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EDUCATIONAL MODELS OF THE FUTURE
Е. М. Sviridova A. N. Faleev
The postindustrial era at once has resulted in both a social and cultural crisis a change in the educational paradigm, the need for modernization and the crisis of the concepts and categories of pedagogy. Professor A.M. Novikov made an attempt to build a conceptual and categorical apparatus of pedagogy and its logical structure (optimally possible to use for sciences of a weak version) in his book Foundations of Pedagogy. This book was demanded due to the conditions of the transition from “the pedagogy of the industrial era to the pedagogy of the postindustrial era”. Inert “mass consciousness” reflects, analyzes and evaluates all that is happening stereotypically, not realizing the realities of the time that has passed and transformed processes such as global thinking; the integration of the world economy, culture and social services; the nature of individual and social relations, lifestyles and standards; the energy crisis, the revolutions in technology and information; and massive ecological disasters. The ideology of mankind has also changed. There is no longer a belief that you can create an “image of a person” on the basis of certain social actions. It is now understood that the “ideal society” is a utopia. For over 200 years of history we have been unable create new “uniform Adam”. People, as it turns out, are all different and man, including his moral position, activities, culture, intelligence, professional competence, is still the basis of human development.
In the industrial era science was the dominant factor in organizing society (including basic institutions, a single picture of the world, general and particular theories and substantive and professional activity) [1, p . 8]. Knowledge of it was reproduced at all levels of “in-line learning” and it is inherent in the content of education. The second half of the 20th century was “technological” with the increased role of information in the field of activity. The mass media of the latest generation has determined its scope and the rate of change, as well as the emergence of such term as “adaptability”, the development of a language to communicate it and one of man’s dominant successes in the social sphere of human activity. “Eternal Knowledge” has been transfigured into “situational knowledge”.
In education, there are “technological approaches”, including “cases”, the basis of which is to “solve a nonstandard problem” or, in other words, “a situation with particular circumstances”. As they change, these educational models will disappear. The scientific knowledge in the 21st century is one of the components in the “quality of education” of a student, equally with other forms of human consciousness. Perhaps the “technological type” will be the model of future education instead of “the world that manifests itself in a word...” Perhaps “design and technology”, with a “project focus” will actually be the qualifying framework of professional thinking (according to V.P. Tretyakov). In the coming decades, as predicted by A.M. Novikov, education will change more than it has in the last 300 years of the human existence. Education is the true capital and main resource in the development of the world as a whole, including the human one. This fact has
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led to the emergence of strict requirements for educational quality and results in all respects, including the personal responsibility of teachers for their observance.
There is an increased need for the development of “conceptual thinking” in teachers at all levels of education, mastering the systematic approach to implementingtraining (of the didactic design), including the ability to integrate and ensure the integrity of outlooks and the evolutionary transition from the “reproducing pedagogy” to a “creative pedagogy”.
Evolution is continuous. The emergence of innovations is natural, but as they emerge and flourish, they absorb a certain proportion “traditional and innovative content”. These terms were announced in 1978 in a report for the Club of Rome in order to draw the international community’s attention to the inadequacy of the principles of traditional education and the fact that the development of students’ creative abilities is presently demanded more than ever. The main pedagogical problem of the 21st century at all levels of education is cultivating a preparedness to live in a constantly changing world with an uncertain “future”. Consequently, the assimilation of the mechanisms of adaptability by society, including mental stress resistance; flexibility in the choice of tactics and strategies; mobility in a multicultural society; and an ability to solve varying degrees of difficulties by pupils, students, professionals and listeners of the “third age” are more important than “eternal scientific knowledge”, although its importance is undeniable. Relevance of the skills necessary to learn, act independently, self-develop, self-improve, and self-realize throughout one’s adult life is a present imperative for every human being. It is also important to use the system analysis in order to forecast the future via an understanding of one’s place, role and capacity of both personal and historical significance in building the future and a willingness to take responsibility for it.
By bringing together “learning” (as the study of historical experience and the acquisition of personal experience), “education” (as the “filling up of power to develop the universal human values in a man” according to V. Slobodchikov) and “development” (as a “stakeholder of activity” and the depth of intellect in the itemization of the variety of personal qualities), we can perceive the hallmark of pedagogy in the post-industrial era. “The theory of development” in this triad requires deep understanding and development, as two of them (learning and education) already exist, but need their content corrected based on the humanization and humanitarization of both the content of education and its practice. It should be noted that “developmental psychology” must not be confused with the “psychology of personality development”. “Personality development” and the “problems of education” have different content. An understanding that such concepts as “learning activities” and “learner’s activities” are interrelated but not identical will ensure success.
The post-industrial era, while changing the vectors of education, has also changed the roles of co-partners in education for “subject - subject” ones, including the ways and forms of practice. The performer him- or herself is the central figure in teaching. Quality in education, as well as a specific result, is provided not for a group as a whole, nor for an abstract crowd of students, nor for a class as a whole, but rather for each individual pupil, student, or listener. Predominating education in the third millennium is an individualized training based
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on the variability of organization of content; the adaptability of the consumers of educational services to the levels of education and media of the prior generation; the design of individual educational routes; and planning individualized trajectories of activities. One of the quality results of education is socialization, which is a factor for a student’s success.
Socialization, from the point of view of a synergetic methodology, has a dual definition. On one hand, it is a prerequisite for the inclusion of a person in the “circle of relations with stakeholders” and on the other, it is a condition of exclusion by a person of him- or herself from “this circle”. Socialization (and its evolution) is a conjugation of a necessity and a contingency (deterministic and stochastic elements). In other words, it is a contraction of social connections and relations of the “being of an individual” into a single “node". It is expedient to use the language of fractals (a section of synergy). Scientists working in this area write that not only science, but also culture gives a description of “fractal patterns”, each part of which represents the integer [2, p . 45]. Fractal allows you to compress information, to effectively make a forecast, to carry out a description of the self-organizing processes. A fractal (in translation -- a fractional one, a broken one) means a quasi-stable transition state of the developing system, randomness and an instability which is gradually moving towards the stable and orderly whole (according to B. Mandelbrott). A fractal became universal for understanding the processes in nature, society and the humanitarian sphere. “Self-similarity” is a main property of a “fractal”. It is the main part of the changing system. The state of this system is a transition (or a dynamic stretch out the process in time, also known as bifurcation) [4]. The social fractal is the constant self-construction of a person and the development of his or her capabilities as a result of his or her interaction with society (synergy). A person recognizes himself through social objectivity, sees himself as the center of his own forces and realizes his ability to build the process of his own existence. In this sense, socialization is a cultivation of one’s own human capabilities. Fractal motion is the transition from one state to another state. It is open to new images of social and cultural realities and new meanings and values, the result of which is the emergence of new personality structures. The human world consists of many social fractals personalized for each person. Each person is a carrier of the culture of his or her society. The process between the possible and the real is fractal movement, i.e. the essence of socialization. It forms a human personality. Each historical epoch creates “its own image and likeness” of a human being, not only a subject integrated into the world of public relations and attitudes, but also a human capable of withstanding and changing it. The principles of structural and evolutionary changes of complexly organized systems concerning stability and instability help us to understand this contradiction from the viewpoint of synergy. This new class of causal relationships, where a chaotically organized environment (system) meets parameters of linearity, opposes a nonlinear order organized in space and time. A person is a product and opponent of society. He is a cyclic causality. The transition from cause to effect is the opposition. In such a transition we see a specific nonlinear law. We can observe the polarized extremes. One thing can exist only due to the existence of another thing. Socialization is a dissipative system; it is a conceptual foundation of synergy. Such a system exists only on condition of a constant exchange with the environment (material, energy, information). It is necessary to organize support for low entropy to ensure the sustainability of the system (meaning the expulsion of the excessive things
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outside). Socialization, as a stable system, remembers the conditions of formation (traditions) and selects from the points of bifurcation one of the most relevant areas for further evolution. Resource is created by people as a whole. It is this dialectic that explains the “objectification” and ”subjectification” of activities in the educational process. A person is a unique phenomenon. Openness and nonlinearity of the system ensure its sustainable positive development. Selfpreservation is a systematically important factor of socialization.
Using a synergistic approach in the educational systems of different levels creates conditions for the understanding man as a open self-organizing system, as a resource for development of society, and as a unique and inimitable individual. Man is not a static entity, but a source of disorder, spontaneity and development simultaneously. When interacting with the “open systems”, it is important to create conditions and to understand that the efficiency of the interaction is ensured not by the “external force”, but by a rational ratio of synergistic organization between the interacting systems (subjects of activity). In the open world, where the present has several options for development, and the future cannot be predicted with certainty, a person, using the terminology of existentialism, is in a borderline situation or, in other words, in a situation of choice, constantly searching for the optimal solution for the changing conditions. The diversity and complexity of the arising problems requires creative diversity in their resolution, individual activity, entrepreneurship and initiative. Particular subject-based training of the industrial epoch presented a “broken mirror of the world” which resulted in the alienation of the very essence of knowledge. This necessitated the replacement of the model of classical school, based on the principles of modern European science implemented in the educational process, the basis of which is the “creative activity of its participants”. The basic principles of this model of future education are variability, alternative character and pluralism in the conditions of continuity for learning throughout one’s life. This process will develop a new type of social relations in the context of joint creative learning in a structure possessing the properties of a functionally oriented educational environment and will also help to master the means for positively changing the world and ensuring its balanced sustainability. An ability to project an individualized educational trajectory is being implemented.
Real education is the self-construction of a student’s personality in terms of of a dialogue in which he or she begins to feel like a complete human who thinks and creates. Professional dialogue develops the ability to inquire, to doubt, to penetrate into the essence of phenomena. By means of participation and creation, a man feels at the source an act of creative birth and in this moment his or her ability for self-learning is born.
References
1. Новиков А. М. Основания педагогики. Пособие для авторов учебников и преподавателей. - М.: Издательство «Этвес», 2010.
2. Николаева Е. М. Теоретико-методологические и мировоззренческие основания синергетической концепции социализации // Инновации и образование. - 2008. - № 3.
3. Большая советская энциклопедия: в 30 т. 3-е изд. - М.: Изд-во «Советская энциклопедия», 1978.
4. Войцехович В. Э. Синергетическая концепция фракталов // Синергетическая парадигма: человек и общество в условиях нестабильности. - М., 2003.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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