Development of students’ civil qualities via engaging them into socially significant activities

The topicality of the issue is determined by the government’s course towards the consolidation and unity of Russian society on the basis of constitutional law-governed state, while Russia is strengthening its positions on the international scene and playing the leading role in the fight against terrorism. It implies that the system of higher education should train not only qualified specialists but also educated citizens, who are able to defend their motherland, suppress their own needs to the needs of the country, be loyal to the legitimate authority. The article studies how to engage students’ into socially significant activity in order to develop their civil qualities, which are a structural component of their social maturity. The development of students’ civil qualities via engaging them into socially significant activity is considered a pedagogical condition of formation of their social maturity. Comparative analysis of the literature allowed us to determine the complex of students’ civil qualities as a component of their social maturity as well as the types, forms and functions of students’ socially significant activities, and stages, methods, organisational forms, principles of engaging students into socially significant activity. The results can be used to work out the structure of students’ social maturity and formulate the pedagogical conditions of its formation.