Педагогические науки/2. Проблемы подготовки специалистов

Ph.D. in Education V.G. Gladkih

Orenburg State University, Russia

Students’ self-work in formation of bachelor’s professional competence

Under the conditions of moving to multi-level professional training, the predominant role is given to the organization and management of the students’ self-work, which is undertaken within the methodical instruction of a supervisor, but excluding his personal immediate participation [3, 94]. Being organized within training activity, it helps to achieve the specific level of a student’s development, which is characterized by the student’s ability to set a goal independently, maximize the necessary knowledge and activities, abilities to plan their own actions, to correct them, to correspond the result to the goal having been set.

In other words, we are speaking about the formation of independency as a quality of a personality. The importance of this quality was emphasized by K.D. Ushinskii. He stated: “It is necessary to remember that not only specific knowledge should be taught, but also a desire and ability to self-study should be developed… Having such a power of mind, which absorbs useful nourishment from all sources, a person will study throughout all his life” [4, 500].

The increasing role of independency has led to particular problems, such as the problem to project the content of self-work and to construct tasks efficiently; to organize control; to prepare students for the self-studying activity; to differentiate a teacher’s role as a consultant, etc.

By all means, the main objective is the provision of the high quality graduate’s training. The increasing role of self-work is adopted by the State Educational Standards of the new generation, which are based on the competence paradigm of a bachelor’s training [2].

It’s necessary to mention that the Russian Educational System (the system of education in Russia), as regarded by a number of domestic scientists, has also been of a competence paradigm and has been aimed at the specialist’s training for the mass, stable production (work). The situation is quite different today: the organizational structure of production, technology is constantly changing, becomes more flexible and various. Thus, the employees (workers) should also be active, independent, responsible. In other words, the main task of our contemporary education becomes a special way to organize the process of education, which will help to develop personality and to maximize the students’ professional self-identification.

This process, taken as a whole, is a multi-tasking one and it helps to: enrich the field of application of the new knowledge on the level of realization of the interdisciplinary links (project work, group work); to increase the level of independency by means ofeducation aimed at the independent search of the necessary knowledge and actions; to organize such kind of work, which helps to move from single operations with performed actions to the formation of the action itself; to increase the level of independency, provided by the movement from single given actions to the independent discovering of new actions and the systems of actions; to increase the level of independency provided by the movement from reproductive tasks to creative tasks, which require the usage of interdisciplinary knowledge and actions.

The realization of this objective hierarchy is aimed at the formation of independency in studying activity, which is the subject for the realization of this quality in other types of activity, which will be a future profession for the trainee. The study of the given problem, undertaken by the Ural department of the Russian Academy of Education in 2002 – 2006 under the supervision of professor N.N. Bulinskii, have been divided into 3 types of social-professional training of a graduate: professional qualification, key qualification, key competence[1].

A complex study of students’ self-work let us make several conclusions. Firstly, an efficient organization of students’ self-work provides the increase of the role of social partnership within the contemporary modernization of professional training. Secondly, the essence of students’ self-work organization lies in the formation of special competences of studying activity of a future bachelor (specialist, master, employee). Thirdly, students’ self-work is a component of the educational process at high schools and it represents a multi-sided, multi-functional phenomenon, which has an educational, a personal and a social importance. Fourthly, students’ self-work is a means to organize studying activity of students in a proper way, we mean the activity during the classes. Fifthly, together with the increase of the subjects competence, students’ self-work helps to the personal development of students. Sixthly, self-work includes algorithmic, theoretic, scientific tasks. At last, the organization of self-work implies different forms of activity, self-identification, interaction (the experience of group project training).

It’s necessary to emphasize the idea that an ongoing pedagogical professionalization of high-school teachers is required to realize the above mentioned concepts. This work is of a multi-aspect, multi-dimensional character, it is carried out within the structure of scientific training, within the system of upgrading high-school teachers’ qualification, within the work of a particular department. The most difficult part is the professionalization of the content of non-profile disciplines, which can be regarded only in their interdisciplinary integration with profile disciplines. This is a difficult problem to be solved. It is necessary to study all the aspects of the profile training standard; it’s necessary to point out special didactic units, which will help to sustain the interdisciplinary links with a studied non-profile discipline. It’s necessary to make a plan of a task on the basis of the integrated elements of the content of two (not less) and more disciplines.

A very important matter, in our opinion, is the description the department’s work on the professionalization of the content of the disciplines under study and the teachers’ activity.But it is necessary to give a brief characteristics of the types and levels of students’ self-work as they are regarded as a source and a criterion of the analyzed activity. The given forms of educational activity (lectures, classes, laboratory work) determine the forms of self-work and the types of tasks.

Self-work includes reproductive and creative processes within the students’ activity. They distinguish 3 levels of students’ self-activity: reproductive, reconstructive and creative (searching). Depending on the level of tasks (a problem, a situation) they distinguish 4 types of students’ self-work. The first one helps to form the ability to perform a given algorithm. Here we consider the tasks based on patterns. The second type lets us form the ability to reproduce the absorbed information by heart on the base of reproductive repetition and partially of the independent search of the solution of typical educational tasks. Here we include constructive-variable tasks (a draft, a game, a project, a model, etc.). The third type is aimed at teaching students to solve non-typical search tasks by means of the previous experience. Such tasks require the identification of a problem, its definition, search and realization of solutions. Here we include evritictaks, for example, a solution of some production situation. The fourth type is aimed at the creative activity, which is, in its turn, aimed at the formation of abilities to identify new facts. Here we include scientific tasks. We recommend to include all types of tasks into the process of a particular discipline study.

For the successful functioning of the students’ self-work it is necessary to combine all levels and types, the performance of which provides the realization of particular requirements to the organization of the independent work. These are:

- a necessity to aim students’ self-work in extracurricular time at the formation of abilities characteristic of a future worker (specialist, master, bachelor) to act in different emergency (non-typical, non-standard) professional situations;

- the organization of extracurricular independent work requires the consideration of its peculiarities, the concentration of the teacher’s attention on the results (the abilities to act in different situations, understand not only the aims(targets, objectives) stated by the teacher, but also their formation and realization, the ability to determine and select a regime, conditions, time, means, methods, forms);

- it is necessary to increase the quality of feedback, thus a teacher should find out, whether a student performs the very action planned, whether he performs it correctly, whether the action is being formed with the necessary speed, precision, etc.;

- extracurricular independent work is based upon new material, new educational tasks, which provide gradual movement from material actions to perceptive ones and further – to speech, thus, not only the system of actions should be planned, but also their quality;

- an efficient individualization of self-work implies the existence of home task package on any discipline, which includes all types of tasks, which are necessary to the future bachelor.

Thus, the actualization of the content of future bachelors’ self-work, the realization of the necessary organizational-pedagogical conditions will let to form the future worker’s competence efficiently.

Bibliography

1. Bulinskii, N. N. Extracurricular Independent High school students' work: the problems of organization and management/ N.N. Bulinskii// Materials of the 3d Interregional Scientific-Practical Conference “Professional Training: Problems, Solutions”. – Chelyabinsk-Magnitogorsk, - 1-2 November 2005, - P. 111-118.

2. Movement of the Russian High schools to the level professional training in accordance with the Federal State Educational Standards: Normative-Methodical aspects / V.А. Bogoslovskii, Е.V. Karavaeva, Е.N. Kovtun, etc. – М.:University book, 2010. – 248p.

3. High School Pedagogics and Psychology. – Rostov-na-donu: Fenix, 1998. – P. 99 -115.

4. Ushinskii, К.D.Selection of works in 11 volumes / К.D. Ushinskii - М. -SPb.,1950. - V 2.-500 p.