Our research in the area of students´ social and environmental education required establishing and formulating the principles of its functioning. By the present time two main groups have been segregated: the principles of the investigated process organization and those of its management. The analysis of the philosophic science achievements allowed establishing general (fundamental) principles as parent ones: unity, consistency, development, historicism, account of geographical factor, humanism. They, and also the specific principles of general education (Krayevsky V.V., Skatkin M.N.), general ecological (Zverev I.D., Suravegina I.T.) and social-and-ecological education of school children, formulated by us, instructions of Mamedov N.M. and the principles of occupational activities (Shadrikov V.D.) allowed establishing some principles of students´ social and ecological education organization (SSEE). The following principles are referred to them: interrelation of vocational and socio-ecological training; integration and disintegration; achievement of social and ecological harmony in the future professional activity; consideration of socio-ecological relations in the context of stable development strategy; self-regulation.
Let us discover those of them, which are advisable to be observed by the teacher in the interaction with students in terms of the formation of their attitude to the natural environment in the process of acquirement of a certain speciality. So, the principle of occupational and social-ecological training interrelation supposes the necessity such a pedagogical process organization, whereat the becoming of the occupational readiness of the student´s personality is associated with the formation of his socio-ecological readiness as well. It means that every readiness element - the one of integrative personality quality - in particular, conative, orientational, operational, volitional and evaluative - should be filled with a special vocational and social and ecological content. The last involves the vocational and social-and-ecological knowledge, the skills conforming to it, the experience of creativity in the vocational activity realized in the relationships with the natural environment; the emotional-and-axiological attitude to it.
The filling of the elements of the considered readiness with a complex content is conditioned by the fact that the occupational-professional activity is a link in the system "society-nature", that it is the process of labour where the natural conditions and resources are used, and it is the result of labour activity that cause irreparable damage to the natural environment. On the other hand, a significant moment of the labour activity is its positive orientation consisting in not only the use of natural riches for the society´s good, but in their protection, restoration and renewal. In connection with this, in the process of students´ training not only their vocational readiness for labour, but also stable establishments, motives, the specialist´s traits defining their normative behavior in the natural environment are taken into account.
Another necessary principle of the social-and ecological educational activity appears the requirement of integration and disintegration. Let us remind that integration (from Latin Integer - full, whole, unbroken) represents a process (or activity) having integrity; unification; combination; restoration of the unity, as its result. By the present time several types of integration are distinguished, in the social sphere, in particular: power integration, political integration, social integration, economical integration, language integration. The integration principle is one of the main principles in the investigation of socio-natural processes and phenomena, their reflection in various forms of social consciousness, for example, education content. So, in their time, Zverev I.D. and Suravegina I.T. formulated the principles of the general ecological education of school-children, the interdiscinplinary approach in the formation of the ecological culture of school-children being fairly named among them. Its essence consists in the fact that ecological education is considered as an ideal, integrated idea (tendency), which allows overcoming the fragmentation of the knowledge being formed, the disconnection of school disciplines, their dissociation. The ecological education appears not as a competitive subject, but as a means providing the unity of the school-children´s education and upbringing.
As for the disintegration, it is revealed as dispersion, division, partition, divarication, error, separation of the whole into parts. In the context of disintegration the social-and ecological education represents a self-dependent education (elementary, secondary, higher and after-graduate) system element developing in the compliance with its rules, according to its principles, achieves its goals and tasks. Within the framework of the vocational-ecological training the integration/disintegration principle supposes, on the one hand, the unification of all the specialist´s training components about the idea of the country´s stable development, the basis of which make new ecological knowledge explaining not only the unknown reality sides, but also appeal to implement the prescribing functions concerning human activity, to labour, first of all (Mamedov N.M.). On the other hand, this principle supposes the students´ socio-ecological education process consideration as a special trend of their professional training, an element of general culture, the fundament of practical activity in the natural environment. The realization of the principle supposes also the definition of functions of every discipline in the whole system of the socio-ecological education, segregation of interdisciplinary relations; the agreement of methods, means and forms of the pedagogical process organization, the definition of new ways of higher education ecologization. Together with that the students´ socio-ecological education requires its own special studying conditioned by the demands of the society for specialists able to establish harmonic relations between the environment in the labour activity and life, promote a stable development of the society.
The following SSEE organization principle conditioned by the general science development principle - is the principle of achievement of social and ecological harmony in the future professional activity. Harmony in the translation from Greek means the concordance, proportion in combination of something. In the relationships of nature and society, in the opinion of Khatskevich D.Kh., harmony appears as one of the forms of these relationships, is objectivized as a result of people´s purposeful activity and has an immediate practical value for various crisis social-and-ecological situations´ solution. The author fairly states that against the concepts confirming the global catastrophe inevitability as a result of socio-natural interactions, the theory of harmony allows modeling such geo-, eco-, and socio-systems´ connections and relations, which would promote the solution of ecological situations in the progressive direction. However, it is necessary to get specially prepared to the harmony principle realization within the system of "society-nature", and not only within the system of general educational development, but also within the system of vocational education.
At the graduate education stage this principle supposes the consistency of the purposes and content of vocational and social-and-ecological training, the use of methods, means and forms of these directions on general basis, the attachment of harmony to the pedagogical process implementing goals and tasks of students´ special and socio-ecological readiness formation. Within the frame of the present principle the harmony of basic components of the integral pedagogical process is also advisable: teaching and upbringing, involving of student youth into active cognitive and practical activity on the development of their vocational and socio-ecological experience, the adoption of rules and guidelines of the interaction with nature in the process of work on the chosen speciality; the demonstration of their own initiative and creativity in establishing harmonic relations with nature.
One more necessary requirement in the organization of the students´ socio-ecological education process is the principle of social-and-ecological relations consideration in the context of stable development strategy. Let us remind that the strategy of stable development was offered in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro at the conference of the United Nations on the environment and development, where the conclusions about the necessity of the mankind to transfer to the way of stable (sustained) development were made. In a general sense this strategy is aimed at the achieving of harmony in the relations of the human, society and nature. On the reasonable opinion of Mamedov N.M. the stable development of the society is understood as a long and sustainable development of the "society-nature" system, which is supported by the society in the aid of not only present, but also future generations. The future generations´ development should not be broken today, that requires from the contemporaries a new and reasonable consumption culture, a wider preservation and support of system qualities of biosphere, its ability to reproduce its resources. This concept connects the ideas of evolution, historicism with prognostics, aggregating to the care of the future. From these very positions the offered principle obliges to study, restore and reproduce the natural conditions and resources included into the context of vocational activity, reveal and use its potential for the harmonization of socio-natural relationships. Acquiring the chosen speciality, students make sure about the objective unity of nature, society and culture, historical character of their relations; about the unity of theoretical and practical levels of cognition and activity. On the other hand, this principle supposes the consciousness of such phenomena of the reality as: disharmony, socio-ecological contrasts, crises, catastrophes conditioned by the irrational human activity; the consciousness of measure, when using natural resources in the labour process; the necessity of personal participation in the sustained (stable) development of the society at the global, regional and local levels - by the society, by every human being. Moreover, the considered principle requires a special activity within the vocational one - a prognostic activity, the essence of which consists in the ability to foresee, predict the results of not only its own professional activity, but also the state of the environment involved into the production process, its participation in the development of concrete socio-natural interrelations conditioned by the chosen speciality.
Not less meaningful in the organization of students´ socio-ecological education process is also the principle of self-regulation. Self-regulation (from Latin - regulare - to put in order, adjust) supposes a reasonable functioning of living systems of various organization and complexity levels. This principle, within the framework of preparation of students for socio-ecological relations, requires from every subject the development of skills to take the harmonic interaction with natural objects in the course of labour activity as a goal; the development of the program of ecologically rational activities, the model of attendant conditions (basic and secondary); the definition of efficiency criteria system of vocational and socio-ecological activity; the ways of getting information about its results; the evaluation of findings with a concrete production purpose and harmony in concrete socio-ecological interactions as an ideal purpose of these interactions; the ability to make decisions concerning the necessity and correction character of professional and socio-ecological activities. The importance of self-regulation in the interaction with natural medium, including also the labour activity consists in the fact that it supposes, first of all, an active position of the subject himself, when solving any problems conditioned by the connections of processes and phenomena of the real world, is realized individually, gives diversity to the external socio-natural processes, influences their results. Because of the fact that self-regulation is formed within a pedagogical process directed at the acquirement of a certain profession by students, the formulated principle requires also the teacher´s activity in the interaction with the students; the experience of ecologically reasonable activity aimed at the use of the chosen speciality potential in solving problems of protection and restoration of natural conditions and resources, further sustained development of the society and nature.
To conclude, let us emphasize once more that the specified principles are taken into account in the process of students´ socio-ecological education organization. It is also necessary to take into account the other group of principles - the ones of management of the considered process.
References:
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- Zverev I.D., Suravegina I.T. Ecological education of school children. Monograph. - M., 1983.
- Krayevsky V.V., Brezhnova Ye.V. Methodology of pedagogy. New stage. - M., 2006.
- Mamedov N.M. Culture, ecology, education. - M., 1996.
- Philosophy of ecological education / under the reduction of Liseyev I.K. - M., 2001.
- Khatskevich D.Kh. Nature as esthetic value - M., 1995.
- Shadrikov V.D. Activity psychology and human abilities - M., 1996.
- Shilova V.S. Socio-ecological education of school children. Monograph. - M. - Belgorod, 1999.
The work was submitted to international scientific conference «Prospects for the development of university science», Dagomys (Sochi), 20-23 September 2008, came to the editorial office on 08.07.2008.