Active Methods of Psychological Training of College Students.

Improvement in the psychological training of future teachers requires the systematic use of active methods of instruction. It is essential to think through and organize systematically all stages of the students' investigation, starting with the creation of their need for it and their appropriate motivational orientation, and ending by seeking solutions to professional problems and ways to enhance their pedagogical expertise. This kind of work should result in the development of the students' pedagogical thinking, pedagogical goal-setting, pedagogical introspection, and a professional orientation that ought to be distinguished by a deep-felt need for active creativity. All of this, as V. V. Davydov has remarked, characterizes the individual's personality level proper (see "O poniatii lichnosti v sovremennoi psikhologii" [On the Concept of the Individual/Personality in Contemporary Psychology], Psikhologicheskii zhurnal, 1988, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 22-32). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]