Quality Increase Of Training Of Future Teachers: Individualization, Differentiation And Tutor Support

Abstract

Nowadays, significant changes take place in national education. In the context of global reforms, there is an increasing tendency to change the structure and content of the process of training professional personnel. Against the background of socio-economic transformations, modern society needs the training of active and creative specialists capable of successful adaptation to professional space. The creation of a training system that focuses on the current and strategic needs of a region and meets international standards is one of the primary tasks in higher education system. Thus, at present in pedagogical science the orientation toward updating the content of methods, forms and techniques of work with students is one of the modern educational trends. According to the analysis of international and national sources, the necessity is substantiated that the use of individualization and differentiation in educational process under the conditions of tutor support contributes to the qualitative training of future teachers. Based on the analysis of theoretical provisions, the key positions of system-activity and subject-participative approaches, the authors proposed a set of measures that contribute to the mastery of professional actions by future teachers: conducting research to study and identify individual, personal and subjective qualities of students; diagnosing future teachers in order to analyze their willingness to work in groups for the development of subject content; the creation of educational professionally-motivated artificial environment focused on the design and testing of the actions of a teacher; organization of independent activity, including innovation.

Keywords: Tutoringtutor supporttutoring activityfuture teachers

Introduction

Socio-economic and socio-political changes take place in the global space, orient researchers to improve existing processes and phenomena. Dramatic changes are present in all sectors and invariably lead to fundamental changes in production, in social sphere, in the sphere of consumption, etc. (Schwab, 2018).

Promising tasks for pedagogical community are as follows: the improvement of the level of professional skill, the improvement of the quality of educational process, the transfer of educational services, the shift from the classical model of learning to lifelong education, as well as the renovation of the content of methods, forms and techniques for work with students of any age with different capabilities, abilities and needs, etc.

Thus, nowadays the orientation to the problem of subjectivity, openness, accessibility of educational space for students of any age with different capabilities, abilities and needs, their accompaniment and training of qualified pedagogical staff for the work in existing constantly changing conditions, as well as qualitative changes in the educational process using individualized and individually differentiated bathrooms technologies, tools and ways of working with students of different levels of education systems is one of the modern educational trends in pedagogical science.

Problem Statement

The existing paradigm shift characterizes the problem both in the humanitarian sphere and in the context of pedagogical problems. The regulatory legal acts of recent years have formulated the state order to form an active, creative personality of a student through the introduction of new modern educational technologies, updating the content of teaching methods (Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation”, the National Project “Education”, etc.).

The reorientation of the educational model in particular to a personality-oriented approach sets the trend for the consideration of student’s personality from the perspective of subjectivity, as well as the development of personality, maximum self-realization and self-actualization in educational environment. In this context, from the point of view of education management, one can consider the point of view on the basis of which it is necessary to use innovative practices that allow forming an active life and professional position, prognostic and reflective actions and skills in the field of expert, research, analytical and design activities of a future professional teacher.

In this context, tutoring, being a pedagogical position that ensures the individual construction and implementation of the educational process, is based on the interests, motives and needs of a student (Kovaleva, Kobyshcha, Popova Smolik, Terov & Cheredilina, 2012).

Research Questions

In the problem field, the content of the subject of our study contains questions related to the transformation of training system of future teachers taking into account tutorial ideology: the individual support of students in the selection and implementation of their individual educational paths in higher education; the analysis of student's educational and personal needs; the creation of a space for professional self-determination of a student; the modeling and standardization of information and training systems (student and teacher – tutor models and their interactions).

Purpose of the Study

The identification of the research problem associated with the implementation of tutorial action in higher education allowed formulating the purpose of our study – the justification of the introduction of tutor support and a set of measures for its implementation, contributing to the increase in learning process.

Research Methods

The basis of this research was the totality of the methodological approaches of systemic-activity and subject-participative (Suvorova, Egorova, Khrulev, Sorokoumova, & Guseva, 2019) methods.

The potential of a system-active approach made it possible to define tutor support as a pedagogical system with organizational, substantive properties and characteristics.

The foundation of tutoring is the subject-subject relations as the basis of the subjective approach and personality-oriented education. Such relations involve considering a student as a subject, recognizing his key values, developing his abilities based on individual capabilities as the main goal of tutoring.

The application of the subjective-participative approach allows:

• substantiating the importance of tutoring from the perspective of subject-subject relations;

• implementing the construction of professionally-oriented content built on subject-subject relations with the involvement of each participant in collaborative interaction;

• substantiating the subjective position of the future teacher in the process of implementing tutoring activities with students;

• filling the content of training future teachers for tutoring with methods, means, techniques and technologies based on which the subjective position will prevail with each student engaging in active interaction, relying on personal experience, interest and needs.

The general theoretical basis was formed by the conceptual provisions of tutoring activities (Potapova, 2012, and other); organization of tutoring activities in higher education.

Findings

The individualization and differentiation in the context of tutoring is the best condition for the realization of the potential of every student. The activities aimed at the implementation of the above mentioned conditions overcome the contradictions (inconsistencies) between the requirements of the programs to the levels of student activity and the real capabilities of every person. Therefore, the consideration of the characteristics of students is comprehensive, because it is carried out at every stage of training. Individual tasks and methods of their implementation (for example, using a point-rating system) can serve as the means of individualization and differentiation of training. “Individualized learning” as a process of individual promotion of a student, is characterized by an individual trajectory of its formation and development. The tutor support of this formation and development is associated with the definition of an individual educational trajectory for every person (Kovaleva, Sukhanova, & Gulius, 2017).

Their functioning is impossible without the implementation of a certain complex of specific activities that contribute to the mastery of professional actions by future teachers. Among such events, we distinguish the following:

1. Conducting research on the study and identification of individual, personal, subjective qualities of students.

2. Diagnosis of future teachers in order to analyze their willingness to work in groups for the development of subject content.

3. Creation of an educational professionally-motivated artificial environment, focused on the design and testing of the actions of a teacher.

4. Organization of independent activity, including innovative.

Conducting research on the study and identification of individual, personal, subjective qualities of students. Personality – a person, freely and responsibly determining his position, is formed in accordance with the environment, the system of relations of their culture. The classification of personality traits can be carried out for various reasons in accordance with its type:

mental and sensual (dominance of mental, rational and logical principle or emotional and sensual. These people trust and strive for truth, sometimes ignoring justice. They are usually calm, reasonable, do not lose their temper even in extreme situations, sensitive to what makes them happy and sad, they help those in need, but they are often hesitant about what others reproach them for);

• sadomasochistic (the tendency to eliminate the causes of their life failures through aggressive actions. They try to take the blame on themselves, revel in self-criticism and their own inferiority and helplessness. At the same time, the consider others often dependent on them, they dominate, doing harm and experience pleasure);

• extrovert-introvert (people are opposed to each other. An extrovert, as a rule, is not inclined to analyze his inner world, he is sociable, initiative. An introvert, usually closed, non-communicative, poorly adapted to new situations, prone to introspection);

• externality-internality (a person’s tendency to shift responsibility for the results of activities to external factors (externality) or explain them with their own abilities and capabilities;

ectomorphic-endomorphic (the morphological opposition of people with different physiques: 1) an ectomorphic person – thin, with a strong nervous system, restrained in manners, movements, but with an increased speed reaction, anxious, hidden, has difficulty in making contacts, is not able to evaluate and foresee other people's attitude to themselves, has excessive sensitivity to pain, fatigue. 2) an endomorphic person, as a rule, is full of his distinguishing feature – sociability, desire for comfort and sensual pleasures.

Analyzing the qualities of a personality with a certain psychological type, it should be noted that an ideal personality that belongs to one kind of psychological type does not exist. As a rule, characterizing a personal qualities of an individual (abilities, opportunities, preferences, behavior, attitude towards other people), his attributes that prevail over others are identified, which gives reason to attribute him to a certain group of people who have one or another psychological type.

The differentiation as a requirement for the effectiveness of the group form of training of students (future teachers) involves the acquisition of groups, taking into account the characteristics of personality qualities of every student. As it was noted above, for a homogeneous group, where mainly students belonging to the same psychological type of a person predominate, the tasks for all students of the same group are the same, but the methods and techniques for their implementation are differentiated. For the success of such a micro-group, a tutor (commander, curator) must be a student whose personality qualities belong to a different psychological type, different from the one to which the students of this group belong. Taking into account the above mentioned aspects, we note that the function of a teacher is to determine student’s psychological type through testing, a specially organized survey.

Diagnosis of future teachers in order to analyze their willingness to work in groups for the development of subject content involves the identification of the initial level of motives, values, knowledge and professionally important personal qualities, as well as differentiation of students by psychological type in order to build an effective educational process.

The analysis of scientific sources shows that the problem of diagnosis is an important category in pedagogical science. International and national researchers come to the conclusion that the diagnosis is carried out by the comparison of the results with any norms, averaged values, and comparisons with the results of previous diagnostic procedures. The learning process can be effective, whereas educational activity is subjected to systematic analysis and control, and students see the result of their work. The concept of "diagnosis" in the common context is understood "as the establishment and study of signs characterizing the state of objects, phenomena." In relation to the pedagogical process, diagnosis is associated with the term "pedagogical diagnostics", under which Novikov (2007) understands “... a set of monitoring and evaluation methods aimed at the solution of the problems of the optimization of educational process, differentiating students, and also the improvement of educational programs and methods of pedagogical impact” (p.56).

Diagnosing future teachers is a set of measures to obtain information about the participants of pedagogical process, the identification of the initial level of formation of knowledge in the subject area, as well as individual typological features of each participant of educational process.

At this stage, it seems important to fix the educational request and create favorable conditions for its manifestation and show the importance of this interest and the prospects for the upcoming collaboration. In order to provide tutor support for a student, it is possible to use such diagnostic methods as conversation, observation and free interviews by a tutor or teacher with tutorial competence.

Let us characterize each presented method, taking into account the specifics of this event:

Conversation is presented as one of the methods of pedagogy and psychology, involving the receipt of information about the phenomenon being studied in a logical form. In the context of diagnosing the use of the method of conversation, it involves establishing contact and setting further cooperation in the context of tutorial action and the creation and strengthening of motivation and preparation for further study;

Observation is a research method involving targeted, systematic perception, and the fixation of socio-pedagogical phenomena and processes. As part of diagnosing an educational request of a student, the use of the observation method allows evaluating the initial and current state of a student in the context of the selected educational request and determining its role in the design of tutorial action

Free interviewing (not standardized) refers to the methods of interviewing that have the character of a relaxed conversation, in which the questions are determined by the purpose of the study. During the interviewing, a teacher clarifies the educational interest of a student, determines the strategy and tactics of further work and involves a student in the process of joint goal-setting to support his educational request.

It is necessary to note that in the process of diagnosing an educational request of students, an educational request is clarified and refined, which is the basis for the design and implementation of tutor support projects.

Creation of an educational professionally-motivated artificial environment, focused on the design and testing of the actions of a teacher. In order to improve the quality of professional training, it seems necessary to create an environment that contributed to the disclosure of the creative potential of students and provided the opportunity to choose the level of training, as well as motivated students to professional activities through the design and testing of professional actions. From the position of the above mentioned approaches, as well as the provisions of the theory of management of pedagogical systems, we will present a professionally-motivated artificial environment as a synthesis of independent and at the same time interconnected and interdependent technologies created in artificial conditions aimed at a certain educational result.

Organization of independent activity, including innovative. In accordance with the Federal State Educational Standard, the independent and innovative activity of students is a mandatory component of educational process, which is implemented in various forms of educational process, contributing to the acquisition of practical experience and additional knowledge. Innovative and independent activity, unlike classroom activity, is not subject to clear regulation and gives variability in the implementation of this type of activity. Novokreshchin (2012) notes the positive effect of the independent acquisition of knowledge and skills, which is expressed in the formation of professionally important personality traits that contribute to the accumulation of students' potential necessary for professional activities. Independent and innovative activity is one of the indicators of the effectiveness of educational process and acts as a key element that forms such personal qualities of a student as: independence, creativity, student responsibility, contributing to the formation of professional competencies.

Conclusion

Thus, the indicated application of individualization and differentiation in the conditions of tutoring can improve the training of future teachers. Tutoring is a type of pedagogical activity and soft pedagogical technology applicable in the work with students. It helps to create conditions for self-determination, self-realization, a person’s conscious perception of a system of positive values and, as a result, professional development.

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Federal State Budget Educational Institution of Higher Education “Shadrinsky State Pedagogical University” under the agreement on research work No. 16-384 dated 05/28/2019 on the topic “Tutoring support of educational process in higher education as a strategy for the quality of professional training of future teachers”.

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