Problem-Cognitive Program Of The Students-Researchers In The Knowledge Society Cultural Reality

Abstract

The author develops a fundamental concept of the research education theory – the problem-cognitive program, which is a model of socio-cognitive self-making and a type of implementation of cognitive interests both for an individual student-researcher and for research community. The challenge is to study a scientific-type investigative behaviour as a decisive factor in evolution of cultural reality of knowledge society. Objectives of the study: 1) research and generalization of experience in finding scientific and educational paths for students-researchers; 2) conceptualization of a socio-cognitive type of student development through scientific research methods in obtaining knowledge. The study uses methods of pedagogical experiments, generalization of social and pedagogical work with creative students, a structural-functional and cognitive analysis of educational activities, and educational and cognitive practices. The methodology is based on 25-year experience in the Russian "Step into the Future" programme for scientific training of young researchers (schoolchildren and students), which currently involves more than150 thousand participants. As shown, the problem-cognitive program articulates the logic of spiritual values of personal growth. It diagnoses the cognitive vocation in cultural reality of knowledge society. The last is ethically predisposed to social distribution of people depending on their abilities to operate with knowledge. Methodological principles of drawing up a problem-cognitive program are formulated; components of cognitive capacities are defined; examples from teaching practice are presented. Research methods in obtaining knowledge give learners and teachers an effective tool for practical application of discipline knowledge and linking them with specific professional areas, achievement of cognitive outcomes having social values.

Keywords: Educationscienceresearchknowledgepersonalitydevelopment

Introduction

Knowledge society is a specific socio-economic and cultural domain within the modern society. It establishes scientific thinking as a key force of production and development of the society as a whole. It makes the science a dominating source of additional knowledge, and knowledge positions itself as a new axial principle of the society (Bell, 2008; Stehr, 1994, p. 92). Education plays the role of producing cultural foundation of the knowledge society which educates young people who are gifted in research activities, i.e. research education (Etzkowitz, 2008, p. 35; Thursby & Kemp, 2002, p. 110; Karpov, 2015c, p. 453, 454).

In the middle of the XX c., a new system of labor division which is typical for the knowledge society, an innovation system containing science as well as the society which is based on education took their origin (Druker, 1996, p. 114, 129). Multilayer systems of innovative networks and fractal-type clusters are developed for knowledge production. They distribute new global culture, where a creative knowledge worker becomes a key player (Carayannis & Campbell, 2011, pp. 336-338; Davenport, 2013, pp. 10-12; Peters & Besley, 2013, p. 1).

I indentify four historical stages in the formation of the research model of cognitive attitudes in the higher education: (1) education as acquisition of truth, (2) relationship between research and teaching, (3) relationship between research and education, (4) education through scientific research activities (Karpov, 2015a, pp. 441-443).

I. Kant (1798) sees the university as a learned community, whose mission is discover and "public presentation of truth” (1979, p. 23, 45, 55). Von Humboldt German University (1810) cultivates the relation between research and teaching (Von Humboldt, 2000, pp. 68, 78). For a university in the industrial age K. Jaspers (1946) claims the combination of research and teaching as the highest principle (Jaspers, 1959, pp. 45, 46). The research is included as a component in the teaching process, but it can’t define its content and structure as a whole. By the end of the XX century, the research education sector was developed, where education was implemented through scientific research activities. They began to shape a teaching process as well as a cognitive function of thinking (Simons, 2006, p. 36). At the beginning of the XXI century, universities positioned themselves as a key element in building the knowledge society (The Role of the Universities..., 2003).

Research education for school is a recent acquisition. According to Kant (1900) , “scholastic culture constitutes work for the child” (pp. 70, 67). Humboldt states that the school should "always and clearly" be separated from the university (Von Humboldt, 2000, p. 70, 69). In the industrial age, mechanization of brainwork in the environment of standardized knowledge should be a pedagogical principle. The creative approach in school education became the subject of political attention of the US government in late 1950s – early 1960s, which was due to the Soviet achievements in military and space technologies (Trow, 1968, pp.133-134). In 1980s, the EU Commission made research activities at school a part of the human evolution policy. In Russia, design and research education emerged in mid-1990s as a result of activities under the "Step into the Future" programme (Karpov, 2012, pp. 725-731).

The research education sector, comprising of schools, universities, corporate training programs for researchers and developers, is focused on formation of complicated high-level competences to be started at the stage of learning at school. The answer to this challenge should be a special education system ensuring a principle of scientific-cognitive continuity between a school and a university (Karpov, 2015b, pp. 531-534).

Research education gives for grown up person a dynamic competence that makes possible to predict in-deep cognitive transformations of a paradigmatic type (Karpov, 2016a, p. 9955). This person forms an antroposocial foundation of the knowledge society. Research education becomes a tool of research-type socialization, which trains young people for living in the knowledge society (Karpov, 2016c, pp. 3490-3492).

A model of sociocognitive self-making of learners engaged in research activities is studied in this work. I will call these schoolchildren and students as learners-researchers. Their cognitive growth is driven by scientific-type research behavior.

Problem Statement

The scientific-type research behavior is different in its essence from the innate psycho-biotic "curiosity", which has its roots in the primitive struggle for survival. The scientific-type research behavior is driven by a conscious search for truth, which is a professional component in scientific work with knowledge. The study of the scientific-type research behavior as a decisive factor for progress of cultural reality of the knowledge society has an important epistemic-didactic value.

Research Questions

The research behavior formation process can be judged by analyzing a time sequence of scientific and engineering challenges a learner solves at different stages of his/her socio-cognitive self-making. Key research questions I can identify as follows.

3.1. How, in practice, are cognitive preferences of learners progressing with time if even at school they are engaged in professional work due to their knowledge?

3.2. What is a theoretical object, conceptualizing a cognitive trajectory of learners-researchers engaged in professional work with scientific and engineering knowledge?

Purpose of the Study

Based on the research questions, the purpose of the study is divided into experimental and theoretical parts.

4.1. The purpose of the experimental part consists in the analysis and generalization the experience in construction the research-cognitive trajectories of learners-researchers.

4.2. The purpose of the theoretical part is conceptualization of the socio-cognitive type of learner self-making through scientific-research methods of obtaining knowledge.

Research Methods

The study uses methods of a pedagogical experiment, generalization of social and pedagogical works with active up-and-doing schoolchildren and students with creative thinking, and a structural-functional and cognitive analysis of educational and cognitive practices. The research methodology is based on 25-year experience in the Russian National Science Forum "Step into the Future" dedicated to scientific training of young researchers – schoolchildren and students, currently involving more than 150 thousand participants..

The "Step into the Future" programme was established by me a quarter of a century ago. To make a decision on propensity to research-type cognition and teaching for schoolchildren promising from this point of view, I developed a scientific research method. At the heart of this method is the construction of cognitive attitudes in educational societies on the basis of principles inherent in scientific research. Unlike the projects method coming from followers of John Dewey, here the solution to the research problem becomes not a private "project" episode, but it is included in the mainstream of research-cognitive trajectories of personality development.

In the course of implementation of the "Step into the Future" programme I completed quite a few observations over the process of socio-cognitive development of young people who demonstrated their talent in science and engineering. The target of the empirical study was not those who executed the projects as an integral part of education at school, but those who on their own initiative were keen on science and engineering, first independently and in specialized educational institutions, and then as members of adult teams professionally working with knowledge. I talked with learners-researchers in different cities and villages in Russia, studied the environment and circumstances of their scientific creativity, dynamics of cognitive interests, specific results of their activities in different periods of life.

During the study it was found that psychological tests that identify the personality development are not well informative for research-cognitive trajectories of learners-researchers. As a result, the vision of creative growth and success of learners was based on outcomes of their research activity. In other words, I applied the generative assessment as opposed to summarizing or competency-based approaches. Summarizing assessment uses a correlation between learner’s achievements (outcomes) and established standards. The competency-based assessment answers the question: "How does a learner operate with the knowledge?" The generative assessment is based on what a learner can do with received knowledge and what he/she is able to create independently. This assessment diagnoses the specialized creativity, and, in our case, the ability of a learner to produce new scientific-type knowledge.

Findings

Conclusion

Research methods of cognition give a learner and a teacher an effective tool for practical application of discipline knowledge, their association with specific professional fields and specialties and achievement of cognitive findings having a real value in life.

The problem-cognitive program articulating spiritual-valuable logic of development is becoming a tool of existential and socio-cognitive self-making of a creative person who thinks of him- or herself and about his or her vocation in the mainstream of the knowledge society culture. It is a way of establishing a paradigm of the personal being, and it functions as generative ontology determining the self-making of a person.

The concept of the problem-cognitive program has a more extended scope of application than the research education. This scope can be defined as “training in self-making”. It is directly related to the essence of education.

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