Abstract:

The teaching of foreign students in Russian medical higher educational institutions has become widespread in recent years and is associated with a number of challenges for the education system. Medical education in Russia is in great demand in the countries of the former Soviet Union, such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and others. As a rule, such students do not speak Russian, so the first three years of study take place in English. However, fourth-year students start clinical practice in in busy clinical settings, and they have to study in Russian. This is a challenge for many students, since they have not mastered the Russian language to the full extent and are not ready both for active educational interaction with the teacher and classmates, and for communication with patients. As a result, students cannot develop active learning strategies, and their cognitive, communicative and emotional development slow down. Basically, reflection is very important for medical education and a career in medicine. But it is crucial for students of obstetrics and gynecology since this activity requires a high degree of self-regulation and emotional intelligence. In this research we consider reflection as a metacognitive process, and reflexive learning as a method of increasing students’ cognitive and communicative activity. The use of strategies for enhancing reflexivity among clinician, such as journal/diary, personal illness narrative, reflective essays, demands large amount of vocabulary and grammar. So, for the education of foreign students in clinical settings and in the process of independent cognition the key element of reflexive learning is Russian-Latin-English thesaurus. This thesaurus contains vocabulary and grammar, structured according to topics relevant to obstetrics and gynecology, provided with pictures and typical communication phrases. Using the thesaurus as a learning tool allows students to actively practice all kinds of reflective strategies in learning and in the process of interacting with potential communication partners.

Keywords:

Medical students, reflexive learning, obstetrics, gynecology, strategies, thesaurus.