The thesis is the first attempt to give a scholarly insight into the problem of the development of the personality potential of students in Danish continuation schools (efterskoles).
Scientific views on the psychological-pedagogical phenomenon “personality potential” in the context of foreign and Ukrainian scientific and pedagogical discourse have been studied and summarized. It is noted that the commom opinion in the scholarly works is that the psychological and pedagogical phenomenon of personality potential, being directly related to activity, manifests itself as the main vector of self-realization of the individual.
The specifics of the educational activities of continuation schools in Denmark as centers for the development of the personality potential of youth have been studied and outlined. These schools are self-governing secondary education institutions of an alternative type, focused on the personality development of students based on the values of the Enlightenment, general education and democratic citizenship.
The scientific and pedagogical basis of building an educational process for the development of the personality potential of the Danish students in the schools under study has been studied and systematized.
On the basis of the analysis of Danish scientific and pedagogical sources and our conversations with Danish teachers, four main organizational and pedagogical conditions for the development of the personality potential of students in Danish continuation schools have been identified and characterized. They are as follows: the adoption of a student-oriented approach to the organization of the educational process, the actualization of civic education, the creation of a creative educational environment and the education of teachers for the development of students’ personality potential. The methods (participatory learning methods, methods of problem-based learning, methods of game-based learning and social-psychological trainings) aimed at developing the personality potential of Danish school youth are considered.
A comparative analysis of the problem of developing the personality potential of school youth in Denmark and Ukraine has been carried out. The perspective ways of borrowing progressive ideas of Denmark’s pedagogical experience into the educational environment of Ukraine are outlined, and recommendations for their creative application at the state, institutional and individual levels are elaborated.
The content and essence of the concept “personality potential of a student of a Danish continuation school” have been clarified, and a glossary of the basic concepts of the study has been compiled.
The practical significance of the obtained results of the study is as follows: materials of the study, theoretical principles, conclusions substantiated in the thesis can be utilized by domestic scholars to study the problems actualized in the research. The obtained results can be applied for the purpose of improvement and modernization of the high school of Ukraine, on the one hand, and for strengthening the quality and competitiveness of Ukrainian secondary education institutions on the world market of educational services, on the other hand. Also, the research results can be useful in the development of international projects. The informational resource of the thesis should be exploited in research on general pedagogy and the history of pedagogy, comparative pedagogy, sociology of education; in teaching educational components of pedagogy and psychology of high school, civic education, educational policy, legislative provision of secondary education. The prognostic potential of the research enables the development of concepts for the integration of the Ukrainian high school into the global educational environment based on the proposed recommendations for the implementation of constructive ideas of the Danish pedagogical experience at the state, institutional and individual levels.
