Moral dilemmas in study process

On the 9th of February (12:15, @Jakobi 2, III floor) visiting researcher Tatiana Golikova from Mari State University (Russia) will give a presentation "Formation of future foreign language teachers’ and school students’ values".

Abstract

Formation of future foreign language teachers’ and school students’ values.

Tatiana Golikova, associate professor, English philology deptartment,
Mari State University,Yoshkar-Ola, Mari El

In this presentation I will share my practical experience with the formation of moral values in the process of training future foreign language teachers at Mari State University using moral dilemmas and participating in a joint Mari-American online course on the issues of personality formation in modern civic society. There is no other profession in which a person’s personality traits, character, convictions and moral values are of such critical importance than that of a teacher. Stressing the particular role of teachers in teaching values John Amos Comenius, a Czech educator the author of Didactica Magna wrote that teachers should be the best of people, the most outstanding in their morality. This, he considers, is the most effective means to inspire students to live honest lives.

No matter what subject we teach, it is important for the teacher to educate not only academically but morally as well. The goal of education includes three inseparable parts: to impart knowledge, to educate morally, and to develop students’ thinking. Thus, for teachers and those involved in teacher training, it is a challenge to find opportunities to increase the moral potential of their lessons.  There are a variety of effective methods and moral dilemma discussion is one of them. I have developed my own technology of using moral dilemmas with school and university students. The pre-service teachers use it during their school practice.

In my presentation I will also focus on the axiological approach to the formation of a creatively self-developing and self-fulfilling personality (scientific school of V.Andreev, Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan), and on the American experience of forming the values of citizenship, character, responsibility, respect and care among US school and university students (scientific school of T. Lickona, M.Berkowiz).