Сandidate of Philology, Associate Professor TA Shcheblykina

Kharkiv National Pedagogical University

Named after GS Scovoroda, Ukraine

The Essential Characteristics of Educational Monitoring

Current regulations in the field of higher education (Law "On Education" and "On Higher Education", National Strategy for the Development of Education in Ukraine dated on the period till 2021, etc.) orient teachers to prepare future professionals who would be able quickly to solve professional tasks and will have an ability to exercise full self-realization in all areas of their own life. A vital prerequisite to ensure the effectiveness of such training is the development and application into practice education monitoring in higher education, competently organized from an educational point of view.

Obviously, there are different educational monitoring systems that significantly differ in the object of study, the scale coverage areas, the directions, the degree of scientific elaboration as well. At a time it is important to note that all these systems share certain essential features.

According to an analysis of the scientific works, the researchers have expressed different views on the definition of these characteristics. Thus, Alexander Mayorov notes that all monitoring systems combine the following general properties:

· monitoring objects are in a state of development, the dynamics of which is defined by some positive and negative factors;

· the implementation of monitoring provides the opportunity for continuous surveillance of certain objects, where such observation mode is predetermined with features and resource capabilities. The managing of such tracking involves direct measurement or description of certain options of selected object based on certain reasonable selection criteria and indicators;

· the structure of any kind of monitoring includes further development of the object;

· each specific monitoring system is focused on specific customer (the society in general, bodies of the authorities, professional groups, etc.);

· the main sphere of practical application of monitoring is the information management of the process in a given field of activity;

· the monitoring performs a range of functional tasks [2, p. 91-92].

V. Musina based on consideration of the main functions of educational monitoring identified the following essential characteristics of educational monitoring:

· integrity of monitoring system (this process is not a mechanical combination of collection, processing, analysis and interpretation of monitoring procedure data, and is a new high-quality creation that is an integrated system, operation of which is regulated with its own special laws);

· regularity and length of learning outcomes tracking (compliance with the following rules: focus of monitoring as an integral structure to achieve its primary objective; the definition of the procedure, methods and techniques to collect, analyze and interpret monitoring data, the development of a plan for the measurement and controlling procedures, identifying of the key areas of corrective work, taking adequate managerial decisions, design of individual trajectories of each member of the educational process, etc.);

· continuity and recurrence of monitoring process (assuming of monitoring procedures without interruption, the implementation of a smooth transition from one cycle of monitoring to another one) [3, p. 39-41].

According to the findings of other authors (S. Litvinenko, A. Sevruk, A. Yunina [1, 4]), the general characteristics of educational monitoring are the following ones:

· objectivity (conditionality of monitoring results only with the subject of the study as well as with its independence from the subjective point of a researcher, uniformity of used indicators, the comparability of monitoring measurements results);

· reliability (measurement accuracy, stability of results obtained during the remonitoring conducted by others);

· validity (applicability and validity of techniques and the use of research results in specific circumstances);

· systematic (carrying out of the stages and types of pedagogical monitoring in sequence and system);

· taking into account the level of training, upbringing and development, the individual characteristics of each object of study, as well as conditions and specific situations of the study that require differentiation of controling and diagnostic tasks;

· humanistic orientation of the monitoring (creating of an atmosphere of goodwill, cooperation, use of monitoring results in order to stimulate students to improve their learning processes as well as professional and personal development).

It should be noted that the above mentioned scientists’ points of view on the outlined issue do not contradict to each other fundamentally. Considering of the identified common characteristics of educational monitoring is a prerequisite for its successful implementation.

List of Scientific Sources

1. Litvinenko S. A. Professiografic Monitoring in Primary School Teachers’ Training to Social and Educational Activities / S. A. Litvinenko // Journal of Zhitomir State Pedagogical University. – 2003. – № 12. – P. 190-195.

2. Mayorov A. N. Monitoring in Information Provision System in the Management of Education : Dis. ... Doctor. ped. Sciences : 13.00.01 / A. N. Mayorov. – St. Petersburg, 2003. – 236 p.

3. Musina V. E. Teaching Moonitoring Of Students’ Educational Achievements in Teacher’s Activities : Dis. ... Candidate. ped. Sciences : 13.00.01 / V. E. Musina. – Belgorod 2009. – 196 p.

4. Sevruk A. I. Monitoring of Quality of Teaching in School / A. I. Sevruk, E. A. Yunyna. – Moscow : Russia Pedagogical Society, 2003. – 144 p.