Педагогические науки

Assoc. prof. Natalija Šedžiuvienė

Šiauliai state college, Lithuania

EDUCATIONAL BASICS OF INDIVIDUAL

PROFESSIONAL BECOMING OF COLLEGE TEACHERS

Individual experience of teachers, perceiving one‘s self as an instance of the subject‘s activities in the teacher career is becoming one of the pre-conditions for Professional development. However, modern educology still targets at general requirements for a teacher‘s work rather than his/her Professional individuality.

It is impossible to realize the new paradigm of humanistic education without the quintessence of perception of an educator‘s personality, aim, content and characteristics of professional development. All this cannot proceed without an expression of professional individuality, which realizes the humanistic potential of educating. Nevertheless, solving of such problems in educology still encounters a number of obstacles: the boundaries, fields and goals of teacher activities, the realization of which depend on a teacher‘s individuality are not sufficiently defined, because everything what is individual is referred to as a common element.

Processes of individual professional becoming of college teachers have not been researched, but they continuously foster interest of scholars as there is growing tendency to assess a teacher in terms of his/her individuality, uniqueness and individual style (Pukelis, 2004).

Study and practice of educology tackles an issue of an individual professional development of teacher in different ways: such development is often attributed to factual, experience-based rather than abstract knowledge. However, in an everyday life a teacher as a cognisant subject is constantly involved in processes of self-knowledge and interacts with a problem of self-identity, as a personality is not a ready-made present, it is developed, projected by efforts of an individual, who chants, yet preserves the entirety of his/her existence (Kuzmina,1999).

Modern education more and often enables a teacher to get involved into self-realization where self- control and self- reflection become both a tool to cross pedagogical barriers and a pre-condition for an individual expression( Kuzmina, 1999; Kruteckij, 1997). The following contradictions are often dominant analyzing processes of an individual professional development of teachers:

∙ it is perceived that in a reality of educating a teacher does not depend on parameters of his/her personality, but rather acts as a performer of pedagogical functions, and he/she disregards the fact that due to certain features of his/her personality, cannot properly realize a number of functions (Kagan, Kogan, 1997; Cole, 1996);

∙ a teacher is mostly attributed to subject of low psychological differentiation, who prefers team rather than individual activities and is successful in communicating; therefore perception of professional eligibility, a system of psychological characteristics having impact on individual professional capacity receive insufficient attention (Maddern, 1994; Lickona, 1991);

∙ self-control and self-correction are perceived as a tool for overcoming pedagogical barriers of an individual expression, but it is not established how they inhibit acceptation of a new role both in actual and imaginary situations (Marton, Wenestam, 1988).

An individual professional expression of a teacher is hardly noticeable externally, therefore, it is little analyzed. A process of individual professional development tends to be viewed as a key factor pre-determining a professional level, whereas self-perception is associated to a new competence of self-projection and civilized professional existence. A teacher as a subject of professional activities is analyzed in terms of a structured personality and a subjective, active plane appearing as an impetus for improvement, based on certain values, knowledge and skills.

A system of teacher characteristics has been analyzed which belongs to internal structures ensuring stability of a personality, importance in the pedagogical career, but an individual expression is being analyzed as an internal radius of a subject exceeding boundaries of actual interactions with ”other“, as development in a personality of “another“. The culture of development of professional “ego“ is considered in a certain educational framework and decentralization of personality towards characteristics defining individuality is established. It is claimed that a new approach to professional development is characteristic to teacher, which is associated with a different type of thought, behavior, self-realization as a learner, as free and responsible individuals.

The following problems are to be salved:

∙ the competencies determining individual professional becoming of teachers have not been established;

∙ educational basics of professional becoming remain vague along with the question what psychological aspects are significant for individual professional becoming and what possibilities a teacher has for self-knowledge and self-help;

∙ it has not been determined how a teacher becomes a subject of conscious activities and how he/she gets involved into cognition processes and interacts with a problem of self-identification of professional individuality, and whether he/she has an opportunity to become a subject perceiving one‘s self and involved in individual professional self-realization.

Conclusions and generalizations:

∙ educational grounds of individual professional becoming of college teachers consists of social, psychological processes and personality traits, which represent teachers’ integral professional self- awareness manageable by educational means;

∙ individual professional becoming may be promoted in the following ways: by developing viewing oneself as a free, responsible individual, projecting characteristics of professional expression on the basis of perception of “intra” and “inter” characteristics, targeting at perception of the core of individual professional creativity and decentralization to individuality via processes of self-identification, self-regulation and self-control;

∙ a teacher becomes a subject of conscious practice when he/she: gets involved in processes of self-knowledge and interacts with a problem of self-identification of professional individuality; has an opportunity to become self-cognisant subject, involved in professional self-realization as a self-monitoring and self-perceiving individual, who continuously improves processes of educational knowledge and self-projecting;

∙ individual professional becoming of college teachers is a creative process of self- help acting as a pre-requisite of professional reflection. Once the reflection becomes intellectual, retrospective, one strives to actualize those components, which might influence crossing of barriers of individual professional expression by educational means.

Literature:

1.Cole M. (1996). Cultural psychology. A once and future discipline.Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England.

2.Kagan J., Kogan N. (1997). Individual variation in cognitive professes // P.H.Mussen

3.Lickona T. (1991). Educating for Character: How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and Resposibility. New York.

4.Maddern J. (1994). Accelerate Learning. Accelerated Learning centre, Bristol.

5.Marton F., Wenestam C.G. (1988. Qualitative differences in retention when a text is read several times. Practical Aspects of memory: Current Reserch and Issyes, vol 2.

6.Pukelis K. (2004). Mokytojų rengimo idealinio modelio parametrai: monografija. Kaunas, VDU.

7.Крутецкий В.А. (1997). Основы педагогической психологии. – М.

8.Кузмина Н.В. (1999). Профессиональная деятельность преподавателя и мастера производственного обучения прфтехучилища. – М.