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THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR DEVELOPMENT AND STUDY BY MASTER’S DEGREE STUDENTS OF PEDAGOGICAL INNOVATIONS
I. I. Tzyrkun
The article presents a new academic discipline called “Pedagogical Innovations”, which focuses on special training of master's degree students for organizing innovative-educational activities. The article reveals the structure and studying methods of this new discipline.
Key words: Master's Degree Students, pedagogical innovations, cultural and praxeological approach, stages of pedagogical innovation study.
Enrichment of the content of general pedagogical preparation of Master’s Degree Students studying “Theory and methods of training and education (of pupils and students)”, as well as development of innovative and pedagogical culture, has determined the development of a new discipline called “Pedagogical Innovations”.
Before the advent of Pedagogical Innovations, transformations of a teacher’s practical activities were carried out with a focus on individual phases of the innovation process (research - development - implementation), while innovations and the environment of their implementation were considered independently. This caused separation of pedagogical theory and practice and the whole set of difficulties related to their implementation. Statutory regulated pedagogical guidelines (receptive, tool-based, research, etc.) and the environment of innovations to be transformed are considered to be the origin of pedagogical innovations. The essential features of pedagogical innovations are: the problem-oriented context, boundary nature, combination of processes of innovation creation, and design of its place and functions in the whole system, as well as the presence of practical and artificial components. Innovation requires strong knowledge support, relating not only to innovations, but also to the state of educational reality, as well as the educational environment.
The conceptual basis for the development of the structure, content and methodology of study of pedagogical innovations includes a cultural and praxeological approach [1; 2]. In particular, the following principles have been implemented: integrity of the innovation culture, identity and innovation activities; adequate development and self-development of a person; isomorphism of the innovation cycle; cultural and praxeological generalization; the complementarity of priori- information-based and posteriori-activity-based ways of experience internalization; systematizing factors and staging; early inclusion of the Master’s Degree Students into continuous resonant innovative practices. Works of M.V. Klarin [3], V.A. Slastenin [4], A.V. Khutorskoy [5], N.R. Yusufbekova [6] et al. were used as basic knowledge, and the author’s experience of development of methodical innovations was taken into account [7].
Educational Innovations combine units of empirical data, a system of concepts, educational requirements and procedures of innovation and teaching
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activities. Models shall represent general and specific situations of improvement of education efficiency. They also include innovative challenges and strategies for their solution, value-based milestones of the innovation and teaching activities, the innovation and cultural foundation, etc.
Educational Innovations contain the following modules: (a) methodological,
(b) subject-based, (c) application and (d) practical. Content-based units of these modules are: (a) methodological (introduction, methodology of innovations, innovation and teaching activities and innovative and pedagogical culture as a system); (b) subject-based (range of innovative issues, value-based orientation of the innovation and teaching activities, sources of scientific evidence, methods of innovation and teaching activities); application (basic innovation strategy, the patterns of the innovative and pedagogical culture, and the personal aspect of the innovation and teaching activities); (d) practical (design and development of pedagogical innovations, their implementation, presentation of pedagogical innovations in the form of passports and pedagogical works).
Along with equilibrium, disequilibrium and nonlinearity are the natural state of genesis of the innovative culture among the Master’s Degree Students. The didactic structure can provide for the processes of self-organization of a Master’s Degree Student only if its control parameters have a resonant effect on the genesis of the innovation culture. The entire set of documents and didactic means of studying Pedagogical Innovations are accumulated in the resonant innovation and didactic structure (hereinafter - the “RIDS”). RIDS includes a training set (acmeology gram of a teacher-innovator, core curriculum of the course, diagnostic computer-based tools, electronic textbook, a set of prototypes - samples of innovative educational activities, general and private heuristics) and an integrated learning environment (learning laboratory of pedagogy and pedagogical innovations, a branch of the Department of Pedagogy in the gymnasium, the set of pedagogical innovations, and the expert system “Innovator”). RIDS creates opportunities for differentiated inclusion of Master’s Degree Students into innovative practices, as well as the coordination of mechanisms of organization and self-organization in the process of formation and development of innovative and pedagogical culture.
The process of learning the Pedagogical Innovations was implemented in the logic of the innovation cycle (pedagogical search - creating innovations - their implementation - a reflection of innovations) and included the following steps:
(a) diagnostic, (b) orientation, (c) forming and correctional, (d) innovative practices, (e) protection and translation of pedagogical works, (f) diagnostic and correctional. Let us cover each of them briefly.
(a) The diagnostic stage identified the initial level of readiness of the Master’s Degree Students to assimilate the content of a discipline, as well as their attitude to the innovation and teaching activities. A comparative analysis of the received results and the desired results was made (acmeology gram of a teacher-innovator). Mechanisms of self-actualized of a person were actualized, and personality profiles of each Master’s Degree Student were constructed.
(b) The orientation stage included: formation of Master’s Degree Students’ positive attitude towards the innovation and motivation of studying the pedagogical innovations; the Master’s Degree Students studied the full orientation basis of the
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innovative educational activities. Moral incentives were also used, such as praise, acting as an expert, and submission of pedagogical innovations to be exhibited. In order for students to master the full orienting basis of the innovation activities, a system of heuristics was applied: general and individual. For example, for the successful organization of the pedagogical search it is necessary firstly, to expand the area of search and use the established links in teaching activities to the fullest extent; secondly, to determine the dynamics of an innovation problem, to describe the known in its solution; thirdly, to be self-critical, specific, to list all the important details, and to be exact, etc.
(c) The formation and correctional stage proposed incremental, sequential approximation of the level of uncertainty of guidance of the heuristics to the Master’s Degree Students’ zone of proximal development. The following was implemented: clarification of the meaning of each action and its elaboration, and offering special tasks for training. This stage involved methods of counseling and correction of personal properties. During the counseling process, the Master’s Degree Students received adequate personalized and developing assistance in solving the problem of innovations. The greatest difficulties were associated with determining the internal and external contradictions of the pedagogical process, formulating the innovative problem, transforming it into a topic of innovation, and the choice of sources of the scientific evidence and its creation. The solution of these problems was organized through the use of private heuristics. The forming and correctional stage also implied the application of precedent and incident methods. In particular, a comparative analysis of a radical system of pedagogical innovations was made, including the school of tomorrow A-C-E of D, Howard and free Waldorf education.
(d) The innovative practices were organized on the basis of educational laboratory of pedagogy and pedagogical innovations and were focused on testing the main components of the innovation and teaching activities, development of innovative thinking of the Master’s Degree Students. This consists of three phases: (1) performance of tasks and regulations aimed at mastering the operational structure of the innovative educational activities, and establishment of their relations and hierarchy (2) analysis of a solution of regularly innovative problems corresponding to the laws of development of the innovation system; (3) work on passports of innovations and own pedagogical works. This stage included testing of all other positions of a teacher-innovator: problem analyzer, researcher, axiologist, designer, constructor, manager, experimenter and others. In order to develop the Master’s Degree Student’s divergent component of innovative thinking, they were offered to consider situations with a high level of uncertainty. Furthermore, creative methods were used: creation of scenarios, brainstorming, and seven-time search. Particular attention at that stage was paid to studying samples of the innovative educational activities and analysis of a solution of regularly innovative problems: “How to activate students’ learning capacity?”, “How to improve the effectiveness of teaching the subject?”, “What are the didactic possibilities of computer training?”, etc. (Work of the Master’s Degree Students to address the problems of their choice or problems that were independently formulated by them was organized on the basis of a branch of the Department of Pedagogy in the gymnasium.)
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(e) Defense of pedagogical works was carried out in a small group (5-7 people). Method of discussion was used, the ability to criticize and defend one’s position was developed, and presentations were prepared. The best pedagogical works were presented at an exhibition (department, faculty). Selected pedagogical works that passed the stages of implementation (introduction) and expert reflection were published in the form of the scientific articles of scientific and practical conferences.
(f) The diagnostic and correctional stage included: passing a computer-based qualifying exam on educational innovations, solution of an innovative problem with a high level of uncertainty of conditions and requirements, diagnosis of personal qualities of Master’s Degree Students, and evaluation of pedagogical work.
Master’s Degree Students of the Department of Pedagogy, as a rule, continued to work on the innovative problem and prepared their Master’s Degree Thesis on that basis.
Bibliography
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Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translastions Bureas
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