What is self-education and why devote time to it?

Author of the material:

Igor Lyadsky

Geneticist, writer, business coach, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

Self-development, which is now popular, is known to many. Self-study will not surprise anyone either. But what is self-education? It’s one thing to educate others, to engage in moral teaching, to explain what is good and what is bad. How to educate yourself? You can’t put yourself in a corner, you can’t slap yourself in a soft place... Perhaps self-education of the individual is just a nice word with nothing behind it? But why then do they often talk about its necessity? Is it worth engaging in self-education, and how to do it?

Concept - self-education

In order to organize the process of personality formation as professionally as possible, it is necessary to understand what self-education is. By this concept, psychologists mean a person’s conscious desire to reveal their natural potential on their own, develop positive qualities to the maximum and overcome negative ones. Develop such a positive quality as self-discipline. Overcome such a negative quality as the tendency to self-justification. This is often enough to feel positive changes in your life. In Brian Tracy's book No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline” read in detail about how to take control of your life. Education and self-education, according to experts, are two integral parts of the process of forming a full-fledged, harmonious personality.

It is important! Professional personal education requires a person to be able to truthfully assess his own personality traits and recognize positive and negative qualities.

Education and self-education requires the following from a person:

• comprehensive knowledge of oneself;
• continuous improvement of positive qualities;
• development of skills and abilities, creative abilities.

The result of the self-education process will be personal achievements that directly depend on personal effectiveness. You can increase your level of personal effectiveness by studying this course.

Why should a person engage in self-education?

The essence of independent education is the topic of scientific works of many philosophers, psychologists, and teachers. According to scientists, the driving force behind the formation of a person is his soul. Several factors are involved in personality development:

• self-education;
• strength of will;
• a certain line of behavior.

It is important! According to Erich Fromm, a German psychoanalyst, moral education and personality formation is the desire to become the person you originally are. The main goal and object of effort is one’s own essence.

Psychologists note the special role of self-education in professional development. Constant work on yourself and your own character helps to achieve the following results:

• successfully overcoming life's difficulties strengthens the will and strengthens character;
• working on your own negative character traits contributes to the development of strong and positive qualities;
• By engaging in self-education, a person learns to control emotions, this significantly increases emotional stability;
• Moral education and self-development helps you achieve your goals and clearly follow your chosen path in life.

Professional self-education is a necessary process during which a person learns to find a way out of conflict situations that arise with other people and within himself. It is necessary to understand that knowing yourself is in most cases an unpleasant process, but a necessary one. Understanding one's own negative qualities, a person goes through a series of unpleasant emotions - resentment, aggression, guilt, but this is precisely where the element of self-improvement lies.

Why is personal self-education necessary:

• a person becomes happy and helps other people feel happiness;
• the joy of overcoming arises, as a result, a desire to help others appears;
• a person expresses himself creatively and achieves success.

What is self-education?

Self-education is conscious actions aimed at the full disclosure of personality. In childhood, a person’s upbringing is carried out by parents, school teachers, and then, to some extent, university teachers. But, after graduation, when a person moves into adulthood, outside interference gradually stops. At the same time, the issue of further personal development does not lose its relevance.

What to do in this case? Who should continue the educational process? Friends, husbands or wives, perhaps employers? Most likely, all of this will be wrong. An adult differs from a child in that he does not need external stimuli for development. He is able to carry out his further self-improvement himself.

Self-education methods used

Psychologists identify specific methods of self-education, with the help of which you can control and correct work on yourself.

Basic methods of self-education:

• self-commitment - constantly reciting and reminding oneself of obligations forms the habit of strictly following them;
• empathy – moral education and development require a person to be able to see himself in other people’s shoes, this helps to understand how others perceive you;
• self-compulsion - helps to eradicate the lack of volitional qualities and cultivate the will. Read in detail about how you can cultivate your will in Kelly McGonigel’s book “Willpower”;
• self-punishment - education and self-education involve punishment for non-compliance with established rules, the system of punishments is thought out along with obligations;
• self-criticism - without internal contradiction it is impossible to achieve success;
• self-persuasion - each offense must be spoken out loud, thus, special attention is paid to points that need to be further worked out;
• self-analysis - this method involves keeping a personal diary and preparing reports.

Its types.

Self-improvement is a complex and comprehensive process. You cannot constantly develop in one direction. Life will correct the movement anyway. For example, someone decided to become a first-class specialist. He devoted himself entirely to his chosen profession. But this person absolutely does not know how to behave in society. Even being a professional, he miserably fails interviews and, even if hired, does not stay in one place for long. This means that work skills or abilities alone are not the key to success.

Take a personality type test

It is appropriate to say that there are such types of self-education:

• Intellectual;
• Physical;
• Aesthetic;
• Psychological;
• Socially oriented.

The first is the desire to acquire new knowledge and expand your worldview. The second maintains a good level of physical fitness and the ability to handle your body. The third helps to see beauty and enjoy the world around us. The fourth develops strong-willed qualities. The fifth helps to establish connections and maintain communication in society.

Elements of self-education.

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Personal self-education becomes possible only if the following four main components are present:

• Self-analysis - the ability to see your strengths and weaknesses;
• Self-account – taking responsibility for your life;
• Self-motivation – the ability to motivate yourself to work;
• Self-control – checking personal progress with the predicted one;
• Self-esteem is an adequate assessment of one’s actions.

In fact, all these are attributes of the school process, only in adult life a person uses them himself. It is always easier to evaluate others than yourself. It is even more difficult to control and motivate yourself. Therefore, psychological self-education is one of the most important stages of self-improvement.

Where to start self-education and work on yourself

Parents should pay attention to the question of what self-education is from early childhood. The main components of pedagogy are education, self-education and re-education. It should be noted that re-education is necessary when a child develops erroneous judgments and an incorrect perception of the world. The psychologist works to transform the child’s negative character traits and incorrect behavior, which complicate the further process of personality formation.

The components of self-education for a child are to establish norms and rules. However, given that the conscious process begins only in adolescence, it is during these years that a person is able to independently develop personal characteristics.

If we are talking about a teenager, for him the formation of personality begins with specific steps:

• awareness that changes in oneself are necessary;
• enough determination to change daily;
• motivation and belief in one’s own strength and success;
• correct choice of methods.

The task of parents at this stage is to monitor what reaction certain forms of self-education (educational process) cause in a teenager. If the reaction is negative or neutral, it is necessary to make timely adjustments, otherwise the teenager will not have sufficient motivation to work on himself.

Parents need to understand that the constituent factors for the harmonious development of a child are heredity, environment, and upbringing. That is why it is important to control all elements of the process and adjust them in a timely manner.

Methods and methods of self-education of personality

To achieve the desired results, you need to constantly work on yourself. The first thing to do is set a goal: strengthen your will, change your usual way of life, develop abilities, etc. You should try to eradicate the shortcomings that interfere with your daily life.

An example of a self-education program compiled by the famous teacher Konstantin Ushinsky:

• the ability to remain calm externally;
• take only deliberate actions, do not give in to emotions;
• be a direct and open person;
• Use time rationally, do what you want.
• analyze actions, you can make a report every evening based on your day;
• do not brag or exalt yourself above other people;
• keep a diary as a means of self-education and self-control. But keep it secret from prying eyes.

But the methods of education are very diverse and are divided into several categories.

Methods:

1. Self-conviction.
2. Introspection.
3. Introspection.
4. Self-hypnosis.

Some use more critical self-learning methods:

1. Self-punishment.
2. Self-coercion.
3. Self-criticism.
4. Self-approval.

Methods and methods of self-realization are aimed at helping a person change, eradicate shortcomings and get the desired result. It is important to create a program and determine what needs to be changed and what exactly you want to achieve.

What is the problem with self-education?

The problem of self-education has occupied the minds of scientists since antiquity. The idea of ​​personality formation and development appeared thousands of years ago, during which time it has changed, but the eternal truths have remained unchanged. In their works, Aristotle, Plato and Socrates noted the value of the development of a person as an individual. The problem with self-education is that a person tends to form false values ​​and waste time inheriting them. However, society needs talented people who were able to form true, high values.

Pedagogy

Methods of self-education are a set of techniques and methods of pedagogical influence of the student on himself with the aim of forming and developing desirable and necessary personal qualities and eliminating negative ones.

Self-education techniques should be considered as a partial influence of the pet on itself, as a certain single act in each specific case and method.

The set of methods and techniques of self-education should form a system that is specific, individual and unique for each person. At the same time, an analysis of the practice of self-education allows us to identify a group of the most common methods and techniques.

• The process of self-education begins with self-awareness - the student’s awareness of himself as an individual and his place and life guidelines in social activities. Consciousness is the highest level of development of consciousness,

Self-awareness consists of three interrelated processes - self-knowledge, self-actualization and self-regulation, which must act in concert. The leading one among them is the volitional sphere, which regulates the behavior and activities of the pupil. Will activates the activity of the student’s personality in accordance with his attitudes, motives of behavior, and professional tasks. “Self-education requires,” wrote V. A. Sukhomlinsky, “a very important, powerful stimulus - self-esteem, self-respect, the desire to become better today than you were yesterday. Self-education is possible only if the human soul is very sensitive to the subtlest, purely human means of influence - a kind word, a gentle or reproachful look. There can be no talk of self-education if a person is accustomed to rudeness and reacts only to a “strong” word, shouting, or coercion. By its very essence, self-education presupposes a person’s faith in a person, an appeal to the honor and dignity of a person. Pedagogical guidance of self-education is, first of all, a relationship between teacher and student, imbued with a deep mutual belief in good intentions.

• Self-knowledge is the initial stage of self-education of an individual, the study of his properties, value system, life goals, leading motives and motivations, character, temperament, characteristics of cognitive processes (sensation, perception, memory, attention, thinking, speech, etc.), thanks to which he can independently determine what successes he can achieve in a particular activity, as well as analyze the possibilities for improving daily activities,

The motto “Know thyself” was inscribed on the arch of the Delphic Temple in Greece in the 5th century BC. There is. It meant: know the will of the gods in your destiny, submit to it. Ancient Greek thinkers from the time of Plato interpreted this motto as follows: know your purpose, discover your capabilities, predict your behavior.

So, the main rule of self-knowledge is the search for the meaning of life, your true “I”. Academician A. V. Petrovsky offers two ways of knowing one’s own “I”:

The first way is a careful analysis not so much of the intentions of one’s own actions, but of the actions themselves in relation to the intentions. Relatively speaking, this is clarification of the meaning of one’s own life and its comparison with social and personal values, analysis of one’s own actions and specific actions from the point of view of universal, national and personal morality, professional and personal development and activity;

the second way is turning to the possibilities of science and recognizing with its help one’s own individual mental properties, life attitudes, and the like. This science is personality psychology.

These two paths, according to A. V. Petrovsky, intertwining many times, will lead everyone who follows them to self-knowledge.

Methodically correctly organized self-knowledge, by A.V. Petrovsky, is carried out through self-study and self-assessment.

• Self-monitoring and self-analysis - comparing the adopted self-education plan with reality, performance results, establishing their inconsistency and making the necessary correction to achieve the goal, searching for the causes of deviations, etc. Self-control as a method of self-education develops on the basis of the student’s ability to control any of his activities.

It is important to distinguish between types of self-control: unintentional (involuntary) and intentional (voluntary).

Unintentional (involuntary) self-control can be carried out in the structure of perception and function automatically. The subject of unintentional self-control is not the activity as a whole, its motives, but only its procedural side.

Intentional (voluntary) self-control is determined by a special goal and has significant capabilities for stabilizing activity. Pupils who consciously set themselves the goal of implementing the intended program and not being distracted by extraneous matters will be able to more systematically and consistently fulfill their professional and socially useful responsibilities.

Self-control performs the functions of stabilizing actions (implementing a program of actions within an activity) and correcting (stabilizing) activities in accordance with its motives and motivation.

• The essence of the method of self-organization of life and activity is that students, organizing their behavior and activities in accordance with established rules of behavior and the main directions of self-education, effectively work on themselves. An important condition for this is the pet’s ability to control itself.

In the process of implementing a self-education program, the student develops a desire to fulfill the requirements of the team or teacher and adhere to decent behavior. The emergence of a self-education program can be represented as a consequence of the evolution of external requirements for the student into his internal requirements for his activities.

The self-education program is carried out in two ways:

the first is the subordination of one’s own activities to the motives and motivation of self-education and their transformation into the activity of self-education;

the second is the implementation of an education program while maintaining educational, sports and other types of activities, one’s own meaning-forming motives and, in the presence of an accompanying motive and motivation for self-education.

The implementation of this program is facilitated by knowledge of the basic techniques and methods of self-education.

• Self-commitment is the voluntary acceptance of conscious goals, objectives, content of self-improvement and the determination on this basis of a self-education program. They arise due to the internal conviction of their necessity and are determined by living conditions, the needs of society, and the responsibilities of the student. This is the process of comparing one’s “I” with the requirements that are put forward by the team, group, educators, public organization, society as a whole.

• Self-hypnosis helps the student gain self-determination of the need to develop certain personality traits. This is a search for evidence of the need to correct one’s shortcomings, mobilizing oneself to achieve the goal of self-education, eliminating competing motives and seductions.

• Self-hypnosis is the influence of a student on himself for the purpose of self-education, as a result of which various mental and somatic states arise. It is a technical procedure that is carried out by repeating certain verbal formulas that express the desires defined by other forms of self-education. An example of targeted self-hypnosis is autogenic training.

Autotraining is an emotional-volitional training, the essence of which is to develop the ability to influence psychoregulatory processes. For targeted self-influence, special self-hypnosis exercises are used in the form of verbal formulas. In the process of such training, a person is able to create for himself a model of ideas, feelings, emotions, states and introduce this model into his psyche.

• Self-training – focus on actively completing tasks leading to the set goal of self-education, implementing a self-education program, understanding each subsequent obstacle as an opportunity for self-improvement. This method makes it possible to consolidate the skills and abilities necessary for the student in the process of professional activity.

• Self-coercion is the identification of dissatisfaction with oneself in case of failure to fulfill self-obligations, assigning oneself an additional task and forcing oneself to complete it.

• Following an example - focusing on finding the best examples of actions and behavior, their active assimilation, which enriches the pet with the experience of other people, more authoritative and outstanding.

• Self-stimulation – defining certain rewards and penalties for yourself and applying them. Self-reward and self-punishment are interrelated techniques of self-education. Self-encouragement is awareness and experience of one’s successes, rewarding oneself for success in implementing a self-education program with gratitude, free time, and favorite activities. Self-punishment is a conscious experience of guilt before oneself, before the team; dissatisfaction with oneself.

Self-education can be stimulated by creating external conditions:

– clear internal order (for example at school);

– scientific organization of educational and cognitive activities;

– formation of positive public opinion in educational groups;

– setting high demands on students in combination with caring for them;

– involving each student in active activities;

– promotion of educational literature;

– organizing leisure activities for all categories of pupils and the like.

Self-education can also be stimulated by influencing its internal prerequisites, that is, by forming a conscious motivational attitude. This is facilitated by pedagogically targeted incentives for achieved results in self-improvement and the provision of effective methodological assistance in developing a self-education program.

The main stages of pedagogical management of self-education:

1. preparatory – convincing the student of the need for self-education and the opportunity to achieve the desired results; formation of needs, motives and motivation for self-education; determination of the main goals and objectives of self-education.
2. the main one is determining the content of self-education; assistance in choosing techniques, methods, forms and methods of self-education in drawing up a self-education program and its implementation; organizing control over the progress of self-education and making necessary adjustments to it.
3. final – assistance in self-control and teaching students to use it; stimulation; summarizing the achieved results and defining new guidelines for self-improvement; adjustments and introduction of new content into the self-education program and the like.

Basic conditions for successful self-education:

– creation of a favorable moral and psychological climate in the team;

– formation of bright ideals;

– equipping students with techniques, methods, methods and forms of self-education, its effective methodology;

– instilling self-learning skills and abilities, highlighting positive and negative individual mental qualities;

– assistance in developing a self-education program and its implementation;

– creating conditions for self-education;

– popularization of positive experiences of self-education, incentives for achieved positive results, etc.

Great people who have achieved success in self-education

Many great people have engaged in personal growth - this is an excellent example of how working on yourself allows you to overcome life's difficulties and difficult fate. Among these people are musicians, country leaders, writers and artists. Here are a few such great personalities.

• Demosthenes - overcame a weak voice and a nervous tic, became an excellent speaker and influenced many political processes;
• Peter I - Peter said about himself - “a king with calluses on his hands”, the monarch strove to be an example for his subjects in everything;
• Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is a great writer who overcame ruin and, thanks to constant work on himself, developed a unique talent and creative potential;
• Franklin Roosevelt is the President of the United States of America, who from childhood was engaged in self-development and strived for deep and comprehensive knowledge;
• Albert Einstein is a famous physicist who, according to doctors, was lagging behind in mental development and was characterized by slowness, but only as a result of hard work on himself did Einstein develop the talent of a scientist and the incredible power of thinking.

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov - his biography is an excellent example of personal development - watch the video.

Success in life largely depends on your own efforts and perseverance. Read books that motivate and follow the example of great people - develop as a person.