FORMING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ INTEGRATED OUTLOOK PERCEPTION OF NATURE

Abstract

The article addresses the issue of shaping a person’s integral world outlook as premises of scientific worldview. This objective is pursued via a number of methods and techniques designed on the basis of the causative-systemic approach and the algorithms suggested by the universal laws of nature. The paper considers a number of universal concepts connecting natural-scientific and humanitarian components of a worldview and approaches a student’s development as a multi-factor process. The article discusses the theoretical background of the model of forming universal scientific worldview with the latter being accountable for pedagogical university students’ responsible and integrative attitude towards nature. The paper considers methodology of implementing the model within the structure of an experimental optional academic course and discusses the most relevant results of the experiment. The notion of “the image of the world” is considered as a professional factor of a future teacher’s educational activity. The paper provides analysis of a number of relevant approaches and concepts. The image of the world is then tackled from the standpoint of philosophy, theory of education, psychology and the fundamental concepts of natural science. The paper differentiates the notions of “worldview” and “world outlook”. The suggested model of forming universal scientific worldview explicates basic “nuclear” clusters of methodological, natural-scientific and didactic nature. Potential implementation of the model into the integrated content of education is expected to increase the level of future teachers’ theoretical synthetic thinking. The paper attempts to verify whether the current content of high school biological education complies with the fundamental laws of nature. It analyses a number of concepts introduced in modern manuals in natural studies used at the university level of education. The article provides methodological argumentation for the stages of forming natural-scientific worldview regarding their correlation with the didactic conditions and methods. The paper presents the results obtained in the course of prolonged work with worldview-related notions implemented in the experimental curriculum. The experiment registered positive dynamics of changes in the level of students’ theoretical thinking as well as the growth in the pace of learning. The article highlights the idea of conscious introduction and comprehension of the worldview-level notions during the learning process on the basis of the suggested model.