Olga A. Vagaeva

The society and the state assign higher education the task of fostering value guidelines, civic identity, and patriotic sentiment among young people. One of the instrumental approaches to solving this problem was the introduction of the ideological discipline «Fundamentals of Russian Statehood» into the curricula of the country's universities with clearly developed thematic sections. The success of the educational process depends significantly on how the learning material is presented. In this regard, there was a need to analyze, systematize and develop pedagogical approaches adapted to modern realities, personal and age characteristics of students. The purpose of this article is to systematize and substantiate the pedagogical methods and techniques that are most effective for teaching the discipline «Fundamentals of Russian Statehood», including assessing the feasibility of their application to achieve specific educational results. The approach to the research chosen by the authors is based on theoretical methods (analysis of scholarly literature, study and generalization of teachers’ professional experience, comparative analysis, system-structural and system-functional analysis, synthesis, generalization and systematization) and empirical methods (observation and description). The article shares practical experience in teaching the «Foundations of Russian Statehood» course to students at technical universities in Penza and Kazan. The paper concludes that it is advisable to use various pedagogical techniques and methods in accordance with the structure and content of the discipline. Thus, the pedagogical achievements of the authors in the form of mini-projects with the possibility of using social networks, solving case studies, analyzing historical sources, creating and solving crosswords, participating in business games, working with Internet resources and statistical data, as well as with mass media are distributed according to five sections of the course. The proposed interactive methods can be regarded as a basis for further theoretical study in the context of pedagogical science, in particular, for a conceptual assessment and improvement of teaching methods of socio-humanitarian disciplines. The developed set of pedagogical methods and techniques, containing specific assignments, citations, and links to Internet resources, can be applied by representatives of higher education in the Russian Federation in order to improve the quality of teaching the discipline «Fundamentals of Russian Statehood».

The trials of recent years, which Russia and the whole world are going through, force a person to make decisions and make a value choice. In this regard, it is very important what set of values will be decisive for the individual, especially for those who are at the initial stage of their formation. One of the measures that universities can take to solve the problem of forming value orientations of modern youth is the introduction of the discipline "Fundamentals of Russian Statehood" into the curriculum. The purpose of the publication is to provide an opportunity to exchange the first teaching experience and, at the same time, a new look at the complex problem of Russian statehood. The study was conducted by the method of theoretical analysis of the existing methodological, pedagogical and ideological experience of spiritual and moral education. The authors also used the questionnaire method. In this article, the interpretation of the categories "values", "traditional Russian spiritual and moral values" is carried out, since the accuracy of defining the semantic load of the main concepts is extremely important for any social knowledge. Based on the analysis, the characteristics of the concept "values" are identified. The emphasis is placed on the fact that the content of the new discipline with traditional values implies their thorough and in-depth study regardless of the specialization of the university and its geographical location. It is noted that during the teaching of the discipline it is necessary to constantly establish connections between the five thematic units. Traditional values should be used as one of the unifying elements between the thematic units of the course. The authors showed the potential of content filling of the course structure with traditional values and its effective implementation using the example of such a system-forming value as a strong family. A number of exercises and tasks aimed at understanding the most important role of the family in modern society and the state were presented. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the presentation of the special role of traditional spiritual and moral values in teaching the discipline "Fundamentals of Russian Statehood" and a special view of the family and family values in the context of strengthening the foundations of the state. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of applying expanded knowledge of the key concepts of the course in teaching practice, the use of methodological techniques, exercises in the study of individual topics that were developed by its authors in the process of teaching and presented in this article.

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.

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