The influence of reflexive educational environment on students’ reflection development in the process of social adaptation

Abstract

The topicality of the research is caused by the necessity to overcome contradictions between the traditional environment of educational institutions and the socialization of future graduates related to their mental world creation, to finding their identity in terms of civilization change and the rapid development of digital technologies. The aim of the study lies in defining the additional functions of the reflexive educational environment and its influence in the formation of students’ reflexive abilities and their understanding of the relationship between reflection and adaptation process in society. The leading method to investigate this problem (issue) is the reflexive method, including introspection, self-analysis, existential techniques of ‘self-exploration’, a dialogical communicative technique that allowed identifying, through content analysis of reflexive and analytical essays of students, the types of adaptive orientations (and the reflexive repertoires based on them) from which, as they integrate, a reflexive personality style is developed. It is established that the reflexive repertoires used in the process of self-identification correspond to the four adaptive attitudes of the person: homeostatic, hedonistic, rationalistic and pragmatic. Social adaptation is manifested in a conscious change in behavior and one’s own life support system, in creating a new environment of social existence, and is accompanied by a transformation of consciousness and self-awareness. In this case, reflection is the main means of these changes and the integration of reflexive repertoires and of formed reflection levels (narrative, dialogical, cognitive and axiological) are the factors influencing the outcome of social adaptation. The results of the research are aimed at solving the problem of creating a reflexive educational environment for students’ personal development and at choosing effective ways and mechanisms for their adaptation and self-realization in society. The materials of the study can prove useful both for theoretical research of reflexive thinking development in a specially created educational environment and for the teaching activities, including a foreign language.

Keywords: reflexive educational environment, reflexive orientation, reflexive repertoires, social adaptation.