The thesis is devoted to the study of the problem of improving future psychologists’ professional training by forming their rhetorical competence. Based on the analysis of theoretical and methodological approaches (systemic, humanistic, personality-oriented, communicative, activity, competence and context ones) and the psychological and pedagogical principles of rhetorical education, the study of teaching rhetoric at higher schools, as well as the study of leading rhetorical aspects of professional activities of practical psychologists, the author defines the essence, content and structure of future psychologists’ rhetorical competence formation, specific principles of rhetorical training (historicity and continuity, mental and speech activity, dialogism, pedagogical partnership, reflectivity, creative text creation, integration of rhetorical and psychological knowledge and skills), as well as, the indicators and levels of rhetorical competence formation.
The structural components of future psychologists’ rhetorical competence formation and their constituent were determined, namely: motivational and value component (axiological, needs motivating, ethical and spiritual constituents); information and cognitive component (mental, cognitive, information constituents); functional and activity component (speech, connective and operational, creative, expressive and emotional constituents); professional and adaptive component (perceptual and reactive, reflexive, psycholinguistic constituents), which reflect multidimensionality of professionally oriented rhetorical activity of psychologists and determine all the areas of speech and rhetorical training in the process of psychologists’ professional education at higher schools. It is concluded that psychologists’ rhetorical competence is an important component of their professionalism, an integrated combination of rhetoric knowledge, perfect rhetorical skills, a set of personal oratory qualities that determine the ability to create consciously, pronounce the address text in accordance with the purpose and situation of public speech, resorting to rhetorical means to communicate productively in the professional sphere, to understand clients adequately, to interact optimally with individuals and groups of people in need of psychological assistance.
In order to improve the process of rhetorical competence formation, a pedagogical model of future psychologists’ rhetorical competence formation at higher schools (conceptual and methodological, content, subjective, organizational-activity and evaluation-effective blocks) was developed and implemented and pedagogical conditions of its implementation were substantiated, namely the development of motivational and value sphere of personality in relation to rhetorical competence as a component of psychologists’ professional training; the improvement and expansion of the content of students-psychologists’ rhetorical training taking into account the components of rhetorical competence; the introduction and application of modern technologies of students-psychologists’ rhetorical training into the educational process; the integration of rhetorical knowledge, skills and abilities into specialized (professionally-oriented) training of psychologists.
The author’s methods of forming masters’ rhetorical competence («Psychology» specialty) take into account the provision that students’ rhetorical training should be carried out taking into consideration the specifics of the chosen profession. The methods consist of several stages, during which students’ rhetorical competence is consistently formed and developed: awareness, development, actualization, and adaptation. Methods of forming masters’ rhetorical competence («Psychology» specialty) combines the elements of collective, cooperative, training and professional situational learning, the latest learning technologies that contain modern interactive methods of developing rhetorical knowledge, skills and abilities in accordance with the theme and purpose of each lesson. The experimental verification showed that the implementation of the suggested innovations significantly improves future psychologists’ rhetorical competence, and increases the quality indicators and the dynamics of rhetorical competence formation.
