Legal And Pedagogical Aspects Of Students Adaptation To Distance Learning

Abstract

Distance education based on computer telecommunications technologies has become increasingly popular in recent years. This process is quite logical, since the use of distance education technologies generates completely new forms of communication and relationships between the teacher and the student. At the same time, there should be regular and effective interactivity between the teacher and the student regardless of the medium where the teaching content is presented. Distance education defines new requirements for the organization of the educational process itself, and this in turn requires the teacher to take into account personal characteristics of students and their adaptation. The article considers and analyzes the normative legal acts that regulate public relations in the field of distance education. The authors pay attention not only to Federal laws, but also to bylaws that allow for more detailed regulation of this sphere of education in Russia. To a greater extent, the work covered the pedagogical aspects of students ' adaptation to distance education. The authors studied the process of adaptation to distance learning, identified the main tasks of the teacher in distance learning, and considered the forms of interaction between the teacher and students.

Keywords: Distance educationadaptationcomputer telecommunication technologieseducational technologies

Introduction

Modern life is developing very dynamically. But this development is uneven: we are witnessing the fact that modernization of science and technology is much faster than the development of human. By the time the student has mastered a certain form of acquiring new knowledge, it may already cease to meet the requirements of effective and congruent assimilation of new knowledge. The processes of changes in education are nowadays primarily aimed at its informatization, that is, the active use of various information technologies in all areas of education. In our time of lack of time and globalization of society, the most popular form of education is distant one. This is exactly the form that initially involves training using modern information technology.

In the most basic sense distance learning is a kind of teaching process in which the teacher and the student are separated by a certain distance. Distance learning is an attractive form, not only for teachers but also for students. Distance learning fully meets the requirements of modern life. This form of education is useful from all sides, including financial, since the transportation costs of participants in the educational process and the costs of organizing the entire system of full-time education are significantly reduced (Kuznetsova, 2015).

Problem Statement

Understanding the need to use the distance form of education has not appeared recently. The actual of the problem lies in the fact that today there is a situation where everything that, was said earlier about the need for the introduction of a universally distance learning form, now requires its active practical realization. Distance education based on computer telecommunication technologies is becoming more and more popular. This ensures a systematic and effective interactivity between the teacher and the student, communicating with each other regardless of the form where the content of the training is presented.

Distance education imposes new requirements in the organization of the educational process, and this in turn requires the teacher to adapt the students to these new demands.

Research Questions

The main questions that the authors of the article plan to answer are as follows:

• Provide an understanding of distance education as a form of learning;

• Evaluate distance education from the point of view of theoretical developments and legal acts.

Purpose of the Study

The main goal of the study is the authors' desire to reveal an understanding of the adaptation process and how to adapt students to a relatively new form of education - distance learning, when all educational institutions in Russia have switched to this form of education.

Research Methods

In modern society, and even more so in the rule of law, which is the Russian Federation, all the most significant issues relating to human rights and freedoms are enshrined in regulatory legal acts. The regulatory legal framework that by any means regulates distance learning is to a large extent at the stage of adaptation of existing legal requirements to real modern conditions.

The question of the need to regulate distance learning was first raised in 1995 by the RF State Committee on Higher Education and on May 31, 1995, when the Committee adopted Resolution No. 6, which approved the concept of creating and developing the Unified Distance Learning System in Russia.

In the "Concept of the creation and development of a distance education system in Russia", developed by the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Higher Education, the definition of distance education was given. According to this concept, “Distance education is understood as a complex of educational services provided to a wide part of the population in the country and across the border with using a specialized educational information environment based on the ways of exchanging educational information at a distance (Television, radio, computer communications, etc.)” (Decree of the State Committee of the Russian Federation of 05.31.1995 N 6 "On the status and prospects of creating a unified system of distance education in Russia"). In the study of the existing administering basis now governing distance education in Russia, one can see that the basic regulation is mainly departmental regulations (acts of ministries and departments). It does not speak about these acts of secondary importance. The purpose of the by-laws is to implement the provisions of certain laws as correctly as possible. These acts cannot and should not contradict the federal legislation of the Russian Federation on education. The activity of any educational institutions is clearly governed by the relevant laws, regulations, instructions and orders.

But we cannot ignore the fact that in the course of practice on the use of distance learning there are issues that to date have not found their answer yet, namely: how to carry out the calculation of the actual load of teachers in distance education, how to check how much time the teacher really spends on the computer at communication with students, how to take into account the individual counseling of students, which is carried out by the teacher using the Internet.

The main regulatory act managing social relations arising in the field of education is the Federal Law of December 29, 2012 “On Education in the Russian Federation”. This law provides for the use of various educational technologies, including distance learning. The law entered into force on September 1, 2013. With the adoption of this law, almost all legal acts that existed before in the field of education were canceled, and first of all, it is the Federal Law "On Education" of 1992 and the Federal Law "On Higher and Postgraduate Professional Education" of 2003, where issues of distance learning had been raised. With the adoption of the new law, the concept of “e-learning” was quite new for Russia at that time.

The 2012 Law “On Education in the Russian Federation” enshrines the freedom of citizens to distance, electronic, on-line and family education. Specifically, issues of the implementation of educational programs using e-learning and distance learning technologies are addressed in Section 16 of the Law. On July 26, 2019 N 232-FZ, significant amendments and additions were made to this article, which indicates the relevance of distance learning.

Article 16 of the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation” for the first time gives a clear and understandable definition of e-learning and distance learning technologies, which makes it possible to see the differences between these concepts, the subjects of this form of education, and others no less important issues. As we have noted above, the primary regulatory control of the distant form of training is carried out mainly by departmental regulations.

Perhaps the main among departmental acts aimed at the legal regulation of distance education is the order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation of August 23, 2017 N 816 “On approval of the Procedure for use by organizations engaged in educational activities”. e-learning, distance learning technology in the implementation of educational programs. “This order establishes a detailed procedure for using distance learning technologies, develops and implements rules for using e-learning technologies, distance learning technologies. The next one in the hierarchy of normative acts on distance education is the Letter of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia dated October 09, 2013 No. 06-735 “On Additional Professional Education” (together with “Clarifications on the Legislative and Legal Support of Further Professional Education”).

The letter of the Ministry of Education of Science of the Russian Federation explains that e-learning does not demand the interaction of students and teachers. Distance learning is a focused process of interaction between learners and students with each other and with learning tools. The letter also points out that the use of e-learning and distance learning technologies in the educational institutions can be applied, if only these organizations create appropriate conditions that meet the requirements of Article 16 of the Federal Law "On Education in the Russian Federation".

In the same 2013, on October 28, the Government of the Russian Federation issued Decree “On licensing educational activities” No. 966, which confirms the implementation of educational programs using e-learning and distance learning technologies through the functioning of the electronic information and educational environment, which includes electronic information resources, electronic educational resources, a set of information technologies, telecommunication technologies, relevant technological means and ensuring the mastery of the educational programs by students in full, regardless of their location. It is important that using information and telecommunications systems is not harmful to the health of students and teachers. Federal Law of November 21, 2011 No. 323-FZ “On the Basics of Protecting the Health of Citizens in the Russian Federation” requires the creation of safe and favorable working conditions, education and training of citizens. Similar requirements are presented by the provisions of the Federal Law of March 30, 1999 No. 52-FZ “On the Sanitary and Epidemiological Well-Being of the Population”.

The question of the total transfer of all educational institutions of Russia to distance learning in Russia became very acute with the onset of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, when not only adults but also children were faced with the threat of infection by a dangerous infectious disease. The government made an unprecedented decision to send schoolchildren and students on forced vacation at the end of March 2020. In order to reduce the risk of the spread of this infection the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation in its letter of 19 March 2020 number GD-39/04 "On the direction of the guidelines" recommended to use information and telecommunication technologies of distance learning in an interactive way in the process of further education.

Distance learning can take many forms depending on the organization, available and used training technologies in the educational institution. Easy implementation of distance education in the learning process is not enough. The distance form of knowledge acquisition is one of the varieties of learning organization. It is important to create a coherent system of organization of educational activity to make this process useful (Bystrova & Tsvetkova, 2018).

It is no secret that until recently, in Russia distance learning was understood mainly as a part-time education, where exchange of correspondence was carried out on paper. And only sometimes students contact with teachers for short examination sessions. Indeed, these two forms of education are somewhat similar: part-time students receive the bulk of knowledge outside the university, either in the library or at home from textbooks or from the Internet. But with distance learning, it all depends on the equipment of the student, if one does not have a computer, then there is no remote knowledge. If we talk about distance learning, as one of the forms of education, the main thing is that distance education cannot exist without modern technologies and equipment. Distance education defines new requirements for the organization of the educational process, and this in turn requires the teacher to take into account the personal characteristics of students and their adaptation. In order to successfully solve the problem of adaptation of students to the use of information technologies in distance education an integrated system is required (Antipova, 2011; Bystrova & Tsvetkova, 2018).

Inna Galchenkova in her dissertation for the degree of candidate of pedagogical sciences on the topic “Adaptation of pupils and students to the use of information technology in distance education” in 2004 wrote that one of the characteristics of distance education was interactivity, by which she meant the activity students, which included constant interaction not only with the curriculum, but also with the teacher and with other students. In her opinion, distance education is not some special form of education, which is completely autonomous and isolated from other forms of education. Distance education has the same goals as full-time program, with the same content, but the form of teaching material, the form of interaction between the teacher and the student in this case will be different (Galchenkova, 2004).

In the dissertation research for the degree of candidate of pedagogical sciences on the topic "Improving the educational process in the branch of the university on the basis of information technology" Igor Gorbachev managed to identify three main types of educational process organization that had been developed by world practice:

• the educational process related to the lack of contact between teacher and student;

• the learning process associated with periodic advice from tutors (teacher - consultant);

• the process of pedagogical support the student with the help of counseling and conducting group sessions (Gorbachev, 2000).

It is necessary to mention that all these forms require independent student learning and active use of some information resources. The teacher, however, remains in control of this process of training, which can be carried out in the form of an intermediate or final. It is very important that student's independence is not possible without a very high degree of organization. That is why the distance form of training is changing the status of the teacher adding the function of the organizer to the existing ones: education, educational, developmental, educational process (Gavazova, 2000).

Getting experience, the students understand the meaning of the thought "without pain there is no gain". Experience shows that one of the most common human bias is a bias against all sorts of innovations and changes that may affect its already well-established way of life. This bias can become an obstacle for the student to perceive something new, and this can ultimately lead the student to the conviction of the inefficiency of the education. The most important task of the teacher in this case is the need to pass to the student the idea that the main condition and requirement for high professional literacy of a specialist in any field will be the regular updating of existing knowledge with continuously changing technologies in all areas of science and technology. In connection with a quick change in the form of obtaining new knowledge, students have to overcome the developed stereotype of the approach to learning, the psychological barrier to the perception of new ways of organizing training and the associated emotional stress, which sometimes persists throughout the entire period of study. This implore the question of adaptation of students to training at an early stage in the process of training and rehabilitation of all the output from the learning.

The problem of human adaptation to the critical environmental factors, which has worried people for a long time, today is particularly relevant in view of the widespread "stress diseases". Trying to satisfy the biological and social needs, a person does not have time to adapt to too rapidly developing social changes, which become the basis for stressful diseases. In humans, the development of higher nervous activity has reached such a level that the conduct was a determining factor in his adaptation. Adaptation of a person to various environmental conditions is based mainly on certain forms of behavior, including artificial and technical means, due to which he can exist in conditions that are intolerable to other organisms. Thus, a person adapts not only to living conditions, but also to the external environment to his biological capabilities, creates an artificial environment - an environment of culture and civilization, thanks to which one can adapt to any conditions (Marchuk, 2013; Melanina, 2008).

The essence of adaptation is the body's ability to respond with an adequate reaction based on the created adaptive programs of interaction with the environment after receiving information from the outside world.

In adaptation, several phases are distinguished, which pass standardly in any person:

• Anxiety;

• Resistance;

• Stabilization.

Adaptation is classified according to different bases for different types.

Sensory adaptation (from Lat. Sensus - feeling, sensation) is an adaptive change in sensitivity to the intensity of the stimulus acting on the sensory organ. In the process of education, it is very important that the student several times hears relevant information. The information heard several times is better stored in memory. Sound will serve as the reagent that will allow the student, upon hearing a familiar word, to reproduce the block of information associated with it.

Social Adaptation (Latin Adapto -. Adaptive and socialis - public) is an ongoing process of active individual adaptation to the social environment conditions. Among them we distinguish adaptation to new working conditions, training, to a new environment, to a new social environment and the norms of his behavior, to a new teacher, to a new audience, to a new substantive content of educational and work activities.

Pedagogical adaptation is an integral part of social adaptation. We are talking about pedagogical adaptation as a kind of social. This is the willingness of the student to be an object and at the same time an active subject of the educational process.

There is an opinion that the main purpose of education is to give knowledge. In fact, the education system is needed, first of all, to introduce, adapt to life in the social system and to professional activity.

Adaptation is necessary at all stages of the learning process. In turn, adaptation itself is carried out in 3 stages: at the entrance to the training system, in the learning process and at the exit from the training system (Fortova, 2019).

These stages can be applied both to the learning process as a whole, and to individual courses, modules and a specific lesson. In addition, they must be correlated with the stages of technology for the development of creative thinking (TDCT).

The stages of TDCT are as follows:

• The challenge

• Understanding

• Reflection

A challenge is an adaptation to training at the very beginning; comprehension is adaptation in the process of learning and reflection is a re-adaptation (Osilenker, 2006).

At each stage, the student needs to solve certain problems under the guidance of a teacher. At the first stage which is the challenge stage, it is necessary to arouse the interest of students in a discipline being studied, to update the material (problem) being studied, and possibly reformulate the problem together with the students. It is important for the teacher to create good conditions for effective work with students. At this stage, students are adapting to each other, to the learning environment, to the teacher, to the working conditions in the remote mode, to their new role. It is important to remove the psychological barriers and create conditions for their self-disclosure, to generate interest in learning.

Formulation of learning objectives is the initial stage of designing the educational process. Gathering information about the learning objectives allows one to identify students' requests for training, and feedback operational feedback helps to adapt training programs to the needs of students.

Training programs developed by an educational institution (department, teacher) in accordance with the requirements for documents of this level contain goals that, to one degree or another, may differ from the goals of students (clients). Therefore, the adaptation of the curriculum to the client’s request is a necessary element in the development of the educational process (Organization of distance learning using modern ICT, 2009).

At the stage of reflection, active work is carried out with the content (information, text), old and new knowledge are correlated. At this stage, there is an adaptation to the content of learning, adaptation to different types of learning activities and last but not least comes the emotional adaptation.

Adaptation in the learning process is characterized by constant monitoring of the level of assimilation of educational material by students using diagnostic and control procedures and adjusting the content of training, that is, its adaptation and systematization in order to increase efficiency and adhere to the principle of learning. individualization of education. Of great importance for adaptation in the educational process is the choice of methods and means adequate to the content (Shapovalova, 2012).

In the course of reflection, the student has an independent systematization and generalization of the material studied, determining the direction for further study of the topic, discipline, subject. Reflection is a process of self-knowledge by a subject of internal acts and conditions. Thinking is necessary to systematize the material studied, correlate it with personal experience and self-knowledge. Reflection is carried out both after studying each topic, and after the course as a whole and is an integral part of adaptation. It makes it possible to track the quality of adoption of the material and the emotional state of students in order to further adjust the learning process.

Aleksei Tolstoy has wonderful lines that, while fighting for the happiness, one can forget about the person. In the struggle for the quality of education, it is necessary not to force or "break" a person, it is important to take into account one’s individual characteristics (Davydova, 2011).

So, what is the main problem in adapting a student to distance learning? The student, especially of the elementary courses, has a certain contradiction between what he already knows and is familiar with from the school bench and the new forms and conditions of study. These contradictions must be overcome.

Unfortunately, yesterday's schoolchildren do not have a sufficient level of preparation for further education; most of them lack the necessary independent work skills, which form the basis for distance learning. These negative factors significantly affect the ability of students to effectively work with information.

Adaptation to a new distance learning form is a kind of management process. As in any managerial process, we can distinguish managed and managing entities: students and trainers. The managing and managed subjects of the educational process are in close interconnection and interdependence. The main thing in adaptation management is to increase the meaningfulness of the assimilation of knowledge and the practical orientation of training.

The teacher, who is the managing subject in this process, must not only offer certain information and control the results, but also organize, adjust the student’s activities to obtain knowledge in distant form. At the same time, it would be wrong to shift the whole process only onto the teacher’s shoulders; a lot here depends on the students themselves. It is important that students consciously sought to acquire knowledge using information technology.

The role of the teacher, who has always been and remains not only transmitting information, but also influencing people by the power of his word and the content of his mission, changes significantly and takes on a new quality with distance learning. The efforts of a modern teacher should be aimed at overcoming resistance to learning, cultivating the motive and purpose of learning, creating the prerequisites for further self-learning. Hence rightly raises the question of the need to develop such qualities in students, which would allow a person to develop their own constantly updated information, and development capabilities, providing him an opportunity and after training to keep up with the pace of technological progress. The teacher needs to use certain methods, tools, techniques and forms of training, taking into account the principles of individualization and differentiation, the optimal combination of human and technical resources, dialogical communication and diagnostic procedures, etc.

Findings

To solve the problem of adapting students to the use of information technology in distance education successfully, an integrated system is required.

At the first stage, it is necessary to arouse the interest of students in a particular discipline being studied, to update the material (problem) being studied, and it is possible to reformulate the problem together with the students.

At the second stage, it is important to adapt to the content of training, to adapt to various types of educational activities, and it is equally important to carry out emotional adaptation. The role of the teacher at this stage is characterized by constant monitoring in the learning process of the level of assimilation of educational material by students with the help of diagnostic and control procedures and adjustment of the content of training, i.e. its adaptation and systematization in order to increase efficiency and adhere to the principle of individualization of education. Of great importance for adaptation in the learning process is the selection of methods and means adequate to the content.

At the third stage, the student should have an independent systematization and generalization of the material studied, determining the direction for further study of the topic, discipline, subject (Deikalo, 2013; Gryaznova & Khlapov, 2016).

Conclusion

So, distance education based on computer telecommunication technologies is becoming increasingly popular and important in the modern global world. The main task of the teacher in distance learning is adapting the student to process contactless interaction, so that when it does not suffer the quality of reception and assimilation of information, were excluded harm the health risks of the teacher and the student.

The role of the teacher is to adapt the educational environment, i.e. create conditions (physical, informational, methodological, psychological and intellectual) that promote creative activity, help students gain self-confidence, build relationships with classmates, learn new material and put it into practice, not be afraid to make a mistake, be ready for creativity.

In the process of implementing in 2003 the reform of the entire education system of Russia became the member of the Bologna Process. This decision was substantiated by the fact that Russia should take its place in the modern market of intellectual resources. The disputes “for” and “against” this decision have not stopped so far. However, it is indisputable that since the country has made such a decision, the use of e-learning should now be supported at the level of state policy.

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