Khvostikova Elena

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF FUTURE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

FOR RESEARCH ACTIVITY

Changes, which have occurred in our country in recent years, persistent advancement of society to a market economy and democratic system, increased the degree of freedom to expand the field to take the initiative and free choice. Also, they have seriously changed the objectives, content and function of education, pushed its horizons and put high demands on training. Today, our society needs initiative, independent people who are able to constantly improve their personalities and activities; they must be competitive in the market capable of labor. These people can adequately perform their functions, having high susceptibility, social and occupational mobility, readiness for rapid updating of knowledge, expanding arsenal of skills, and development of new fields of activity [4, p.3].

In order to be successful, to learn deeply and firmly, and what is more important, self-absorb any subjects taught in high school, a student must have skills of educational work. Although practical experience and numerous studies indicate weak readiness for students’ cognitive activity. They do not know how to work with the book, to highlight the main things, to fix the read information, etc. Therefore, it is important to teach students actions, techniques that will make their progress towards self-mastery and creativity conscious and successful.

As one of the most important tasks of preparation of a student’s achievement, we consider the level of education of students for self-sufficient creative solutions to problems of philosophical and theoretical research or applied nature. It becomes apparent that the most important factor of improving the training of specialists has been and remains a research work of students, which helps to solve the problem of combining science, education and practice, to train specialists with high creativity. It should be kept in mind that the participation of students in the research work prepares most of them for a future career of a scientist, and above all, a specialist using the methods of science in practical purposes.

Today, the views of Academician Moiseev N.N. are becoming more relevant on the issue of education and science: “Education should not pursue narrowly utilitarian goals ... It was the width of approach that has always been the strength of the Russian educational system and the Russian mentality in general. The specialist should know in what his science joins the neighbouring ones, what it needs, and what is expected of it. That is why, the Russian specialists are so valued in the West – because of their deep fundamental, basic training they can easily adapt to unusual situations better than others and they are able to solve non-standard problems. It is necessary to prepare not specialists of only one direction but people with systemic training in specific problems. The development of global thinking, systematic and breadth should be an important part of professional training in any field. This is the basis on which the pursuit of science will come fruitful... Education, first of all, is a product of civilization, its principles and paradigms. But it is also the key to the future of the nation, its ability to accept new things... The classics must be taught. This is the base: it is necessary to teach how a person should learn something new ...” The main objective of university education is the need to cultivate a competent expert, and one of the main factors determining the result of the main purposes of higher education is the formation of a creative orientation of the student, the formation of the researcher [1, p.132].

For mastering a profession, it is not enough to have only training sessions. Self-education plays a major part in the training. Self-education, according to Berezhnova E.V. is “a specially organized, independently cognitive activity aimed at achieving certain personally or socially significant educational purposes: to meet the cognitive interests, common cultural and professional needs and skills.” Self-education is carried out in the course of self-study. Activity of the student and the intensity of their independent work in all kinds of activities contribute to improving the quality of training.

No matter how well the students do in the university, it is impossible to learn all the necessary knowledge. The flood of information simply falls on a modern student, and part of it becomes out of date very fast. New approaches, methods, techniques, training and education tools, new legislation and documents regulating the educational process appear all the time. All these encourage a beggining teacher, as well as their more experienced colleagues to work independently, be aware of the latest advance in pedagogy, and check the results of the practice. Only in this way the teacher can secure professional progress, accumulate teaching experience, skills, and achieve success in the education of pupils. This is what the student should be prepared for. To master the ability to independently acquire knowledge means to discover the way to research.

Research activity, by the definition of I.A. Zimnyaya and E.A. Shashenkova, is “a particular human activity which is regulated by the activity of consciousness and identity, aimed at meeting the cognitive, intellectual needs. The product of this activity is new knowledge obtained in accordance with the intended purpose and in accordance with the objective laws and cash circumstances, defining reality and achievable goals.”

As the analysis of domestic and foreign higher education in historical perspective shows, one of the most important conditions for the preparation of the integration of mobile professionals in the learning process at the university is two research activities – training (within the study time) and research (through extracurricular time).

Learning activity is related to the solution of educational problems, that is mastering certain modes of action and relationship norms. Teaching and research activities suggests creative research tasks with pre-unknown result, presupposing the existence of the main stages, characteristic for scientific research [2, p. 75].

Scientific and research activity of students is an effective means to improve the quality of training, produced by higher educational institution specialists and should be carried out in close connection with the educational process as an integral continuation.

In general, scientific and research activity of students is a necessary part of the preparation of modern specialist highly oriented on labor market, initiative, able to think critically and to continue to take innovative approaches and technologies in the development, aimed at achieving high results. Teaching and research and scientific-research work of students complement each other. The essential difference between them is the degree of independence of the implementation of the research student assignments and novelty of the result.

In order to prepare future primary school teachers for the research activities, it is advisable to introduce into the curriculum the subject “Fundamentals of educational and research activities”. It is necessary to begin the preparation for the research from the 1 year of study. Arriving at the university, former schoolchildren are already familiar with this activity having worked with abstracts, research projects or experiments and other similar works. With the introduction of the subject it is necessary to fix previously obtained experience and develop new skills in the upcoming activities. Academic essay is one of the primary forms of research that requires in-depth study, analysis and systematization of the literature on a particular topic. Mastering these skills allows students to rise to a higher level and to perform complex work with research components – term papers and dissertations. These studies can be provided with the curricula of higher education institutions and are mandatory for all students. In this regard, there is a need in-depth training of students for organizing and conducting educational research.

In our opinion, these classes can be conducted as follows. Theoretical material is presented to students. Then they practise individual techniques under the guidance of the teacher, using the materials from the textbook, and after that they perform practical tasks independently. As mastery of the elements of independent work of students grows, they work under the guidance of the teacher less and less. He acts as a consultant, and students refer to him only when they need help. Gradually, the students get attached to the training and later to scientific research activities. Doing research does not only help to master the methodology of scientific research and acquire research experience, but also contributes to the formation of the main components of readiness for the future specialists in professional mobility. The knowledge gained from the study is the result of cognitive activity aimed at the promotion of the formation, the explanation of laws, facts and processes. Therefore, it is an integral part of the training. Research skills are the ability to consciously act at the search, selection, processing, analysis, creation, design and preparation of the results of cognitive activity aimed at identifying the objective laws of learning, training and development [2, p.73].

We do not claim that everyone who is engaged in scientific work at university should become a professional researcher in the future or that educational research is a necessarily scientific discovery. But we are sure that those intellectual and research skills that students acquire as a result of such activities are necessary and are in demand in any profession and everyday life. The man is constantly faced with various problems, and he does a better job, if he is able to analyze, highlight important things, hypotheses, to see different ways of solving the problem [3, p.15].

References:

1.Arutyunov V.S., Strelkova L.N. Sociological foundations of scientific activity. [Text] / V.S. Arutyunov, L.N. Strelkova. – М.: Nauka, 2003. – 299 p.

2. Berezhnova E.V., Fundamentals of educational and research activities of students [Text] /

E.V. Berezhnova, V.V. Kraevskiy. – М.: Academia, 2007. – 128 p.

3. Dudareva V.I., Panukova Т.А. Teaching and research work of students. [Text]/V.I. Dudareva, Т.А. Panukova. – Chelyabinsk: South Ural State University Press, 2004–72 p.

4. Zagvyazinskiy V.I. Methodology and methods of psycho-pedagogical research. [Text]/V.I. Zagvyazinskiy, R.Atakhanov –М.:Аcademia, 2008 –208 p.