Isaieva S. Communicative pedagogy in the scientific heritage of the American scientist Thomas Gordon (1918-2002)

The thesis is devoted to finding out the peculiarities of Thomas Gordon's professional and pedagogical formation, theoretical and methodological principles of his communicative pedagogy, the opportunities of putting American scientist's ideas into practice in Ukrainian educational space. Biographical research of Thomas Gordon's professional and pedagogical formation has been carried out, the contextual factors of his communicative pedagogy have been covered. The conceptual foundations of communicative pedagogy of Thomas Gordon have been revealed. Methodical principles of teachers and parents training for effective communication have been determined. The mechanisms of international dissemination of Thomas Gordon's ideas based on the activity of 'Gordon Training International' association have been described. Prospects of use of pedagogical ideas in Ukrainian educational space have been outlined. The main principle of Thomas Gordon's pedagogy is an interactive way of knowing the world, which is realized within communicative activities through which any views and opinions are transferred to the partner, and his reflection on the expressed opinion is perceived that helps enrich the experience of interpersonal interaction. The concept, based on Thomas Gordon's communicative pedagogy, according to which a child is not the property of parents, and is characterized by his/her own identity, different from his/her parent's identity and is entitled to his/her own life, a unique personality, privacy, independence has been marked. The main goal of Thomas Gordon's communicative pedagogy has been revealed: child's development, his/her creative potential, rather than subordination to some external ideals or beliefs, alien to his/her nature. Thomas Gordon stresses that it is necessary to create conditions for child's development. Thomas Gordon's conflict resolution strategy, based on six stepwise algorithm, has been characterized: 1) recognition and definition of conflict; 2) search for possible solutions to the conflict; 3) critical evaluation of solution projects; 4) choice of the most appropriate solutions; 5) examining ways of introducing defined solution; 6) monitoring the results of performed actions. According to Thomas Gordon's point of view, human qualities such as tolerance, ability to sympathize, capacity to neutralize negative behaviour of the pupils, capacity to teach the pupils to solve their problems independently, should be owned by a teacher. The features of using Thomas Gordon's scientific heritage in the content of pedagogical education in different countries have been studied. The recommendations for implementation of Thomas Gordon's communicative pedagogy ideas in the realities of Ukrainian education have been defined.