Reading as Cultural Factor of Talent Development

Author Name(s): Elena M. Shastina ,Olga V. Shatunova ,Tatiana F. Borodina
Author Email: shastina@rambler.ru

Abstract

The modernization of Russian education implies the trend for its humanization and humanitarization, which determines the significance of the cultural approach to the study of pedagogical problems. The purpose of this article is to describe the role of the culturological factor that promotes the revealing of children talents and creates the prerequisites for their development.

The methods of research are the generalization of advanced pedagogical experience, observation, questionnaires and conversations.

The work presents the results of the probing experiment, in which 130 teachers from the Elabuga Institute of the Kazan Federal University at the age of 25 – 79 took part. They were characterized by pronounced personal and professional qualities and the abilities that make consider them as gifted people. The experiment consisted of a survey on the author’s questionnaire about the readers’ activity of the respondents at different age stages of personal development, as well as on the giftedness and the influence of reading on its development.

The study proves the positive impact of reading as a culturological factor on the development of giftedness. Besides, it is concluded that people who have reached a certain stage of professional and personal development (including giftedness) are characterized by constant reading activity.

The authors put forward for a discussion of a number of questions concerning the identification of the role of reading for giftedness among the representatives of different professions and ages at different stages of physiological and personal development.

Introduction

The issue about the culturological component of education acquires a special significance in the conditions of a changing educational environment not only in our country, but throughout the world. The introduction of the Bologna education system, the development of new state standards, entailed dramatic changes in Russian education system, which affected not only the higher school, but also the basic general education aimed at the development of a modern student personality. The trend on humanization and humanitarization of education adopted in 2002 as the part of the concept of Russian education modernization, allowed a new look at the problem of cultural education in the context of cultural paradigm change.

According to I.E. Vidt’s opinion, “the cultural fundamentals of education presuppose the adequacy and the congruence of the existing culture-civilization” [1, p. 67] (Vidt, 2002, p.67). Russian researchers V.S. Bibler [2], A.P. Valitskaya [3], I.E. Vidt [1], E.A. Yamburg [4] and others developed the principles of culturological education, the essence of which is that the result of the correlation between education and culture as a system considered from the standpoints of synchronous and diachronic development, the prerequisites for the upbringing of a “a man of culture” are created that can comprehend a person’s place in the cultural system and realize his role in its preservation and reproduction. In particular, V.S. Bibler writes that modern pedagogy is characterized by the change in the ideal of education, by its transition from the educational paradigm to the cultural creation one, from “an educated person” to a “man of culture” [2, p. 337].

A priori in the process of teaching humanitarian, artistic and natural science disciplines a general cultural training is realized, which, in addition to knowledge and skills, forms an emotional and value attitude to cultural phenomena [5, p. 329].

As you know, L.S. Vygotsky introduced the concept of “cultural development” of an individual, suggesting the creation of conditions that promote not only the physiological, but also the intellectual development of a child [6]. Naturally, the intellectual development of a child is directly related to the problem of giftedness.

In the logic of this study, the method of developmental learning [6; 7] is of interest because it allows one to build a kind of “algorithm” of a child’s cultural development – from primary school to upper school, which ideally should meet the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard for Basic General Education (FSES BGE).

Thus, during the development of education content a culturological approach must be developed that aims to realize a humanistic attitude toward the social purpose of a man, which in its turn involves the inclusion of different structures of culture in the context of education content.

The purpose of this article is to describe the role of the culturological factor that promotes the identification of children giftedness and creates the prerequisites for its development. V.S. Yurkevich points out the need to change the approach to giftedness. In particular, according to the scholar’s opinion the creation of a “cultural foundation” of giftedness should become, one of the priority areas of an individual intellectual development [8, p. 106].

Acknowledgements

The work is performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University.

References

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