University classes: humanitarian aspect - “sweet dream” and reality in the daily activities of higher school teachers

The article discusses the author’s forms and methods of work in the course of teaching disciplines of the humanities cycle, aimed at activating students in cognition of the studied material, developing their skills in conducting scientific discussion. Methodologically, the study is based on empirical work, which involved general scientific methods and techniques (observation, analysis, generalization), as well as special (heuristic, reverse link method, survey, peer-to-peer dialogue). The aim of the study is to represent the general idea of selecting an intensive direction of conducting classes due to the strict time limit. To achieve it a number of tasks were accomplished, including: definition of modern role functionality for teacher and student, characterization of the educational process from the point of view of its restructuring in the direction of cognitive activity activation of students through the introduction of innovative forms and methods of work, identification of key points of the author's methodology of lecture and seminar classes, effectively tested in Kuban universities, recommendations formulation. Conclusion dwells upon the fact that the position of a teacher in higher education should be active, then the solution to the task of improving the quality of education will become real.