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COMPETENCES
AND SOCIAL EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
N. N. Naydyonova
In the modern world, the problem of developing general functional literacy in students of different training stages and different kinds of occupational training has become extremely important in general, and for systems of lifelong and professional education in particular. No sustainable development of a society is possible unless all members of the society have general functional literacy, professional competences and social emotional intelligence. As we see it today, social emotional intelligence should be developed and general functional literacy supported at a certain level throughout one’s life. At the same time, professional competences can change in the course of life, as they are intrinsic for a person to change his/her professional occupation. Thus it’s very important to develop adequate definitions of these concepts, which the global educational space usually does to facilitate further discussions. Professional competences are closely connected with one’s profession. Thus they are not a common component that develops continuously in all training stages from preschool children to tertiary-age students. Therefore, particular attention should be paid to improvement of general functional literacy and social emotional development.
It is clear that educational organisations of professional education, offering a wide range of specialities, need various tools to measure general functional literacy and social emotional development. In this case, the teacher and the student should have general functional literacy and morality at least to the same extent. Not only should they be moral and competent in their profession, they must also have all types of general functional literacy, be able to manage their emotions, and be accepted in the society where the person lives, works and studies throughout their lives.
Education quality depends on numerous factors and is based on different knowledge, skills and competences. Professional education should focus the student on: (a) personal development of mental and physical abilities; (b) respect of human rights and civil liberties; (c) recognition of identity in terms of language, nationality, culture, traditions and values; (d) development of tolerance to religion, gender equality, freedom of views, local customs, national features; (e) care for the environment. As a result, a competent specialist is a person having: (1) a sufficient level of well-developed professional competences; (2) a high level of general functional literacy; (3) a level of social emotional development meeting suitable to one’s age and role in society. Education takes place not only within the educational institution or a particular group of students of one speciality, but also outside the institutional framework: outside groups, specialities, faculties or even
establishments [1; 2].
Contents of general functional literacy.
Irrespective of the specialisation the student wants to acquire, his/her general functional literacy can be represented as four circles.
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The first circle includes two large blocks: information literacy and quantitative literacy. Lack of sufficient literacy in mathematics and information processing prevents a student from getting successful training in any field or speciality.
The second circle includes the following competences, which a teacher of any specialisation develops and then pays particular attention to throughout the course of teaching his or her subject: (a) cooperation and leadership within the group; (b) critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making; (c) creativity and innovations; (d) social, cultural, global and ecological responsibility; (e) communicativeness; (f) digital and technological fluency; (g) lifelong education, personal responsibility and controllability, well-being.
Team player skills and small team leadership for solving problems in any subject are the skills to be assessed when measuring the quality of education. Thus, improvement of high-school teacher's professional skills should also include the entire second circle irrespective of the subject taught. Nowadays, high school teachers are only trained in vocation-related subjects, while the functions characterising the student of today in the global educational space actually fall outside of teacher training practice. The student undergoing training is continuously in a social, cultural, global and ecological environment. Thus, development of responsibility in these spheres is included in general functional literacy.
The third circle includes only subject fields and particular subjects, including professional specialisation. General functional literacy includes the following subject fields: reading, maths, national and foreign languages, natural sciences, social subjects (history and civic studies first of all), art education (music, drawing, dancing and literature), sports subjects.
The fourth circle includes (1) research and development; (2) ethical and civil values; (3) a spirit of enterprise.
Ethical and civil values are measured and spirit of enterprise is developed through situational units in tests or by questioning in this or that form. Within the framework of measurement of general functional literacy, success in research and development is appraised by questioning the student and the teacher and doing expert estimations on the Likert Response Scale [3].
Social emotional development. Social emotional development aims to make a person able to: (а) know the way to enter social relationships customary for the societies where the person has to interact; (b) build his/her social relationships both in professional activity and everyday life; (c) understand his/her own and other people's emotions and control them in different reality situations and mutual relations with other people, i.e. be emotionally developed in compliance with his/her age and role in society; (d) show adequate emotions in various situations; (e) control his emotional condition and regulate his/her behaviour.
Social emotional intelligence consists of four attributes: (1) selfconsciousness (a person recognises his/her own emotions and knows how they influence his/her thoughts and behaviour, knows his/her strengths and weaknesses, i. e. feels self-confident); (2) self-control (a person can control his/her impulsive feelings, behaviour and emotions in social relations, take the lead, meet his/her obligations and adapt to changing circumstances); (3) public consciousness (a person understands the needs and duties of public groups, reacts to emotional signals, feels comfortable in society, develops according to the dynamics of
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relationships in the group); (4) relationship management (a person knows how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence other people, and be a reliable and frictionless team player).
Social emotional development has a profound effect on the process of training or labour activity, physical and mental health, and socialisation. A socially developed person has five key skills. He/she is able to: (1) reduce stressful effects on him/herself and other people in conflict situations; (2) build stressless social relationships, have emotional awareness of methods and ways of resolving conflict situations; (3) maintain a nonverbal dialogue; (4) resort to humour when solving problems; (5) resolve conflict situations positively.
Social emotional intelligence reflects those aspects of intelligence that regulate self-cognition and social adaptation. The term first appeared in Wayne Payne's Doctoral Dissertation in 1985 [4]. Emotional intelligence is among the most significant indicators of success at the workplace. It is worth emphasising that as far as teaching is concerned, this concept is implemented in Russian preschool education, but there is practically no research on social emotional development at other training stages and in lifelong education in general. Abroad, this subject is also better developed by psychology than pedagogics.
Conclusion. As far as the current paradigms of lifelong education for sustainable development are concerned, we have come to the following conclusions: (a) education has not been any more limited with the established frameworks of the educational organisation, and goes on in parallel or series at particular workplaces, at home, in communities, etc. It can now be given by public, private and corporate organisations; (b) there is essential growth not only in formal education, but also in self-education both among adults and youth in accordance with market expectations; (c) teaching professional competences and general functional literacy should become more flexible in its accessibility; (d) training should meet cultural, national, etc., needs of students; (e) an adult's education quality standard must include not only his/her professional competences but also a high level of general functional literacy; (f) nowadays a person’s social emotional development is the most pressing problem of adult education.
References
1. Brockett, R. G. (1987). A perspective on humanistic research in adult education. Lifelong Learning Forum, 4 (2), 1,3 - 4.
2. Donovan, S., Bransford, J. & Pellegrino, J. (Eds.) (1999). How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice. Washington DC: National Academy Press.
3. Найденова, Н.Н. Измерение ключевых компетенций в национальных стандартах школьного образования [Текст] / Н.Н. Найденова // Отечественная и зарубежная педагогика. - 2013. - №3.
4. Payne, W.L. (1983/1986). A study of emotion: developing emotional intelligence; self integration; relating to fear, pain and desire. Dissertation Abstracts International, 47, p. 203A (University microfilms No. AAC 8605928).
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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