Assessing the level of readiness of educational psychology students to use health-saving technologies in the educational environment

Abstract

The article defines the concept of ‘health-saving technologies’ as a psychological and pedagogical issue. Health is considered the first and the main necessity of people, which determines their quality of life and ability to work as well as provides a comprehensive and harmonious development of personality. Health–saving technologies in education are technologies aimed at resolving the main issue of modern education — the task of preserving, maintaining and enriching the health of the educational process participants. The article discusses the risk factors affecting students’ health. The purpose of the article is to analyze the level of readiness of educational psychology students studying at Kokshetau University named after Sh. Ualikhanov and Kokshetau University of Abai Myrzakhmetov (Kazakhstan), to use health-saving technologies in their professional activities. Since there are no holistic methods that would reveal the readiness of specialists to use health-saving technologies in the educational process, we selected the following diagnostic tools: Index of attitude to health by S. Deryabo and V. Yasvin and the questionnaire studying the needs of participants in the educational process to be assisted in the vision of a healthy lifestyle (H.B. Tsakaeva). The sample included 74 students of educational psychology. The empirical data showed that students who took part in the study have an average and low degrees of attitude to health according to the Index of attitude to health methodology (S. Deryabo, V. Yasvin). The results of the questionnaire studying the needs of participants in the educational process to be assisted in the vision of a healthy lifestyle (H. B. Tsakaeva) showed that future educational psychologists understand the importance of health in life, but at the same time do not lead a healthy lifestyle and believe that they lack the necessary motivation. The students’ answers made it clear that universities do not pay enough attention to health-saving measures, although students of educational psychology need them. Based on the results of the study, we found that educational psychology students failed to develop the proper level of competence to use health-saving technologies in education. We suggest that such results are due to the certain aspects of professional training of educational psychologists, which create prerequisites for the development of readiness to use health-saving technologies. Further research is needed to verify this hypothesis.