Application of game sand modeling in educational activities of modern universities: factors of effectiveness

Based on the description of the essence of the game sand modeling and using the systems theory, the article identifies the factors of sand modeling effective application in the educational activities of modern universities. These factors are the following: 1) the obligatory inclusion in the number of analyzed elements, along with the metaphorical compositions created in the course of such modeling, and everything that happens to their authors, their psychosomatic, cognitive, and affective reactions, as well as the emerging behavioural patterns; 2) promotion of full-fledged personal subject-genesis, in in the course which each participant of training sessions is aware of her/his responsibility for solving the problems facing her/him and is able to build reasonable plans to achieve the goals; 3) optimization of the depth of the dialogical interaction of the participants of training sessions accompanying sand game modeling with a focus on such a level of understanding of the meaning of the work performed, which will be a sufficient condition for transformation of the problem under consideration into a solvable problem; 4) ensuring congruence of somatic, affective, cognitive and behavioral components of the response to final versions of decisions taken for execution as a main indicator of optimistic mood for upcoming actions; 5) development of the attitude to permanent self-development, creative application and expansion of experience of constructive solution of vital problems in all participants of game sand modeling training session.