Theoretical and Practical Issues of Student Youth Activity

Student activity in the learning and educational process depends on the psychological characteristics of student age, the social "face" of the student group, as well as the peculiarities of higher education institutions as organizations and environments. The purpose of this article is to provide a socio-psychological characterization of student youth and, against this background, to examine those aspects of the educational process that influence student activity and shape their uniqueness. Youth varies—having different cognitive styles and positions, diverse intellectual cultures, which undoubtedly depend on temperament and personal activity, but also on different experiences acquired from various backgrounds. The student age is characterized by two important phases of maturation: in the first phase, students assess and reassess the norms, values, and ideals they have inherited from their background, and in the second phase, they crystallize their life plans, both personal and professional. In addition, they solidify their views on the ways and conditions for realizing their life plans, intentions, and events—not only from an instrumental perspective ("by what means"), but also in terms of "in what way," which is crucial for education. The crystallization of a person’s system of values, aspirations, hopes, and ideals requires diverse and rich content, multifaceted interpretation, and, above all, emotionally new situations that facilitate their assimilation. Regardless of the socio-psychological complexity of the process by which an individual assimilates the values of their group, a fundamental condition for this assimilation is the correspondence of values and transmission conditions to the person’s aspirations, positions, interests, and inclinations. Therefore, we face the following tasks: to improve the level of the educational process by organizing it in such a way that the content of learning theoretically and practically corresponds to the challenges of students' future work; to introduce scientific problems into the learning process; to use modern teaching methods from both methodological and instrumental perspectives; to satisfy the cognitive needs of young people in the learning process, keeping in mind that fulfilling the needs of social nature in the student environment can create favorable conditions for active student participation in preparing for professional and social realities.