Professional Qualifications in the Sphere of E-Learning in an Alternative Discourse

Abstract

In the transition to higher technological structures, change of requirements for an organisation’s staff’s particular specialization and skill level is mandatory. New educational technologies are now actively used which may have a dual purpose. This article is devoted to the problem of professional training of experts whose activities will result in technical progress upon transition to new technological systems usage. It is undeniable that advanced professional qualifications in the organization of educational processes can guarantee the development of society. However, the inconsistency of requirements of the policies and the normative documents regulating work activity and its preparation can become an obstacle. Based on the content analysis of professional and educational standards regarding the problem of preparation and use of technologies related to distance and electronic learning, communication technologies and other technologies it is clear that the universities are not fully prepared to engage with the electronic capacity of modern society. It is established that this problem has been realized at the state level and measures are being undertaken for the coordination of standard requirements for professional activity and the teacher training system.

Keywords:

Introduction

The transition of modern society to embrace new technological approaches demands essential changes in the content and the organization of professional education. There are new professions, preparation for which demands change of methodical tools and use of new educational technologies. On the one hand, their technical and personnel potential offered in the new educational programs demanded in modern society offers a competitive advantage to the universities. On the other hand, the need for preparation of traditional staff – teachers whose activity guarantees appearance of the new, interested participants of educational process. Education is influenced by of two factors; the first is the tendency to embrace a variety of the offered educational programs and technologies and the second is the tendency to unification, the standardization guaranteeing recognition in other countries of qualifications, education levels, and competences. In this article, we will consider how these tendencies are highlighted in the education system of modern Russia.

Russian scientific education has a long history which reflects features of its geopolitical and geographic and cultural landscape. One of the most important features of the modern aspects of education is the standard and legal regulations on the basis of the law “Education in the Russian Federation” No. 273. It contains the requirements for the organization of the educational process on the basis of the Federal state standards approved by the government and which are currently the standards of the third generation.

According to this law, education at all its levels is carried out in compliance with the Federal state educational standards which are submitted in open access on the official sites. The federal state standard represents a set of mandatory requirements for the attainment of a certain level and (or) to a profession, specialty and the direction of preparation, approved by the federal executive authority which carries out the functions of elaboration of state policy and standard legal regulation in education.

The transition to new technological approaches demands the use of new educational technologies. Federal state standards reflect the requirements of the state resulting in the development of the program (in the form of a formulation of competences which the graduate has to possess) and conditions of implementation of the educational program. The necessary positions providing qualification of graduates are terminologically enshrined in these two sections of state standards.

The federal standard is usually accepted for a certain period of time, and then it is reconsidered. At present, federal state educational standards (FSES) have been developed, but new FSES for higher education which are in open access have not been approved yet. These standards are marked as 3 +++.

Problem Statement

The feature of work of the teacher is that it is regulated by other federal law – the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (edition from 12/31/2017 with the changes which have come into force since 1/11/2018). Requirements are defined in professional standards in which the basic necessary skills, knowledge and labor functions are designated. Thus, requirements for training of the expert and his/her readiness for performance of labor functions represent two conceptually different positions.

Research Questions

In the existing FSES and the projects FSES 3 +++, intended for different education levels of higher education, requirements of the state are to ensure the competence of future teachers in i) the sphere of ICT and ii) the technical and organizational conditions allowing students to master competences of university education. The comparison of these positions with requirements to ensure the labor functions making a conceptual basis of professional standards will reveal a qualitative originality and the needs for mastering teachers’ ICT knowledge. Hence, the research question dealt with the identification of the parameters relating to mastering the ICT competence of teachers of various typological groups.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this research was to identify, within the context of Russian educational and policy standards, the identification of the parameters relating to mastering the ICT competence of teachers of various typological groups. In doing so, the study will provide information to the authorities on the extent of improvements that need to be made to address the gap.

Research Methods

Mainly theoretical methods were used such as analysis, comparative analysis, interpretation, cluster analysis, semantic analysis of concepts and terms, and content analysis. When carrying out the content analysis of the professional standard text, the concept "learning technology" was viewed as a semantic category, a tally unit – the terms which were indicators to the electronic and distance learning systems to information technologies. After the analysis, the data were recorded in an EXCEL program for visualization and interpretation.

Findings

The first stage of the research

The problem of this investigation phase consisted of identification of the parameters relating to mastering the ICT competence of teachers of various typological groups. The structure of all professional standards in the Russian Federation consists of the list of professional functions which the expert needs to have. Therefore, we conducted a content analysis of the professional standard 01.004 "The teacher of vocational education, professional education and additional professional education" taking into account those professional functions which the teacher has to carry out. The results are presented in the Figure 01 .

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In the analyzed professional standards text, ten professional functions are distinguished. For two of them – "Organizational and pedagogical escort of group (course) of students according to programs of higher education" and "Carrying out professional guidance with school students and their parents" – the professional standard doesn't demand mastering ICT. Therefore, in the figure there is information only on eight professional functions.

The tallies provided in the professional standards were distributed on three clusters according to their subject. What emerged is that the greatest requirements are imposed to mastering technologies of use of electronic bases and resources necessary for guiding of documentation and teaching. Requirements for mastering distant and e-learning technologies do not dominate that specific absence of the perspectives of their development planned by the state.

Conclusion

The research showed that labor and educational spheres in the Russian Federation are regulated by different laws. Within these laws regulations are developed and in the form of professional and educational standards which have different structure work and are not agreed with each other regarding training of specialists to execution of labor functions. However an attempt of their coordination is made now. In the discussed drafts of educational standards 3 +++ the universities are offered to be guided by the professional competences conforming to requirements of the professional standards corresponding to professional activity of graduates. These competences shall be selected from the register of professional standards placed in a hardware and software system "Professional standards" of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation (profstandart.rosmintrud.ru). From each selected professional standard the university will have the right to select (in whole or in part) the generalized labor functions according to skill level.

Therefore there is hope that also requirements to mastering information technologies will be considered (including distant and e-learning), and the attention of the state to these aspects in many respects defining transition to new technological ways will change towards their system support.

Acknowledgments

The article is written and presented thanks to the support of Don State Technical University (Russian Federation, Rostov on Don)

References

1. Federal Law "On Education in the Russian Federation" N 273-FZ of December 29, 2012 with amendments. Retrieved from http://zakon-ob-obrazovanii.ru/
2. Federal State Educational Standard higher education in the direction of training 44.03.01 Teacher education (bachelor level). Retrieved from http://fgosvo.ru/uploadfiles/ProjFGOSVO3++/Bak3++/440301_B_3plus_22112017.pdf
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5. Labor Code of the Russian Federation 2019-2018. Retrieved from http://trudinspection.ru/kodeks.html
6. Portal of Federal State Educational Standards-Professional Development Programs. Retrieved from http://fgosvo.ru/
7. Retrieved from http://www.edustandart.ru/tag/fgos-ooo/
8. The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation approved the changes in the Federal State Educational Standard of primary, basic and secondary general education. Changes GEF 2016.