Cognitive dissonance among students in the conditions of online communications of modern educational environment

Abstract

The subject of this research is the educational environment of a pedagogical university, in the conditions of which the educational process is realized through online communications and characterized by the presence of phenomena of cognitive dissonance within the system of intersubjective relations. The authors views the features and assessments of discomfort of cognitive dissonance impeding students’ inclusion into the educational process. The assessments of cognitive dissonance are analyzed depending on its causes among the students of Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree. Attention is paid to perception of cognitive dissonance by the students as a lack of freedom of choice of the individual communication strategies, which on the subjective level is accompanied by feeling of indifference to the need for fulfilling the set assignments. The main conclusion consists in the thesis that the shift of pedagogical paradigm is accompanied by the phenomena of cognitive dissonance depending on its causes among the Bachelor’s students mostly relate to the absence of interest to online communications, inertness of feedback, and failure to understand the logic of the communication process itself. Among the Master’s Degree students there were no evidence of cognitive dissonance of any critical quantitative values. In quantitative regards, all of these indicators were below average, except such factors as the lack of freedom in selection of individual communication strategies. The scientific novelty consist in identification of the key characteristics and assessments of discomfort of cognitive dissonance impeding students’ inclusion into the educational process of modern educational environment.