The thesis provides the scientific justification, development and practical solution of the issues connected with training future specialists of decorative and applied arts to use ethnodesign of ceramics in their professional activities. The algorithm of this process is characterized, the object, subject, main goal, tasks and methods of the research are defined, and the theoretical foundations of such training process are revealed.
The proposed research analyses the current state of future ceramics artists’ professional training. The problems of professional competence formation in decorative and applied arts specialists were found to influence the selection of components for composing a structural and functional model, based on systemic, professional activity, personality-oriented, competency-based approaches. It includes personal qualities that a future specialist in ethnodesign of ceramics should possess, as well as effective mechanisms of their formation.
The structural and functional model of professional training process for the employment of ethnodesign of ceramics, developed by the author, consists of four blocks: target, organizational and methodical, contents, and result reflective. The blocks are autonomous elements and have unique components, but at the same moment, they are complementary and interconnected. The target block includes methodological approaches to training future specialists of decorative and applied arts to employ ethnodesign of ceramics and selected principles of teaching these specialists in art institutions of higher education. The organizational and methodical block of the model contains the educational environment, didactic forms and methods. The methods described in the proposed research are assembled into three main groups: theoretical, graphic, and practical. Theoretical methods embrace verbal ones (explanation, storytelling, discussion, verbalization of artistic works), graphic methods include demonstrative ones (observation, demonstrating of artistic works, artistic illustration of verbal explanations, artistic fixation), practical methods combine artistic and creative ones (creation of artistic images, interpretation method, etc.). The third block includes a cycle of optional and compulsory disciplines, the course “Ethnodesign of ceramics”, practices and peculiarities of the interconnected activities of teachers, students and professional enterprises or organizations. The fourth block covers components, criteria, indicators of their manifestation and levels of future artists’ readiness to apply ethnodesign of ceramics in their professional activities.
In order to evaluate the level of decorative and applied arts future artists’ readiness to employ ethnodesign of ceramics, criteria corresponding to the components of professional competence have been identified. They are as follows: value-motivational criterion (professional motivation, personal orientations, interest and attitude to folk traditions, the latest technologies), integration criterion (understanding the main principles of combining the folk and modern art, the ability to blend materials, techniques, etc.) and presentation criterion (application of acquired ethnodesign knowledge and skills in professional activities; displaying of one’s own works at exhibitions, symposia, etc.). On the basis of the identified criteria as well as indicators of their manifestation, the levels of decorative and applied arts future specialists’ readiness to employ ethnodesign of ceramics in their professional activities have been differentiated: low (crucial), basic (reproductive), sufficient (search), high (creative).
To analyse the results of the experimental pedagogical research, the author compared the digital indicators of the input and final levels of the formation of each component connected with the readiness to employ ethnodesign of ceramics by the future specialists of decorative and applied arts who studied in the control and experimental groups. The advantages of the proposed model of decorative and applied arts future specialists’ professional training for employing ethnodesign of ceramics were clearly proved by the qualitative analysis of quantitative indicators of high and sufficient levels of professional competence formation. The results of the research are confirmed by the methods of mathematical statistics (Student’s t-test).
