FORMATION OF HEALTH CULTURE OF STUDENTS IN TERMS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

In the conditions of aggravation of health and demographic problems of the modern society there is an urgent need to form a culture of health as a basis for observance of rules and norms of a healthy lifestyle, preservation and strength- ening of health. The purpose of the article is to substantiate and experimentally verify the effectiveness of pedagogical conditions and means of forming the health culture of students. Methods of research: theoretical: analysis, synthesis, comparison, modeling; empirical: pedagogical observation, questioning, interviewing, testing, methods of mathematical statistics. It has been found that the process of students' health culture formation is connected with the implementation of pedagogical conditions, namely: improvement of the cognitive component and the acquisition of knowledge of valeological content; involvement of students in health activities; creation of the appropriate professional-pedagogical educational environment. The verification of the suggested conditions has been conducted on a sample of 112 university students. The diagnosis of the level of maturity of students' health culture involved the evaluation of its components: culture of nutrition, physical culture, culture of endoecology, culture of psychoemotional activity, physiological culture, intellectual, social and communicative, culture of morality and spirituality. The procedure for assessing the maturity of the components of health culture involves evaluating them according to two criteria: the possession of theoretical knowledge and practical skills. According to the results of the pedagogical experiment it has been proved that the of- fered pedagogical conditions do contribute to the formation of young people's health culture.