CC BY
20
LIFELONG EDUCATION
AS A WAY AND TOOL
OF PERSONAL CREATIVE GROWTH
T. Y. Lunyova
In the last decade, the education system was reformed both in the Republic of Kazakhstan and all over the world. In Kazakhstan, the reforms were aimed at integration into the world educational space and meeting international educational standards. Modern society has considerably raised the requirements of a teacher. The teacher of today is a spiritually developed and creative person, capable of reflection and having professional skills, a pedagogical gift and a commitment to innovation. Ideally, the teacher should clearly understand the self-value of education, be a person in culture, a master not only his subject, but also of pedagogic and psychology, should apply student-oriented pedagogical methods, and have the motivation to further growth and personal development.
Social history shows that public welfare depends not only on the economy, or technology, or even general culture, but word culture. In reality, the training of miscellaneous specialists of high culture, including that of words, is the core problem of today's education. A precondition of the successful adaptation of a person to such a society is lifelong education. An ability to study by him/herself, strive for innovations, work with information, analyse it and exercise judgement in its interpretation is becoming a condition of personal socialisation. The only reliable way of personal existence in the world is labour. Labour is painstaking, hard, and time-consuming. It is especially inherent in pedagogical labour, where success is not as obvious as in other spheres, and the result is not immediate.
Working for the Karaganda Humanitarian College as a teacher of English, I am sure that our labour is among the occupations of crucial importance for the world. It would be naive to think that the only thing a teacher of English should do is to teach his students to speak the language. The English language enriched Russian with the word 'creativity'. Creativity is an ability to create or develop something new and introduce it to the world. The events around us can be seen as the paints of the artist's palette, our will is like a brush, and our life resembles a canvas. It is only up to us to paint the world in bright colours. At English lessons and in daily communication with my students as the class teacher and simply a senior companion, I do my best to develop this quality by teaching them to see things in a new way and look for unusual ways to apply simple things. Not only should the professional teacher master his subject, but also see each participant's role in the pedagogical process, be able to organise his/her learners' activity, predict its results, and correct possible mistakes - i. e. be a competent person. I know and love my trade. I find it interesting to prepare for classes, look for new methods, and implement new technologies. Time and experience improve my skills. Computers and ICT opened up a new era in teaching English, and I have had the pleasure of mastering and implementing them in lessons.
210
Many educational institutions in our country are now implementing the concept of lifelong pedagogical education. Our college is among them. Lifelong improvement of teachers' professional competence includes participation in the methodological work of the college. The methodological work of an educational institution can be seen as an in-house professional skill improvement, a condition of creative activity and a school of teacher's skills. Teachers can development their professional competence through (a) training through professional skills improvement courses, including by distance learning. (b) active participation in staff meetings, workshops and conferences. (c) participation in various competitions and research activities with subsequent publications. (d) generalisation and dissemination of experience. (e) evaluation. (f) performance reports. (g) application of up-to-date teaching methods, forms, types, means and technologies.
I would like to focus on the improvement of pedagogical competence as the guideline for methodological work in our college. The methodological work of the college aims to create the conditions for lifelong improvement of the professional competence of the faculty. The teachers' methodological work results in Open Days, demo lessons, competitions between the classrooms in terms of improvement of their equipment over the academic year, and the demonstration of innovations and the goals set for the next period. The demo lessons and the new methodological equipment demonstrated show the advantages of this or that type of lesson, establish inter-subject links, and introduce new methods.
The Karaganda Humanitarian College improves its faculty's professional skills through (a) holding integrated lessons; (b) course training; (c) participation in problem-focused workshops, conferences and competitions. Every teacher works on their own methodological subject. Being involved in self-education and attending colleagues' lessons, teachers creatively comprehend their professional experience and share their pedagogical findings with colleagues. Our college has a good tradition of organising subject-oriented weeks and Days of Education, when our teachers give demonstration lessons to their colleagues and hold general creative events. In November 2013, our college held a week of the Central Methodological Commission of Russian and Foreign Languages, when teachers held integrated demonstration lessons. Every teacher has some experience of holding integrated lessons. Although they take a long time to prepare, the effectiveness of such lessons is very high. The interconnection of two subjects should look harmonious and be understandable for the students. Integrated lessons are often accompanied with discoveries and findings. In a certain way, it is a research activity. Such lessons are the best way to disclose the teacher's creative potential. Not only is it a new stage in the teacher's professional activity, but also a remarkable opportunity for him/her to attain a new level of relations with his/her class. Integrated lessons are aimed at the development of the student's image thinking.
In addition, professional competence is improved through the application of up-to-date teaching methods, forms, types, means and technologies. Today, those innovative methods mostly involve the application of self-education ICT. The
211
Karaganda Humanitarian College provides all the necessary conditions, such as multimedia and the internet. The use of video and computers in English lessons increases learners' motivation, exhilarates students, and provides good control. My preferences are for the video training course by Dmitriy Petrov, entitled “English in 16 hours”, which I use on a regular basis. The students enjoy watching video lessons, where famous people show their skills in the English language and study new vocabulary and grammar. Having watched the video, my students and I process the information in more detail.
A teacher should first of all understand that lifelong education is an opportunity to keep up to date by mastering advanced teaching techniques. Every teacher is engaged in lifelong education throughout his/her pedagogical activity. In my opinion, a teacher is a person who is skilful in his job, and loves his occupation, the subject he/she teaches, and certainly children. A teacher takes the events taking place in his/her profession close to heart, always pursues creativity, develops him/herself, sets new goals, and attains them, which cannot but improve the educational process. Then, his striving for improvement initiates a new search, new plans and new ideas that keep the teacher sharp. After all, it is only a keen person turning on the heat that can carry children along. Our life consists of small and big deeds. We begin something new, and every time we are happy when our ideas work!
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
212
