Features of Values Formation Among Students of Modern Russian Universities

Abstract

The relevance of the study is determined by the socio-cultural complexity of the educational space of modern Russian universities. The purpose of the article is to analyze the peculiarities of values formation among students of modern Russian universities. To achieve this goal, it is also necessary to test one of the possible methods for measuring the value attitudes of Russian university students based on a questionnaire using the author’s list of questions. The methods of field work in the universities of the regions of the Siberian Federal District with the help of on-line technologies: questionnaires and statistical processing of the data obtained were used. The method of critical analysis of modern pedagogical concepts was applied. Licensed IBM SPSS software was used to identify statistical patterns and correlations of field study results. 504 questionnaires of undergraduate and graduate students of the universities of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, the Republic of Tuva, the Tomsk Oblast, the Irkutsk Oblast, the Republic of Khakassia, the Novosibirsk Oblast, the Omsk Oblast, and the Altai Krai were surveyed and processed. The features of values formation related to the value of communications have been recorded: 1) contrary to the stereotypes about the prevalence of the values of virtual communication in certain age categories of students, only 2.7 % prefer exclusively virtual communication. The share of the respondents who prefer direct communication with people is quite high – 42.6 %. In the age group from 17 to 24 years, this share is slightly less and amounts 40.7 %. Exclusively virtual communications in this age category is chosen by 2.1 % of the respondents; 2) the symbolic mediators of the value environment of students are changing: for 78.6 % of students shopping and entertainment centers are preferred places for spending their free time, in the age group from 17 to 24 years this share rises to 80.4 %; at the same time, libraries reduce their influence on the value perceptions of students: only 16.5 % of the respondents visit libraries in their free time, in the age group from 17 to 24 years this share is slightly higher and amounts 16.6 %; among social networks, the social network Vkontakte has the highest value of a symbolic mediator for Russian students: 94.2 % of the respondents of all age categories use this network for communications; for the age group from 17 to 24 years this share is even higher and amounts 96.3 %; 3) the technological base for the formation of students’ value perceptions is changing, Internet technologies are used both for entertainment and for reading books by 59.5 % of students, in the age category from 17 to 24 years this share significantly prevails and amounts 64 %. The peculiarities of the formation of students’ value ideas must be taken into account when developing evaluative tools for the universal competence «diversity of cultures», among other things including the research component in the corresponding evaluation procedures