its formation were the additional guiding point for working out methodical support of reflective culture’s skills’ formation.
Reflective and creative approach promoting formation of critical and non-standard professional thinking and inculcated by us in the educational process supposes the determination of both creativity and reflectivity expressed quantitatively. The survey of the level of reflectivity used by us consists of 27 statements, evaluated by the respondents using the scale of 7 points. The extent of reliability of this method reflecting the precision and steadiness of its results corresponds to the demands of psychological testing. Among the first and second year students polled by us only 13 % showed the low level of reflectivity, 85 % of the respondents displayed the average level of reflectivity and only 2 % of the students – the high level of reflectivity.
Methodical support of teaching medical students English with the usage of reflective and creative approach worked out by us is adequate the most students’ average level of reflectivity. In its turn, creative process of studying will stimulate the further development of reflectivity and reflective culture of the medical students as its manifestation.
The work is submitted to the International Scientific Conference «Innovative Technologies in Higher and Vocational Education», Spain, Costa del Azahar, 2-9 August 2013, came to the editorial office оn 17.07.2013.