Features of Professional Individuality of Chinese Students in Russian Art Universities

Fu Li Postgraduate student, Department of Art History and Pedagogy of Art, A.I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University 191186, Russia, g. Saint Petersburg, nab. Reki Moiki, 48, korp. 6 kaiseryili@gmail.com

Currently, in pedagogical universities of different countries, in connection with the introduction of a competence-based approach, the role of an individual educational route in teaching is being strengthened. The system of higher art education is no exception. However, it is worth noting that the understanding of the essence of this component of the educational process varies. So, in Russia, it is usually understood as the approximate content of educational work, taking into account the individual identity of the individual through the creation of special variants of its development ^[1]. These are also purposefully designed differentiated educational programs, which, ideally, should contribute to the formation of professional individuality. The latter is interpreted as the student's readiness for further education, self-determination, self-actualization, professionalization and development of individuality within the chosen profession ^[2]. The professional individuality of a teacher is also an integral personal education formed in the process of professional training of a specialist ^[3].

It should be noted that in Chinese education there is a concept of "professional identity", which means that a student or employee corresponds to a profession, has the necessary competencies, and also follows the principles of ideological and political education ^[4]. Moreover, it should also include the possession of such skills and knowledge that meet the requirements of modernity, including with regard to independence in decision-making, the implementation of creative processes and their results, the presentation of their work. At the same time, the understanding of what is an educational route seems to be connected with the introduction of the Western system of education. Moreover, in art education, such integration is much stronger than anything else, since the tendency to prepare in the Chinese style is characterized by consistency and complexity already at the early stages of training, strict teaching and exams. The influence of such traditions is still felt in the field of academic education, but in general, the emphasis is on individual differentiated education that would take into account the inclinations and needs of students, which required a revision of previously existing concepts.

In Russia, it is believed that individuality manifests itself in character traits, temperament, abilities, and lifestyle. It is always conditioned by the internal state of the individual, potential opportunities to achieve the highest results of creative activity ^{[5, p.107]}. And the ideas of the Chinese are not slightly different. Naturally, this approach is especially relevant in the training of future artists and art teachers in the conditions of pedagogical universities. This process in Russia was initially based on the individualization of creative work with students. Therefore, now, in connection with the strengthening of cooperation between Russia and China, the problem of adaptation and even changes in the principles of teaching, structure and content of programs, taking into account the capabilities and needs of foreign students, is becoming more acute.

Therefore, it is necessary to compare approaches to the formation of professional individuality in art and art-pedagogical universities of Russia and China by referring to such a subject of research as the specifics of vocational training, as well as to the object — the process of creating an educational route of a foreign student, taking into account his individual creative, intellectual and other opportunities in Russia. The aim is to determine the basic conditions for the effective design of the individual educational route of the future artist and artist-teacher based on the study of Russian and Chinese experience in the formation of professional individuality. Thus, the scientific novelty of the proposed research lies in the fact that the author considers how to build the process of formation of creative independence and, as a consequence, individual personality traits of a student — a future artist in higher educational institutions of Russia, taking into account national characteristics, motives and inclinations of Chinese students.

The problem of comparing higher art education in Russia and China in the past and present has been sufficiently studied, since at present authoritative publications, monographs and dissertations related to this issue already exist in the scientific worlds of both countries. These are the works of Yu Andong, Ju Zhaochun, V.I. Luchkova, N.E. Kozyrenko, E.M. Samsonova, Ju Zhaochun and others, which reveal a comparative analysis of traditions, conceptual foundations and principles of the organization of the process of teaching drawing, painting, sculpture and other artistic disciplines in Russian and Chinese universities. Thus, the Chinese researcher and teacher Ju Zhaochun names among the three basic directions of education development in both countries the most relevant — "innovative", which, from his point of view, involves the use of interactive teaching methods and information and communication technologies based on individualization of learning ^[6]. However, in relation to the Russian school, the Soviet psychologist L.S. Vygotsky argued that the most important thing in the study of art and art pedagogy is the question of the role of the social and individual, the active position of the student and the study of his potential as a starting point of the educational process ^{[7, pp. 24, 27]}.

Professional individuality in general is interpreted as a characteristic of a person inherent in him as an individual and manifested in relation to reality as a specialist in the space of professional existence ^{[8, p. 35]}. It affects the need for decision-making and the ability to creatively relate to problematic situations, which are the basic competencies of an artist-teacher.

It is no secret that students from China differ in their level of training from Russian students, as they were brought up in a different socio-cultural environment. According to a study by psychologist Yang Bin, Chinese students are characterized by emotional sensitivity and even vulnerability, rationality and activity in intellectual pursuits. At the same time, they are less plastic in relation to creativity, tend to monotonous techniques and actions ^[9]. These differences from Russians complicate the process of formation of professional individuality in the conditions of the Russian system of higher art education, which assumes an active position of the student in the process of mastering fine arts and pedagogical skills, as well as the manifestation of creativity and mobility. Not to mention the language barrier, since the teaching is conducted in Russian. In addition to these difficulties, Chinese specialists, having already received a diploma and returned to their homeland, are experiencing difficulties in artistic and artistic-pedagogical practice. They often use the knowledge and teaching methods they have acquired in academic disciplines, but do not know how to apply them to national specifics.

The way they achieve professional individuality is far from simple. Ideally, when drawing up individual educational routes for such students, it is important to take into account ethnopsychological and cultural factors, therefore, gently modify the learning process, make it more flexible. However, there are currently no general approaches to understanding the mechanisms of such a change in the current system of Russian art education. This determines the relevance of the proposed study.

In modern Russian education, the realization of the personal potential of students is carried out through an individual educational trajectory ^{[10, p. 10]}. It is reflected in the elements of the educational program and determines the content of the individual route. It is worth noting that this approach is characteristic of the system of training artists in Russia and has its roots in the past. The individual educational route, it would seem, a new form of reflection and embodiment of the vision of the teacher and the student of the path to achieving professional individuality has quite organically entered the pedagogical practice of Russia. Here it is considered as a purposefully designed educational strategy, which is determined by educational needs and individual abilities. However, this has also introduced innovations in how teachers can use this approach to achieve pedagogical goals. In addition, modern teachers have got their hands on such tools as variable curricula and educational programs, special pedagogical technologies.

The modern system of vocational education in China was formed mainly in the second half of the XX century in connection with the coming to power of the Communist Party. Of course, even before that, the most ancient state possessed art going back centuries, and a corresponding system of training artistic personnel. However, the comparative isolation of the system of training artists led to the isolation of China from the global artistic process. So, in the middle of the XX century there was a rapprochement between the USSR and China. The Soviet state provided assistance to the young republic in the field of training qualified specialists, and Chinese students had the opportunity to study at the art academies of their northern neighbor. Soviet teachers began to travel to China on creative business trips.

The formation of the skills of the future artist and artist-teacher has been considered for many years in China as a universal process of replenishing the stock of knowledge, skills and abilities, and the reliance was on the achievement of the Russian art school. However, unlike their northern neighbors, Chinese teachers still relied not on the formation of individuals, but focused on the training of teachers for mass education. The situation changed when universities began to borrow positive experience first from Russia and Europe, as well as, and especially in recent decades, teaching methods from Japan and the USA. Thus, through constant experiments, the synthesis of foreign innovations with the peculiarities of national culture, a new type of art education system was formed, which is focused on the "cultivation" of talents with comprehensively developed creative qualities, the development of creative potential and innovative abilities ^[11]. The identity and value of students' personalities is beginning to play an increasingly important role in the process of building an educational route.

The educational route in China is structured similarly to other countries. However, the mechanism of its formation is based on special principles. This is based on such stages as basic preparation, copying, imitation and creation of full-fledged works. Any future artist and artist-teacher must pass them. Moreover, he needs to methodically comprehend each of them in order to help his students understand later. The route necessarily includes those forms and learning tools that allow you to get in touch with the history of art (attending lectures, seminars, museums, libraries, etc.), work in creative workshops to develop an individual style, personalize the characteristics of art, form your attitude to traditions and artistic innovations. An obligatory moment is the participation of students in the social process and cultural creativity at the expense of individual creative projects, industrial practice.

Currently, there is a need to revise the previous pedagogical principles regarding the training of future artists-teachers in China itself, which entails the actualization of changes in the approaches of Russian universities to work with such students. Here it should be taken into account not only that the professional personality of a potential teacher of fine arts should be formed within their walls, but also that she should have the resources to adapt to the conditions of her native country after returning from school. Moreover, in this process, it is also important to systematically familiarize students with the university infrastructure and traditions, patterns of structure and mechanism of the educational route, which differ from the usual for them.

Together, these factors determine the priority of the individual beginning in working with Chinese students. In order to form an individual educational route, Chinese teachers, as a rule, are guided by the desire to help them clarify their educational goals and fully take the initiative; to study their strengths and opportunities in teaching; to pay attention to students with average indicators and help them ^[12].

The focus of modern teaching in China is not the transfer of knowledge, but the provision of opportunities to study independently and develop learning abilities. This is especially important for artistic and pedagogical education focused on the development of creativity and the spirit of innovation. The assessment of students is not about how much knowledge the teacher gave, what creative skills he transferred, but about the ability to collect, analyze and interpret artistic material. The campus and academic buildings, creative workshops, libraries should form a single "self-learning" learning environment, and students guided by the educational route need to master it and use it in their personal and professional growth. Of course, in real conditions, no one demands to rebuild the territories of universities in Russia to meet the needs of foreigners, but it is quite possible to draw up curricula clearly, in detail, so that it is clear in what place and at what stage it is necessary to show certain creative abilities, willingness to acquire knowledge, responsibility right now.

It should be noted that Chinese art education, unlike the long-established Russian one, is a very young phenomenon that is in the phase of formation, the search for its own face. Moreover, in this race of universities for new content, methods, and structure of teaching, students are in dire need of systematized and consistently developing artistic knowledge and skills. The Russian school just gives such training, but with an emphasis on studying, but on creative independence.

The most important thing is to pay maximum attention to the differences of students. In such conditions, students have more opportunities for independent thinking and practice, improve their qualities and develop their potential, therefore, they go to the comprehensive development and formation of individuality in the profession. Today, in the process of training focused on the formation of professional individuality, a Chinese student, even studying at a Russian university as part of an academic discipline, may well turn to these techniques, figurative language and symbols to create an original work. This is very important for Chinese students, as our priority is to train professionals who can deeply understand Chinese society and participate in socio-cultural processes. This is part of the policy of socialism with a "Chinese face". Therefore, attention to the traditions of the Chinese people and the desire to use their artistic experience is quite natural.

However, it is worth noting that Chinese students have great respect for Russian art and classics. We should also not forget that the Russian art education system has an important advantage for China. It lies in the fact that the content of training is traditionally interdisciplinary, which the eastern neighbor lacks. Ideally, educational programs in Russia should be developed with the participation of both domestic and foreign students. They need to be given the opportunity to choose the subjects, standards and skills that they want to study and that they think they will need in the future, especially in a different cultural environment. The essence of the individual route is precisely to give students a field for reflection on their needs.

The best way is to ask them what they are interested in learning and learning how to do, and then help them find ways to achieve this in the conditions of the existing program. Many large universities in China attract students to form a specialization program that includes at least three disciplines. Thus, the training shows a greater degree of personalization and allows you to work closely with teachers in working on creative projects. At the moment, in the practice of higher art education in Russia, there are no ways to diagnose what is important and interesting to Chinese students. If they exist, it is within the personal experience of individual teachers. 

In order to more accurately capture the real problems and inclinations of Chinese students when confronted with educational material and teaching methods in Russian art universities, it is best to use such a scientific method as a questionnaire survey. Since questionnaires are currently widespread in Russian education and there are a large number of diagnostic methods, it is advisable in the framework of this study to propose the content of the questionnaire aimed at determining interests and inclinations in order to understand what conditions are necessary for Chinese students to achieve professional individuality in art universities in Russia. To do this, it is necessary to synthesize the experience of Russian education in this area and those developments that Chinese art universities offer. Moreover, since interests and cognitive needs are somewhat different, but should be taken into account equally when drawing up a training route, it is necessary to differentiate the questionnaire data, but present them in a complex.

So, the questionnaire "Interests" should help to establish what most attracts Chinese students to the system of higher art education in Russia. This questionnaire may consist of the following questions:

• What attracts you the most in a Russian university?

•        Which academic subject seems to you the most difficult in the course of study offered to you in Russia? Describe your difficulties.

•        Which academic subject do you find most interesting and why?

• What is offered at a Russian university that can help you in your professional activity in your native country?

•        Are there any subjects in the program of a Russian university that seem superfluous and unnecessary to you from the point of view of usefulness for future professional activity in your native country?

•        What subjects that you find useful for future professional activity in your native country are missing from the program of a Russian university?

Having determined the features of the educational and cognitive motives of students, it is advisable to address the definition of the presence and nature of the cognitive needs of students in relation to artistic and creative activity through the following questions:

•        How often are you ready to engage in artistic and creative activities for a long time?

• What do you prefer to do when you are faced with a creative task that requires independence?

•        Do you do a lot of extra work?

• How emotionally do you feel about an artistic and creative work that is interesting to you, a creative project?

• Do you often turn to a teacher for help when performing artistic and creative work?

The processing of the results for this questionnaire consists in the calculation of points. The highest number of points indicates a pronounced cognitive need within the framework of creative activity. Naturally, the smaller the result, the weaker the motives. 

It should be indicated that the submitted questionnaires are best, given the difficulties with the language, to be offered for filling in Chinese. Moreover, the wording of the questions is universal, so they can be offered with a slight adjustment for students who have arrived from other countries, translating into the appropriate language.

It is best to "run" both questionnaires periodically already within the framework of training in order to see the dynamics of changes, and adjust the educational route in accordance with them in order to form the professional personality of a Chinese student. It should also be noted that the use of such questionnaires can allow Chinese students to directly formulate their questions, classify and summarize information, as well as identify problems themselves and, as a result, solve them. Thus, such a tool by itself can work on the formation of professional individuality, becoming a means of introspection, and, at the same time, gives Russian teachers valuable information about the personality of students and their real needs.

Naturally, for a student of an art university or the art and pedagogical faculty of the university, the priority will be to build an educational route of a developing type, focused on stimulating and revealing creative potential. At the same time, it is important to take into account the needs and motives of students, including foreign ones. The personal experience of the author of the article has shown that the main problems arise due to the fact that it is difficult for a foreign student to integrate into local traditions, norms of behavior, and a special problem, of course, is the language barrier. It is not easy for a Chinese in the first years to understand what the teacher wants from him.The fact that the principle of visibility or "do as I do" is used in the development of visual skills saves. And here again the differences between Russian and Chinese students appear, or rather, the differences in the understanding of form, the role of line, the viewer and the author, space, expressive means in a work of fine art. Chinese art is more focused on realism, and now also with a slight inclusion of impressionism, symbolism, very rarely avant-garde trends. In Russia, students come to the university from art schools, studios, centers, circles, being brought up on the best examples of Russian and Western European art, as well as perfectly oriented in the mainstream. A visitor from China is also familiar with these images, as well as creative techniques, but in his head there is also what he has absorbed from his culture - traditional art, philosophy, ideological and ideological positions, as well as trends of the Chinese art market. The collision of the familiar and the new is extremely difficult, and even in an extremely short time. Such a student sees and understands differently even the seemingly most obvious things for a teacher and a Russian student. He is in dire need of forms that involve close interaction with teachers. We are talking about dialogue, introspection, solving cognitive tasks, joint educational and creative activities of a teacher and students, both local and foreign, trips to the open air, etc. An important role is played by the acquaintance of Chinese students with the cultural centers of the place of study, namely museums and galleries, theaters, libraries, etc. Their attendance, as a rule, is not mandatory for local students, but is extremely important for "immersion" in the artistic environment of a foreigner.

Meanwhile, it is impossible to build a universal route for all Chinese art students, since their route is purely individual and depends on their creative energy, personal characteristics. Of course, such students should learn to "fit in" with the realities of Russian education, they should not be given any privileges in comparison with local students. At the same time, teachers' understanding of the interests and needs of Chinese students, as well as their own understanding of the difficulties and successes achieved through questionnaires and collaboration, helps to build the necessary trajectory within existing courses, which is necessary for successful learning.

In conclusion, we emphasize that Russian and Chinese higher art education have a lot in common, which, first of all, is expressed in orientation to the traditions of realistic art. In both countries, it is understood as the basis of visual literacy and a storehouse of artistic and imaginative ideas that can nurture a realist artist, a representative of any modern art movement, as well as a productive teacher. Moreover, the personality-oriented methodology of working with students in Russia and the individualization of learning in China are essentially processes close to each other, leading to an attentive attitude to the student's personality. To a certain extent, this allows students from China, for the most part, to successfully master the programs of Russian universities. The latter offer academic training to foreigners, but with the introduction of individual educational routes and a number of other innovations. In the conditions of a market economy and fierce competition in China, the desire to develop an effective technology for the formation of talents is increasing, so much more emphasis is placed on the individual beginning. Students are allowed to participate in the development of educational routes, communicate more freely with teachers in an educational learning environment.

The position of the author of the publication is that the effectiveness of professional training of Chinese students in a Russian university will increase significantly if teachers take into account the ethnopsychological and cultural characteristics of students when drawing up flexible curricula, as well as the experience that Chinese educational institutions have. In addition, it offers tools for identifying their interests and cognitive needs in the form of questionnaires, which can be useful both to teachers for monitoring and to students themselves for introspection. Thus, the most important conditions for the effective development of students' innovative abilities and practical applied abilities in such a way that they can use them, both in Russia and in China, are interaction with teachers and university management; constant self-reflection and awareness of their creative abilities; drawing up a portrait of a Chinese student's personality in which the motives of learning and inclinations were reflected. The generalized research results and conclusions presented in the article can be useful for further research in the field of pedagogical technologies of art education in Russia and comparative analysis of Russian and Chinese education.