Педагогические науки / 2. Проблемы
подготовки специалистов
Egorov A.I., Privalov A.N., Romanov V.A.
Teaching Package as a Means of Training a Foreign
Language Teacher for Primary School
The present day reformation of Higher Educational institutions as a
response to the urgent demand to successfully counteract the challenges of
time, brings to life the problem of training a many-sided, creative
personality, capable of adequate evaluating current situation, making
independent decisions, finding new, non-standard ways to overcome emerging
problems. In this connection the significance of long-time strategy for
professional pedagogical education and scientific support of training of would
be educationalists is constantly increasing.
Changes in economic structure and social relations of our society as
well as technological advances in different public areas introduce further
requirements to pedagogical skills and professional training of a teacher in
modern educational system [3; 4].
We can definitely state that the most important issues of higher school
today include the problem of development of professionalism and creative
pedagogical attitudes in University graduates. These issues, in our opinion,
are of utmost importance, and their implementation has great practical value
because they are immediately related to the process of training a teacher as an
educationalist [2; 3].
Many
pedagogical researchers believe that modern school has changed to a
multidisciplinary educational institution with elective syllabus. That leads to
the changes in the requirements to young teachers: school and society expects
them to be ready with new ideas, fresh knowledge, ingenious skills and
practical suggestions. To meet school requirements
higher professional educational establishments have come over to
multidisciplinary training of specialists.
However some educational authorities restrict the training of young
specialists only to the increase of theoretical knowledge with simultaneous
substantial limitation of time for practical skills training. And this, in its
turn, results in decrease of quality in school instruction [3; 4].
Authors’
practical work in Higher Educational institutions shows that today’s most
urgent issue seems to be introduction in teacher training system such
components which will encourage students to realize in full their future
pedagogical activity, to develop necessary professional qualities, which will
eventually guarantee the success in student-teacher cooperation [1; 3; 4].
Present day
conditions of intercultural dialogue require training a specialist capable of
professional foreign-language communication in the course of cross personal and
cross cultural contact. This, in its turn, requires creation of adequate
academic programmes and teaching packages for foreign
language training in local educational environment since the earliest possible
stages of teaching [1; 2].
Speaking
about the required skills of foreign language teachers it is necessary to
mention the scientifically proved fact that these skills are predetermined by
the objective laws of their professional membership. That is why both the
essence and the contents of the required foreign language teachers training
must be determined by the aims and character of their professional activity [1]. If we assume that the development of
professional qualification of would be
teachers and their preparedness for pedagogical activity are successfully achieved, the main issue in
professional skills development would be granted for creation and adequate
application of teaching packages for foreign language instruction [3; 4].
Our
approaches to theoretical foundation and methodical choice for the creation and
application of teaching packages are based on a number of didactic functions
appropriate for this creative process. Each academic subject – and we are
speaking about foreign language instruction – views them as a basis for
professional development that provides special didactic possibilities for supporting
students’ conscious activity, their creative ability, encouraging their
interest for their future profession.
Development
of teaching packages asserts creative
character of work which requires not only good command of a foreign language
but also profound knowledge of the laws of pedagogical activity, all the more
so because modern teachers have the
right to create their own pedagogical strategy and, as a result, bear
personal responsibility for its quality.
One of the
results of the creative pedagogical effort is the potential teaching package
for English as a foreign language. To develop a high quality draft of the
package in question a teacher should possess the following features [4]:
·
A profound
knowledge of a given scientific field, branch, subject;
·
Skills to
practically implement methodological, psychological and pedagogical basics, the
laws of teaching activity and its planning;
·
Understanding
of modern pedagogical trends in the country and in the world;
·
Possession of
up-to-date informational technologies, etc.
Our practical
experience shows that the teachers possess in reasonable extend only one
feature of those mentioned above: knowledge of the subject they teach. As for
understanding of modern pedagogical trends as well as the laws of teaching
activity and its planning we have to admit that in this respect some
educationalists need theoretical, methodological, psychological support and
assistance. So far the process of
pedagogical development of teaching kits for English as a foreign language in
primary school is rather formal.
If we try to
analyze some of the existing teaching packages we will easily find some
shortcomings:
·
The course
description is rather formal or does not exists at all (the course begins
immediately with the contents), the definition of principal methodological
basis for the discipline is obscure;
·
In many
packages the aims are not stated or stated incorrectly, and if they are defined
the definitions are too general or vague;
·
The structure
of the discipline is not clear and the essentials are not specified which makes
it difficult to comprehend the discipline as a whole because everything is
considered to be equally important;
·
The packages often fail to present the
criteria for the final assessment in the discipline, etc.
Summing up
the considerations above we may state that the development and further
application of teaching package for English as a foreign language in primary
school must be viewed as a cohesive process of generating a compressed,
concentrated image of the academic
discipline. Such work of a teacher will definitely contribute to the quality of
pedagogical activity in general, providing the guidelines and organizing
algorithms for this activity [2; 3 and others].
Following the
logic of the material we must assume that the basis for development and further
application of the teaching packages in question, for organization and control
of educational process in higher school could be found in systemic and structural approach.
This approach enables us to combine all the components of the educational
process in accordance with its aims, that is to define the quality and content
knowledge, provide the continuity and interconnection of subjects, to find the
efficient forms, methods and means of teaching, to apply the appropriate
assessment technique and the results of its analysis with necessary corrections
on the basis of a feedback approach.
Thus, while
working on a teaching package, defining the content knowledge which, in its
turn, defines the content of teachers training course, one must follow four
basic [4] approaches (it is also proved by the work of University
lecturers):
1.
Analysis of
students’ professional pedagogical background;
2.
Scientific reconsideration of the scope of professional pedagogical training in
Higher Educational institutions;
3.
Adjustment of
discipline courses to the training profile of the Institution;
4.
Development
of teaching aids for application of teaching methods which encourage the
cognitive activity of pedagogical students in the process of studies on
graduation courses.
In conclusion we find it appropriate to specify the following factors for
developing teaching packages for English as a foreign language in primary
school:
·
Level of previous training;
·
Scope of
teaching materials based on scientifically approved time consumption norms for
assignments and exercises;
·
Possibility
to plan different themes and sections of the study course on the basis of
structured logical schemes as a necessary condition of interdisciplinary and
cross disciplinary connections;
·
Scope of the
course study materials, which, in their turn, must conform to the academic profile of the teacher and their specific
tasks.
We can presume that realization
of these recommendations will help to make the teaching package for English as
a foreign language an effective means for training future foreign languages
teachers for their pedagogical activity in primary school.
Literature
1.
Егоров А.И. Формирование навыков
профессионально-педагогического общения на иностранном языке (тезисы) //
Качество подготовки специалистов и инновационные процессы в системе
непрерывного профессионального образования. Часть 2 // Тезисы докладов научно-методической
конференции ТГПУ им. Л.Н. Толстого. – Тула: Изд-во ТГПУ им. Л.Н. Толстого,
2004.
С. 14 - 16.
2.
Егоров А.И. Принципы реализации когнитивного подхода в
обучении иностранному языку студентов неязыковых направлений // Проектирование
и реализация образовательного процесса на основе ВГОС ВО: Материалы XLIII учебно-методической конференции профессорско-преподавательского
состава, аспирантов, магистрантов, соискателей ТГПУ им. Л.Н. Толстого. – Тула: Изд-во ТГПУ им. Л.Н. Толстого, 2016.
С. 119-123.
3.
Романов В.А.
Профессионально-педагогическая
подготовка учителя начальных классов: дидактический аспект: Монография. – Тула: Изд-во Тул.
гос. пед. ун-та им. Л.Н.
Толстого, 2011. – 188 с.
4. Романов
В.А. Подготовка учителя начальных классов в аспекте новой образовательной
парадигмы: монография /
В. А. Романов. – Тула: Изд-во Тульский полиграфист, 2016. – 208 с.