AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
Risk Behavior Surveillance System processed. Most of its
surveys focused on the age group that is at the heart of our study,
the “iGeneration”
4
From the point of view of socialization, social relationships,
learning, mental and emotional factors, it has illuminated the
problems of our college students (also), their mental health. He
pointed out that their fears are common, they struggle with
insecurity, anxiety, depression, and their physical-mental-
spiritual world is contradictory. (Twenge 2018) Twenge also
draws attention to the American Freshman Survey, which
focused on the mental and emotional health of university
students. Indicators of change among first-year college students
in 2009-2016 show significant growth. Based on these:
deriving from.
mental problems and their mental health is below
average:18% increase;
felt overwhelmed: a rise of 51%;
wanted to start therapy: 64% increase;
felt depressed: 95% increase (almost doubled). (Twenge
2018: 138)
Similar trends were reported in a study by the American College
Health Association (ACHA) conducted between 2011 and 2016
with 400,000 students and around a hundred universities. From
their results the following facts should be highlighted:
college students are feeling overwhelmingly anxious;
experiencing depressive states that block their actions and
thinking - "they couldn't do anything" and anxiety and
depression began to increase from 2013 onwards. (Twenge
2018: 138)
The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the information
obtained so far and the comparison of the results obtained in the
international context significantly reflect the fears, uncertainties,
anxieties, lack of self-confidence, significant mental and
psychological problems, the blocking of their actions and their
thinking. In fact, they are suffering from depression, fear of not
being able to perform well, failing to meet the criteria, failing the
exam, confident in their own abilities and fears that they will not
be able to integrate into the university community. These factors
have been confirmed:
i.
Processed results of surveys conducted at J. Selye
University,
ii.
In the results of surveys carried out in the four higher
education institutions examined,
iii.
In the light of the results of our surveys and the indicators
of the summarized international surveys.
4 The relationship between experience pedagogy and
personal development
The results of the studies outlined clearly indicate that in
addition to acquiring professional knowledge, university
students need to develop their personality and enhance some of
their qualities, as well as a personality-developing pedagogical
approach that develops students' love for learning and enables
them to to meet the challenges of the present age. (Robinson
2018) Based on our research, the proven success of well-
functioning tools in experience education can help us achieve
our goals. Experiential pedagogy is an opportunity for education
and development that can bring about a positive change in
people on a practical level. It relies on action and its evaluation.
In experience pedagogy, experience is a tool, so learning,
development is the goal of all experiences, and the feeling of joy
follows. Since there is no full motivation without the feeling of
joy, one of the main drivers of adventure pedagogical activities
is the “flow-flow experience”, the joyful and adventurous
immersion in the activity. (Csíkszentmihályi 2008, 2010) Thus,
experience pedagogy seeks the experience, the joy in learning
and the development of the individual, the experience of self-
4
They were born after 1995. They grew up on a smartphone, had an Instagram page
before they started high school and don't remember the days before the internet. They
are all different from the generations before them. (Twenge 2018)
confidence and success as a reward. It all comes hand in hand
with a better mood, better performance, better problem solving,
more creativity, better physical and mental health. (Seligman
2012)
The purpose of experience pedagogy is to learn through
concrete, hands-on experience, not in the usual way, but in
different situations involving experience. (Schörghuber,
Amesberger, cit. Szabó 2006) Practical situations involve the
individual from different perspectives, thus facilitating the
coordinated action of the brain, heart and hands. (Mészáros-
Bárnai 2010) It provides colorful, diverse, versatile applications,
and is well adapted and adapted to different programs, activities
and topics. "Victory" is not the primary goal, but the experience,
whether in individual or group performance. It is the basis of
experience and experience in which the learners are in direct
contact with their environment, nature and people. (Petlák-
Fenyvesiová 2009)
The benefits of experiential pedagogy can be demonstrated in
improving self-concept, developing social relationship skills,
managing friendly relationships, promoting social behaviors,
accommodating disadvantaged groups, changing the quality of
teacher-student relationships, in which the teacher is the
facilitator” (Horváth-Tóth 2018; Horváth-Tóth 2019). It is also
important that attitudes towards school attendance also turn in a
positive direction and strengthen the problem-solving ability of
the young person, as he or she does not acquire ready
knowledge, but acquires knowledge, experience and experiences
in a variety of forms and situations.
5 Possibilities of adapting experience pedagogy to higher
education
Summarizing the facts and aspects outlined above, it can be
concluded that the application and adaptation of the elements of
experience pedagogy is fully justified in higher education. In
addition to acquiring academic knowledge, personality
development is accomplished through an experience-based
process of gaining experience. Both intellectual and emotional
factors play an important role in the process of transferring
knowledge (Strédl 2013). In addition, setting manageable
challenges, the experience pedagogy enables the student to
become even more positive and receptive in their work: they –
involuntarily and unconsciously – began to use their social skills
more actively (e.g. cooperation, empathy, problem solving and
decision making) that could be a crucial and helping factor in
their university studies and relationships (Marosi 2017).
With all this in mind, and with the research findings that have
been discovered so far, in the academic year 2019/2020, we will
incorporate a personality development pedagogical approach
into the training of students at J. Selye University that
strengthens the students' engagement and they are also
strengthened to build relationships (peer-to-peer and student-
teacher) and, last but not least, contribute to the positive
development of their personality. We are initiating an optional
subject or course and the classification of a development course
in university education. The planned course is structured around
three subjects: art education, pedagogy and pedagogical
psychology. Based on these, the development course called
‘MŰ-PE-PSZI’
5
5
Phenomen MŰ-PE-PSZI in Hungarian langugage meens „Művészet (in English is
„Art”)-Pedagógia (in English is „Pedagogy”)-Pszichológia (in English is „Psychology)
(Figure 1) was chosen.
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