Competence Approach To Teachers’ Training - «Interaction Of Participants In Educational Relations »

Update of the pedagogical education

Nowadays, the improvement of pedagogical education in Russia is connected to both, the transition of Russian system of higher education to a level training, and to the new demands of the society to the professionalism of the modern teacher. The strategic perspective of improving pedagogical education is based fundamentally on new requirements for the training of pedagogical personnel and the need to improve the quality of teachers training. Modern teachers should be able to provide flexible, individually-oriented training and education of students, as well as the development of their creative abilities (Bondarevskaya, 2010).

Among the numerous problems dealt with in teachers’ training, the development of new educational programs is a priority. Requirements for such programs are determined by:

• Insufficient practical training of future teachers of professional activities,

• Formal approach to structuring the module of the educational program as a set of separate disciplines (Margolis, 2014).

Strengthening the practical orientation of teachers training meets the requirements of the modern educational standard of higher education (FSES HE). A quantitative, as well as a qualitative change in the content of practice-oriented educational activity takes place gradually.

From the standpoint of the activity approach, successful entry into the pedagogical profession and further professional development occurs exclusively in the conditions of the educational organization providing, on the one hand, examples of professional actions and technologies to a pedagogy student, and on the other hand, a field for working out the experience of solving pedagogical problems (Margolis, 2014). Therefore, the key element of the pedagogical education in the new format is the development of new theoretical courses and a system of practices during internships in partner schools. The modular structure of educational programs assumes the integration of theoretical and practical components in conjunction with the research component.

Competencies and qualities of teachers’ training

Competence approach, which meets the requirements of the educational standard of higher education (FSES HE), allows one to monitor the quality of training a modern teacher in the implementation of a multi-level model of education in higher education. The research work of Bolotov and Khutorskoj (Bolotov, 2014; Khutorskoj, 2011) affirms that competence is a consequence of self-development of an individual, not only of his technological, but also of personal growth, and a consequence of self-organization and generalization of professional activity and personal experience. It is an acquired experience that is a factor determining the subsequent development of competences. Professional competence provides a teacher an opportunity and ability to flexibly model the educational process, independently generate and implement new educational technologies that are relevant in modern conditions. First of all, for this, a teacher must have a wide range of general and professional competencies. These competencies could be developed only when the teacher's practical orientation is increased.

Among the factors influencing the effectiveness of teaching an important place is taken by the evaluative activity of the teacher. It is based on the teacher's subjective position (Hattie Meta-Analysis) (Hattie, 2009). Speaking about the quality assessment, it should be recognized that so far "there is no necessary comprehensive approach to evaluating procedures, there are no sufficiently valid criteria and indicators of the effectiveness of education" (Bolotov, 2010).

Structure and Content of the Module

In accordance with the educational results, the content of the Module consisting of three Sections were selected.

Section 1 . Designing and implementing an interactive educational environment

The section is devoted to the design and implementation of an interactive educational environment, which is based on building productive interaction between participants of the educational process and ensuring their cooperation. The native and foreign experience of creating an interactive space based on maintaining the atmosphere of trust and cooperation in the educational process was analysed. Both positive and negative factors (barriers) of cooperation were revealed and models were discussed, particularly, the model of social partnership.

During familiarization with the content of the section, educational results were formed - K1, S1, A1, A2.

Section 2 . The organization of pedagogical interaction training

The section is dedicated to the issues of organization of pedagogical interaction. Within the framework of familiarization with this section, the possibilities of cooperation in the relationships of all subjects of the educational process were discussed, and problems of collegiality and business ethics in the professional and pedagogical community were examined. An important emphasis is placed on trust and cooperation in the educational process, stimulating the exchange of views, increasing efficiency in the process of making joint decisions, and developing new models of interaction.

During the implementation of the section in the educational process, educational results were formed - K2, K3, K4, S2, A3, A4.

Section 3 . Workshop on networking organization

The section is focused on the consideration of networking issues. The mechanisms of network forms of implementation of educational programs with the use of resources of several organizations that conduct educational activities were analysed. A package of normative legal documents was studied to organize networking.

During familiarization with the content of this section, educational results were formed - K5, S3, A5.

Familiarization of the section material occurs both during lectures and practical classes, and during distributed internships at schools, where students perform research assignments. Table 2 shows the structure and labor intensity of the Module.

Approbation of the Module program was conducted in 2016-2017 academic year on first year Master students in the training direction of Pedagogic education, with training majors: teacher of physics and teacher of biology. Before the training was initiated, students were presented with the Module program and the list of the main creative projects that were to be performed independently, in teams and/or individually.

Module entrance starts with practical (familiarization) training that ends with business simulation. “Debates in the Ministry of Education” was carried out in the framework of studying module sections; “Designing and implementing interactive educational environment”, “Training in pedagogic interaction organization” and “Practicum in network interaction organization” with engagement of teachers-supervisors from network schools as experts. The Business simulation allowed to analyse new FSES of the basic comprehensive education notions such as; “pragmatic approach”, “competency-based approach”, and “interactive training” in the context of practical activity, to demonstrate knowledge and skills in the use of regulatory documents provisions, and to show mastery of arguments in defending personal position (point of view).

As tasks for reflection, students were offered an essay on “The best class in the university or a lesson at school that I remember”. In describing classes students paid attention to such features as: Interconnection of didactic principals with real pedagogic practice (pedagogic activity), teacher’s professionalism, methodical repertory and communication style, etc. Students described classes like experts, separating the most significant sides of real educational and bringing-up process. They characterized classes in terms of interactivity and compliance with requirements of new FSES of basic comprehensive or higher education. In this description, students trusted their personal experience, their own ideas of professional pedagogic activity, they gave exhaustive substantiation, and assessed the class (lesson).

In the Module “Interaction of Participants of Educational Relations”, classes took place with application of various forms, methods, and techniques of training, depending on the tasks of Module sections (Table 3 ).

The central component of the Module was the practical activity of students. During the performed practical, trained students learnt: the peculiarities of educational activity in secondary education institutions (school partners), and pupil's psychological and pedagogic peculiarities appearing in educational activity in the conditions of individual training.

Assessment tools of the Module

One of the principals for choosing a tool of forming and assessing the level of competence well-formedness is the criterial base for each tool (Vesmanov et al., 2015). As a result, scores for the Module become cumulative. The final control form of the described module provides for the Event: PROJECT “Modern pedagogic technology in action”. Educational objective was specified as development and implementation of the PROJECT “Modern pedagogic technology in action”, and its tasks were:

• to develop extra curriculum measures (for the discipline or bringing-up) at the base of an educational organization (school partner), considering network forms of implementing educational programs, and using resources of several organizations performing educational activity;

• to prepare the event at the base of an educational organization (school partner) considering network forms of implementing educational programs and using resources of several organizations;

• to implement the event at the chosen base (school partner).

The project is executed by Masters students both in the process of mastering the theoretical part of the Module (designing), during practical training (preparation, organization) and during work placement (implementation). At the first stage, the project is presented to the supervisor - school teacher and consultant university teacher in the form of event planned on the basis of an educational organization. After completion of the first stage of practical training, students must perform self-assessment determining what knowledge and skills they need for preparing and implementing this project.

Concept of the project “Modern pedagogic technology in action” is built on the basis of pragmatic approach and use of technologies and methods of arranging interaction of educational relation participants. During project development, preparation, and implementation, students applied knowledge and skills gained during the Module mastering, and demonstrated professional actions in real educational situations.

Defence of the PROJECT “Modern pedagogic technology in action”, is the final event in module mastering and takes place in the form of presentation with presenting a report on each project stage with demonstration of video materials.

Final mark of the module is based on correlation of educational results with indexes and criteria of assessment of reported events. Table 4 presents correlation of Module educational results with assessment tools (development, preparation and implementation of the PROJECT “Modern pedagogic technology in action”) and indicators of GC-7 competence well-formedness.