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DIDACTIC COMPETENCE OF A TEACHER IN THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM
O. N. Machekhina
Under the modernizing condition of the education system in the Russian Federation secondary school teachers face the necessity to learn a large amount of theoretical information and master new educational technologies. As such, there is an apparent contradiction between free access to a large number of sources containing information which a teacher needs in his/her work and an absence of time for its examination and using it as a professional tool. In this situation, teachers in the career development system may become tutors for teacher professionalism development upon availability of a sufficient level of didactic competence. On the basis of conducted interviews and our own experience we revealed the problem of a lack of information about the didactic competence of teachers in the career development system and ways of its development. This prevents achievement of a high level of in-service teacher training efficiency. To solve this problem, it is first of all necessary to analyze investigations of didactic competence being conducted.
It should be noted that the concept of a teacher’s didactic competence is a relatively new social-psychological term. It is discussed at research and practical conferences of different levels. According to M.P. Tyrina, "Didactic competence of personality is an integrated feature, which is reflected in the theoretical and practical willingness of a teacher to carry out professional didactic activity aimed at solving didactic problems of self-realization in the creative teaching process. The essence of a teacher's didactic competence lies in mobile knowledge of modern learning theories, flexible mastery of teaching technologies, and advanced innovative didactic thinking" [9]. The study of the process of establishing and developing the didactic competence of a teacher in the career development system seems to be important, first of all, because in modern science issues associated with the professional activities of higher education faculty in this category are under-characterized. Investigations dedicated to didactic competence are presented quite widely. They can be conventionally divided into four groups: the first one includes investigations of establishing students' didactic competence, the second group of investigations is associated with professional activities of secondary school teachers, the third one with professional activities of higher education faculty, the fourth is that of teachers working at extended education institutions, and the fifth one includes the professional activities of other subjects of the educational process. Investigations associated with the activity of teachers in the career development system and retraining of educators are not presented.
In reference to detailed analysis, we should mention study of the development of a future educator's didactic competence in contextual teaching, which has been conducted at the educational research school of А.А. Verbitsky [1]. In 2010 a project was developed for the development of didactic competence of an early career teacher in the context of his/her future professional activities. The project provided for integration of didactic competence into quasi-professional
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activities under conditions of simulation modeling of the subject and the social content of the teacher's profession. In the process of project realization, the method of contextual teaching known as professional simulation was used. Professional simulation included case study and role-playing as empirical methods. The opinion of М.А. Choshanov, who considers the “formation of students' professional and didactic competence, which involves mobile knowledge of modern teaching theories, flexible mastery of teaching methods and advanced critical thinking” to be important is also of great interest [10].
E.V. Diachenko investigated didactic competence as a subjective condition for the efficiency of professional and teaching activities, representing it as a resource: "didactic competence, which is continually improved and enriched, contains resources for development of pedagogical professionalism" [3, p. 92]. We share this point of view and consider the didactic competence of a teacher in the career development system to be an independent resource of both personal and professional development. To achieve the maximum applied import of the investigation, it is important to form a view of the functional capabilities of didactic competence. Let's refer to L.Z. Tarkhan’s investigation which is aimed at revealing the functions of didactic competence. This author believes that didactic competence has cognitive and gnoseological, regulatory, invariant, and integrative functions. He highlights its following elements: activistic (practical experience); cognitive (body of knowledge of a substantive field, on the basis of which competence is formed); operational and technological (body of expertise and skills in practical problem solving); personal (set of individual and psychological features and abilities which are important for this professional activity, personality orientation); value and motivational (set of value orientations and motives which are adequate to tasks and goals of the activity, worldview); and reflexive (ability to comprehend, evaluate, predict activity and its result, creativity) [8]. I.G. Shamsutdinova believes the didactic competence of a teacher is defined by a "capability to take quick, reasonable, informed, and inerrable didactic decisions, to find the shortest way to solve a didactic problem, to choose methods, techniques, and teaching aids which are adequate to particular conditions" [11, p. 222]. For us, this statement is important and we think the particular situation regarding selection of methods, techniques, and teaching aids defines the efficiency of lessons conducted within the framework of teacher training. We also share the viewpoint of Yu.V. Makhova, whose research is aimed at differentiation of the individual didactic competence of a teacher and corporate didactic competence of the staff of an educational establishment [4]. In addition, studies dedicated to the leveling of didactic competence are worth mentioning. The first of these is the team of authors including M.N. Pevzner, O.M. Zaichenko and S.N. Gorycheva, who accentuate three levels of didactic competence - reproductive, heuristic, and creative - and describe their characteristic features [6]. Also, the opinion of B.I. Grinev is interesting. He studies didactic competence as an integrated feature of personality which is reflected in theoretical and practical willingness to carry out didactic and professional activity aimed at solving various didactic tasks associated with selfrealization in the creative teaching process [2]. Results of this study are important because we consider the process of class preparation in the teacher career development system under conditions of modernization and optimization of study
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materials to be creative, which means it is one associated with the creation of a product which has no analogues in the past.
For a concluding reflection on the relevance of studying the didactic competence of a teacher, let's refer to the words of N.V. Petrova: "The optimal way to solve the problem of lacking competence in the field of didactic knowledge and skills is a teacher's gradual climbing of ... the well-known stairs of theoretical knowledge: from didactic literacy through didactic competence to the highest level - didactic excellence" [7, p. 26]. Of course, the rapid development of didactic competence for key subjects of educational relationships can be considered a condition for modernization of the national higher and postgraduate education [5].
References
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2. Гринев В. И. Формирование дидактической культуры будущего учителя: дис. ... канд. пед. наук. - Харьков, 2003.
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4. Махова Ю. В. Использование группового консультирования при формировании дидактической компетентности // Среднее профессиональное образование. - 2009. -№ 5.
5. Митрохин В. И. Модернизация отечественного высшего образования: семь
заблуждений и иллюзий // Alma mater. Вестник высшей школы. - 2008. - № 3.
6. Певзнер М. Н., Зайченко О. М., Букетов В. О. Научно-методическое сопровождение персонала школы: педагогическое консультирование и супервизия. - Великий Новгород, 2002.
7. Петрова Н. В. От дидактической грамотности к дидактическому мастерству // Воспитание и дополнительное образование. - 2001. - № 2.
8. Тархан Л. З. Дидактическая компетентность инженера-педагога: теоретические и методические аспекты. - Симферополь, 2008.
9. Тырина М. П. Дидактическая компетентность педагога и ее развитие // Известия Алтайского Государственного Университета. - 2012. - № 2.
10. Чошанов М. А. Дидактическая инженерия: анализ и проектирование обучающих технологий. - Блумингтон - Индиана, 2009.
11. Шамсутдинова И. Г. Дидактическая компетентность учителя // Высшее педагогическое образование в России: в 2 ч. Ч. 1. - М., 1997.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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