Abstract:

University studies prepare specialized experts in various fields - social, natural sciences, technical, artistic and others. At the same time, expertise is only one part of a person's personal equipment, the other is his value equipment. Looking at the composition of the study programs of Slovak universities, we identified the fact that they do not offer a systematic educational activity in the field of values. It is implicitly included in many subjects, but courses that deal explicitly with education on specific values are rather the exception. At the same time, a university student is not immune to values education and society needs to combine high and specialized expertise in one person with integrated values of ethics, justice, honesty... The presented study reveals the structure of value orientation in students of Slovak universities (N 1 232) during their university studies. Using a standardized questionnaire, it examines the level of educational, aesthetic, moral, economic and social value orientations in individual years of study. In the statistical analysis, we compared groups of students of teacher and non-teacher study programs. Future teachers will pass on knowledge to their students, but at the same time they should help them to integrate values that are important for society. The results of the statistical analysis show that the order of individual value orientations was the same in both groups, students valued social values the most, the least aesthetic. During university studies, there were changes in the level of individual value orientations. This fact suggests that higher education has an impact on the level of value orientation of students, even though value education has primarily an implicit form.

Keywords:

University student, value education, value orientations, students of teacher study programs, students of non - teacher study programs.