ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 41 (Number 06) Year 2020. Page 27

Experimental research of the social expectations of holders of master’s degree in pedagogy

Investigación experimental de las expectativas sociales de los estudiantes de la maestría en pedagogía

POPOVYCH Ihor S. 1; MACHYNSKA Natalia I. 2; LOZYNSKA Svitlana V. 3; NOS Liubov S. 4; DERKACH Yuliya Ya. 5; PROTS Marta О 6.; KOVALCHUK Zoriana Ya. 7 & LOS Oksana M. 8

Received: 13/10/2019 • Approved: 26/01/2020 • Published: 27/02/2020

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Materials and Methods

3. Results

4. Discussion and conclusions

Bibliographic references

1. Introduction

Recently, the vocational training of future primary school teachers has undergone permanent innovative changes. These changes relate to methodological support, psychological support for the educational process and are based on the latest developments in psychological science. The psychology of constructing the future, the temporal range of problems, the study of the way of the desired life, the substantiation of psychological practices of modeling the future, life tasks, the choice of the future profession – are the key priorities of the contemporaneity. These problems do not leave aside the psychological regularities of future primary school teachers. The organization of the educational process of holders of master’s degree in pedagogy requires our orientation for tomorrow. Such interpretation of scientific problems actualizes the need for theoretical substantiation and experimental study of development and psychocorrection optimization of social expectations of holders of master’s degree in pedagogy.

It has been researched that social expectations along with self-rating is bidirectional mutually agreed mechanism of reciprocal influences through which self-regulation of personality behavior is carried out (Popovych, 2014). Another study shows that social expectations, as mental process, are ensured by the cognitive, emotional and conative readiness of the personality for the predicted course of events. Mental states, processes and properties of expectations form the basic conceptual basis on which the psychology of human social expectations is built (Popovych, 2017).

Personality has its own system of social expectations. This system defines perspective lines and life strategy. Social expectations of the personality are the process of constructing and reflecting social reality. This process is implemented through mechanisms of interiorization and exteriorization, internalization, externalization and objectification, reflection, identification and stereotyping (Blynova, 2015). The main achievement of the personality in ontogenesis is the ability to construct the future, forming a link between anticipation as process and image of achievement, as product of the processing of internal representation (Mikhalsky, 2014). There are studies that indicate that social expectations of the personality are plaited into the general trajectory of personal life-building, in all models of task structuring of the future, and are an effective factor in realizing the authenticity of the personality, an important property of future planning. (Tytarenko et al., 2012).

The motivational component of social expectations in theories of personality motivation has been researched (Popovych, 2014b), where expectation of results is the relationship between efforts spent and results obtained. Social expectations are considered as predicting the efficiency of work. This prediction is based on analysis of the valency of the employee and the instrumentality of his employer. The main idea of such researches is that the more valuable the result and higher likelihood of reward, the more effort the employee will make to achieve the goal (Kominis, 2007; Lunenburg, 2011a; Lunenburg, 2011b). It is experimentally proven that control helps to manage the organization, balancing between expectations and behavior of sales agents. The group’s culture has been defined as common expectations between “knowledge of the behavior of its members” and “the need for their actions”, emphasizing the close connection that requires mandatory fulfillment (Sunder, 2002).

Expectation is judgment of what can be expected in the particular circumstances; these judgments are usually specifically agreed with the expected mean of social processes (James, 2009).

Of interest is the study of the relationship between psychological prosperity in the optimism / pessimism disposition and its impact on academic progress. It has been found that optimism / pessimism assessment will allow researchers to quickly and efficiently determine the expectations of college students (that will be required), if they want to address academic challenges and outline special efforts they will need to succeed (Gustems-Carnicer et al., 2017). In this context, we recall study of dispositional optimism that addresses students’ beliefs that the future is influenced more by success than failure (Throndsen, 2010), and their expectations that they can monitor the results of their actions and achieve positive results in the future. This study comes from Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory (1986).

In the system-level concept it is proved that according to the predicted changes in the conditions of the external environment, early preparation, prognostication of results and construction of actions program are carried into effect. This is what determines the direction and nature of behavior in the current situation (Lomov, 2006). The formation of social and professional activity of students in the university educational environment is researched. The scientific and methodological resource, which creates comfortable conditions for modern specialist formation is presented (Kosarenco et al., 2018).

Thus, experimental study of social expectations of holders of master’s degree in pedagogy is considered relevant.

Theoretical analysis of scientific resources has shown that the problem of social expectations of holders of master’s degree in pedagogy is insufficiently studied. It is important to research the psychological content parameters of social expectations of masters of education, to create and introduce a program of psychological and pedagogical experiment The development and implementation of the experimental research program, which was built on the optimization of development and psychocorrection of social expectations of professional formation and development of holders of master’s degree in pedagogy, is timely and in need of experimental confirmation.

The authors suggest that the proposed psychological content parameters of social expectations of holders of master’s degree in pedagogy influence the expectometric indicators, sensory life orientations and affect the motivation of the subjects.

The purpose of this work is to experimentally study social expectations; optimization of development and psychocorrection of social expectations of holders of master's degree in pedagogy.

2.1. Participants

The study involved masters of education of the first and second years of study at two higher educational institutions of Ukraine: Ivan Franko National University of Lviv [IFNUL], 78 persons (76.47%) and Kherson State University [KSU], 24 persons (23.53%). The total sample aggregate was 102 persons. Masters of education gain the specialty of primary school teacher. The mean sample of age was 24.7 years (SD = 3.6, range 22–29 years). There were 93.14% female and 6.86% male in the sample.

Based on Hollingshead four factor index (Hollingshead, 1975), the participants’ families corresponded to the following categories: 10.5% low Familiar Socioeconomic-Status (FSS), 19.7% FSS low-medium, 23.4% FSS medium, 34.3% FSS medium-high, 12.1% FSS high, and the 2.0% did not provide information.

2.2. Instruments

During February – May 2019, psychodiagnostic methods were used to study social expectations. The questionnaire “Level of Social Expectations” (“LSE”) (Popovych, 2017): the level of social expectations of personality (LSEp), the level of awareness of expected events (LAEp), the level of expected attitude towards the participants of interpersonal interaction (LEAp), the level of expected performance (LEPp). The responses were within the bipolar semantic differential scale from -3 (strongly disagree) to +3 (strongly agree). The reliability index of α-Cronbach was α = .777. “Purpose in Life test” (“PIL”) (Leontiev, 2006): life goals (LG), process (P), result (R), locus of control – Self (LCS), locus of control – life (LCL), general awareness of life (GAL). Twenty pairs of assertions were evaluated by the Steppe bipolar scale, the values of which ranged from 0 (both statements are equally equal) to 3 (absolutely agree). The reliability index of α-Cronbach was α = .823. The questionnaire “The Level of Aspirations of Personality” (“LAP”) (Herbachevskyi, 1990) – scales of only two blocks out of four were used. Scales of the block “core of the motivational structure of personality”: internal motif (IM), cognitive motif (CM), avoidance motif (AM), the motif of competition (MC), the motif of changing activity (MCA), the motif of self-respect (MS) and scales of the block “predicted valuation of subject’s activity”: the projected level of mobilizing efforts (PLME), the expected level of results (ELR).

Responses were evaluated on bipolar semantic differential scale. The reliability index (obtained using α-Cronbach statistics) was α = .859. “Expectometry” technique (Popovych, 2017): coefficient of expectation (KE), expectometric status (ES), adequacy self-expectation level (A), coefficient of mutually expected options (EI).

2.3. Procedure

The study was conducted according to the algorithm of psychological and pedagogical experiment: ascertaining, forming and control stages. At the ascertaining stage, the questionnaires “LSE”, “PIL”, “LPS” and “Expectometry” were conducted. Each master of education completed the questionnaires and agreed to process his/her socio-demographic characteristics. Participation in the study was voluntary and anonymous. At the stage of forming experiment, prepared in advance program “Social expectations of the personality: theory and practice” for masters of education was carried out. Experimental (n = 15) and control groups (n = 17) consisted of groups of masters of education of the second year of study. The peculiarity of the study was that a significant part of masters of education have already started their professional careers. The program was implemented on IFNUL basis from March to April 2019, during the academic semester. In May (the end of the semester), control phase was conducted and comparison of forming influences was realized.

The research is conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the committee on the rights of the Helsinki declaration (WMA Declaration of Helsinki, 2013).

2.4. Data analysis

Statistical processing of empirical data and graphical presentation of the results were done using programs “Statistical Package for the Social Sciences” v. 23.0 or another title PASW (Predictive Analytics SoftWare) Statistics and MS Excel. Spearman correlation coefficients (rs) were used to find and establish correlation between the metrics obtained. Checking the parameters of normal distribution was effectuated using the one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov criterion ƛ.

Arithmetic mean value of parameters (M), standard error (Sx) and mean-square deviation (SD) were calculated. Evaluation of differences reliability of distinctions of average values of independent sample was carried out by parametrical methods with the help of Student’s t-test on the basis of normal Gaussian distribution of the studied quantitative characteristic. Differences between values of parameters at level р≤.05 considered statistically significant.

The purpose of the ascertainment stage was to diagnose the peculiarities of semantic psychological parameters, to establish social and psychological conditions of realization, to isolate the factors of social expectations of the individual. The parameters under study “LSE”, “PIL” and “LPS” (“motivational core of the personality” and “predicted valuation of subject's activity”), “Expectometry”, based on arithmetic mean scales (M), standard error (Sx) and mean-square deviation (SD) were measured, and which are presented in table. 1.

Table 1
Mean values and standard deviations of
the scales of the parameters under study
(n = 102)

Note: M – arithmetic mean; Sx – standard error; SD – mean-square deviation.

The application of “Level of Social Expectations” (“LSE”) questionnaire (Popovych, 2017) is relevant and qualitatively reflecting the object and subject of the study of the social expectations of holders of master's degree in pedagogy. The components offered in the questionnaire are basic in determining the level of social expectations of masters of education, defining the expected readiness for their professional activity, predicting the probable course of events of the subjects. According to the results of the questionnaire, the structure of social expectations of masters of education was determined. Correlation of social expectations parameters with key parameters by other methods was established (see Table 2).

Table 2
Correlation between the parameters of
social expectations of masters of education
(n = 102)

Note: * – statistical significance of p≤.05;
** – statistical significance of p≤.01.

The most essential correlative interconnection (p≤.05; p≤.01) has parameters of social expectations with parameters such as locus of control – life (LKL), general meaningfulness of life (GKL), internal motive (IM), the motive of changing activity (MCA), the significance of results (SR), the expected level of results (ELR), regularity of results (RR), coefficient of expectation (KE), expectometric status (ES) and adequacy self-expectation level (A). The established correlative interconnection was important when creating and testing the program “Social Expectations of The Personality: Theory and Practice”. Optimization of development and psycho-correction of social expectations was performed with correlation.

In figure 1 the results of the ascertaining stage of social expectations of masters of pedagogy are demonstrated.

Figure 1
Characteristics of levels of social expectations of holders of master’s degree in pedagogy
Note: --- the change of the mean value (trend); I – the limit of error; level: H – high; M – medium; L – low.

The characteristic of social expectations of masters of education is evenly distributed by curve which empirical data are similar to the Gaussian curve. High results of medium levels are in the range from 71.60% to 76.95%, low levels – 9.06% to 14.81% and correspondingly high levels are from 11.11% to 17.74% of the individuals under study. The correlative interconnection is established and the levels of social expectations of future elementary school teachers are basic in the creation of training program in the form of special course "Social expectations: theory and practice".

The implementation of the special course “Social Expectations: Theory and Practice”

The program was implemented in experimental group consisting of a group of masters of education of the second year of study (n = 15). The participation of M.Ed. was voluntary. The program was compared to control group, which was formed by a group of masters of education who also studied for the second year at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Ukraine) (n = 17).

The program provided special course “Social Expectations of the Personality: Theory and Practice” – 3 ECTS credits (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System). The key were social and psychological trainings. They included modeling and training of typical professional situations encountered by beginners. These situations form the core of the beginner’s initial professionalization. Lectures, discussions, roundtables, production conferences and trips to potential workplaces also contribute to optimization and psychocorrection of the social expectations of future primary school teachers. The purpose of such events was to inform the future specialist of the expected work more meaningfully. Some “dreamy” social expectations of masters of education have become real and rich in content. Preventive measures were done by means of explanatory conversations and group discussions.

The individual work “I and the future profession” made it possible to create distinct model of the expected image of future work. The method of organizing experimental situations was actively used. Organized experimental situations were taken from the life of masters of education: training, professional, sports and leisure activities. Psycho-correction direction combines psychological counseling and psycho-correction exercises. Permanent psycho-correction work, correction of each other, comparison of the expected image of masters and the real one, displayed by the group and its individual members, helped to optimize the development of adequate social expectations and self-expectations of the master of education. The most influential factors in the formation of the expected results were: LKL (.406**), GKL (.325**).

The final block has combined the following techniques, methods and forms of work: retrospective analysis, surveys, testing, frontal talk, expert evaluation, and group discussion. The final block of the program was dedicated to modifying the program, summarizing, reflective analysis of program stages and further testing.

The control phase involved assessing the effectiveness of the measures implemented. Comparison of the experimental and control groups prior to the introduction of the special course revealed no significant differences in the study. The experimental and control groups did not differ in the indicators under study, which was additionally confirmed by almost exactly the same gender composition of the two groups: in the experimental group – two male participants (13.33%), in the control group - three male participants (17.65%). As our monitoring has shown, specially organized training creates favorable development environment - kind of social field that affects the levels of social expectations of the individuals under study. We present comparison of the parameters under study “LSE” in the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG) before and after the forming experiment (Table 3).

Table 3
Comparison of the experimental group (EG) data with the
control group (CG) data of holders of master's degree in pedagogy

Note: difference is relevant (p≤ .01**; р≤.05*)

-----

Figure 2
Comparison of parameters of social expectations
of the personality LSEp EG and CG

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Figure 3
Comparison of level of awareness about expected
course of events LAEp EG and CG

-----

Figure 4
Comparison of level expected
performance LEPp EG and CG

-----

Figure 5
Comparison of level expected attitude
to participants LEAp EG and EG

Comparison of results (see Fig. 2-5), confirmed the effectiveness of the special course “Social Expectations of the Personality: Theory and Practice”. The experimental group (EG) recorded significant positive changes in all parameters: the awareness indicator about the expected course of events (.004**; p≤ .01), the expected attitudes towards participants in interpersonal interaction (.008 **; p≤ .01), expected performance (.018**; p≤ .01) and the indicator of the level of social expectations of individuals under study (.001**; p≤ .01). In the control group (CG) significant positive changes were recorded in only one parameter – the indicator of awareness of the expected course of events (.045*; p≤ .05). We explain this by the fact that those traditional educational activities, which are envisaged by the work curriculum, have positive influence on the formation of the idea about the future profession and contribute to significant changes in the awareness of the expected course of events of holders of master's degree in pedagogy (CG).

It should be noted that there are few studies of the social expectations of masters of education in the context of future professional activity. It is of scientific interest-the research which establishes positive meaningful link between social expectations and results of efficient educational and professional activity (Popovych et al., 2019a).

The use of psychodiagnostic methods gave prominence to the psychological content of social expectations, and the interconnection with expectometric parameters, sensory orientations and motivation components revealed the regulatory ability of the future specialist. The study results of experimental group (EG) of social expectations of masters of education indicated significant level of correlation (p≤.01). Our results have some aspects in common with those of other empirical studies (Silvia et al., 2009; Thoman et al., 2011; Prokhorov et al., 2015; Popovych & Blynova, 2019b; 2019c).

The results of the study were presented at the IFNUL and KSU Masters and Teachers’ Reporting Conference. Participants noted that it would be very useful to find more factors that will help optimize the development of social expectations of masters of education, identify the most effective psycho-corrective practices, make the program prolonged and implement it in the educational process from the first year of study of masters, try to adapt it to higher education level – “Bachelor”. Experimental confirmation of the effectiveness of the developed program indicates the possibility and necessity of its implementation in the form of special course “Social Expectations of the Personality: Theory and Practice” in the educational process of masters of education. In the perspective of research, there is development and adaptation of optimization of development program and psychocorrection of social expectations for all bachelors and masters of IFNUL and KSU.

Acknowledgments. The research was performed within the framework of the fundamental scientific and practical theme of the IFNUL Department of Primary Education (State Registration Number 0118U101134) and the KSU Department of General and Social Psychology (State Registration Number 0119U101096).

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1. Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Full Professor of Department of General and Social Psychology, Kherson State University, Kherson, Ukraine. Contact e-mail ihorpopovych999@gmail.com

2. Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor at the Pre-School and Primary Education Department, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine. Contact e-mail natalya_im@ukr.net

3. Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor at the Pre-School and Primary Education Department, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine. Contact e-mail sv-loz@ukr.net

4. Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor at the Pre-School and Primary Education Department, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine. Contact e-mail nos@ukr.net

5. Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor at the Pre-School and Primary Education Department, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine. Contact e-mail yuliyaderkach80@gmail.com

6. Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor at the Pre-School and Primary Education Department, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine. Contact e-mail kapral.marta@gmail.com

7. Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Full Professor of Department Psychology, Lviv State University internal affairs, Lviv, Ukraine. Contact e-mail zoriana01051974@i.ua

8. Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Associate Professor Department of Pedagogy of Preschool and Primary Education, Kherson State University, Kherson, Ukraine. Contact e-mail oksanarostova7@gmail.com