Conditions For Forming The Readiness Of Pedagogical University Students For Their Career

Abstract

A career of a professional which was treated a bit negatively for a long time in Russia nowadays is being positioned as giving some definite level of social success and professional achievements. However, a career is associated more with the service of civil servants or military personnel. Therewith the career of a teacher is getting insufficient attention, despite the fact that there are promotion opportunities in educational organizations: in the sphere of professional excellence, executive promotion, research opportunities, etc. In the course of the theoretical analysis of scientific and pedagogical literature and positive pedagogical experience we revealed the structure of the students’ readiness to plan a professional teacher career. Such career is a combination of value-motivational, informative-active and personal components, which is a necessary basis for conducting diagnostic procedures and confirming the proposed pedagogical conditions. The article explains the pedagogical conditions to form the students' readiness for professional activity: the educational process that takes into account the essential characteristics of the acmeological approach (aimed at improving the quality of professional training); activity approach (demanding students’ participation in interactive types of educational and quasi-professional activities) and subjective approach. Students are as well involved in the process of designing an individual professional trajectory. Comparing the diagnostic results of our experiments we managed to reveal the dynamics in various components and general readiness of the students to pursue an experimental professional career during the educational process.

Keywords: Careercompetenceplanningprofessionreadiness

Introduction

Russia shifting to a market economy has significantly changed the attitude of a person to himself/herself as an individual as a professional, to work, and official duty. Speaking about the socio-economic sphere the major importance is given to forming individuals, their status promotion in their professional career, increasing their competitiveness, level of adaptation and the ability to apply professional skills. This is how a person develops his/her activities successfully, and this in its part is reflected in the personal achievement of a high position in the profession and society, which is expressed not only in the material aspect, but, above all, in the purposeful development of one's professional career.

Speaking about the problem of career planning and implementation, it is worth paying attention to the fact that it is the younger generation that occupies the most active position. It relates a successful working life to a high material level, a prestigious profession, and achievements in professional excellence. All this is included in understanding of a modern professional career.

For a long time in Russia, issues related to career planning were irrelevant and not popular, the problems of building a career, professional development were not considered as a subject of scientific researches. In Soviet times people worked not to build their careers, but to benefit the society, for the sake of this society. In Soviet times, not only the idea of ​​a professional career, the very idea of successfully climbing up the career ladder was not supported, such thoughts were viewed negatively. Such a concept was associated with the so-called “business sharks” (Pairel, 2012). In foreign companies in their turn it was considered a basic idea for a professional to plan his/her activities for several years to come. In our country, this fact seemed pointless, since the growth in the organization was spontaneous, and, naturally, there were no personal plans in the professional sphere.

These days the negative connotation of the “career” concept has been gradually disappearing. A successful career becomes one of the indicators of a person’s successful life, the quality of life of that person, an indicator of a certain well-deserved status in society, of his/her professional level.

Now, in the conditions of rapidly changing labour market requirements, people are increasingly talking about the career growth of a professional, about career formation and planning. Western technologies are increasingly finding a place in the professional career planning, and more and more research has begun on career issues. To a greater extent, various aspects of the problem of building a career for civil servants and military personnel are being studied to a greater extent. At the same time, insufficient attention is paid to a teacher’s career, despite the fact that career advancement opportunities in educational organizations exist: in the sphere of professional skills, administrative growth, researcher opportunities, etc. However, due to the fact that educational institutions do not provide the position of a specialist in managing the teachers career growth, young teachers embarking on pedagogical activities are faced with the problem of building prospects for professional growth and development, lack of experience in using the methods and forms of professional advancement, lack of reflexive position that does not allow them to purposefully and systematically work on their career advancement. After working for some time, and having failed to build further prospects, they have to leave their professional activities at the very beginning of their career paths, having achieved no success in the profession (Korneeva, 2017).

As a result, the system of professional teacher education faces the task of preparing the future teacher for continuous professional self-development, developing his/her abilities to plan a professional career now and in the future, and his/her personal development in unstable, dynamically changing conditions (Habahu, 2005).

Studying the experience of forming the readiness of students of a pedagogical university to plan a professional career made it possible to highlight the contradictions between:

- the requirements of society and the state for the readiness of future teachers to independently plan their professional advancement and the insufficient development of theoretical and practical foundations for the formation of such readiness;

- the need for pedagogical practice in the implementation of the educational process aimed at developing the readiness of future teachers to plan a professional career, and the insufficient development of pedagogical conditions and methodological support for this process.

Problem Statement

The problem of the forming the readiness for professional career planning among university students is firmly connected with the diverse aspects of the theoretical understanding of the practice of modern education. The issues of professional development of a future specialist in the vocational training system, as well as the problems of the personality's professional orientation, his/her professional self-determination and professional readiness are studied in the framework of various scientific disciplines (education philosophy, sociology, psychology, pedagogy, acmeology, etc.).

In recent decades, in the field of vocational education, a number of researchers have been studying the issues of forming readiness for designing a professional career: Kriskovets (2011), who considers the issues of managing a teacher’s professional career;  Habahu (2005), who studies the problem of pedagogical activation of the subjective abilities of students in the process of their preparation for building a future professional career; Nagornaya (2011), offering training technologies for career planning of future specialists in the field of engineering. Mulendeykina (2015) considered the issues of building a professional career as a means of developing social and professional self-determination of student athletes. Kvashnin (2016) investigated the conditions for building a professional career for students on the basis of a professional educational institution. A number of studies were devoted to planning the professional careers of civil servants and students of military and technical universities (Kvach, 2005; Varnikova, 2011 and others).

Thus, the analysis of pedagogical researches has shown that due attention is not paid to identifying the conditions necessary for students of pedagogical universities to be ready to plan their own professional careers.

The problem of building and implementing a teacher’s professional career is closely linked to the problem of young teachers’ employment and their quick leaving the profession. Russian Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva in her speech at the International Congress Exhibition Global Education - Education Without Borders notes the problem of the shortage and reduction of young teachers.

Analyzing the personnel imbalance in the Republic of Bashkortostan (for 2019-2021), revealed by the university on the basis of the survey, we can see, for example, that there is a need for computer science teachers in the amount of 100 people, while there are 69 graduates in this subject, therefore, the deficit for this period is 31 people. And this happens in all subjects teaching.

A quick leaving the profession is mostly often associated with insufficient professional competence and a limited list of forms and methods of entering the profession. This fact is confirmed by a study conducted by Federal Education and Science Supervision Service on the analysis of teachers’ competencies in the framework of the National Teacher Growth Program. As a result, it was found that 15-20% of the teachers from 67 subjects of the Russian Federation have an insufficient level of qualification.

Analyzing these data, we can conclude that in the course of training in pedagogical universities sufficient conditions are not created for students to master the skills of reflection of their own activity, to get the ability to set goals and find ways and resources to achieve them, to develop motivation for constant self-development – those necessary qualities and properties necessary in order to advance in further professional activities. Also, this idea is noted in the professional standard, where the professional career of the teacher is associated with the need for continuing professional education to meet the levels of qualification.

Being of a particular interest, the questions of determining and implementing pedagogical conditions for the formation of readiness of students of a pedagogical university to build a professional career remain poorly covered in the literature and insufficiently studied in educational practice, which is the problem of this study.

Research Questions

Analysis of the process of future teachers training allowed us to formulate the subject of the study: pedagogical conditions for the formation of readiness of students of a pedagogical university to build a professional career:

- the educational process is built taking into account the essential characteristics of the acmeological approach (aimed at improving the quality of the training of a future professional); activity-based approach (requiring the involvement of students in interactive types of educational and quasi-professional activities in the process of preparing for professional activity), a subjective approach;

- students are involved in the process of planning an individual educational trajectory, which smoothly passes into planning an individual professional trajectory.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to identify and justify pedagogical conditions for the formation of readiness of students of a pedagogical university to build their professional careers on the basis of a theoretical analysis and analysis of positive pedagogical experience.

Research Methods

This study had several stages, each characterized by using certain research methods.

• The analytical and predictive stage, during which the essence of the concept of “readiness for planning a professional career” was clarified, as well as the criteria and methods for assessing readiness were determined. The leading method was a theoretical analysis of literature and pedagogical practice, forecasting the results of vocational training.

• Diagnostic stage, which involved conducting input control and analysis of its results. The leading methods were sociological and pedagogical testing, analysis of the products of students' activities and their employment.

• The planning phase provided for the justification of pedagogical conditions for the formation of readiness of students of a pedagogical university to plan a professional career; the development of a program for the implementation of the educational process in an experimental mode. The leading method is planning.

• During the experimental phase, the experiment program was implemented, that is, the educational process was implemented in an experimental mode, its results were analyzed. The leading method is a pedagogical experiment, analysis, generalization.

At the first stage of the experiment, while considering the term “career” in different languages, we paid attention to the interpretation of this term from the Italian language, since the word “career” came to the Russian language from it. In Italian “carriera” means “running, life's journey, field”. In the dictionary compiled by S. Ozhegov “career” is interpreted as “… occupation, activity. The path to success, a prominent position in society, at work, as well as the achievement of such a position.” The American scientist T. Hooley, when studying career issues, defined the term in the following way: “career is the process through which a person builds his work”, “career describes the path that a person goes through his life, training and work” (Hooley, 2013, p. 36). Russian scientists, while studying career planning issues, interpret this concept as successful promotion of an employee in the field of public, official, professional activity. D.E. Super did not limit the concept of career exclusively to professional activities of a person. He considered a career as a sequence of a person’s basic positions before starting professional activity, during professional activity, and also after retirement, which includes the roles of a student, employee, pensioner, along with other social roles. The theory of D.E. Super states that the most important determinant of a person’s professional path is his understanding of ​​his personality, that is, of a “professional self-concept.” The chosen profession and career achievements have a strong influence on the general “self-concept” and self-esteem (as cited in Lisovskaya & Troschina, 2012, p. 43).

In general, it is important to note that career is a very complex phenomenon in human life. Since the optimally planned and built path of professional and official development determines the most complete and comprehensive disclosure of not only professional and business, but also the personal potential of a person (Golenkova & Chernyaeva, 2013).

The very fact of studying at a university strengthens the young person’s faith in his/ her own strengths and abilities, gives rise to hope for a full-fledged professionally-creative and interesting life and activity. In this context, the subject’s career aspirations are considered as incentives for their activity in the career sphere, stimulating their activity in the direction of career advancement, career growth, achievement of high professional success. In this regard, the following components of the career orientation of the personality are distinguished: career competence career orientations; the relationship of the subject to his career, career readiness (Schelokova, 2011).

The process of building and developing a professional career enables people to realize their abilities and potentials and is considered as a result that reflects people's ideas about themselves in the field of work, about their own path of personal and professional development. A person builds the trajectory of a professional movement in accordance with his/her values, experience, and, thus, the career choice involves an ambiguous vision of one subject area by different people (Lomakina, 2011).

At the second stage of the experiment we took the definition of readiness for planning a professional career made by Nagornaya (2011) as a basis. She considers it as an integral characteristic of a personality, ensuring successful career development and meeting individual expectations with the requirements of a career environment, from the standpoint of the idea of ​​multivariative career development in work. Thus, we determined the following components of readiness: value-motivational (conscious motivation for career planning, achievement motivation, professional motivation activity, the need for professional self-development, satisfaction with activity), substantive and active (professional knowledge and skills, developed cognitive abilities, analytical, design, reflective, methodical skills) and personal (personal and social qualities and characteristics, communicative and emotional-volitional abilities , self-esteem, internality in decision making) components.

The conducted experiment made it possible to identify the initial state of readiness of students to plan and develop their own professional careers.

To identify career orientation factors, we conducted a study among a group of 1st year students of BSPU. We tested 2 methods: a questionnaire and psychological testing. The study involved 174 students aged 18 to 20.

In our study we made an assumption that there are close relationships between such qualities as the motivation of achievements and the locus of control of students of a pedagogical university. Each person has individual differences in the locus of control and the level of motivation for achievement.

We used in our research a technique for measuring the level of subjective control (LSC) in the new version proposed by E. Ksenofontova “Locus of control” (as cited in Fetiskin, Kozlov, & Manuylov, 2002). It is aimed at studying the personality internality. Internality is a person’s ability to take responsibility for what happens in life, and this quality is highlighted by one of the criteria of a socially mature person.

The study also used the methodology “Motivation of professional activity of K. Zamfir in the modification of A. Rean”, aimed at the diagnosis of motivation in professional activity. It is based on the concept of internal and external motivation. The activity itself matters for a person’s internal motivation. If the motivation for professional activity is based on the desire to satisfy other needs external to the content of the activity itself (motives of social prestige, salary, etc.), then in this case it is customary to talk about external motivation. External motives themselves are differentiated as external positive and external negative.

Significant factors were identified by the factor analysis using statistical data processing by Statistika.6. After the Varimax rotation procedure of the variable methods, 3 factors were determined that account for 63% of the total variance. Factor matrices have a complex structure of several significant variables. The first factor, “Readiness,” combined a significant number of variables: “General internality” (0.966), “Internality of professional activity” (0.759), “Internality in interpersonal communication” (0.879).

This factor characterizes a person with an internal locus of control, which is manifested in different life situations. Such people are convinced that everything that happens to a person is the result of his/her activity, and, therefore, the responsibility for his/her own life lies with the person him/herself. In professional activities, such students will take responsibility for the result in solving professional problems (Piskareva, 2017). In interpersonal communication, such people see their active role in the relationships that they have with other people.

The second factor, “Motivation”, includes the scale “External positive motivation” (0.834). The motivation for professional activity is based on the desire to meet other needs external to the content of the activity itself (motives of social prestige, salary, etc.). In this case we can point to external positive motivation as the desire of students to achieve personal well-being and happiness.

Thus, we confirmed the hypothesis that there are close links between the achievement motivation and the locus of control. However, the survey showed that at the beginning of the career building, most students do not understand how to plan their career paths. The study showed that students make choices subjectively, or they cannot do it, they do not know how to choose, they cannot set goals, etc.

As a result, we revealed that students of a pedagogical university tend to achieve success, to realize personal responsibility for their actions and actions, show increased personal activity in the process of their activities and in relation to success situations. They have an internal locus of control, which is manifested in the fact that they differ in the belief that everything that happens to people is the result of their activity and independence. However, in the polls it is necessary to note the existence of doubts about the correctness of the chosen career path.

At the final stage of the ascertaining experiment, it was revealed that the most qualitatively formed component was the value-motivational component, which is expressed in the desire to build a career, the desire for success in activities. The lowest indicator is typical for the content-active component: students do not have a sufficient level of professional knowledge and skills and do not yet know what career they can expect in educational organizations and how to plan it. The middle position is occupied by the personality component, which is manifested in adequate self-esteem, internality in decision-making and the ability to reflection. Thus, there is a need for a change in the educational process at a pedagogical university in order to increase the effectiveness of students' readiness to plan and develop their professional careers.

The analysis of the real educational process at the university, which does not allow us to sufficiently shape the students' readiness to plan and develop their own professional careers, showed that for a radical change in this situation, it is necessary to provide pedagogical conditions. One of the fundamental conditions is the formation of the educational process, taking into account the essential characteristics of acmeological, activity, subjective approaches. The implementation of the acmeological approach is manifested in the construction of the educational process, which provides for the sequential complication of educational and professional activities: from theoretical development of knowledge to their application in real pedagogical practice through work in simulation and situational centers, centers for the development of competencies, participation in project activities (Bahtiyarova & Gabidullina, 2017).

The activity approach involves relying on the personal self-development, when the training is built taking into account the sequence of stages of activity from motivation to the development of knowledge and methods of activity, and then to reflection on the results of educational and professional activities. In training, the emphasis is laid on the emergence of motives for activity, as well as on the ability not only to set goals, but also to see, to determine ways and means of achieving this goal.

The way future teachers will solve their various problems, the decisions they will make, whether these decisions are correct, and pedagogical activity is effective – it all depends, first of all, on the kind of personality they are, on the kind of subjects they are in their pedagogical activity. The organization of professional training of a future teacher as a subject of pedagogical activity requires a review of the content and technology of education. Modern approaches to the organization of educational systems as a leading idea consider self-development of the individual, providing each student with the opportunity to build their own educational trajectory. It is a focused educational program that provides the learner with the position of the subject of choice, development, implementation of the educational standard when providing support from the teacher. Having gained experience in planning an individual educational path, the student is capable of planning an individual professional path.

Findings

The implementation of pedagogical conditions in the experimental educational process of a pedagogical university showed dynamics in the level of formation of students' readiness to plan their own professional careers (Figure 01 ).

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The level of readiness for the planning one’s own career in the course of the ascertaining experiment was measured in the control (88 people) and experimental (87 people) groups of students studying in the pedagogical field, having equal starting opportunities. The homogeneity of the samples and the effectiveness of pedagogical conditions were proved by the Cramer-Welch statistical criteria (according to the content-active criterion, the samples are homogeneous at the significance level α = 0.05) and the chi-square criterion. At the stage of the ascertaining experiment, the null hypothesis was accepted – there are no differences in the level the readiness of students in the control and experimental groups for career planning at the significance level α = 0.05; at the stage of the control experiment, an alternative hypothesis was adopted – the formation readiness for career planning in the experimental group of students was more effective at the significance level α = 0.05 under the influence of pedagogical conditions.

Conclusion

In the course of a theoretical analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature and pedagogical experience on the research problem, it was found that the problem of forming the readiness of students of a pedagogical university to plan and develop their professional careers is relevant due to the contradictions at the socio-pedagogical and methodological levels.

In the course of the pedagogical experiment, it was proved that the identified and theoretically substantiated specially organized pedagogical conditions provide the dynamics of the development of readiness for planning a professional career in the unity of the value-motivational, meaningful-active and personal components. The planned educational process in experimental mode has shown its effectiveness, as evidenced by a comparison of the results of ascertaining and control diagnostic sections.

To obtain objective information about the effectiveness of the identified pedagogical conditions, the components and indicators of manifestation of readiness for planning one's own professional career are determined.

Thus, the results of our study give reason to make a generalized conclusion that the tasks set in the study are solved, the goal is achieved.

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