CC BY
17
LEARNER AND EDUCATOR AS SUBJECT AND OBJECT OF CONTINUOUS EDUCATION
THE RUSSIAN TEACHER AS AN OBJECT OF DISSERTATION STUDIES IN 2001-20101
A. S. Mishchenko V. I. Klyushkin
The present report sets the goal of analyzing Russian dissertation research on pedagogics for the last decade and asks the question if doctoral and postgraduate students are paying attention to the teacher as the most important subject of modernization of the modern educational process, as well as answering the question: “How continuous and intense is this interest in space and time?”
The analysis of pedagogical theses was divided into two successive and interrelated stages. In the first stage of analysis of the available online resources, we set the task of getting the results that gave us the opportunity to highlight the fundamental features of the structural, and temporal and spatial characteristics of the dissertation research on pedagogy in the last ten years in general (but statistically significant) details. We tried to explore the most common quantitative characteristics of dissertation research on pedagogical topics: (a) the structure and dynamics in the area, (b) for some specialties we tried to define a measure of uniformity of their training in the Russian regions. At the second stage, based on the systematization of the most important aspects of the content available, we tried to reveal a number of insufficiently studied issues and to identify promising areas of research of this kind.
The first stage of statistical analysis of Internet resources made it possible for us to identify the following significant items, which are briefly discussed below.
1. According to the electronic catalog of the Russian National Library, over the past decade out of all of the above specialties there were 19,500 doctoral and master's theses, but the ones devoted to teachers and lecturers themselves are few in number. For example, for 13.00.03 specialty there are only 17 theses (5.9%), and for 13.00.04 specialty there are 40 theses (2.5%). In some specialties the number is within the statistical error (for example, out of 2348 dissertations on
1 The work present the analysis results of dissertations on pedagogical topics posted on the following websites: http://vak.ed.gov.ru; http://lib.herzen.spb.ru, http://www.disser.ru; http://www.dissercat.com http://www.humanities.edu.ru , http://www.dslib.net/ . In the course of research we have studies dissertations on the following subjects: 13.00.01 - general pedagogics, history of educational pedagogics; 13.00.02 - theory and methodology of education and upbringing (as per areas and levels of education); 13.00.03 - correctional pedagogics (surdopedagogics and tiflopedagogics, oligophrenopedagogics and logopedics); 13.00.04 - theory and methodology of physical training, sports activities, health and adaptation physical training; 13.00.05 - theory, methodology and organization of social and cultural activities; 13.00.07 - theory and methodology of pre-school education; 13.00.08 -theory and methodology of professional (vocational) education.
179
specialties 13.00.03 - 13.00.07 only 80 papers are devoted to the education of teachers, representing 3.4% of all dissertations we have analyzed this group);
2. Statistical analysis of the entire array of theses helped us to establish the following: all the thesis (based on their weight and substantial crossing of subjects) can be divided into two groups (see table). Group one covers the specialties that are associated with general.
Table
Dynamics on dissertations on pedagogical issues (Russia, 2001-2010)
Year Group one (specialties 13.00.01, 13.00.02, 13.00.08) Group two (specialties 13.00.03 -13.00.07) Total
А Number of dissertations % Number of dissertations % Number of dissertations %
2001-2002 3709 87,0 554 13,0 4263 100
2003-2004 4616 88,0 627 12,0 5243 100
2005-2006 3746 94.0 237 6,0 3983 100
2007-2008 3402 85,5 576 14,5 3978 100
2009-2010 1773 83,3 354 16,7 2127 100
Total group: 17246 88,0 2348 12,0 19594 100
Issues of pedagogy, its history, theory and techniques of general and vocational education, and upbringing issues of students by teachers (13.00.01,
13.00. 02, 13.00.08). Group two includes the specialties that reveal remedial and sports pedagogy issues, theory, methodology and organization of social and cultural activities of teachers and students, as well as problems of preschool education, which is all that we can embrace in the concept of overall development, correction and early socialization (specialties 13.00.03, 13.00.04, 13.00.05,
13.00. 07). The theses of the first group, as shown by our analysis, have the overwhelming share of the entire number of dissertations - 88.0%. Of course the second group of papers (2001 - 2010), on average comprises only 12.0% of all dissertations. In some periods their ratio reaches its maximum (2006). The number of theses of the first group accounted for 95.3%, and the thesis of the second group - only 4.7% of the entire array of theses submitted in 2006. The statistical analysis of the preparation of dissertations in these two groups showed that it has a different speed in the beginning and end of the researched time period (2001 -2010). For example, the first 50% out of all the presentations in the two groups was achieved in four years - by the end of 2004. The remaining 50% of all the presentations took place during the remaining six years. In this case, at the beginning of this century, the number of prepared theses relating to the first group increased steadily: from 86.5% (2001) to 95.3% (2006), and the proportion of theses of the second group, by contrast, declined steadily from 13.5% (2001) to 4.7% out of all the works in 2006. It is worth considering both processes not only based on the table, but also based on the figure (see Fig.).
3. Analysis of the overall dynamics of presentations of doctoral and master’s theses for the whole researched period of 2001-2010 has shown that it is
180
fluctuating and unstable for all specialties (see Fig.). This, in our opinion, can be the result of unstable nature of the dissertation councils, as well as, apparently, a reduction perhaps due to a certain exhaustion of interest and motivation of applicants in scientific degrees. In particular, it is obvious, that activity in the preparation of candidates for a degree in work on a specialty “general pedagogy, history of pedagogy and education” (13.00.01) has decreased. In 2001-2002 there were 1942 dissertations and by the end of the past decade their number decreased to 627 theses (according to the information of the electronic catalog of theses of the Russian National Library). These data suggest inhomogeneous temporal dynamics of presentations if we consider them through the prism of the disciplines they combine (particularly evident is the influence of 13.00.01 t on the dynamics of the first group of theses). Modifications on the presentation of dissertations on specialty 13.00.02 on the theory and methodology of training and education (by regions and educational levels) played the same role for this group (but in a more relaxed version of 2003-2004.). In other words, the statistical analysis of dissertation research in all the researched specialties showed that there are significant variations. That is why for greater reliability of this conclusion, we have calculated a Lorenz index for each specialty. This index allows us to record changes in value of non-uniformity of a social process in time (Ri). As the analysis of our data on the preparation of dissertations showed, for all specialties there were recorded significant fluctuations. The largest variations were for specialty
13.00.05 - theory, methodology and organization of socio-cultural activity: the Lorenz index (Ri) made 32.8%. The maximum uniformity in the preparation of dissertations in time was achieved for specialty 13.00.07 - theory and methods of preschool education: the Lorenz index (Ri) made 1.7%.
4. In the course of the research, we further examined the issues that were related to the territorial heterogeneity of the dissertation presentation on pedagogical specialties. Here we also discovered some disparities. For example, the analysis of the amount of dissertation research related to the second group for the period 2001-2010 by region showed that in this period there are two regions within this group of educational specialties which are most proactively preparing academic professionals. They are the Moscow region and the Ural-Siberian region. In this case we are dealing with an uneven distribution of the national scientific educational potential. In particular, we found out that 43.8% of all the presentations in the field (13.00.03 - 13.00.07) are held in the Moscow region. This suggests that some regions lack qualified scientific personnel, which can provide a qualitative study of a large number of post-graduate students. Therefore, many of them have to travel across the country to Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, in the modern conditions, when it is very expensive to arrange the relocation of scientific personnel, this leads to a decrease in the efficiency of interaction between the capital and regional communities, particularly if they are located far to the east of our country.
At the second stage of the research we found out that the dissertations widely discuss the issues of methodology and theory, suggesting new theoretical and applied concepts, methodologies and tools to improve the training of future teachers. In the past decade there have been many studies on teaching, which indicates their relevance to professional pedagogy. There are a number of dissertations that focus on management aspects of pedagogical education. They reveal the following important issues of pedagogical education: the development
181
of information culture, the problems of successful adaptation to their professional activities, and the development skills for creative, innovative activity. It should also be noted that a large number of dissertations are devoted to scientific concepts, revealing new teaching principles and training models of future teachers, as well as didactic, methodological and technological components of training, organizational conditions of teachers and an adaptive model of the social environment of teachers to their professional activities. To address these issues in cognitive dissertation research, the modern ideas of modernization of vocational education and its integration and informatization, personal, developmental, systemic, synergistic, and paradigmatic approaches, the competence and continuity principles are widely used.
However, as we summed up the results of the scientific analysis of dissertations in this area, there are areas of minor and major attention to the nature of pedagogical education on the part of the researchers. For example, the area of minor attention includes issues related to the quality of pedagogical education, professional interactions of teachers and teacher training in colleges and universities. These works have a lack of monitoring surveys of teachers and professional educators, and do not study the issues of adaptation of bachelors and masters for professional careers in today’s educational institutions as well as the issues the scientific rationale and practical solutions to economic issues and the use of health-technologies in today’s activities of educators and teachers.
In particular, there are the following areas of knowledge of modern pedagogical processes to which researchers have paid less attention, namely the issues of: (a) reforming the current system of education in the context of development of modern social and economic relations, (b) the development of positive motivation of students to designing their own lifelong pedagogical education, (c) development of educational services as part of the intellectual product of society, which has its own specific features, and (d) developing a system of lifelong ecological education of teachers, and through them the entire population of the region, (e) the construction of flexible differentiated methodological approaches to different academic disciplines, (e) the interaction between educational community, the region and educational (cultural) environment of educational institutions, (f) providing of efficient interrelation of distance, correspondence and full-time education, (h) the transition from training to professional lifelong learning, the improvement of the inner world of the modern teachers, (and) a review of current relevant differences between various methodologies for organization of lifelong professional education of teachers.
The master’s theses refer to similar issues and cognitive areas: (a) pedagogical conditions of development and leadership potential of students (future teachers) are inadequately identified, (b) methodological provision for the development of self-control with the future teachers has not been thoroughly developed, and (c) the health improving technology in the course of training future teachers have not been approved, and (d) there is no system of criteria and indicators for the development of a professional culture of pedagogues, (e) there are few attempts to develop the systems of cognitive activity and stimulate the creative activities of students of the pedagogical universities, (e) the peculiarities of integrative processes in professional pedagogical education have not been adequately researched, (g) the gender approach as an important condition for students’ adaptation to the modern educational environment has not been fully developed, (h) little attention is paid to the analytical activities of the educational
182
establishment; it is not considered to be an effective means of quality management for the training of future teachers and educators.
The analysis shows that the above-mentioned problems associated with the most important research directions for the development of training and retraining of teachers in the modern school in the broadest sense of the word together with the improvement of their professional and personal growth, as defined by the Russian Academy of Education, are namely: with monitoring of scientific schools, areas and teams, providing innovative professional development training for the modern national school, with the development of methodology for the design requirements for content and level of additional vocational training based on social partnership between the state and scientific associations, educational institutions and participants in vocational training; with the issues of developing socially and professionally competent teachers of various categories of the modern school, with the creation of networking, providing methodological support for the staff in early childhood, primary and supplementary educational institutions for children, with the improvement of the system of professional competence of executives of additional education for children, etc. Solving the tasks set requires organization of the appropriate scientific support, and, arrangement of not only applied but also fundamental research, creating a scientific basis in pedagogical sciences in the long term perspective.
Based on these priority areas of fundamental and applied research in the field of education as defined by the Russian Academy of Education, we believe that further continuous development of dissertation research on education can be achieved through the establishment of the theoretical and methodological modernization framework of the educational system on such principles as openness of education to external demands, innovations, and the use of interdisciplinary methodology that promotes any research project to the level of the system of recommended and adopted decisions. To do this, more attention should be paid to the issues of scientific rationale: methodological, substantive and categorical areas of contemporary pedagogical education; leading theoretical ideas, laws and principles of professional pedagogical education; development of innovative intensive systems of the modern methods and forms of social and personal self-realization of a teacher; concepts of psychological support for a teacher in an educational institution as a condition of further professional development; the essence of modern professional pedagogical culture in relation to the development of theoretical bases for the controlling and determining of methods of development of their professional competence, with the substantiation of creative-oriented models of educational environments for future teachers and educators. In our opinion, it should be implicitly linked to dissertation research together with the creation by post- graduate students of modern research and development methodology of innovative forecasting principles in the educational process, connected with the main directions of foreign educational policy in Russia, and with the modernization of the management issues of pedagogical education in an integrated educational environment of the modern world. This correlates with the spirit of modern Russian schools’ improvement in the broadest sense, including the development of continuing education of Russian educators.
183
