STUDENTS’ CONCEPTION ABOUT RESPONSIBILITY. THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY
Significance and aims.Vocational training of social workers includes the provision of conditions for development and self-development of a social worker, who is able to freely navigate in complex socio-cultural circumstances, to act responsibly and professionally in a reformed society. This conditions a deeper analysis of both the phenomenon of responsibility itself, and students’ conceptions about responsibility, and pedagogical approaches to its formation. The aim of the research is the study of students’ conceptions - future social workers - about professional responsibility. Materials and methods.The implementation of the research objectives was achieved through the use of a structural approach and the theory of the central nucleus of culture using the method of free associations and the identification of the structural status of each element in terms of the frequency of the association and its rank with the following statistical analysis. The study involved senior students of Eastern Economics and Legal Academy of Humanities (Academy of VEGU) majoring in «Social Work». Results.The frequency of association and the rank of its appearance in students’ responses with the separation of the central core and peripheral elements were studied. Graphic models of students’ conceptions about responsibility in terms of ethical (humanistic) and professional content and separation from nuclear elements were made. The semantic significance of the phenomenon was defined by such concepts as attentiveness, honesty (as personality’s quality) and mission, as a rule of professional responsibility; qualities which characterize a social worker, on the one hand, as sharing humanistic principles of the chosen profession; and on the other hand, showing signs of professionalism (competence, awareness, mobility, etc.) are attributed by students to the peripheral ones. Conclusion.The study allowed us to determine the elements that make up the concept of «professional responsibility of a social worker», the formation of which requires a search for innovation in the educational process of the university.