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PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF CONTINUOUS EDUCATION IN THE FOCUS OF EDUCATION MODERNIZATION: ACHIEVEMENTS, PROBLEMS, CONTRADICTIONS, UNSOLVED QUESTIONS
DEVELOPMENT OF THE INNOVATIVE POTENTIAL OF A UNIVERSITY AS A CONDITION FOR PREPARING MODERN SPECIALISTS IN THE SYSTEM OF LIFELONG PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
V. N. Skvortsov
The paper examines three interrelated aspects of a university's innovative potential; its nature and the main components of the innovative potential of a university; essential functions and developmental mechanisms that are not contrary to the laws of the market economy, and enhance the effectiveness of the regional system development of lifelong professional education.
Key words: university's innovative potential, mechanism of university's innovative potential, educational milieu, componential specialist.
Lifelong education of highly qualified professionals is associated with the search for new opportunities in the field of formation of their competences and skills needed for making non-standard heuristic solutions in various fields of professional work. This cannot be done without development of the innovative capacity of a university, as a subject of the regional system of continuing professional education. A modern university can prepare specialists aimed at innovative development of their professional activities, only relying on the university’s advanced scientific and technological base, on its total educational competences, its scientific and intellectual potential. In other words, the relevance of studies of development of the innovative potential of a university, as the subject of the regional system of continuous education, is founded by the real needs of the economy in the multilateral, multi-layered and continuously changing professional competence of highly qualified specialists. In this development, the innovative potential of a university, being a fundamental condition for preparation of an expert, agrees with the need of developing the country's economy, which is based on the post-industrial type technological order.
In the present report, understanding the depth and complexity of the problem, we will only outline three interrelated aspects: (1) examining the nature and the main components of the innovation potential of a university; (2) its essential functions; (3) developmental mechanisms that are not contrary to the laws of the market economy, and enhance the effectiveness of development of the regional system of lifelong professional education.
The innovative potential of a university: its essence and components. The innovative potential of a university is the backbone component of its educational
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environment. As such, it has a certain set of characteristics. Its fundamental quality is the ability of professors and university teaching corps to continuously produce and reproduce on an enlarged scale new professional competence and meanings of life of their students, create their contemporary social values and skills for communicating with their colleagues and partners.
The innovative potential of a university allows it to reach a new level of development of continuing education for professionals, and to create conditions for effective coordination of educational and scientific activities of teachers and students. While being connected to the scientific and educational activities of the employees, the innovative potential of a university is dynamic, and at the same time, is sufficiently stable and not-relative. In particular, the dynamic nature of the innovation potential of a university is expressed in the system of successive innovations, and in the marketing and support of new educational and scientific products which are used by the consumers and subjects of continuing education for developing their professional skills. Here, the innovations that constitute the essence of any innovative and creative environment of a university must pass a series of states: from a just originated new idea to its experimental verification and implementation of the innovation result in the practice of the educational process, or actual production.
The innovative potential of a university is associated with a particular type of personality of its staff and students. This means that they have personal and professional qualities in demand by the development of modern society. Innovation requires from the professors and teaching corps of a university, and from students and trainees of continuous education courses, the development of a specific set of personal characteristics: (a) a deep need for change and the ability to get away from the power of tradition; (b) creative thinking and the ability to find new ideas and use them in the scientific and educational process, in the practical sphere; (c) pragmatic competence in the development and application of adequate social mechanisms to achieve a new result; (d) the ability to approach selection, organization of implementation and promotion of specific innovations systematically and prognostically; (e) the ability to navigate in conditions of uncertainty and to understand the acceptable level of risk; (f) readiness to overcome recurring obstacles, etc.
University professors and students of the continuing education system cannot be the subject of innovation without the development of these professional competencies. These competencies are necessary for the formation of temporary creative teams, departments, faculties, research and scientific laboratories, and other university structures that are actually involved in the creative innovation activity of an academic institution. The latter structures may be formal, because they are formed in accordance with the existing administrative and staffing structure of a university, as well as non-formal, because they arise on the basis of creative scientific interests, personal feelings and affections of teachers and researchers of a higher educational institution. The relationship and interaction between the subjects of the educational process - teachers and students, and students of continuing education - with one other are an essential component of the innovation potential of a university. In this case, the creative and innovative potential of professors and teaching corps is a natural prerequisite for building a new emotional background of the educational and scientific process at a university.
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This system of relationships exists on the role, professional and personal level. It is an extremely important part of the innovation potential of a university, because it expresses the collective, mutually conditioned nature of teaching and research activities of its employees. The system of relations between them is based on interaction and integration of the results of their creative and innovative activities. Ideally, these relationships form the special integral scientific and pedagogical ensemble of a university, because its subjects act on a multidimensional and universal level (in this case, the innovation potential of a university is transformed into a special integral phenomenon). The multidimensional level is explained by the fact that in the process of formation of the innovative potential of a university, all pedagogical processes and functions become transparent: education and self-education, and teaching and learning of both teachers and students. This universal level is explained by the fact that they bear all aspects of development of one’s personality: economic and political, aesthetic and moral, psychological and physical. Actually, the innovations systematically complete the component architecture of the innovative potential of a university, as a center for continuing professional education.
The main functions of the innovation potential of a university. First of all, we can mention the following: firstly, the socio-economic function of the innovation potential of a university; secondly, the function associated with the conversion of new scientific information generated by the university staff into the economic resource of development of companies and organizations of a given region; thirdly, the function which is associated with the processes of integration of the scientific and educational environment of a university with the technical and organizational environment of regional production; fourthly, it is necessary to specifically identify the function that directly characterizes involvement of a university in development of the intellectual potential of social production, in the extension of social experience of entities involved into continuing professional education, based on the development of their professional qualifications and value structures; fifthly, the function of creation of its own educational and research complex, formation and maintenance of its scientific and educational and public image; sixthly, participation of a university in the implementation of its educational and scientific product through the continuous education system.
In addition to the above, the higher school now has new functions. These functions allow institutions to adapt to the changing conditions and to influence the social environment, to make it more convenient. This gives certain dynamics to the development of the innovative potential of a university, and forms the main directions of its further evolution. These functions include: (a) the function of reducing uncertainty and stability of the external social environment in relation to their own activities; (b) the function of monitoring the development of the industrial, educational and recreational environment of the region; (c) the function of maintaining and creating a continuous flow of reproduction of highly qualified specialists; (d) the function of providing a balanced interaction between the technical and social subsystems at the regional and federal level; (e) the function of balancing the interests and objectives of the entities -organizations interested in the continued development of the professional competencies of their employees, etc.
Mechanisms for developing the innovative capacity of a university. When making a scientific analysis of the mechanisms of development of the innovative
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potential of a university, it is necessary to base this analysis on specific interests. Their evolution is determined by the scope of changes to the entire system of economic and social interests in the region and the country. The starting point for the competent formation of economic, social and institutional mechanisms of development of the creative and innovative potential of a university should include a study of the totality of conditions of the transformation of the economic system of the regions and the society as a whole. Thus, it is necessary to clearly distinguish between the external and internal context of such transformation and development.
From the external point of view, in terms of the mechanism of its operation, the innovative potential of a university is an integral part of the regional scientific and research complex. It involves the interaction of the scientific elements of a university with institutional structures of the social and economic system of the region, which makes it possible to influence economic development and improve the quality of life of the population of the region (through continuing education mechanisms and formation of professional competences on the basis of knowledge and different innovations), by generating, investing and practically applying the innovation results. Production and distribution by the university services of their innovative developments in the market of educational services can be one of the results of this activity. All the above can contribute to the development of innovation activity in the region, improvement of the effective use of educational, scientific, professional and innovative potential of a university, creation of an environment that provides for and stimulates activity, and practical implementation of its scientific product, thus increasing the regional importance of the effective and educational process of the higher school institutions. Created in such a way, the external environment can be a component of the mechanism of dynamic and self-sustaining development of not only the innovative capacity of a university, but also of the entire regional economic system in terms of continuing professional education.
The development of the innovative capacity of a university, in addition to the external structures, economically and organizationally shall be founded by mechanisms of formation of creative motivation of the behavior of its teachers and researchers inside the higher educational institution itself. Informally, they should comply with the "value bar" of modern economic relations, stimulating to search not only for innovations themselves, but also to promote them to the industrial sector of the region, to ensure effective functioning of the system of business and creative partnership of a university and its employees with businesses and organizations in the region (through mutual motivation of their professionals and employees to achieve high innovation results not only in the educational process, but also in industrial activity). This mechanism should reflect the factors of increasing the efficiency of development of the strategic management of a university, the financial base of a university, innovative and entrepreneurial beliefs, values in the university community, management of the quality of education and the scientific potential of a university, corporate ideology of teachers and students (the significance of a university as an education regional institution), the periphery of educational services, and in particular, the expansion of distant and continuing education, etc.
To summarize, we note the following: Modern technical and socio-economic development of our country, to be truly effective, must be associated with the rapid change of technologies, development of social, economic and political life, with the
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ideology and strategy of re-industrialization of the economic base. These factors (as positive stimulus elements) force the university system of lifelong education to be continuously changing, based on the fundamental tendencies of formation of the fundamental aspects of life in contemporary Russia. Real creative, innovative involvement of a university in the development of the system of continuous education of specialists with a high level of qualification allows the university to understand its place in the basic interests of the whole society more accurately and adequately, and to develop a whole range of professional, innovative models of education to meet the needs of formation of the market structures on a certain territory.
When implementing measures aimed at developing the innovation potential of a university, as a condition of development of lifelong education system for preparation of professionally competent professionals, it is necessary to rely on the processes of formation of new teaching and research ethos of its employees. It is clear that these processes are directly related to the needs and abilities of the regions and the society in general at building effective social and economic policies in the field of the development of the system of continuing education at all levels. And for this purpose it is necessary to systematically create a network of regional structures responsible for this sphere of life. Particular attention should be paid to connecting educational institutions with regional education authorities, and with other subjects of lifelong education of a particular territory. All the above should not only increase the efficiency of the system of continuous education in the region, but also to create the first prerequisites for its continuous and sustained professional improvement, full-fledged social and cultural reproduction.
Finally, one should remember that, in itself, the innovative potential of a university has little value if it is not organically connected with the processes of continuous training and development of specialists. University graduates must satisfy the modern character of modernization of the social and economic life of the country, have intellectual capacity, know the latest technology, understand the current legislation, algorithms and methods of innovations, and have entrepreneurial abilities and civil responsibility, etc.
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