Olga Vagaeva

Starting from the 2023-2024 academic year, the main educational programs of all areas of higher education in Russia include the discipline "Fundamentals of Russian Statehood". It is intended to help recognize a timely response to the current challenges of Russia's educational and social policy, to contribute to the formation of students' sense of citizenship and patriotism, which is an important task at the highest state level. The aim of the article is to study the specific features of the introduction of a new discipline into university curricula, its perception by students, their attitude to it, and a description of practical methodological recommendations for teaching the subject. To conduct the research, general theoretical methods were used (analysis, synthesis, generalization of theoretical information on the problem) and an empirical method – an online questionnaire. The research involved 173 first-year students of technical universities in Penza and Kazan. The research made it possible to clarify the attitude of first-year students to the discipline as a whole, to its individual sections, pedagogical tools and methods used for teaching of this course. More than half of the respondents replied that they were completely satisfied with the results obtained in the classroom. The students noted the importance of personal interaction with the teacher in the course of classes, paid special attention to the interesting content of the discipline, highlighting this parameter as a clear advantage of the course. They noted the sections of the discipline "The Russian state-civilization" and "The political structure of Russia" as the most important for studying. Students consider videos, interactive online games, original lectures and working with a map to be the most effective means of learning. We think that the goals and objectives set in the legal field for universities and academic staff and outlined in the media space have been fulfilled. The survey results confirm this fact. Most students are convinced that they get benefit from studying the subject and expand their knowledge of the history of Russia. At the same time, respondents noted as a significant learning result the formation of a sense of pride in their country and their people, the expansion of existing knowledge of the geography of Russia, and better understanding of the geopolitical processes taking place today. In practice, the discipline contributes to the formation of such qualities among young people as citizenship and patriotism, which determine the value attitude of an individual to the historical past of his country, belonging to the nation, and a sense of pride in our Fatherland.

This article introduces the domestic experience in organizing the training of academic staff at the Higher Technical School. The emphasis is on its psychological and pedagogical component as a necessary condition for the preparation of future scientists, both in retrospective review and at the present time.

The article presents the experience of the Volga region technical universities in the academic staff’ organization and training content. The author lays emphasis on pedagogical principles and models of the leading professors’ work within the framework of their scientific schools.

The article deals with the problems and difficulties, which have come on the system of secondary and higher professional education in the Middle Volga region’s cities (Penza, Saratov, Ulyanovsk) in the postwar period. The authors suggest ways of their solution on different levels.