CC BY
15
CAN MODERN EDUCATION
DEVELOP STUDENTS’ COMPETENCES AND ETHICS?
I. S. Nosova
One of the modern trends - the desire to standardize everything - has also had an impact upon Russian education. The recently approved professional standard [1] for a teacher reveals uniform requirements for the content and quality of professional pedagogical activity, regulates levels of qualification of teachers for the purpose of employment and evaluation of activity, indicates the ways of career planning, and also serves to generate job descriptions and to develop the federal state educational standards of pedagogical education. A competence-based approach was laid out as a basis for development of the new generation of the Higher Education Federal State Educational Standards (hereinafter HE FSES), which is why graduates of higher educational institutions should have a number of common cultural and professional competences. Since each line of profession has a number of different competences, and the HE FSES of each profession differ in terms of the structure of these competences, there are a number of questions. We looked at the list of competencies of bachelors of various professions. There, the number of common cultural competences is between 14 and 17, while professional competences range from 11 (teachers [3]) to 35 (advertising and public relations [2]). Is it realistic to form and develop competences if there are so many of them?
Let us make a sample comparison of common cultural competences (hereinafter “CC”) on the basis of the example of several directions of the bachelor degree course. The competence “a graduate shall be aware of the social significance of his/her future profession, and shall have an adequate level of professional sense of justice” in the degree program “Jurisprudence” [4]; the qualification “bachelor” indicates the degree program “Economics” [5]; for the degree program “Advertising and Public Relations” [2] (in this degree program competence is worded differently: “a graduate is aware of the social significance of his/her future profession, and is highly motivated to perform professional activity”), whereas in “Pedagogical Education” bachelor degree program [3] this competence is missing, whereas it should be dominant.
Questions also arise when we consider other competences, for example, “a graduate shall have well-reasoned and clear oral and written language” (lawyers, economists, and teachers, and as for teachers, this competence is preceded by the competence “the graduate is ready to use methods of physical education and selfeducation to increase the adaptive reserves of the body and improve health”. There is no dispute that a teacher needs good health, but is a teacher’s speech less important than physical training? After all, language, oral, written or symbolic speech is the basis of any communication. Whereas physical training, for all appearances, is not that important for a lawyer (“possesses the skills of healthy lifestyle, participates in physical training and plays sports”). It is the last one in the list and has no number. We can demonstrate numerous examples of this sort.
The peculiarity of Russian language, which reflects the mentality of the people, is that there is a difference between the concept of “competence” and “competency”. Competence, according to the interpretation of A.V. Khutorskoy [6],
139
includes a set of interrelated qualities of a person (knowledge, skills, types of activity), defined with respect to a certain range of objects and processes and necessary for high quality productive activities in relation to them. Whereas competency means possession by a person of relevant competence that includes his/her personal attitude to it and the subject of activity. Graduates develop competences set in HE FSES in the comprehensive process of activity of teachers of different disciplines that implement the basic educational program, which is proved by practice. It turns out that teachers will indeed develop competences, but only practice can show whether graduates will show their competency. In the management environment there is a simpler attitude to such a concept as “competence”. Competence is a set of personal and professional qualities that makes it possible to carry out professional activities. If an employee fulfills necessary functions, it means that he/she has competence. We are not talking about some sort of personal attitude here. However, the task of education is not only to develop professional competences, but also to develop a man of integrity, who acts for the benefit of society and lives a life worth living. To develop a person who is satisfied with his/her life and is capable of making a positive impact upon the life of society, making his/her own contribution not only to increase material benefits, but also to improve the spiritual and moral environment, and to develop spiritual and material culture.
Here we have the next set of problems. Morality is in the sphere of human activity, and relates to the rules of behavior in the society. Spirituality is a word derived from the word “spirit”. It includes the internal motivation, realistic goals and relationships that can be hidden externally. The morality of modern society is based on simple principles: everything that does not directly violate the rights of others is permitted; the rights of all people are equal. Some of the competencies are directly or indirectly related to the concept of morality, for example: conscientious performance of professional duties, possessing cultural behavior, willingness to cooperate with colleagues, teamwork, commitment to selfdevelopment, and the ability to analyze socially significant problems. But life in modern society often dictates the substitution of concepts. The general meaning of the word “good faith” includes honesty, and diligence in carrying out one’s duties and obligations. If a person performs his duties recorded in the employment contract, i.e. diligently fulfills his obligations, does this comply fully with the concept of “good faith”? Honesty is not a moral concept, it relates to internal selforganization and self-control, i.e. conscientiousness. Is it possible to measure one’s conscience? The same applies to “self-development”, because this is a very broad concept. Development of the moral foundations, conscience, and spirituality is an integral part of self-development together with intellectual and physical development, however, when we use this terminology in relation to a graduate of a higher educational institution, qualifications and skills play the most important role, while the moral side of self-development turns out to be secondary.
Another competency that can cause extensive polemics: a graduate “possesses culture of thinking, is able to synthesize, to analyze, to perceive information, to set a goal, and to choose the way of achieving it”. How can we measure the level of culture of thinking? If this is a general cultural competence,
140
i.e. it affects not only the professional goals, how can we evaluate the set goal and the means to achieve it?
It is possible to develop competences in the educational process, but won’t these competences limit our life by means of placing a formal framework and killing real freedom - the freedom of spiritual development, since the degree of spirituality is impossible to be determined in words: “The expressed idea is a lie.”(F. Tyutchev).
References
1. Приказ Минтруда России от 18.10.2013 № 544 "Об утверждении профессионального стандарта "Педагог (педагогическая деятельность в сфере дошкольного, начального общего, основного общего, среднего общего образования) (воспитатель, учитель)" (Зарегистрировано в Минюсте России 06.12.2013 N 30550).
2. ФГОС ВПО. Направление подготовки 031600 Реклама и связи с общественностью. Утвержден приказом Министерства образования и науки Российской Федерации от 29.03.2010 № 221.
3. ФГОС ВПО. Направление подготовки 050100 Педагогическое образование (4 года обучения) Зарегистрировано в Минюсте РФ 5 февраля 2010 г. N 16277 с изменениями от 31 мая 2011 года.
4. ФГОС ВПО. Направление подготовки 030900 Юриспруденция. Приказ Министерства образования и науки Российской Федерации от 4 мая 2010 г. № 464.
5. ФГОС ВПО. Направление подготовки 080100 Экономика. Приказ Министерства образования и науки Российской Федерации от 21 декабря 2009 г. № 747.
6. Хуторской А.В. Определение общепредметного содержания и ключевых компетенций как характеристика нового подхода к конструированию образовательных стандартов // Интернет-журнал «Эйдос» - http://www.eidos.ru/journal/2002/0423.htm; дата входа 25.02.2014.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
141
