К.п.н. Л.Ф.Авдеева

Taganrog Institute of management and economics

Students’ research work as a factor of their personal and professional development

In conditions of Russian universities integration into the European system of higher education it became necessary to change the forms and methods of the educational process organization. To a large extent these changes are relevant in the course of learning foreign languages. One of the essential requirements in the educational process is to match the students’ achievements to the state standard. . In accordance with the current standards, higher schools must provide students training at the international level so that students could work effectively in an international business environment. The tasks of universities connected with the development of future professionals as cultural and linguistic personalities can be solved on the basis of a competence approach.

This approach implies not only presence of certain knowledge in some area, but also the ability to use them in specific situations. The term “competence” refers to the complex personal formation, providing self-development and self-learning, which contributes to the formation of his/her attitude to any activity.

Students’ participating in research work represents a new stage in the search for means of efficient education, developing students’ scientific creativity and implementing new teaching methods. The basic ideas in the development of these innovative methods are: the idea of sorting out educational content on the basis of the activity approach, individualization of learning based on the differentiation of students’ personality characteristics, as well as designing the educational process taking into account the scientific achievements of pedagogical sciences.

We believe this problem can be solved through students’ research work (SRW). We regard SRW as a complex and highly dynamic pedagogical system owing the variety of characteristics, such as: probability (thanks to its ambiguity behavior), open (thanks to information permeability) [2]. Based on the five-component structure of the skills offered by N.V.Kuzmina, we consider students’ research work as a "specific theoretical and applied scientific activity, carried out either independently or under the guidance of a teacher. The result of this activity is a new scientific knowledge or the product, which is new for the student and which is directed to the development of students’ professional and personal qualities. Moreover, this activity implies the formation of Gnostic, projective, constructive, communication and organizational components [3].

Activating SRW needs a certain communicative and stimulating environment. The main organizational components of such environments are - the organization of activities, interaction, supporting incentives, organization of training content, organization and control of assessment criteria.

Organization of activity involves the management of students’ creative work and joint teachers’ and students’ research work which is implemented through properly organized communication system and to a large extent depends on each of the participants in the educational process.

Organization of interaction involves the use of student-centered, communicative-directed approach to learning process, which enables a comprehensive communicative and cultural competence held in an atmosphere of cooperation and psychologically comfortable learning environment.

The next component to create communication-enabling environment is the organization of incentives. A very important component is content, this professional component being the most substantial one.

Methodologically important conditions for the students’ efficient scientific work are:

- To provide conditions for the student to be included in all cooperative activities;

-To provide students with educational and methodical complex conforming elements codifier of the discipline maintenance;

- To create psychologically comfortable conditions for joint activities;

- To intensify and optimize the educational process to convert it into a creative process based on communicative-directed, student-centered approach to learning;

- To enrich the learning process through various means of communication, computer technology;

- To construct the educational environment so that the environment of the student would act as a society, stimulating diverse interaction;

- To use widely high-tech equipment and systems of communication, reference books, etc.;

- To organize the monitoring in order to optimally test the degree of competence of students as a result of the development of the subjects under consideration.

The system of students’ research work organization raises a lot of questions, and among them is the essential question concerning the criteria for its evaluation.

It is generally accepted to consider both quantitative and qualitative criteria. We believe that such an approach is essential, but not sufficient. With regard to the conditions of the system for assessing the effectiveness of SRW these criteria were divided into five groups, taking into account such characteristics as: recognition, informational content, prospects, priority and fruitful influence on the person [1].

An integrated approach to teaching and assessing the effectiveness of SRW, which includes personality-oriented, cross-cultural, systemic, activity approach, creates favorable conditions for the development of creative personality.

Thus, it is obvious that efficient students’ participation in research work is possible if educational process is organized properly and methodically correctly.

References:

1. Avdeeva L.F. Development of students’ cognitive creativity while mastering FL in the active learning environment . Amursk, AGPGU 2011.
2. Kuzmina NV Methods of system pedagogical research. Textbook-, A; LSU, 1980.
3. Novoselova A.A. Scientific and technical creativity as a factor in students' professional training, Ph.D. cand. ped. Sciences, L: LSU, 1984.