Innovation course “The introduction to the profession (psychologist)”

A substantial drawback of Russian psychological education is that the main accent is drawn to the theoretical aspect and the methodology dominates the applied knowledge. Most of teachers are actually psychologists-investigators, their interests are quite particular and abstract; meanwhile the motivation of students is different: to learn themselves, to control and manage themselves, to help people with this knowledge. An attempt to overcome the shortcomings is the creation of an innovation course “The introduction to the profession (psychologist)”. The course (37 hours) is given during 1st semester of the freshman year. The program is under the practical development and had been run several times with some structural and substantial variations. To date, it consist of the next blocks: Myself and my professional choice, Emotions and volition, Obtaining information, Thinking, Diagnostics. The algorithm of every block is: Group testing - Psychological exercises according to a block subject - Group discussion - Reflexive report as Home task. The peculiarities of our group testing are: self-appraisal of the maturity of the quality tested (in per cent); score calculation using the key and its conversion into a 'per cent' scale; comparison between the scores of the self-appraisal and the test score; determination of the tendency to over/adequate/under self-estimation. The final test: each student prepares the project of “Individual plan of the development of professional qualities and skills”, consulate with the teacher to create a final version of the plan. These plans are discus in the training group. The course is considered to be an effective way of achieving the educational goals, self-realization within the context of future profession demands, reflexive analysis of behaviour and the skills of personal self-development being build up.