OVERCOMING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL BARRIERS OF POTENTIAL FOREIGN STUDENTS AS A MEANS OF INTERNATIONALIZING UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
1 Don State Technical University (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)
2 Southern Federal University (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)
3 Moscow Pedagogical State University (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)
About this paper:
Conference name: 13th International Technology, Education and Development Conference
Dates: 11-13 March, 2019
Location: Valencia, Spain
Abstract:
The article is devoted to a problem of search of effective ways of internationalization of the universities. The purpose of the article is to characterize new ways of recruiting potential foreign students to Russian universities by organizing their participation in international scientific conferences for schoolchildren. Potential future students have the communicative and psychological barriers connected with weak knowledge of the Russian language, cultural and scientific traditions of Russia. The low self-assessment of the intellectual activity, uncertainty in positive assessment of its results or lack of experience in research works are characteristics of many potential applicants. The article shows one of the ways to overcome these barriers for recruiting of applicants.
Research methods are interviews, content analysis, analysis of products of children's intellectual creativity, interpretation, comparison, analogy.
The object of the research is a new system of scientific communications created in the universities of the South of Russia.
Results and Discussion:
It is established that the universities of the South of Russia use a special system of scientific communication with schoolchildren and their teachers as supervisors. This work is carried out in three directions: 1) attraction of foreign teachers as co-authors of schoolchildren's researches: 2) invitation of schoolchildren to conferences and 3) publication of results of joint researches of a teacher and a schoolchild. The survey of the foreign teachers who are research supervisors showed that their activity is the significant motivating factor for participation of school students in a conference. It is shown that teachers recognize the role of the supervisor as a factor that increases their own professional level in terms of finding problematic aspects of the conference topics. They note professional growth in terms of mastering the methodology and logic of the research, the presentation of the research results. The activity of teachers is extrapolated to the sphere of schoolchildren' interests.
The article analyzes in a comparative plan the activities carried out under the auspices of the Southern Federal University (SFEDU) in the "Don Academy of young researchers", in which foreign schoolchildren do not participate, and the Don State Technical University (DSTU) in the framework of the I International scientific and practical Conference "MaxiUm" (March 2018). On the basis of the content-analytical research it was shown that 28,3% of participants in the “MaxiUm” conference are foreign schoolchildren. They show interest in humanitarian issues (28,6% of foreign participants) and natural sciences (66,6% of participants). Technical sciences (4,8% of participants) don't attract interest of foreign schoolchildren.
Conclusion:
It is concluded that the multi-profile Don State Technical University offers a more effective strategy to attract foreign students in the framework of the internationalization of the University by creating a situation of success in overcoming communication barriers by foreign schoolchildren. It occurs due to minimization of communicative barriers in the sphere of scientific communications and creation of a situation of success for foreign teachers and schoolchildren. The interests of teachers and schoolchildren are intertwined. The lack of technical disciplines in school programs causes low interest of participants of technical sections of a conference. Statistics show an increase in the number of students from Union of the independent states (former USSR) participating in a scientific conference. There is reason to believe that the practice indicates the successful involvement of schoolchildren for studies in the bachelor and schoolteachers for master's education and postgraduate studies. Keywords:
University, internationalization, psychological barriers, cultural barriers, research of school children, scientific conferences, foreign teachers.