Development of the empathic culture of students of secondary professional educational institutions on the basis of works of Russian classical literature

Abstract

Introduction. Empathic culture is one of the most important communicative phenomena potentially inherent in a person. An approach based on the use of works of Russian classical literature turns out to be very productive for solving the problem of developing the empathic culture of the younger generation. This direction of research is especially relevant for students of secondary vocational educational institutions, which are a harmonizing factor in relationships both within the youth environment and in modern society. The aim of the work is to determine the degree of influence of Russian classical literature on the development of empathic culture of students of secondary vocational educational institutions. Methods. The study involved 60 students of the Moscow State Institute of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism. Yu.A. Senkevich, studying at the department of secondary vocational education. As a toolkit for diagnosing the levels of development of empathic culture, we used the methodology for diagnosing the level of development of the ability to interpret non-verbal behavior in interpersonal communication; the questionnaire of the severity of emotional empathy by A. Mehrabyan and N. Epstein and the method of express diagnostics of empathy by I. M. Yusupov. Research results. In order to increase the level of development of empathic culture, works of Russian classical literature were used, the study of which was accompanied by specially composed questions and tasks for each of the selected works. By observing and analyzing the answers, the dynamics of changes in each of the components of the empathic culture of students was recorded. As a result, the number of students in the experimental group with very high and high levels of empathic culture increased by 26.6% and 23.4% (χ2 = 13,084; p < 0,05), respectively, while the level of empathic culture of students in the control group increased by 3.4% (χ2 = 1,034; p > 0,05).