The comprehensive study of the training of a successful person in institutions of higher education in the United States (second half of the ХХth – beginning ХХІst century) was carried
out. The theoretical and methodological bases of the training have been considered, the definition of the concepts of “success” and “a successful person” is given. The phenomenon of success is defined as a category of philosophy, culture, sociology, linguistics, psychology and pedagogy, but each approach provides a certain specificity to the definition of this concept demonstrating a variety of theoretical and practical aspects. The concept of success has passed several stages of cultural and historical evolution and, ultimately, shaped into a strong and functional national idea.
It is considered that the peculiarities of success in pedagogical studies indicate the achievement of an individual in the academic process, the formation of the necessary spiritual and moral values and orientations, comprehensive development of a person under the influence of the educational environment. The scope of higher education has certain features that contribute to the fact that success in higher school is appropriate to define as the student success and consider it through the prism of personal, significant for the student achievements, under the conditions of active cooperation with the educational environment of colleges and universities.
A retrospective analysis of American experience in training of a successful person in higher school is carried out. According to these analyses the certain periods are distinguished and the periodization of success research has been proposed. The features of understanding the student success in different periods of historical development of the United States were influenced by the moral principles, socio-economic and political events of society.
US institutions of higher education, as centers for the formation of decent citizens of society, provide the necessary psychological and pedagogical conditions for the personality development. Success directly affects this mission and simultaneously is the subject of scientific research as a multidimensional construct. The training of a successful person means academic achievements, involvement in educational activities, a sense of satisfaction from the educational process, gaining desired knowledge and skills, persistence in achieving goals, professional career and life success. The analysis of scientific theories that determine the student success from different views is proposed in the dissertation. The American educators’ success concepts provide the opportunity to explore the key factors that affect success: pre-university training, students’ activity during the learning process and extracurricular engagement, the integration into the educational environment, socio-economic, age, gender and personal factors of the student, the level of motivation, the social environment during training, the role of a teacher and communication in the process of learning, and much more. The content, forms and methods of a successful person training are given. The pedagogical conditions and factors of effective functioning of this process in higher education institutions are determined.
A structural and functional model of a successful person training in higher education institutions is proposed. It contains five stages: admission to the higher education establishment; first-year adaptation to study; the process of student retention and persistence formation; preparation for completing training and graduation; employment / further study at the next level of education and success. Each stage involves the concentration of work on the successful person training with certain categories of students: applicants, freshmen, juniors, sophomores, undergraduates, graduates. The strategies of the student success improvement in higher education institutions are analyzed in the dissertation. The positive experience of successful person training in US universities and colleges is defined and generalized. In the context of Ukrainian higher education system reforming the issues of the competitiveness of institutions, student enrollment and persistence, retention and graduation rates are significant factors in the prestige of higher education. Therefore, the study of the problem of a successful person training and the implementation of this experience is most relevant problem for Ukraine.
