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COMPETENCE-CONTEXT MODEL OF EDUCATION AND UPBRINGING AS THE BASIS OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
I. G. Palagina
This paper considers the problem of the implementation of inclusive educational ideas in continuous education, and describes the main features of a competence-context model of upbringing and education as a learning model relevant to this task.
Key words: continuous education, inclusive education, competence-context model of upbringing and education.
The special education system for children with disabilities (CWD) was developed in Russia, and it has been successfully functioning for many years. In these institutions, special conditions for conducting classes were created, and doctors and special pedagogues work with children. However, due to the isolation of special/correctional educational establishments, in their childhood people are divided into "healthy" people, and people with disabilities. As a result, lifelong education for people with CWD is unavailable, because special conditions for the continuation of education are not always provided beyond the framework of the basic education. Inclusive education is an alternative to such a system; it ensures the learning of children with CWD in general education (public) schools.
The solution to the problem of inclusive education development is inextricably linked to the problem of change of the education model. The new education model must not only provide for the joint learning of regular children together with children with CWD, but must also allow all students to acquire skills to ensure the continuation of their education in the system of lifelong education throughout their lives. In our opinion, the competence-context model of education and upbringing carries potential, which can implement inclusive education ideas within the framework of the lifelong education system.
The main purpose of competence-context education "at the level of the basic education, is ensuring the pedagogical and psychological conditions for the formation of competence in the process of students' educational activities as the invariable result of education, which provides for the development of a student as an actor in the process of lifelong education. This process also includes achievement of the goal of developing values and semantic spheres of a student's personality" [2, p. 210]. In the process of competence-context education, the transformation of training activities of an academic type into independent activities is ensured, allowing students to solve problems and perform tasks based on knowledge [2]. The period of transformational activities is almost equal to the period of study of one theme within the framework of which an integral phenomenon, process is being studied.
Three basic forms of activities are distinguished: (1) activities of an academic type, which ensure an understanding of the structure of studied phenomena by students. All students get the same set of tools to solve a wide range of tasks, which represent models of different situations associated with the studied topic. Tasks are set for all students in the same way, but acquiring the skills to solve
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them in the competence-context model of education and upbringing is individualized, because the abilities, interests and needs of students are considered; (2) quasi-independent activities ensure understanding of working methods by students. Students, together with their teacher, solve a range of tasks within the topic, where there are complex tasks consisting of many key areas, which must be identified; (3) independent activities are collective activities of students aimed at solving problems within the topic, the scope of which is quite wide: from tasks requiring the direct application of known techniques to research and project problems. This form of activities allows them to gain experience of independent problem solving. At this stage, the teacher is a tutor, whose task is to ensure the achievement of maximum results by each student. While performing tasks, students move in their own ways.
In the process working, children form spontaneous groups, the factor of which is the complexity of the problem being solved. Having completed the first level, children move to the next one. Time limits for this stage are long; they take about 40% of the whole time provided for study of the topic, which is why each child has the opportunity to master the minimum basic level. An important factor is communication between children within the group. Within the framework of the competence-context model of education and upbringing, conditions are created for the realization of all eight principles of inclusive education: (a) the value of a person depends on his/her abilities and achievements; (b) each person is able to feel and think; (c) each person has the right to communicate and to be heard; (d) all people need each other; (e) true education may only be provided in the context of real relationships; (f) all people need the support and friendship of their peers; (g) all students can better achieve success in what they can do, than in what they can't; (h) diversity improves all aspects of a person's life.
In our opinion, the solution to the problem of inclusive education lies in solving a wider problem: a change in the educational paradigm. The new paradigm - "school of thinking", based on understanding the fact that the native abilities of each person may be completed with intellectual operations of "notional thinking" and "meta-processes", ensuring the formation of a student as an actor, must take the place of the traditional paradigm of education. The competence-context model of education and upbringing contains the mechanism to launch a person's selfrealization process - it is the formation of the invariable result of education -competence as the complex of cognitive, social and reflexive experience. Formation of this result allows students with different abilities to independently master various types of activities in the process of lifelong education "throughout their lives".
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translastions Bureas
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