In 2004 the European Economic Commission developed the Strategy of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The aim of the strategy is the promotion of education for sustainable development and its inclusion in the system of formal and informal education. The authors propose the measures for the acceleration of ESD distribution at the international level because international cooperation in education can be considered as a contribution of countries to the implementation of global transition to sustainable development. The authors’ concept of the phenomenon of ecological consciousness and the conditions of its formation are considered. The main problems of ESD efficiency are defined and criteria for its evaluation are offered. Integral features of the personality as an indispensable component of ESD are described.

The basis of the sustainable development of society with ever-growing scientific and technical progress is noxology as a science about the dangers of the world, since the risk of being in modern society is higher than ever. In this regard, a scientific noxospheric picture of the world is being formed as an integrative knowledge system, which should be the basis for the formation of a new, noxological worldview, in which security is the main value norm of risk-oriented thinking. The article is aimed at the theoretical substantiation of the necessity of developing a risk-balanced style of professional activity among university students on the basis of risk-thinking as an objective property of the personality. The article also reveals the authors’ concept of the noxological consciousness and explains the term of a risk-balanced style of professional activity. The definition, structure and main constituent elements of this personal phenomenon are given. It is determined that noxological style of professional activity includes such components as risk-thinking, self-regulation, intellectual features and capabilities, “labor model”, individual biological rhythms, will, as well as habits and special techniques of activity. Various characteristics of risks in the professional activity of a specialist are considered. Based on the analysis of scientific and pedagogical literature on the problem and the method of observation, the modeling of the pedagogical system of training a specialist with a risk-balanced style of professional activity is presented, the effectiveness of which is confirmed by the formative experiment.

The paper focuses on the main theoretical principles and properties of wavelet transforms. The problem of digital data processing based on wavelet transforms is considered. The analysis and processing of signals and functions that are non-stationary in time and inhomogeneous in space are presented. The authors propose methods of progressive coefficients’ values that combine wavelet decomposition and quantization, the main purpose of which is to convey the most important piece of information about a signal.

The present period of higher education modernization is characterized by the need to improve the bachelor’s professional training aimed at the comprehensive development of the student’s personality, which, along with hard skills, should have a wide range of soft skills. On the basis of the content analysis of the concept ‘soft skills’ the authors define them as universal socio-personal and general cultural skills and qualities that contribute to successful professional activities and effective interpersonal interaction. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that, despite an active discussion in the scientific literature on the development of soft skills among bachelor students, the level of these skills’ acquisition is quite low and requires a systematic and focused work to improve them.The article presents an appeal to the topic of soft skills through the practice of project activities in a foreign language. The research is aimed at the theoretical substantiation of the psychological and pedagogical effectiveness of project activities for developing soft skills and the generalization of the results of experimental training using the project method in foreign language teaching of non-linguistic students. According to the authors, project work contributes to the obtaining of a complex of non-specialized, career-important supraprofessional skills that are responsible for successful participation in the work process, high productivity and are not related to a specific subject area. Among the most relevant soft skills the authors define communicative, interpersonal and cognitive skills, emotional intelligence, management skills.

In the Russian system of foreign language education, learner-centred approach is seen as a leading strategic direction designed to ensure self-realization of the learner as a linguistic personality able to interact effectively in the intercultural context. The problem of differentiation is one of the central issues in learner-centred education. In authors’ opinion, the differentiated approach is the most optimal in the conditions of the heterogeneity of the study groups. The article reveals the main characteristics of a differentiated approach as a general methodological principle of teaching, allowing to take into account the individual, intellectual and psychophysiological characteristics of students. The problems, advantages and disadvantages of differentiated education in non-linguistic higher schools are analyzed. The authors of the article examine the essence of multilevel training, define its principles, describe both the external differentiation of students depending on the difference in linguistic competence and the internal differentiation as the organization of the learning process, in which the individual characteristics of students are contemplated in the conditions of a homogeneous group. Generalization of the experience on the afore-mentioned differentiation forms in the system of language training is given as well as some techniques and methods of teaching in multilevel groups are offered.