Psychological and pedagogical support of educational adaptation of college students

The research is based on the need to update the understanding of the adaptive potential of the individual at the stage of professionalization of college students. The study was conducted to analyse the dynamics of educational adaptation on the example of indicators of adaptation in the study group and adaptation to educational activities, using the methodology of T.D. Dubovitskaya and A.V. Krylova. The authors tested the assumption that the result of specially organized psychological and pedagogical support might be an increase in the indicators of educational adaptation of first-year students. The dynamics of educational adaptation was assessed by comparing the indicators of students’ adaptation to educational activities and in the study group, obtained before and after the implementation of psychological and pedagogical support aimed at strengthening the components of self-regulation, developing social communication and skills and skills of working with information. Statistical analysis using the Wilcoxon T-test was used to assess the significance of differences. As a result of the research, based on qualitative and statistical analysis, it can be concluded that as a result of psychological and pedagogical support, students have a positive dynamics of educational adaptation, in particular, indicating that the girls’ adaptation to educational activities is more successful than adaptation in a group. The practical significance of the research is to justify the applicability of the system of psychological and pedagogical support for first-year College students to maintain adaptation to the socio-cultural environment of the university by creating conditions for strengthening the subjective component of educational motivation. It contributes to a better understanding of the effectiveness of their own efforts to work with educational material; creating conditions for strengthening self-regulation skills in the course of psychological counselling of students (as a direction of psychological and pedagogical support), for developing the cognitive potential of the individual and strengthening communication skills in the course of general support. Moreover, the study confirms the possibility of using the methodology for evaluating students’ educational motivation to track its dynamics using both qualitative and quantitative indicators.