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THE CULTIVATION OF PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AMONG FUTURE EDUCATORS
Z. Otakhonova
A significant number of research papers have been devoted to the problem of cultivating a pedagogue's professional competence. However, scholars' interest in this problem isn’t dwindling. This fact is indicative of the special significance and relevance of solving this problem at the present stage of modernization and development of the continuous education system.
An analysis of psychological and pedagogical research literature concerning the problem under study has shown that many authors frequently regard the concepts of "professional competence" and "professionalism" as synonyms. However, their essence is defined differently. In this study, these differences become substantial, since the subject considered in it are the psychological and pedagogical conditions that promote formation of professional competence of a future teacher working at a secondary professional educational institution, not the competence of a specialist who is experienced in pedagogical work and has mastered the art of teaching to a certain extent.
It should be noted that the term “professionalism” is not interpreted in psychological and pedagogical studies in the same way. For example, E.A. Klimov understands professionalism to be "normative requirements of a profession on an individual". For him professionalism is "an aggregate, a set of personal characteristics of a person that are necessary to engage in labor successfully." [3, p. 31] Such an understanding is conventionally denoted as normative professionalism. As E.A. Kilmov operates the concept of "professionalism", he proposes taking into account the fact that its specific manifestation will be determined to a large extent by the subject-specific environment in which the teacher's activities take place. Therefore, generally the subject of pedagogical activities can be viewed as a professional in the "man-to-man" type system.
Gnostic, communicative, control and projective groups of skills can be classified as essential characteristics of the professionalism of the people working in the pedagogical profession. The requirements for the executive-motoric side of labor presume the following particularities: professionally trained speech - clear articulation, a tempo that is convenient for the listeners, clarity, emotionality, expressive movements and gestures, precision and coordination of movements. To a large extent, a pedagogue's cognitive activity is determined by complexity, vibrancy and unorthodoxy of the subjects under consideration, the impact and survey, and the fundamental fuzziness of the demarcation lines between social phenomena presuming a power of observation and the ability to model a conversation partner's inner world. In this case, a peculiar feature of selfadjustment is the necessity to improve one's knowledge and skills on a permanent basis and the ability to control one's behavior towards other people strictly. Hence, specific features of a pedagogue's professionalism are determined to a large extent by the peculiarity of his or her labor. An analysis of the work devoted to the activities of an educationist permits one to elicit the peculiarities connected with the object, the methods of realization and the labor results, and the goals and tasks of
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those activities. The object of labor is another person, an active participant of the pedagogical process who has his or her own goals, and motives, and who permanently develops and is in the process of professional evolvement. In other words, the object of an educationist's activities is variative. The properties of a pedagogue's labor are as follows: integrated nature, remoteness of the ultimate goal, and vagueness of benchmarks determined by the real body of students. Pedagogical tasks are set and decisions are made by an educator under the conditions of uncertainty. The tasks and results are set apart in time. The choice of labor methods is determined by a point according to which a person's inner world can be affected by the inner world of another person, and a pedagogue and the labor methods are synthetic. An educator's labor results are determined by qualitative positive changes in the psychological development of an educator which are difficult to measure.
It becomes clear that, according to N.V. Kuzmina, the professionalism of pedagogical activities is "the addition of elements of scientific research for the purposes of control and self-control of the extent of its productivity." Productivity is characterized as a "system and sequence of pedagogically feasible actions connected to solving pedagogical problems and ensuring the achievement of the desired final result in respect of all students or their overwhelming majority." [4, p. 9] As V.A. Slastenin states, the quality characteristic of a pedagogue as the subject of pedagogical activities, i.e. his or her professionalism, is a high level of professional competence and personal preparedness for an effective solution of pedagogical tasks. [see: 5].
Russian pedagogics and psychology comprise various approaches to the definition of the substance, content, structure, conditionality and possibility of cultivating professional competence. The following types of a pedagogue's professional competence are distinguished in the works devoted to its study:
- special competence - the mastery of one's professional activities as such at a sufficiently high level, the ability to project one's further professional development;
- social competence - mastery in group and cooperative professional activities, cooperation, as well as professional communication techniques adopted in the profession in question, and social responsibility for the results of one's professional labor;
- self-competence - an adequate idea of one's social and professional characteristics and mastery of the techniques of overcoming professional problems;
- emergency professional competence - the ability to act under suddenly aggravated conditions, in case of emergencies, breakdowns in technological processes, etc.
In spite of such a variety of the elicited professional competence types, none of the authors formulate the basics of the generalizing criterion according to which they could be classified. E.g., the social competence and emergency criteria have different grounds for classification, and therefore, they differ in structure, essence and cultivation conditions. It is evident that this problem will yet find its solution in the works of modern pedagogues and psychologists. We would only like to note that the above competency types mean maturity of a human being in professional
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activities and communications, and the evolvement of a professional person and individuality. Thus, professional competence is the professional preparedness of a specialist or collective body and their ability to implement tasks and duties of their everyday activities.
References
1. Каримов И. А. Юксак маънавият - енгилмас куч. - Тошкент, 2008.
2. Юксак маънавият - енгилмас куч» китобини урганиш буйича укув кулланма. - Тошкент, 2010.
3. Климов Е. А. Психология профессионала. - М. - Воронеж, 1996.
4. Кузьмина Н. В., Реан А. А. Профессионализм педагогической деятельности. - СПб., 1993.
5. Сластенин В. А. Профессионализм педагога: акмеологический контекст //
Педагогическое образование и наука. - 2002. - № 4-9.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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