PEDAGOGICAL MECHANISMS OF THE TRANSITION FROM ACADEMIC INTEGRITY TO THE PROFESSIONAL ETHICS OF THE FUTURE DOCTOR

Abstract

The article provides a theoretical substantiation of the pedagogical logic underlying the transition from academic integrity to the professional ethics of future doctors. The study aims to explain how academic integrity in the professional preparation of future doctor’s functions as an initial level of professional normativity and through which pedagogical mechanisms it develops into professional ethics. The methodology is grounded in systemic, axiological and professional-ethical approaches. The study employs content analysis, comparative, conceptual, and structural-functional analyses, theoretical modelling, generalisation, and interpretation of recent scholarship in pedagogy, medical education, academic integrity, professionalism, professional identity formation, the hidden curriculum, and the ethics of artificial intelligence in education. It is demonstrated that academic integrity in medical education performs not only a disciplinary but also a profession-forming function, as it introduces students to a framework of truthfulness, responsibility, self-regulation and the rejection of simulated competence. The study shows that the professional ethics of future doctors extends academic integrity, while the pedagogical logic of this transition lies in the movement from external compliance with rules to internally accepted values and ethical self-regulation. A system of pedagogical mechanisms enabling this transition is identified, including ethically enriched curricular content, assessment, reflective practices, clinically oriented situations, role modelling, institutional culture, and pedagogically regulated use of digital tools. It is concluded that, in the professional education of future doctors, academic integrity should be regarded as an early stage of ethical formation, and its development as a pedagogically organised process of shaping professionally responsible behaviour.