Continuous Pedagogical Education: Challenges Of The Present

Abstract

The article actualizes the problem of continuous pedagogical education in modern Russia as a specific educational cluster of social, scientific-theoretical and practical interest for the interested communities. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the fundamental transformation of the organizational, content and technological components of high school education system in accordance with the requirements of the digital economy. In this regard it is necessary to disclose the strategy of modern higher education institution in achieving high effectiveness of work according to the inquiries of the society and the state due to globalization, informational openness requiring multi-level education, variability and continuity. The leading method to research the problem is modeling, which reflects a practice-focused approach to the creation of a multi-component model of a modern teacher. The article reveals the key aspects of the implementation of the intra higher education institution project "Continuous pedagogical education: from professional guidance to postgraduate support". The model reveals aspects of continuous pedagogical education by means of early professionalization and professional selection of school graduates to higher education institutions having a penchant for teaching activities, targeted recruitment of applicants, updating of the system and technologies of pedagogical professional education on the basis of digitalization of the educational environment according to the requirements of the personality, society, state, multidimensional support of a young teacher during the post-degree period, involvement to the competitive movement for the purpose of professional skill leveling.

Keywords: Continuous pedagogical educationmodernizationinnovationspriority directionsdigitalization

Introduction

The relevance of the problem is caused by the fact that modern Russian education is undergoing changes in key aspects one of which is a creation of the national system of professional development of teachers. A number of normative documents in the Russian Federation actualize and emphasize the significance of the problem of continuous pedagogical education, in particular Law of the Russian Federation "On Education" (2012), the concept of long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020 (Order of Russian Federation Government, 2008), the Decree of Russian Federation President (2018) "On national objectives and strategic goals of the development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024 by means of creating a system of continuous updating by working citizens their professional knowledge and acquiring new professional skills, including the mastering of competencies in the digital economy by everyone", the priority project "Higher education institutions as centers for creating innovation space" (approved on 25.10.2016), the priority project "Education" in the direction of "Training highly qualified specialists and workers in accordance with the modern standards and advanced technologies" ("Skilled workers for advanced technologies", approved on March 22, 2017). Priority tasks and directions of the formation of the flexible and diversified professional education system according to the requirements of the labor market and the needs of the innovative economy in terms of educational programs, conditions and material equipment of the training process are identified as priorities in the forecast of long-term social and economic development of the Russian Federation until 2030. For this reason an important element of the national education system is a continuum of educational programs and state educational standards of various levels and directions that forms the basis for continuous education.

Within the framework of the problem under study, we identified a number of scientific theoretical and methodological works that reveal the phenomenon of continuous professional training of teachers. In particular, the problem of implementing the federal state educational standard sharply outlined the need for further development of this field of research. The analysis of the theoretical, methodological and conceptual foundations of teacher training is presented in the works of S.M. Vishnyakova, E.F. Zeer, A.V. Kiryakova, E.A. Levanova, A.K. Markova, V.V. Miroshnichenko, G.V. Tyuleev. The conceptual tenets of the continuous education are designated by Zeer (2013), who specified that it "... accompanies professional development, defines its individual trajectories, determines the formation and the development of the main new growths of the personality" (p. 14). The methodology and theoretical foundations of the organization and management of pedagogical education are disclosed in diverse studies and scientific works of S.I. Arkhangelskii, A.P. Belyaeva, T.V. Gorbunova, T.A. Ilina, V.P. Kovalev, Yu.N. Semin.

Today the trends in the development of the idea of continuous professional education are clearly designated in Russia. As a necessary condition of modernization of the education system, it is proclaimed an increase in the quality of personnel training according to inquiries of the society (Alexankov, Trostinskaya, & Pokrovskaia, 2018; Noskova, 2015). They claim that it is necessary to organize a focused professional selection of applicants to pedagogical higher education institutions who showed a strong interest and a penchant to pedagogical activity that will surely provide a new generation of teachers (Yusupova, 2014). All this demands a system modernization, a complex updating of the contents and a technological component of pedagogical professional education with the use of the opportunities of the digital environment (Bylieva, Lobatyuk, & Rubtsova, 2018; Bylieva & Sastre, 2018; Fersman, Zemlinskaya, & Novak-Kalyayeva, 2017; Pokrovskaia, Ababkova, Leontieva, & Fedorov, 2018; Shipunova, &  Berezovskaya, 2018; Sokolova, Pylkin, Stroganova, & Antonian, 2018). On this basis there is a need for multi-aspect support of a young teacher in the postgraduate period as a modern educator of the innovative format that meets the needs of the society and the state (Kovalev & Gorbunova, 2010). The achievement of the above mentioned conditions actualizes the problem of continuous pedagogical education.

Problem Statement

The social challenges presented to the modern education are systematically reflected in its goals, namely the versatile personality development of students with a formed system of values accepted in society, high personal qualities, skills of critical thinking, cooperation and collaboration, creativity, communication and work with information, technological competencies. All this requires the updating of the technological component of higher education as one of the directions of the educational process modernization (Timokhina, Thelina, Bulavkina, & Eliseev, 2018). The transition to the new role of education in the progressive development of Russia in accordance with the principles of continuous education will allow the society, the state and the education system to achieve leading positions in the versatile personality development, in forming a new generation of teachers and in strengthening the position of the domestic digital (network) economy.

Research Questions

In the conditions of modern economy, the Moscow region represents one of the competitive regions of the country that has the potential for rapid development, investment attractiveness, which is largely determined by education. For this purpose the education system of the region is constantly substantially and organizationally updated with the focus on the demands and the requirements of the developing economy. This is due to the fact that the possibility of receiving quality education today is one of the most important life values for every resident of the Moscow region.

Purpose of the Study

The experimental base of the research was the State educational institution of higher education "The State University of Humanities and Technology" (Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Moscow region).

The study of the problem was carried out in three stages. At the first stage, the theoretical analysis of the existing methodological approaches in philosophical, psychological and pedagogical scientific literature, dissertation works, theory and methods of pedagogical research was carried out; the problem, the purpose, methods and investigation stages were defined. At the second stage, the intra-university project "Continuous pedagogical education: from professional guidance to postgraduate support" was realized. At the third stage, the results of the implementation of the model of continuous pedagogical education in the conditions of digitalization were analyzed.

Research Methods

In the course of the research the following methods were used:

• theoretical (analysis, synthesis, generalization, modeling), diagnostic (questioning, testing, interview method);

• empirical (study of normative documentation, scientific and methodological and educational literature, expert assessments and the results of the pilot studies of the Center of researches of continuous education of the institute of educational development strategy of the Russian Academy of Education, higher educational institutions work experience, pedagogical observation);

• experimental (stating, forming, control experiments);

• methods of mathematical statistics at the assessment of results.

Findings

At present, the State educational institution of higher education "The State University of Humanities and Technology" (GGTU) is not only one of the largest and oldest universities in the Moscow region, but also a center of continuous pedagogical education. The University represents an open social system and a dynamically developing institution consisting of six colleges, nine educational faculties, eighteen departments, the Institute of additional education (which includes the center of advanced training "Moscow regional center of Internet education"), the Moscow regional center of preschool education "Sodruzhestvo", Resource center of pedagogical education of the Moscow region, IT Park, career guidance center "Perspective", etc. For many years the university has been manifesting itself as an initiator and an active participant of the innovative projects as part of the target strategies of the educational process modernization, and its large-scale intellectual potential promotes the solution of tasks of the strategic development of the region and Russia in general.

Social conditions for the development of education in the Moscow region require the involvement and retention of young specialists in the profession. Therefore, GGTU and the colleges are building a flexible support system of young specialists that allows to adapt their professional competencies to environmental conditions and to help to consolidate more than 80% of the graduates in the profession. Since 2015 this work has been supervised by the Moscow region teachers association in the framework of the festival of pedagogical ideas, subject weeks, the Forum of young teachers, the regional competition of "Step into Profession" for the students enrolled in the areas of training of "Pedagogical Education" and "Psychological and Pedagogical Education", "Pedagogical debut" competition, a contest for young teachers and their mentors "Opening", a regional competition and a club "Moscow region teacher of the year", etc. Such kinds of events allow the recognized masters to present their experience to students, young people and novice teachers.

On the basis of GGTU the club "Educator of Moscow region" functions, and within its work since 2018 the project to organize support for young teachers in pre-school educational organizations in the Moscow Region is enacted. The relevant and perspective directions in the field of administrative and educational technologies of training future teachers became possible thanks to the revival of the idea and traditions of mentoring in the field of preschool education.

The educational organizations of the Moscow region training teachers integrated into the movement of professional skills of young people WorldSkills Russia. In 2015, for the first time, regional competitions in the competence of "Teacher of preschool children" were held and a new competence of "Teaching in elementary grades " was presented by the Moscow region.

For several years, GGTU has been implementing the project "Continuous pedagogical education: from professional guidance to postgraduate support". The project is entirely focused on the creation of a multi-level system of continuous pedagogical education support on the basis of structural components, namely, mastering the pedagogical profession at the stages of professional self-determination, receiving professional pedagogical education, adaptation in the profession in the post-graduate period.

The main objectives of the project are:

• increase of the social prestige of the teacher's profession and the formation of professional and personal competencies among schoolchildren (the organization of professional focused work among them for the development of basic and key competences necessary for pedagogical activity, a sustained interest to the pedagogical profession, organizing and communicative abilities, professionally significant qualities and creation of conditions for professional self-determination);

• formation of students' readiness for professional and pedagogical activity (realization of the competence-based focused model of continuous student teaching);

• organization and implementation of the postgraduate support of the university graduates (the use of the strategies of professional and personal development of the teacher of a new formation, creation of the information bank of graduates and young professionals, creation of the system of advanced training and professional skills, identification of the psychological and pedagogical difficulties in the process of professional adaptation, methodological support of young teachers "Professional pedagogical navigator" and monitoring its results, creation of professional association of young teachers of the Moscow region).

Within the framework of this project, teaching classes in ten municipal districts of the Moscow region were organized as an effective component of professional guidance work with potential university applicants on the basis of integration with the content of extracurricular activities and workshops. At the university the information platform was introduced, which allows working with potential applicants in a remote format by means of a new formation - audio and video conferences, discussions, webinars, subject schools.

The university pays special attention to a new approach to the organization and the content of pedagogical practices by means of development and testing of the innovative, competence-focused model of modular continuous pedagogical practice. Its subject presents the technology of organization and the content of educational (1-2 courses) and teaching (3-5 courses) practices that contribute to the introduction of the tenets and characteristics of continuous pedagogical practice in different contexts, which promotes the motivation of students to future educational activities. The developed technological model includes social demands and requirements of the society and the state to education, requirements of the Federal State Educational Standards, digital educational space as an original resource of improving the competitiveness of the personality, social and cultural space of the class as a structural component of the school socio-cultural space, subject profile pedagogical activity, formation of research activity bases in the field of education.

On this basis the competence model of the graduate of a pedagogical higher education institution should be regarded as a result of mastering general cultural, general professional and professional competences in the process of all types of continuous pedagogical practice. All this confirms once again the need of the postgraduate support of young teachers because they underestimate the risks that can cause negative changes in the trajectories of professional development, frustration and leaving the profession.

In order to organize the timely psychological and pedagogical support of young teachers a project of postgraduate support is implemented as a part of the program of "Professional pedagogical navigator" of the regional system of support of the professional career of young teachersʹ development.

Conclusion

The practical experience of realization of the model of continuous pedagogical education makes it possible to meet the challenges of the present strategically by organizing pedagogical classes as an effective condition for the early professional guidance of the potential applicants, which provides variable entrance to the teaching profession; to level the methodological approaches to the organization of continuous pedagogical practice of the university students using the opportunities of the digital environment; to form valuable orientations in the field of the pedagogical profession and targets reflecting the personal sense of inclusion of the pedagogical higher school graduates into professional pedagogical activity in order to create and replenish "pedagogical capital".

As we see, the model of training of a modern teacher reveals the aspects of continuous pedagogical education by means of early professionalization and professional selection of school graduates with a penchant for teaching activities to higher education institutions; target recruitment of applicants; updating the system and technologies of pedagogical professional education based on the digitalization of the educational environment according to the requirements of the personality, society, state; the need of a young teacher support in the postgraduate period; involving in the competitive movement in order to level the professional skills.

Pedagogical education is one of the priorities of the educational strategy of GGTU. In particular, the programs of continuous training of pedagogical staff in the college-university system are purposefully introduced, the innovative educational environment for future teachers to study and research is created, a practice-focused component is actively involved in teacher training, systematic training of teachers, based on the use of modern digital technologies is organized.

The university plays an important role in the regional system of training teachers in the Moscow region today that is confirmed by the following facts. Firstly, the university has established and strengthened close connection with regional employers, they are constantly involved in the educational process and assess the quality of teacher training for the region. Secondly, it remains a positive dynamics of university graduates employment in the Moscow region, and therefore, there is a consolidation of young professionals at schools. Thirdly, target contract recruitment in accordance with cooperation agreements with municipal education authorities (within the framework of the project "Highly qualified pedagogical staff of the Moscow region education system") increased to 50% and promotes further rejuvenation of the staff of teachers at schools, solving the problem of shortage of trained professionals to work with children, etc.

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