Innovative Educational Practices For General And Professional Education

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to devote to the study of sources, didactic mission and essential characteristics of innovative educational practices; to analyze innovative educational practices, identify their specific features, formulate the grounds for classification. The authors use the methods of comparative-comparative analysis of these practices, their classification, and modeling in this research. The article presents a didactic scheme for the analysis of practices, including the identification of the problem that innovative educational practice solves; its didactic bases; target and value components; description of the content of education, implemented in practice; methods, forms of organization of the learning process in this practice, means of implementing the basic ideas; indication of planned results; the nature of interaction between teacher and students. The authors present the results of analysis of the practices covering the learning process in secondary schools, higher education institutions, adult education in the conditions of corporate training. They established that all analyzed educational practices are aimed at eliminating known shortcomings of the class-lesson system and its inconsistency with the realities of the modern educational environment, the information and communication technologies used in it. A number of practices are aimed at developing thinking, communicative abilities of students, providing conditions for self-development and self-realization of the individual. In corporate education the authors emphasize the problem of the collision of the idea of education as a translation of cultural experience with the presentation of education as learning new experience in the process of its generation, existing in innovative practices.

Keywords: Innovative educational practicescorporate education

Introduction

The field of educational reality is heterogeneous: there are a number of local phenomena that have a pronounced authorial character that does not contradict state regulations in the field of education, but go beyond established norms and regulations along with the traditional pedagogical reality, standardized legislative documents and departmental by-laws, supported by didactic and methodological recommendations.

The authors divide the concepts "educational practice" and "educational practices" in the research.

The paper considers practice as the subject's activity aimed at mastering and transforming the material and ideal objects of social experience; an act of creating actual values. The influence of the subject on the system of social relations through social institutions, when he changes society and develops himself characterizes social practice (Glushko, 2011, pp. 38-36). The presence of basic assumptions, various concepts of knowledge that set the view on the educational process; the existence of subjective, "communal" relationships for the production and reproduction of knowledge in the course of education, "the ongoing process of coordinating actions"; compulsory self-educational activity of a person determine the educational practice which is a variety of social practice, from the point of view of K. J. Gergen (Dzherdzhen,, 2003).

The understanding of "educational practices" differs from the understanding of "educational practice". The educational practice in the traditional sense refers to the educational activities and the conditions that provide it. Accordingly, the educational practice includes a number of theoretical positions on which it is built (for example, a system-activity approach, a single educational space, a class-lesson system); a set of social institutions in which it is realized (educational organizations, organizations of additional education); teachers and students involved in the implementation of educational practice. A specific feature of the educational practice today is the availability of an informational and educational environment in which educational activity unfolds. The structure of the educational practice includes institutionalized phenomena that determine the nature, laws, standards of educational activity. There are a number of characteristics, features, properties of the educational practice. For each stage of the development of the school, they are their own. For example, at the present stage it is the availability of an educational standard, the focus on the formation of key competencies at the level of general secondary education and professional at the level of secondary and higher professional, the wide use of information and communication technologies, and the organization of active group activity of students.

The description of the educational practice shows a holistic picture of institutionalized educational reality, which includes a description of the educational activity and its conditions with an emphasis on a number of its general characteristics. At the same time, in the space of educational reality, there are some local objects: innovative educational practices that differ from institutionalized ones but do not contradict them.

The innovative educational practices are formed to address topical problems of education "here and now", i.e. the subject (creator) of the practice (or a group of subjects) does not begin with the development of new theoretical positions, practice modelling, the creation of norms and rules, and immediately - with the realization of his idea in pedagogical reality. There is necessarily an original author's idea (or a set of ideas) aimed at solving a problem that arose in reality in the innovative educational practice. Specification, enrichment, didactic support of the idea are carried out during the implementation of practice, often post-factum.

Thus, if stability, prevalence, and institutionalization are the features of educational practice its, then situationality, locality, originality, author's principle are the features of innovative educational practices.

We mean novelties introduced into an educational process as innovations. If we consider the existing innovations, we can distinguish two areas of innovative changes in education: one direction is innovations that go from top to bottom, vertically, from educational authorities (for example, the standardization of education, the introduction of the Unified State Examination), and the second direction is the innovations distributed horizontally, from the teacher to the teacher, earlier through the "word of mouth", the direct exchange of experience, now by the means of the information and educational environment, in which practicing teachers actively share methodological findings. Innovative educational practices refer to novelties distributed horizontally (Osmolovskaya, 2010, pp. 182-188).

Problem Statement

In the field of educational reality, there are innovative educational practices, many of which are not analyzed and not described from positions of didactics. It complicates studying them by didactics, studying these practices by students and teachers, modeling new practices.

Research Questions

What does understanding of innovative educational practices include? What is a scheme of their didactic analysis? What are peculiar features of innovative educational practices?

Purpose of the Study

To analyze innovative didactic practices; to reveal their peculiar features; to formulate the classification bases.

Research Methods

The authors use comparative and comparative analysis, classification, modeling in this research.

Findings

Innovative educational practices arise in response to challenges of modern times, the associated needs of an individual and society in changing the content and procedural characteristics of education. Such practices can be considered as sprouts of a new one, which, appearing as local phenomena, either spread in pedagogical reality or "go into oblivion" because they do not realize the expectations placed on them or they are too complex for their wide application by educators.

As examples of innovative educational practices, one can consider the "school of dialogue of cultures" of V.S. Bibler and S.Yu. Kurganov, "thought-activity pedagogy" of Y.V.Gromyko and N.V. Gromyko (Gromyko, & Alekseev, 2010, pp. 188-225), "communicative didactics" of Y.L. Troitskiy (Troitskiy, & Tyupa, 2010, pp. 236-242), "Dramogermeneutic" of V.M. Bukatova; the idea of tutoring of T.M. Kovaleva (Kovaleva, 2013, pp. 51-56), the introduction of the theory of solving of inventive problems in school (TSIP) of A.A. Guin, etc.

Let us note that if to correlate a concrete innovative educational practice to groups of didactic objects (systems, models, technologies, methodical receptions), and then it is possible to draw a conclusion that this or that practice will have the lines characteristic of these objects. For example, the thought-activity pedagogy can be presented as the didactic system, application of TSIP in the educational process as the didactic model, the technology of education in global information community (TEGIC) developed by V.V. Guzeev possesses characteristics of the educational technology. It is expedient to put these reasons in the basis of the developed classification innovative educational the practices.

The systematicity of any effective educational practice can be considered as a specific didactic regularity. The pedagogically significant result cannot be provided with separately taken "effective" reception Classics of pedagogics has told much about it. The conceptual educational idea is the cornerstone of the authors' innovative system. The idea in this sense is peculiar "linking" of the purposes (purpose of innovative practice); content of the education (offered for assimilation of a type of cultural experience); psychological conditions of assimilation of this type of experience; technologies by means of which these conditions are updated; criteria for assessing the conformity of a result to the set goals.

The criterion of the novelty of an educational practice is not the new forms of the educational process which often have the only external difference from the traditional subject training, but, first of all, change of nature of the activity (educational, communicative, design, etc.) of pupils. If education process externally looks in a new way, and pupils continue to solve the same educational problems and to use the same methods of receiving and use of knowledge and to receive estimates for the same achievements in accuracy, as earlier, then there are all reasons to believe that we deal with a pseudo-innovative practice.

Attracting for creating innovative practices ideas of other sciences (philosophies, cultural science, anthropology, psychology, etc.), one should not forget that such ideas have to be translated by all means into the language providing reproduction and regulation of pedagogic activity. That is the conceptual framework of pedagogics and its host of the section – didactics. It can be shown in a simple example: how many we would urge a teacher to use ideas, say, of synergetic or "integrity of educational systems"; these ideas will not be realized until we do not explain to him what new purposes, means, conditions and criteria of efficiency of his activity and an activity of his pupils are discussed. Any synergetic "will not begin to work" without it.

For example, V.S. Il’in, M.N. Skatkin's pupil, admitted that he took the idea of "dynamic structure of pedagogical process" (consecutive change of conditions of process) from chemical kinetics, theories of "chain reactions", but gave it a completely pedagogical form, i.e. presented pedagogical process as consecutive change of purposes and means of pedagogical activity.

Thus, noting that one creates a row of innovative education practices not only and not so much on "purely" pedagogical ideas as on the integration of philosophical, culturological, anthropological and other provisions, all of us emphasize that we implement these practices in line with didactic regularities and rules, considering the general ideas of expansion of process of training in time and space. On this basis, it is obviously important to carry out the description of innovative practices in didactic concepts with the following scheme of the description:

  • a problem which is solved by an innovative learning practice (achievement of a definite pedagogical purpose, ensuring assimilation of a certain type of content of education, etc.);

  • its didactic bases (ways of representation of the scientific ideas taken from other sciences, or new cultural experience in a form of learning tasks and ways of their decision in forms of joint activity of the teacher and pupils);

  • disclosure of valuable, sociocultural orientation of an entered practice;

  • disclosure of a source and purpose of the entered new component of a content of education realized in this practice;

  • methods, and forms of the organization of process of learning in this practice with an obligatory display at which conditions of development of pupils these forms and methods are directed;

  • idea of results (which can differ considerably from existing in rated pedagogical reality);

  • new in the organization of educational activity of pupils (tasks, the universal and in detail focused ways of assimilation of knowledge, methods of generalization, work with information sources, transfer of knowledge in new conditions), the nature of the interaction of the teacher and pupils.

According to the offered scheme, the following innovative educational practices were analyzed: the blended learning , thought-based pedagogics, communicative didactics, "school of dialogue of cultures" (Hamdan, McKnight, & Arfstrom, 2013; Introduction to blended learning, 2018; Pappas, 2018).

It is established that all of them are directed to eliminating of the known shortcomings of the class-lesson system and the inconsistency in its content of education in which dominates the active, creative, personal types of experience, which are not reduced to a cognitive component (Bjork, 2013). Ways of training are already insufficiently adequate to the realities of the modern educational environment applied to information and communication technologies used in it, the subject-focused learning models. A row the practices is directed to overcoming shortcomings of reproductive learning, to developing of thinking, communicative abilities of pupils, awareness of vital meanings, understanding of vital strategy and providing conditions of self-development and self-realization of the personality (thought-activity pedagogics, communicative didactics).

The authors carried out studying of innovative educational practices in the sphere of school art education, revealed their specifics, which are similar to practices, cultivate the identity of pupils, the completeness of the worldview, demand the manifestation in the educational process of measure and harmony as aesthetic phenomena. At the developed system of innovative art and cultural practices, a student does not need in essence so much learning in universals, but rather the appearance of his position, aesthetic-flavouring orientations, with appropriate pedagogical support, cooperation, mutual trust of the teacher-artist and student, their enthusiasm for joint work, in a word, co-existence as a way of self-identification.

Researches of art practices, conducted at schools of Moscow showed that optimum built innovative art and educational practices of teenage school students should include the development of art norms and vigorous activity in the sphere of art; acquisition of experience of artwork and also a summation of personal results and achievements; development of abilities of their presentation.

The integrated character of innovative art practices causes the need for using several areas of art culture possibilities in the course of their organization, also educational and independent activity of pupils in the sphere of art learning, and educational components of art and educational process were integrated. In this regard when studying innovative art and educational practices it is necessary to consider problems of integration of maintenance of art education, integration of learning in art forms, the organization of art and educational work.

During this research, the authors designed and realized the original author's educational practice directed at including students of a pedagogical university in their own educational activities within the framework of the created information and educational environment of the academic subject, which ensures a pronounced process of meaning formation. This process was considered as a local educational practice taking into account the revealed social properties. The innovation of the designed practice consisted in the development of ways and didactic ways of the transformation of education into the process, personally significant for students, with a support on such characteristics of the information and education environment as interactivity, polyfunctionality, communicativeness.

The researchers considered specifics of a subject position of students, their aiming at assimilation not only separately taken subject knowledge and abilities, but also the complete approximate basis of professional activity providing their introduction to "a professional context". At the same time, they created conditions for use of subject knowledge of students in practice of the complete solution of informative and professional problems, implementation of synthesis of knowledge, beliefs and practical action, that is the development of competences. The main problem which was solved – the creation of the information and education environment for vigorous, creative activity of students, their transformation from the pupils who are passively perceiving ready information into the subjects consciously preparing for a professional activity.

As research has shown, an important place in this process is the possibility of action - not just the analysis of information, but the creation of something new, its own. The information and educational environment made it possible to create conditions under which each student could find in a huge volume of information what is most close and significant for him. The researchers used variable educational technologies, which allowed taking into account personal experience, cognitive interests and needs of students: projects, web quests, mixed training technology.

The authors developed a set of tasks on pedagogical disciplines, which included: transformative tasks aimed at creative work with existing information resources; constructive tasks that guide students not only to search and comprehend information, but also to "finish" it in accordance with their meanings, formulating their position and reinforcing it with prepared data, information from various information resources; tasks aimed at the implementation of self-esteem, mutual evaluation, interactive (computer) assessment, as well as reflection (portfolio).

The results of the creation of innovative educational practice in higher education with the use of information and educational environment showed that:

  • This local practice ensures the assimilation of the content of education at a level not lower than the "classically" organized learning process (by comparing the experimental and control groups).

  • The students take the position of the active subject of their own educational cognitive activity. Students independently expanded the "boundaries" of assignments: more than 85% of students in addition to the text used visual images (drawings, portraits, tables), partially taken from the network, partially created by them independently. Over 50% of students found and used "interesting facts" to create their own educational products, which were not directly related to the educational material, but were subjectively significant for them. About 20% of students confined themselves to a detailed study of invariant content, paying more attention to fixing the material.

  • Information competencies of students were formed, related to the search, comprehension, selection of materials for the performance of tasks and professionally oriented communication.

During this study, the authors also conducted the didactic analysis of innovative practices in corporate education.

The paper considered the problem of didactic comprehension of innovative educational practices, which is that the idea of education as a translation of cultural experience in the case of corporate education confronted with innovative practices of education as learning new experiences in the process of its generation (Klarin, 2016, pp. 299-312). As a result of the analysis, the authors characterized the challenges facing modern didactics to understand and design innovative educational practices (Bergmann & Sams, 2014, pp. 24-29).

The study shows that in the existing practice of education there are educational niches in which the learning focused on the purposes-results expressed in language 1) of the knowledge-abilities-skills (KAS), 2) knowledge-abilities-skills, and relations, 3) competences. The feature of learning in the context of corporate education is to achieve a combination of theoretical and applied knowledge, abilities, and values, their embodiment in behaviour which allows coping successfully with tasks in a workplace (Varela, Barbosa, & Farias, 2015, pp.137-158).

The complex of knowledge-abilities-skills-relations-competences unites in the generalized concept of the human capital of the organizations (CIPD, 2017, p.6), which gains economic value (SSE, 2015).

Innovative educational practices in institutions include the following groups: 1) the practices providing development and adaptation of professional experience; 2) the practices providing transformation (conversion) and broadcast of professional experience. The way of the description and designing of complete clusters of the lived experience is the novelty to educational practices. The researchers identified the basic difficulty for technologization of learning in innovative corporate education which consists in the fact that the results of mastering holistic clusters of experience: a) are contextual in nature and b) their assessment collides with the paradox of the lack of expertise of the teacher-facilitator.

The embodiment of innovative educational practices is associated with two types of challenges for their mastering by teachers: 1) transition from a research to a practice-oriented pedagogical model and 2) implementation in mass practice. The first challenge - the challenge of the activity transition - is connected with the tasks of transition from the initial research (that is the non-pedagogical) framework to the actual professional pedagogical, didactic framework of thinking and activity, the need to transform the initial research message into structured pedagogical practice. The second - the challenge of broadcasting (alienation) - is associated with the tasks of transferring new ideological and methodological tools to the hands of educators, as adepts who did not participate in the creation. Calling the broadcast, transfer to a wide (mass) practice means the risk of losing creative charge. The removal of this risk is one of the problems of didactics dealing with innovative practices.

Conclusion

The research made it possible to divide "pedagogical practice" as a pedagogical reality in general and "pedagogical practices" as non-institutional local phenomena that carry a pronounced author's origin and are created to solve existing problems in "here and now" learning.

Innovative practices are sprouts new in education, which either enter into the pedagogical reality, lose the property of innovation, or cease to be relevant and in demand.

The didactic analysis of innovative educational practices makes it possible to identify their role in the development of education, increment of didactic knowledge, and the definition of the didactic grounds for modeling innovative educational practices (which is planned to be implemented in this study) makes it possible to develop on a theoretically verified basis new practices that meet the challenges of time..

Acknowledgments

The research was carried out within the framework of the scientific project 17-06-00474 "Didactic Analysis and Modelling of Innovative Educational Practices" supported by the Russian Fund of Basic Researches

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Publication Date

21 September 2018

eBook ISBN

978-1-80296-045-7

Publisher

Future Academy

Volume

46

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1st Edition

Pages

1-887

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Education, educational equipment, educational technology, computer-aided learning (CAL), Study skills, learning skills, ICT

Cite this article as:

Osmolovskaya, I. M., Ivanova, E. O., Klarin, M. V., Serikov, V. V., & Aliev, Y. B. (2018). Innovative Educational Practices For General And Professional Education. In S. K. Lo (Ed.), Education Environment for the Information Age, vol 46. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 578-586). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.09.02.67