Concept Of Training And Evaluation Of The Future Educational Society Cross-Cultural Mediator

Abstract

The article discusses the concept of preprofessional and professional training of a multifunctional specialist in the field of foreign languages and cross-cultural communication. Such concept is presented as a unified system aimed to form a cross-cultural mediator educated in an innovative university and required by the educational community. The new idea here is integrating such training systems as "Foreign Languages" and "Linguistics" so that we get a new qualification for the bachelor's degree - a "cross-cultural mediator” (specifying foreign languages received the state certification). The model for assessing the multifunctional cross-cultural mediator as a professional in a future educational society gives clear criteria for forming general cultural and professional competencies from “Literacy” to “Skill” level. The personality of a graduate is considered through an assessment matrix, operating such terms as a criterion, an indicator and an index of the competency formation. A criterion is a sign of classifying and assessing the quality of training. An indicator is the accessible to observation manifestation of the analyzed system-forming feature, i.e. competence. An index of the competency formation is the assessment in points for indicators of the each criteria. The proposed assessment scale of the competence levels is the following – “literacy – functional literacy – skill”. This system presents a model for evaluating the formation of a multifunctional cross-cultural mediator as a professional in a future educational society.

Keywords: Cross-cultural competencecross-cultural mediatoreducational society

Introduction

The socio-cultural background for developing a model of forming and evaluating the multifunctional cross-cultural mediator as a professional of a future educational society is the concept of a society of public intelligence, or an educational society as an antipode to a socially ruthless society of "natural selection".

Problem Statement

The formation of the educational society of the future should be a social and political task, and the training of intellectual high-class specialists as creators of such a society should be the aim of the education system.

Research Questions

- The concept of "educational society"

The concept of “educational society of the future” is associated with discussions in modern Russian society about the further ways of its development. The term “educational society of the future” is associated with the holistic theory included in the philosophical concepts called noosphere, or noospherism (Gayazov, 2018; Malenkov, 2009; Rozanov, 1911; Stepin, 2013, 2015; Subetto, 2004, 2009, 2013; Teilhard de Chardin, 1987). The peculiarity of this theory is important for the theory of education provisions of the educational society as the only model of the noospheric sustainable development of Russia in opposition to the pragmatic theories of personal success.

- Institute of education. Since the substance of social intelligence is the knowledge, the institute of education plays a huge role in its development, along with the institution of the family. The turn of the XX and XXI centuries is characterized by a change in educational formations, a transition to the formation of an educational society. In an educational society education affects the functioning of all public institutions and organizations, thus, becoming their leading characteristic.

- Category of education quality. An important – if not the most important – factor in the formation of an educational society is the quality of educational systems in society, the advanced development of the people themselves, which becomes the law of sustainable and harmonious development of society. The educational society exists on the basis of this law, i.e. it is a society in which the reproduction of the quality of social intelligence takes place (Subetto, 2009)

Social intelligence lies in the basis of the society, in which the emphasis is on cooperation, enhancing the role of diversity and the role of ethnic substance as a form of interaction between a person’s sociality and its naturalness. Social intelligence does not operate with the concepts of an elementary, social-atomic approach, which has the category “I-being” in the center of sociological knowledge. It relies on the category of “We-being”, but which is determined by the basis of “I-being”. The absolutization of the "I-being" principle leads to the society destruction.

- The quality of education and culture. The interaction with culture is important in the characterization of social intelligence. Culture ennobles not only the individuals in their development, but also the public mind, or intellect. Culture is an embodied consciousness, a cultured consciousness, and such consciousness creates a culture and enters it. Hence, the fact of the indissoluble unity of social intelligence and culture in climbing the steps of the quality of management of the future as the main goal of an educational society becomes obvious.

- Cross-cultural mediator - a specialist in the fields of application of foreign language and cross-cultural competences

Let us reveal the insufficient effectiveness of the existing “state of affairs” in the field of training specialists in foreign languages. Currently, the training is conducted mainly in two directions: 1) philological - in the field of pedagogical education with the preparation of teachers of foreign languages and 2) translators and teachers of foreign languages and cultures – in the field of linguistic education. This rather traditional orientation with unconditional changes of the last decades, connected with the introduction of the cultural component in the study of foreign languages, already at the first stage of higher education - bachelor - defines the rigid framework of the future profession. So, in the field of Linguistics, the bachelor degree is characterized as the program "Translation and Translation Studies". Thus, the bachelor degree does not fulfill its main function of being a level of preprofessional training, does not give an idea of possible professional orientations, but immediately determines the sphere of professional activity. At the same time, the main task during the transition from the specialty to the two-level preparation was the preprofessional training.

The same can be said about the five-year bachelor programme "Foreign Languages" in the field of pedagogical education. This direction determines in advance the professional field of the graduate as a pedagogic activity only. Within the framework of such “state of affairs”, the variability of such master programs is reduced as they are not capable of providing a wide range of possible application of foreign language and cross-cultural competencies.

The demand for specialists in the field of cross-cultural communication with knowledge of several foreign languages in the modern market is enormous. In addition to the traditional education at the level of secondary and higher education and the field of translation, the society demands the experts in such areas as tourism and hotel business, the international protocol of various functional areas (scientific and public conferences, sports, administrative bodies, etc.) international business in various fields, international scientific and public contacts, PR, the field of international certification of foreign languages, etc. However, this level of professional training must be carried out accordingly within master's programs that are able to provide vocational education in the above areas of activity of specialists with foreign language and cross-cultural competencies.

Preprofessional training at the bachelor level is proposed to be named as "Foreign language education and cross-cultural communication", and the qualification of a graduate of the bachelor's degree will be as a "cross-cultural mediator" (specifying foreign languages that have received state certification). Master's degree is represented by the variability of programs, and qualification is determined by the central idea of the program. Thus, a graduate of the master's program in translation will have the qualification of a Master of Translation (foreign languages that have received state certification are indicated in brackets), a graduate in tourism and hotel business can get the qualification “Master-cross-cultural mediator in the field of tourism and hotel business”, a graduate in pedagogical education gets the qualification "Master-cross-cultural mediator in the field of teaching foreign languages", etc. Thus, the basic preprofessional education in foreign languages and cross-cultural communication at the level of a cross-cultural mediator ensures the multifunctionality of a graduate of any linguistic program related to foreign languages and cross-cultural communication.

A high-quality cross-cultural mediator is primarily a graduate of the bachelor degree who knows at least one foreign language at the level of mastery as the highest level of mastering foreign language competence (distinguished levels: literacy, functional literacy - skill). The cross-cultural mediator should possess a number of multi-level competences, but the leading one is cross-cultural competence. It is competencies that determine the strategy for preparing a future specialist of a new type in two levels of education.

- Model of forming a multifunctional cross-cultural mediator as a professional of the future educational society.

The general strategy of understanding pre-professional and professional training of an intercultural mediator involves the development of case studies for each of the planned competencies at both the first and second levels of education. The case program is considered as an effective means of forming competencies with regard to the requirements of collective conformity.

- Case program. A case-program is a “portfolio” that includes a set of necessary and reasonably sufficient textual, audiovisual and multimedia teaching materials that are used to form the required competencies, intended for the methodological support of the process of preparing a future multifunctional specialist in the system of three spheres of society: educational sphere, professional training and social activities. The components of the case-study program include: 1) educational and methodical complexes of disciplines that are part of an integrative interdisciplinary module in the form of the BPAP, aimed at mastering general cultural, professional and professional competencies; 2) programs of students’ research work to implement individual and group research projects that are aimed at deepening, theoretical and methodological development of the full picture of the world due to the appearance of objective grounds for a new cycle of reflecting objective reality; 3) compulsory and optional practices for the functional development of competencies; 4) step-by-step routes for getting competences in the form of an integrative interdisciplinary module of both general cultural and professional competencies, which makes it possible to take into account the peculiarities and uniqueness of the process of formation of the intercultural mediator; 5) methodological recommendations on training and mastering the required competence in the new educational paradigm. The case study program users are all the participants of the educational process, namely: teachers, students, supporting staff (FGOS VO, 2016).

The content and functional fullness of case-programs is determined on the basis of the essence of the sought-for competence chosen in the field of professional training, taking into account the requirements of the employer and the specific socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions of the region.

Cross-cultural competence opens above all the opportunity to communicate in a foreign language in various areas of human life, where an orientation of spiritual values to a cross-cultural dialogue is relevant; and the skill of cross-cultural competence has been brought to the level of personally significant values. The italicized qualities of a specialist in this fundamental competence are indicators of the highest manifestation of the sought-after values at the Skill level.

The content and implementation of case-programs implies a step-by-step implementation of specific pedagogical tasks:

Task 1. Creation of training modules to develop a competence and making a list of case-study disciplines and practical activities in which students will be included in the learning process.

Task 2. Determination of the sections and training topics for each discipline, the study of which is necessary for mastering the desired competence. In the course of solving this task, for each item of the content of the components of competence, it is determined within the framework of studying which discipline and which academic subject the corresponding knowledge will be mastered and which forms of training sessions will be most effective for their mastering.

With regard to the educational process in a modern university, the need to design and implement case-programs is due to:

1) an increase in the amount of work allocated for independent student work in the third generation of FSES;

2) the requirement of comprehensiveness and integrity of the goals, objectives and ways to achieve them;

3) the requirement to develop individual trajectories of education, involving the variability of tasks and their own pace of mastering those or other competences;

4) recognition of the priority of transparency, availability and legitimacy of information in the educational process;

5) recognition of the effectiveness of a participatory organizational culture involving a participative management style (FGOS VO, 2016).

The case program is a tool for managing the preparation of a high-quality specialist with a developed professional intellect, which allows achieving optimal results in a humanistic, economic and rational way. A case program is a cluster of content and forms of its implementation that is capable of forming a quality level of competence based on a mastered algorithm; it is a unity of training and educational modules aimed at forming a citizen of an educational society.

Thus, the third-generation FGOS VO (2016) determines the content of the case-program in a certain direction and profile of specialist training, the specifics of the region and the competence that is being formed. Each case-program contains a package of methodological materials for the development of the components of absorbed competencies:

• cases with the criteria base of the formed competence;

• cases for mastering the theoretical foundations of the formed competence (course content, information section);

• case studies;

• case studies for independent work of students;

• cases for research activities;

• cases for practice;

• case-set of diagnostic materials;

• case studies of achievements;

• case-training skills.

Purpose of the Study

The aim of the study is to develop a model of training a multifunctional cross-cultural mediator in the future educational society on pre-professional and professional levels in an innovative university.

Research Methods

The case-study methodology is based on such methodological principles as systematic, competence-based, personal activity, cultural, axiological, anthropological, humanistic, social-centric and biosociogenomic. The systematic approach allows to establish the interdependence of the structural components of the system, to present the process of the competencies formation in the form of a content-functional model, reflecting the mechanisms of interconnection and interdependence of the system elements. The competence-based approach provides a solution to professional problems based on knowledge, values, personal and professional experience. The personal activity approach allows to identify the structure of professional training of a modern specialist (motives, purpose, means, actions, result), to identify the conditions and mechanisms of personal development, taking into account the individual characteristics of participants in the educational process. The cultural approach allows us to consider education through the prism of culture, which is the main source of development personality, to reveal education as an essential component of culture, the conductor and channel of translation. The axiological approach allows to identify the value of education base, to understand the phenomenon of self-awareness manifestation in the modern socio-cultural space, and the anthropological approach is associated with the meaning and purpose of education for a person taking into consideration his or her rights and interests.

The humanistic approach is expressed in the recognition of the dignity and human rights, their personal uniqueness; recognition of the right to free development and creativity; approval of the personal principle as a criterion for evaluating a university in human socialization The socially-centered approach is aimed at overcoming personal egoism in achieving success; in attention to the needs of society and the community; the biosociogenomic approach allows us to build a gradual path to form the future specialist's intelligence (Gayazov, Bahtiyarova, Obydenova, & Shabanov, 2017).

In addition to the above approaches, each professional competence involves taking into account the approaches peculiar only to it. For example, when forming ethnocultural competence, it is important to take into account the civilizational approach, which provides understanding of the formation of ethno-cultural values through the prism of the theories of the development of civilizations, considering the process of training future teachers in the context of the “challenges” at the modern stage of civilizational development, etc.

Findings

The most important feature of the development and implementation of case-programs in training is to increase the effectiveness of the teacher as a tutor. This is due to the implementation of a number of specific principles, peculiar only to the teaching of academic disciplines in the context of case programs:

• the principle of diversity and effectiveness of the didactic arsenal , which involves the mastery of modern didactics in the context of biosocial pedagogy, the purposeful use of various methods and means in the process of student training;

• the principle of cooperation , dialogue with students, based on interaction, recognition of students as partners in solving educational practical situations, their collective discussion;

• the principle of shifting the role of the teacher from the transmission of knowledge to their extraction. The teacher serves as a tutor and consultant, guides the student in the world of scientific information;

• the principle of creativity , which involves the creation of teaching materials in the disciplines of the case-program as a unique intellectual product, designing the process of forming professional competencies;

• the principle of students self-management , involving the stimulation of self-organization, the manifestation of an active cognitive position, and the involvement of students in the development of their own individual educational trajectories;

• the principle of pragmatism , orienting to identify and take into account the developmental capabilities of each training module of case-programs in the formation of the future specialist specific specified competences, as well as planning results and developing behaviors as a result of social coordination (Gayazov et al., 2017).

All of the above-mentioned principles laid down in the basis of the case-programs represent an extensive, multi-dimensional, long-lasting and detailed display of objective reality, i.e. the professional and social reality which the preparation of a future specialist is aimed at.

The introduction of case-studies in training is based on the use of rating methods (performance ratings, popularity ratings), which relate to the methods of control and assessment of getting the desired competencies.

In a broad sense a rating can be defined as a numerical indicator of achievements in the qualification list. The main principles of the rating are: openness, feedback, accessibility. In most cases, the common thing in determining a rating is that:

• the object of the rating is not only the educational activities of the student, but also his social activity;

• the rating is characterized by the use of a modular principle and credit system;

• the results of the rating are associated with the provision of scholarships to students, with the advantages of choosing a specialization, admission to the magistracy and graduate school. ? master and postgraduate courses

The rating of students' achievements is a system of knowledge, norms, control and appraisal activities, formalized procedures ensuring the management of the process of evaluating students' educational activities.

The inclusion of active and interactive methods in the case-program is determined, firstly, by the requirements of FGOS VO 3 ++ for teaching methods (at least 40-60% must be a share of interactive technologies); secondly, their organic nature in the framework of modular and contextual technology; thirdly, the effectiveness of this group of methods in the formation of specialist competencies.

- The process of sociogenesis. Under the process of the desired competence formation as a qualitative characteristic of the future builder of the educational society we understand a complex process of sociogenesis, through two channels:

1. The sequential process of formation of the intellect of the personality of the student during the development of general cultural and general professional competencies in the system of general cultural disciplines and general professional disciplines of all the units of the FGOS VO 3 ++ containing information related to the required competencies. This channel forms the level of abstract ideas, skills and abilities allowing a person to enter basic coordination with a society that does not require professional competence, i.e. pre-professional stage.

2. The second channel is a sequential process of changing the personality of a student in the process of teaching disciplines, targeted at the formation of a at the level of mastery. This unit of the educational process is aimed at the development of each component of the required competence and is associated with increasing the existing level of professional intelligence, which is formed in the process of influencing the cognitive and affective spheres and engaging in activities (Gayazov, 2018; Shabanov, 2017; Subetto, 2013).

Case programs should reflect the stages of formation of the future specialist's personality at each stage of education and should contain: an individual work plan of the student as a self-control of the process of formation of personal professional intelligence, the route of development and the formation of each competence as factors of coordination, deepening, complication, expansion in the formation of intelligence, package methodological support (textbooks, multimedia video course, training programs, electronic workbook) as a means of providing the channels of sociogenesis.

Such characteristics of case technologies as the use of a computer network and modern communications, the availability of interactive tasks, multimedia components, communication with the teacher and the group, and others, solve the objectives of training a high-quality specialist who possesses necessary and minimally sufficient ensemble of general cultural and professional competencies activated in the context of agreed social and cultural values.

- Polyfunctional specialist. A polyfunctional specialist is a subject who is willing and able to perform variable professional and existential tasks in changing conditions and situations of uncertainty, i.e. owning a number of professional competencies that correlate with his or her social activities and fully formed professional intelligence.

Hence, taking into account the complex theoretical knowledge and practical skills of the future graduate, it is necessary to develop an appropriate program of action, which should include the trajectory of mastering the desired professional competence in areas of training and effective forms and technologies of functional development of a specific competence in the region. The student should be taught how to integrate the theoretical knowledge obtained in various academic disciplines to solve professional problems in specific sociocultural conditions, which will be the aim of the author's case programs on the competencies sought for the intercultural mediator.

The general goal of creating and implementing case-programs in the model of forming and evaluating the preparation of a polyfunctional intercultural mediator as a professional of the future educational society is to prepare a polyfunctional specialist. At the same time, success claims are not limited to personal achievements, but provide for socially significant results for the benefit of society.

Thus, the considered methods of mastering competences are the channels of quality training of a multifunctional specialist of a new type, involving the use of a set of technologies and methods of pedagogical influence on the personality of students both at the preprofessional (bachelor’s degree) and professional (master’s) levels.

- The model for assessing a polyfunctional cross-cultural mediator as a professional of a future educational society

Each professional competence can be described through indicators, criteria and indices (Shabanov, 2017).

Indicators and indices play an increasingly important role not only as a tool for analyzing educational systems, but also as an effective means of managing education at all levels. It is a sign of a gradual awareness of the inefficiency of decision-making based on experience and common sense in the face of changing tasks, opportunities and rules of the game. Properly chosen quantitative indicators and methods of calculation and analysis adequate to them allow us to proceed to a reasonable assessment of the state and development of the system and its individual elements.

The quality of the achieved competencies is determined by tracking the progress of students in levels. To characterize the levels of development of any competence, we distinguished three levels: literacy, functional literacy, and skill. The first level of education is literacy . Literacy is characterized by the ability to use elementary activities, such as reading, writing, counting, i.e. elementary social channels of coding and means of receiving and transmitting information. The second level of education is functional literacy . It is characterized by the degree of mastering the means of learning the basic types of vital activity. Functional literacy includes the ability to solve standard life tasks based on applied knowledge in various spheres of life.

The opposite of functional literacy is functional illiteracy, which suggests that the current level of knowledge and skills does not allow full functioning in the society.

The third level of education is skill . It is considered as the ability to navigate within a certain range of issues and is characterized by the highest degree of mastering the theoretical means of cognitive or practical activity. When associated with education, the level of skill can be defined as the level that is characterized by the ability to solve problems in various spheres of life based on deep specialized theoretical knowledge. In this definition the more important is the ability to solve problems in changing circumstances and conditions, and not the simple sum of any knowledge. The Skill level assumes mastering the algorithm of using the relevant competence based (Talyzina, 2003).

Let us consider the proposed approach to assessing the level of formation of competencies on the example of cross-cultural competence (CC).

The low level ( literacy level ) of the formation of the CC skill corresponds to such a state when only certain components of cross-cultural competence function, activated not by the inner need of the individual, but only by external requirements. This level equates to a very low if any attitude of the individual to the skill being formed.

This level is characterized by unstable interest in studying the culture of language being learnt, weak desire to compare native and non-native cultures. The lack of a sustainable desire to master the knowledge and skills for an adequate interpretation of the phenomena in a foreign culture, the lack of clear knowledge of the dialogue rules. Insufficient orientation (lack of readiness) in situations of interaction, low tolerance, insufficiently formed ideas about the values ​​of another culture.

The middle level ( functional literacy ) is characterized by an incomplete formation of the integral structure of the CC skill. However, this level is characterized by the presence of a tendency towards its stability, interconnection, which indicates an acceptable level of formation of the CC skill, brought to the stage of empathy, but not to the level of personally significant value.

This level is characterized by sustained susceptibility to detect similarities and differences between native and non-native cultures. Readiness for self-change, tolerance is considered as an extension of one’s own experience, striving for openness, self-change. The orientation of spiritual values ​​on intercultural dialogue has not yet been fully formed, and therefore it is possible to make mistakes in judging.

A high level ( skill level ) of the formation of cross-cultural competence is understood to be such a state, which is characterized by all aspects of CC in their unity. The high level of CC development is characterized by a constant desire for its implementation in practice.

The level of skill is characterized by sustained motivation to detect similarities and differences in native and non-native cultures. Having an individual experience of communicating with someone else’s linguistic culture based on solid language knowledge allows using a foreign language flexibly and diversely seeing it as a tool for cross-cultural cognition, active real and virtual communication.

Conclusion

The proposed model of pre-professional and professional training in intercultural communication proposes to abandon the existing system of qualifications of graduates of undergraduate and graduate programs in linguistics and training in foreign languages ​​and introduce the qualification of a bachelor graduate as "intercultural mediator" (foreign languages ​​that have received state certification). Master's programs in translation can have the qualification a Master of Translation (foreign languages that have received state certification are indicated in brackets), a graduate in tourism and hotel business can get the qualification “Master-cross-cultural mediator in the field of tourism and hotel business”, a graduate in pedagogical education gets the qualification "Master-cross-cultural mediator in the field of teaching foreign languages", etc. Thus, the basic preprofessional education in foreign languages and cross-cultural communication at the level of a cross-cultural mediator ensures the multifunctionality of a graduate of any linguistic program related to foreign languages ​​and cross-cultural communication, but at the same time represents a single training model that was considered in this article.

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