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QUALIMETRIC APPROACH AS A TOOL TO EVALUATE QUALITY OF WOULD-BE VOCATIONAL TRAINING TEACHERS' EDUCATION
A. R. Khodzhabayev D. D. Inamov
In connection with reforming the higher vocational training system, scientists are actively studying the issues connected with education’s quality, developing management technologies and mechanisms, introducing various systems of monitoring and evaluation of knowledge, abilities, and skills in educational processes.
Evaluating the quality of would-be vocational training of teachers' education, we should pay attention to two components of this process: educational and professional. The backbone element of any university is the educational component. Its professional orientation is reflected in the contents of the educational programme as a number of special subjects. The central tendency in the provision of a high educational level is the orientation towards students' demands, and the creation of optimum conditions for their training and development. Education quality is a complex indicator, synthesising the stages of personal development, conditions and results of teaching/upbringing process, the criteria of efficiency of the educational institution, compliance of attained results to standard requirements, social and personal expectations.
Our analysis of scientific and pedagogical literature has shown that the objective evaluation of the quality and efficiency of education is only possible on the basis of a qualimetric approach to the design of pedagogical measuring instruments, their approbation and subsequent application in students' education quality management. In connection with this, the problems connected with education quality evaluation have become a subject of intensive research carried out in a new field of knowledge such as qualimetry, which studies the laws of acquisition and processing of information on the quality of an object at all stages of its lifecycle.
Originally, qualimetry was defined as the science of measurement and evaluation of production quality. That was quite natural because the problem of the quality of commercial products is essential. The second half of the 20th century saw the emergence of new basic research terms, not only in technical, but also natural sciences and even humanities [1]. The term of qualimetry was first introduced in domestic science in 1968 by a group of research workers led by G. G. Azgaldov [2], who identified methodological commonness between the methods of quantitative evaluation of the quality of absolutely different objects. The qualimetric approach in the educational space assumes the application of a systemic approach to the evaluation of quality and effectiveness of students' education. The practical solution of the quality/quantity ratio problem in education assumes training of pedagogical workers in a productive and effective application of the relevant contemporary approaches, methods and resources in daily educational activity.
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The qualimetric approach in pedagogics is understood as the methodology of pedagogical research based on the examination and measurement of the quality of pedagogical objects or processes involved (didactic materials, teaching quality, training technologies, pedagogical systems, training statuses etc.). The basic methods of qualimetric research include a group expert evaluation method. The features of the method as applied in pedagogics were studied in
V. S. Cherepanov's works [3]. The prospects of application of pedagogical qualimetry as a structural element of education quality management are based on the scientifically grounded methodology of quantitative evaluation of quality, and are connected with its multisubject, multisectoral and transnational nature. Its application guidelines are the provision of competitiveness in the internal and external education markets; research of the status and the trends of development of the teaching/upbringing process. The qualimetric approach assumes the analysis and development of complex evaluations of quality of the educational process on the basis of qualimetry. In particular, pedagogical qualimetry widely applies expert methods, which enable us to provide effective training of would-be specialists.
Those considerations have stipulated a necessity to create guidance papers containing a scientifically grounded system of indicators and a mathematical apparatus for processing the systemic analysis results and evaluations based on informative criteria and indicators determined with the application of the apparatus and achievements of qualimetry. G. G. Azgaldov believes that although qualimetry is now largely used to evaluate product quality, the sphere of its application is much wider: any thing or process, which can be evaluated in terms of quality, can become an object of qualimetry [1]. That statement is applicable to higher education as well.
Now universities face the necessity of improving the vocational training of specialists. With that end in view, it is necessary to build a system of fundamental and professional knowledge that would-be specialists could apply in practical activities and ingrain such traits of character as activity, independence, and morale in the educational process. The major components of the educational process include not only its contents, organisational factors and resources, but also control and evaluation of the training results that the students have achieved. The problem of objective evaluation of students' educational achievements is the most important and yet least solved in the vocational training system. In this process, an especially important part is played by graduation theses that would-be specialists work on at the final stage of university training. They are aimed at the development of systemic thinking, creative work experience, abilities and skills of self-education and practical activities. The graduation thesis (GT) is an indicator of the graduate's professional readiness. University GT’s are complex pedagogical objects. Their complete and systemic evaluation involves a number of indicators of their quality. Accumulating knowledge, abilities, skills and professionally significant personal features of the would-be specialist, a GT and its defence are a source of extremely valuable information on the condition of the teaching/upbringing process, both at the graduate chair and the faculty in general.
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At present GT’s are evaluated through various approaches and criteria. In most cases, these criteria are determined on an arbitrary basis, have a verbal nature, and resist mathematical processing. In the current university practice, GT’s are evaluated by Higher Attestation Commissions, which are made up of the best qualified teachers and specialists. Nevertheless, their evaluation of graduation theses is not objective or justifiable enough because it is often based on the commission members' general impression rather than an evaluation model or a relevant scientifically grounded technology.
Hence, the qualimetric approach is quite acceptable for fully-fledged determination of both qualitative and quantitative indicators of competence and quality of the would-be specialist's graduation theses.
References
1. Азгальдов Г. Г. Возможности применения количественных оценок качества для повышения эффективности высшего образования // Квалиметрия человека и образования: методология и практика. Ч. 4 / под ред. А.И. Субетто, Н.А. Селезневой. - М.: Исслед. центр проблем качества подготовки специалистов, 1994. - С. 18-23.
2. Азгальдов Г. Г. Разработка теоретических основ квалиметрии: автореф. дис. ... д-ра эконом. наук. - М., 1981.
3. Мифтохутдинова Ф. Р. Квалитовное образование - требования времени // Материалы IX Всерос. конф. по доп. образованию. - Казань, 2008. - С. 226-227.
4. Субетто А. И. Квалиметрия образования. Т. 1. Введение в квалитологию образования. -М.: Исслед. центр по проблемам упр. качеством подготовки специалистов, 1991. - 335 с.
5. Черепанов B.C. Теоретические основы педагогической экспертизы: дис. ... д-ра пед. наук: 13.00.01. - Глазов: Глазов. гос. пед. ин-т, 1990. - 351 с.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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