Moral and Ecological Function of Students' Upbringing

The paper considers some social problems and consequences of the consumer attitude of man and modern society to nature. The necessity of changing the stereotypes of man and nature interaction and forming man's reasonable needs is stressed. It is argued that human mentality and value reference points need changing by means of upbringing. The authors develop questions related to the upgrade of higher school in Russia and to the use of functionalist ideas in the upbringing process of higher education institutions. The pedagogical model of implementing the moral and ecological function of students' upbringing at a higher education institution is developed and represented. It includes interrelated structural components: motivational and goal-related, axiological, content-related, technological and final one. The paper reveals the essence of such notions as "new social and ecological ideal", "moral and ecological function of upbringing", "ecological and humanist values". An analysis of upbringing process at a higher education institution is presented from the standpoint of competency-based approach. The researchers underline the significance of art in forming the personality's ecological and humanist values. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd