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AN ABILTY TO MANAGE PERSONAL VALUES DEVELOPMENT AS A BASE FOR HARMONY
O. E. Shafranova
A search for ways of increasing effectiveness in higher education through the optimization of a teacher’s professional development necessitated a revision of conceptual approaches to lifelong education. The “harmonization of various aspects of human life and the world” as a perspective and a strategic objective for development determines the significance of pedagogical interpretation with its philosophical bases. First of all, it is necessary to underpin this statement as a fundamental principle of education.
An essential approach to defining the meaning and status of values in all human life and in the professional activities of a higher education teacher, in particular, places importance on the teacher’s ability to manage the development of his\her own world of values. This requires the constant coordination of a person’s (a professional) current world values with the basic aim of achieving harmony [5]. Consequently, the development of this ability has to be considered as a key content of the lifelong education of a professional that provides an increase in the ability to manage one’s personal professional evolution.
Abilities are generally associated in psychology with successfulness in certain activities [4]. Abilities are always variative by content, but invariant by the nature of the impact they make on the possibilities of successful building and performing the different kinds of relationships between a person and the world. The invariant nature of human ability, firstly, predetermines a major possibility of revealing its role in the relationships; secondly, enables qualitatively (and even quantitatively) to define the nature of such phenomenon. The variations of ability are entirely characterized by the individual system of knowledge, abilities, skills and qualities, providing the possibility of each single person to act at the reasonable expense of one’s different resources (time, intellectual, physical, etc.) Such variability is often explained by the role of inclinations in the development of this or that human ability. However, an understanding of the internal conditionality of the variative content of a human ability is not reduced to this. The system of determinants of establishing and developing different abilities is more clearly revealed in the analysis of so called special abilities, the formation of which requires special efforts (like special learning). Let us note that the ability of managing professional development belongs just to this class.
The formation and improvement of the ability to manage one’s professional development requires educational support. We need to specify
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that this study does not focus on a theory of the competency approach in education. Let us turn only to those aspects of this theory, which represent the attempts to define the pedagogical meaning of competencies, their fundamental difference from traditional knowledge, skills and abilities. Leaving behind consideration of the numerous interpretations of the term “competency”, we use the classical formulation of John Dewey [1], who defined competency as the ability of understanding and acting, supporting reasonable connections with the world. Such interpretation of the term “competency” allows us to draw a number of extremely important conclusions for analysis.
First of all, a competency is basically ability. The notion, borrowed from foreign pedagogical studies, has become mentally rooted. Its meaning can vary, but it is unlikely that anyone would state as before that the “definition of competency does not contain any fundamentally new components, not included in the notion of “ability” [2, pp 138], or that there is no much difference between competency and a required set of knowledge, skills and abilities [2, p. 140].
Secondly, it is quite possible to establish clear boundaries between approaches in competency and knowledge. The goal of education in the knowledge tradition is a sum (in the best case - a system) of knowledge, skills and abilities. The goal of competency-based education is an ability to apply internally conditioned human abilities for the successful implementation of relationships between oneself, world and other people.
Thirdly, the internal determination of abilities in this approach is represented by the completely individualized nature of the realization of these abilities. It proves the dependence of the development of different abilities on the content of personal life, life experience. It is life experience that helps to link different events and phenomena of life in the process of world comprehension. The fact that a universal method of establishing such a link is fact which brings us back to the words of John Dewey and enables expansion of the traditional content of the term “ability”. Abilities have not only an action-based, connotative-cognitive basis, but also a hermeneutic nature. That is another fundamental characteristic of the competency orientation of education - the fact that it corresponds to the principle of hermeneutics of life.
Fourthly, the intention to develop abilities actualizes the classical formula of educational content: “experience of cognition + experience of implementation of familiar methods of activity + experience of creative activity + experience of the emotional and value attitude of a person to the world”. This analysis of the value aspects of human life, professional establishment
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and education let us state that an experience of the emotional and value attitude of a person to the world (with the world) is if to rephrase V. A. Slas-tenin [3, p. 113] the very “axiological spring”, which renders active all other informative and process elements of education.
Fifthly, the direction to establishing and developing the abilities actualizes an idea of education as of a whole life process of formation of images of the world, oneself and the relationships between them.
Sixthly, the ability development is always value-based. It is impossible to rely on life experience, without taking into account its value-based architectonic. This statement can always be illustrated even at the subtopian level. It is well known that one person, when solving a problem (a life situation), tries to thoroughly comprehend the anchor in the culture knowledge of this phenomenon; another one strives to comprehend the essence of the phenomenon (problem, incident) as deeply as possible; the third one does not need broad and deep knowledge, but the pattern (algorithm) of actions; the forth one will definitely ask for support from esteemed people, etc. These differences are conditioned by the content and the level of the development of a personal world value.
Having said all that let us state that the intentional development of the professional’s ability to manage one’s professional evolution by means of education is possible upon such informative and organizational implementation of education that would focus on axiological component of designing and implementing any life attitude of a person and a professional. Therefore, the key approach to the optimization of lifelong education of a higher education teacher on the current stage should be an axiological approach. This approach helps to provide an axiologically-oriented education as education that enables teacher’s movement toward the ideal of Harmony through the acquisition of an ability of value-based management of professional evolution by means of the value-appropriate construction of images of a desired future (in all modifications).
Bibliography
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5. Худякова Н. Л. Ценностный мир человека: возникновение и развитие / Н.Л. Худякова; Челяб. гос. ун-т, Ин-т психологии и педагогики. Челябинск: Околица: Тендерлайн, 2004.
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This work is part of the project: Innovative Mechanisms of Research and Education Integration in the System of Training of Scientific Manpower for Higher Education Institutions and Post-Graduation Development of University Teachers implemented within the framework of the special purpose program: The Development of Research Potential of Higher Education Institutions (2009-2011).
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