Introduction
In the context of the constantly changing socio-cultural situation in modern society, the most important quality of a young specialist is their ability to navigate the environment and adequately respond to the challenges of the time. The intensification of the development of the creative potential of students in arts and culture universities involves the meaningful achievement of goals in the presence of variable approaches based on the rejection of stereotypes. The ability to navigate a changing socio-cultural environment and the development of creative potential require both variable approaches and personal development. Thus, this study considers pedagogical support as an educational approach. In the changing socio-cultural environment, pedagogical support is aimed at the formation of students' intellectual, emotional, motivational, and behavioral qualities, as well as their readiness for future professional activity in the field of arts and culture, based on self-improvement, self-fulfillment, and self-change (Podpovetnaya, 2014; Ermilova et al., 2022).
The features of professional formation in students, as evidenced by research (Dementii & Druzhinina, 2013; Shchukina, 2017, Zheleznova et al., 2020; Kurganskii & Turavets, 2022; Magomeddibirova et al., 2022), provide for social adaptation, constant reflection, and avenues to reveal one’s abilities.
The importance of pedagogical support carried out through analytical, consulting, and coordinating activities is to determine the priority of students' interests, form responsibility for decision-making, and choose optimal conditions for their professional self-realization.
The essence of the concept of support is "to follow alongside, together with someone, leading somewhere or following someone" (Ozhegov, 1973, p. 650). Thus, pedagogical support is an activity aimed at the development of personality and creative individuality and the self-realization of a university student in pedagogical and professional activities organized through the provision of pedagogical assistance in overcoming psychological barriers that hinder their self-development.
An important role in becoming a creative personality is played by the mentor who has practical experience and is focused on maximizing the student’s individuality. The effectiveness and efficiency of transferring the mentor’s professional experience are based on the establishment of trusting relationships and, at the same time, certain demands in relation to the student. Considering mentoring in the field of arts and culture, we identified the following main qualities of a teacher:
high level of professional skills and performing and pedagogical individuality;
mutual understanding with the student;
professional experience allowing the teacher to establish creative contact with the student (Shirina & Vetrov, 2021; Wagner et al., 2021; Volynkina & Kartashova, 2022).
In the educational process in arts and culture universities, pedagogical support involves considering the student’s individual and personal characteristics, the features of the teacher’s creative aspirations, and the nature of their interpersonal relationships (Zeer & Symanyuk, 2012; Gasparian et al., 2022; Paaßen et al., 2022). Such interaction assumes a dialogue quality, understanding of the student’s creative aspirations, and exploration of the individual’s potential resources. Features of university pedagogical support are based on a personality-oriented approach avoiding dictatorship and the personal nature of the development of the student’s abilities, considering their characteristics (Kostikova et al., 2022; Mandiyasa et al., 2022; Zydziunaite et al., 2022).
Pedagogical support creates conditions for choosing a program that considers the student's inclinations and focuses on self-realization and self-development. The student’s professional self-development in this context is aimed at the zone of the nearest professional self-development, including several stages:
diagnostics of the student’s creative potential; professionally directed activity, considering the motives for choosing the direction of professional activity, the motives of the student’s self-realization, and the projected amount of work under the mentor’s guidance. This stage involves the choice of ways to achieve the goal of professional skill;
student adaptation, which involves setting the goal of professional improvement, the formation of skills for self-determination of development tasks, and constant self-assessment of the realization of one’s creative potential. An appeal to experience is carried out at this stage of pedagogical support, enriching one's activities with new types and techniques of creative self-realization;
analysis and design of achievements of creative results by students, which determine the direction of planning successful activities, considering individual pedagogical support based on inclinations and abilities in mastering various types of creativity.
Thus, the study’s purpose is to describe the role of pedagogical support in the development of the creative potential of students in arts and culture universities.
Methodology
In this study, we used methods aimed at achieving the research goal. A literature review was conducted to analyze the existing research on the topic of pedagogical support and its role in the development of the creative potential of university students. The literature review allowed us to consider the main directions of the development of the issue and identify key concepts related to the subject of the study. Monographs and articles on the issues of pedagogical support in the development of students' creative potential published in journals indexed in Scopus and Web of Science served as our research materials. Documents, such as curricula and educational materials, were also analyzed to determine how to implement pedagogical support and assess its impact on learning outcomes.
Development
The international practice of pedagogical support shows that the formation of a creative personality in arts and culture universities is based on the emotional experiences of students, which are a powerful incentive for self-development, as well as their understanding of their uniqueness and originality.
Thus, pedagogical support of students mastering creative professions (musical performers, conductors, vocalists, choreographers, etc.) can be effective in creating:
subject-subjective relations, in which the student is active in professional activity, independently chooses the direction of their research, and understands the importance of realizing their potential. In Russian pedagogy, scholars emphasize the need to improve subject-subjective relations, since "setting as its goal the education of individuality, the higher school itself should have the uniqueness of style, methods, and pedagogical technologies that most fully reveal the individual creative potential of each student" (Khurmatullina, 2014, p. 304);
emotional stability based on the fact that university training, involving a large amount of information, often leads to stress. Stress, as an organism's reaction to changing requirements for improving professional skills, creates a situation that complicates the effective development of creative potential. An adequate response to a stressful situation is formed in the process of creative communication between the teacher and the student since stress tolerance "is understood as the willingness and ability to overcome difficulties and direct one’s emotions in a positive vector, showing restraint and tact" (Turavets & Skripkina, 2021, p. 493).
Unmotivated stress in students mastering creative professions can result in psychological barriers associated with their temperament, communication manners, misunderstanding of tasks, etc. because emotions are colored by the dialogue that arises in pedagogical communication, which is aimed at;
achievement of a favorable psychological climate conducive to the development of creative abilities. Encouragement and stimulation of students' creativity, faith in their strength and capabilities, and respect for the search for the independent overcoming of emerging difficulties are of great importance;
development of students' creative abilities based on the formation of reflection skills, which is a factor of self-development, encouraging students to think critically, and objectively assessing the dynamics of their self-improvement. Self-analysis, self-assessment, and self-designing of one's creative route should become the basis of self-movement;
success, as a desire for recognition and high results, which implies the need to "surpass oneself. Compete with others and surpass them. Increase one’s self-esteem through the successful use of one’s abilities". Students focused on achieving success can evaluate their objective results, as well as failures.
The pedagogical support directs students toward perseverance in achieving creative mastery. Initially, students who are determined to achieve success, even after failure, have to carry out more painstaking work to achieve higher results aimed at independent creativity and self-education.
The mentor should consider the contradiction between the opportunities to improve the self-organization of students, on the one hand, and the need to use creative tasks that activate self-education: tasks aimed at reproducing already acquired skills do not contribute to improving and finding new solutions.
Organization of independent activity cannot take place spontaneously; pedagogical support of the process is necessary with understanding the purpose of the efforts undertaken and the significance of the successful completion of a creative task. It is important to consider the sequence and systemic nature of the development of creative potential since the episodic nature of pedagogical support cannot contribute to the development of students' skills.
Conclusions
Thus, it should be emphasized that pedagogical support is an intense activity involving joint co-creation as a continuous process. In our opinion, such an attitude to the essence of pedagogical support represents a constant and continuous development of the personality and individuality of students. Pedagogical support of arts and culture university students is aimed both at the personality itself and creating conditions conducive to the success of professional development. It provides for the development of individual thinking, the constant search for original solutions to creative problems, the formation of the imaginative perception of creativity, focus on originality, and uniqueness in the interpretation of the artistic image, and optimistic, positive, and emotional attitude to creativity and the development of one's potential.