ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 39 (# 23) Year 2018. Page 20

Pedagogical Conditions for the Formation and Development of the students’ (educational psychologists) subjective position in the process of vocational education at the university

Condiciones pedagógicas para la formación y el desarrollo de la posición subjetiva de los estudiantes (psicólogos educativos) en el proceso de su formación profesional en la universidad

Dmitriy Alekseyevich DANILOV 1; Alla Georgiyevna KORNILOVA 2; Iurii Viacheslavovich KORNILOV 3; Stepanida Nikolaevna DMITRIEVA 4; Mikhail Aiuolovich IVANOV 5

Received: 01/02/2018 • Approved: 02/03/2018

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

4. Conclusions

Bibliographic references

1. Introduction

Analysis of the literature presented in the article testifies to the lack of elaboration of the conditions and approaches to determining and forming the students’ subjective position in the process of vocational education at the university. In this connection, the study of the formation of the subjective position among students - future educational psychologists - requires detailed study.

The subjective position of students (future educational psychologists) as a quality which is formed in the process of vocational education at the university requires detailed study in view of the insufficiently resolved problem of the students’ independent and creative approach to the process of vocational education. In this process, the student must act as an active personality, creating themselves with their subjective position. As the analysis of the vocational education process shows, many students do not show active or creative independence in it for mastering knowledge, they devote very little tome to self-education. In the conditions of a dynamically changing world, there increases a need for educated, enterprising, proactive personalities who can think and act independently with an expressed subjective position - a person’s natural mechanism of their own participation in their formation. The formation of a person’s subjective position is the person's enrichment with the abilities and skills of refining themselves, leading to self-adjustment to life goals. A person’s subjective position is one of human values, a person’s basic need, their essential ability, one of their functions and their duty to society and themselves.

The purpose of the study

identification of the main ideas, provisions on a person’s “subjective position” and the pedagogical conditions of making a student the subject of the pedagogical process.

Analysis of the literature presented in the article testifies to the lack of elaboration of the conditions and approaches to determining and forming the students’ subjective position in the process of vocational education at the university.

Objectives of the study

1. To identify the main ideas about a person's subjective position in the process of vocational education;

2. To determine the levels of students’ subjective position formation in the process of vocational education;

3. To designate the necessary pedagogical conditions for achieving the result on the formation and development of the subjective position of students in the process of vocational education at the university.

The main hypothesis of the study is the assumption that the professional pedagogical activity of a university graduate will be optimal, if the pedagogical conditions of forming the necessary level of subjective position in the process of vocational education at the university are maintained.

1.1. Literature review

When considering the basic ideas about the “subjective position”, one should consider its relationship with the notion of “responsibility” as a special relationship between people's actions, intentions, and also the assessment of these actions by other people or society. This close relationship is predetermined by the need to realize the importance of responsibility as a fundamental concept in the professional and pedagogical activity of a future educational psychologist. In turn, responsibility is based, among other things, on the notion of self-discipline, manifested in the ability and habit to control yourself and following certain principles. In this vein, independent goal setting and independent organization of professional and pedagogical activity aimed at achieving them, defined as an individual’s initiative, is seen as a key element of the student’s subjective position in the process of vocational education at the university.

In some countries, a system of initiatives in the field of professional development (The Professional Development Initiative, PDI) is used to assess the initiative of teachers. Merchie’s article is devoted to the study of this evaluation (Merchie et al., 2016), which, among other things, describes the disagreements revealed in this system and presents an expanded structure for assessing the effectiveness of initiatives in the field of professional development. In addition, according to this scheme, an overview of currently used measuring instruments is provided.

Current trends in education require teachers to demonstrate preventive behavior and bear responsibility for changes in school practice. The article by Džinovic and co-authors (2013) is devoted to the study of how teachers perceive their own initiative and ideas about the activities in which such initiative is demonstrated. The results of the study showed that the teachers mainly demonstrate initiative through joint activities, including the planning of joint education, as well as joint projects in the school. It is revealed that the teachers are least ready to demonstrate personal initiative, as well as the initiative aimed at achieving making significant changes in the school work. However, the study does not directly determine the relationship with the degree to which their subjective position is formed.

Lindemann and Saar (2014) identify characteristics along with economic factors that change the influence of personality characteristics on a subjective position. Presumably, this can be caused by the conditions for the development of the students’ subjective position in the process of vocational education at the university. The result of the analysis also showed that assessment of the social status is affected by the degree of inequality in the sphere of education level and income in society.

In the study done by Miething (2013) it was revealed that people with a weak subjective position, in combination with a lower professional position, have more health problems. The influence of the social position on health was also studied by other authors (Garbarski, 2010, Goldman et al., 2006, Macleod et al., 2005), also on the basis of MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status.

As emphasized in the article by Ejrnæs and Greve (2017), the forces determining the personal development of the learner are inside the person, and are conditioned by internal factors and set in motion when the pedagogical conditions are created for their development. To substantiate these conditions, which ensure that students achieve the necessary level of self-education, independence and self-organization, it is viable to determine the content of the person’s subjective position and the conceptual basis for its formation.

In the literature studied by the authors, the essence of a person’s subjective position is viewed as a total of social relations (a person’s activity in a team, their relationship with team members, society, etc.), acting as part of the personality that is a person’s social quality. Thus, L.S. Vygotsky (2003) emphasizes that a person’s main function is the creative mastery of the social experience through the inclusion of the person in the system of social relations. According to A.N. Leontiev (1975), a personality, as a special quality, is formed by the individual through their involvement in social relations. Hence it follows that all aspects of the personality are revealed only in activities and relationships with other people in the social environment. As can be seen, the source of the formation of a person’s subjective position along with their internal opportunities is the environment in which the personality is formed.

In some studies (Yarullina and Araslanova, 2016, Shakurova, 2015) the ideas can be found related to the requirement from each person of self-discipline, self-improvement, activating the responsibility for social development of society, which determines the importance in terms of updating the basic beliefs of all teaching practice in the context of globalization in the education system and its reorientation towards certain values.

Experimental work on the formation of the students’ (educational psychologists) subjective position was conducted in the period from 2011 to 2016 at the Pedagogical Institute of the M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University.

The experiment covered 5 academic groups of students (1-4th years of studies), doing the course of “Pedagogical Education” (direction “Pedagogy and Psychology”). There were 115 students in total; the average age was 19-23 years old. The gender distribution of the groups was as follows: females - 71%, males - 29%. The national composition of the groups in this context does not matter.

In the course of experimental work the authors of the article took into account the results of the ascertaining experiment, the task of which was to trace the students’ understanding of the concepts of “subject position”, “self-organization”, the ability to make the students the subjects of pedagogical activity. For this, the following methods were used: direct and indirect observation, conversations, interviews, questionnaires, analysis of assessment and students' self-assessment. The ascertaining experiment showed that students are not sufficiently informed about the subjective personal position, about issues of self-management and self-organization. However, the absence of a generally accepted ranking for the degree of manifestation of the subjective position did not make it possible to fully characterize these manifestations in the students under study.

In the future, the work on identifying the subjective position of the students under study was conducted by highly qualified teachers (candidates and doctors of sciences (Education)) of the department of Professional Pedagogy, Psychology and Education Management. The development of the subjective position of students (educational psychologists) was formed during the study of a number of professional disciplines. In the process of studying professional disciplines, a student is motivated to form the knowledge necessary for implementation during the course of teaching practice. Also, a student is motivated by being orientated towards achieving high results in terms of the score-rating system, increased students’ allowances for success in academic and scientific activities. Particularly effective development of the students’ subjective position was traced during their teaching practice in comprehensive educational organizations.

Based on the results of the experiment, the pedagogical conditions for the formation and development of the subjective position of students in the process of vocational education at the university are defined as a set of interrelated measures in the pedagogical process of preparing future teachers aimed at the managed improvement and development of the student as an object into the position of the teacher – the subject of the pedagogical process. The first pedagogical condition: the formation of the student’s subjective position is a key aspect of the functioning of the educational system with an inseparable connection with the environment. The educational system functions and develops as an open mechanism of interaction with the environment, with industrial, scientific, cultural institutions and public groups. In this regard, M. Heidegger points out that the effectiveness of genuine education is co-creation, co-understanding, co-comprehension, which takes a person from the space of concrete objects into another space in which the world is enlightened. And the student’s personality is open to the space of life meanings and activities, and is involved in their creation (Heidegger, 1993)

Taking into account the fact that education covers all aspects of life in unity, in a system, in the search for ways of improving it, domestic and foreign specialists suggest dealing with the systematic approach (systematics studies natural and artificial systems in unity). This, in particular, presupposes that students acquire knowledge not only from the living word of the teacher and books, but also from personal, diverse and practical life. Apparently, the systematic approach makes it possible to improve all aspects of education functioning in a unified system with factors and conditions of the surrounding life.

In the new paradigmatic conditions for the development of society, education is called upon to ensure the integration of various ways of mastering the world, increasing the creative potential of a person for free and meaningful actions, a holistic open perception and awareness of the world. Thus, the openness of the educational space is a necessary condition for the formation of students’ subjective position.

The second pedagogical condition: the subjects of the educational process have freedom of choice, which provides them with the opportunity of self-determination in their development. The theoretical basis of this condition is the multi-level and multi-profile nature of the self-organizing educational system. Further development of education is associated with giving the teaching and educational process a creative character, which requires integration of various ways of learning about the world, increasing a person’s creative potential for free and meaningful actions, a holistic open perception and awareness of the world.

Hence a new direction in the strategy of renewal and development of education is a person’s freedom. Freedom is the absence of authoritarianism in the pedagogical process, the system of repression; encouraging personal initiative; the opportunity for students to choose subjects and courses; recognition of the student's high inherent value. A person’s freedom is associated with their creative self-actualization, and the person, “creating themselves and their life”, freely chooses ways and methods of achieving their goals.

Thus, each participant’s freedom of choosing their own development path in the educational process is an important condition for the students to form a subjective position in the solution of the tasks and self-organization to achieve their goals.

The third pedagogical condition: the creation of opportunities for students in the educational process to implement the initiatives put forward. It is about creating the conditions for the manifestation and stimulation of a person’s natural activity. Activity is a person's ability to spontaneously make changes and act without apparent external influence.

In this context E. Fromm (1998) notes that persons productively develop all their abilities when they are active in their actions, and they become passive when they are deprived of the opportunity to actively participate in the affairs of society, in the enterprises where they works. This approach of administrative-team education attracted Sh.A. Amonashvili (1995) who noted that the unidirectional system of interaction between the administration and the teacher, the teacher and the student (orders, plans, proposals, algorithms) deprive the subjects of the pedagogical process of their individual initiative.

The creation of conditions for the manifestation of the learner’s initiative, creativity serves as a mechanism for the formation of their subjective position. One of these conditions is the students’ independence. Outstanding teachers of the past paid much attention to preparing their students for self-education of pupils and university students. Thus, according to P.P. Blonsky (1979), “we do not want to teach the students everything, but we want to teach them self-education, to independently study everything they need throughout their future lives, when they have neither lecturers nor teachers”. Independent work is a means of involving students in creative professional activities.

The fourth pedagogical condition: the interaction between the subjects of the educational process at various levels. Thus, the program requires a dialogue of students with each other, as well as a dialogue between teachers and students. All types and forms of educational activity in the educational institution are built on the cooperation of the pedagogical process subjects. Cooperation is a joint activity, reinforced by mutual understanding, penetration into the spiritual world of each other, a joint analysis of the progress and results of this activity. Cooperation in the “teacher-student” relations is realized in different forms, like the community, participation, empathy, co-creation, co-management, and it is established through communication, i.e. dialogue.

An essential characteristic of a dialogical contact is openness, mutual trust, equality of psychological positions, and benevolence of the interacting parties. The plan of experimental work presupposes the creation of a multi-aspect interaction between students and teachers in joint activities. Its productivity determines the acquisition by students of the ability to communicate, show their own initiative, their abilities and beliefs.

The developed pedagogical conditions are a set of interrelated measures, the observance of which promotes the development of a high level of independence, the students’ self-organization for the formation of their subjective position in the pedagogical process.

The implementation of pedagogical conditions is associated with the use of certain pedagogical technologies. One of them is the technology of developing cooperation, in which students work in the mode of obtaining knowledge and mutual learning, involving themselves in search activity and directly interacting with each other. The value of this technology is that it involves the work of each student, forms their independence, confidence in their knowledge and experience and teaches them to coordinate their actions with the actions of other people.

The students’ freedom to choose educational activities is also achieved by the technology of flexibility and variation in the content of education. Here a special role is played by a business game, which is based on the interaction of the cognitive, developing, communicative and relaxation functions of teaching. Flexibility is provided by updating of education on the basis of changing its paradigmatic bases. Variability is created by the introduction of optional courses, specialized courses and additional education courses. Flexibility and variation in the content of education provide students with the freedom to choose their ways of development and contribute to the formation of their subjective position in vocational education.

The work also presupposes the use of modular projective education technology. It includes the formulation of goals, the definition of the content of interrelated blocks with the allocation of basic and elective levels of acquisition and the structuring of blocks as enlarged units. The basic level includes compulsory structural units, the elective level is optional. This technology presupposes providing students with a free choice of forms, types of activities with individual assistance to them in self-understanding and self-determination; a complex of information and methodological support with the use of computer programs for mastering the skills of self-diagnosis and individual projects of forming their subjective position in educational activities. Modular-projective technology allows the students to manage the organization and content of the educational process.

In the course of the experimental work, the means were tested that stimulate the motivation and subjective position of students in educational activities: problem solving lectures, business games in seminars, the solution and modeling of pedagogical situations in various roles, expert evaluation, rating, etc.

It is known that a person manifests their subjectivity through certain activity. In the educational, extra-curricular and professionally oriented labor activities, the student’s subjective basis is formed and developed. Thus, a future teacher’s subjective position in professional activity is formed through interaction with students of comprehensive educational organizations. They participate in vocational guidance work with school leavers, in the organization of Olympiads, holidays for students and children in institutions of additional education. Thus, the students gain experience in various types of activities: organizational, communicative, creative, exploratory, designing and others, as well as experience in self-organizing activities. Thus, in the experimental work the activity of each student is related to the development of interest in themselves by stimulating the formation of a subjective position in pedagogical activity.

At the final stage of the experimental work, the levels of the students’ subjective position development were determined (Figure 1).

Figure 1
Levels of the student’s subjective position development

Therefore, when students show little initiative and activity, cannot self-analyze their educational activities, is passive in interaction and communication, etc., this refers to the subjective-imitational (low) level of their subjective position.

Subjective-presentational (medium) level is observed among students who do not always show activity, initiative, aspiration for self-development, experience difficulties in self-analysis of the work that has been done, contact the subjects of the pedagogical process with the help of the teacher, and search for a new solution if they have a strong interest in the realized idea.

Subjective-creative (high) level is observed when a student constantly shows educational activity and initiative, maintains a dialogical interaction with teachers and fellow students, tactilely participates in organization of round tables, discussions, has a pronounced need for self-development as well as an active position in self-education.

According to the described indicators, the following results were achieved in the process of experimental work: the number of students with a low (subjective-imitational) level decreased by 61%, while figures for a medium (subjective-presentational) level doubled, and those for a high (subjective-creative) level increased by 48%.

3.1. Discussion

Among the list of the examined studies done by various authors, there were none which was aimed at revealing the mechanisms for the formation of the students’ (educational psychologists) subjective position in the process of vocational education process at the university. In this connection, it is considered to be excessively complicated to trace any correspondence between the results obtained in this study with those of other authors. For example, Yu.A. Artemieva (2008) presents the results of studying the subjective position in the process of pre-profile training of senior pupils. However, it will not be entirely correct to compare the results obtained in the course of this study and the results of the author's work (Artemieva, 2008), because different age groups were considered. And, as a consequence, the levels, defined in Yu.A. Artemieva’s work according to their content, differ from the levels identified in the course of this study: subjective-imitational (low) level, subjective-presentational (medium) level, subjective-creative (high) level.

Experimental work has shown that there is an opportunity to increase the level of independence, self-organization leading to the formation and development of the subjective position of students in educational activities through interaction with students of comprehensive educational organizations, through the organization of continuous teaching practice.

It should be emphasized that the main thing is the definition of the students’ subjective position as future teachers through interaction with students of general educational organizations.

Disclosure of the main ideas, the provisions of a student's “subjective position” and the conditions for making students the subjects of the pedagogical process is determined by the main objective of the study. The main ideas about a person’s subjective position in the process of the student’s professional and educational activity are revealed. The relationship between the concept of “subjective position” and a number of key components is described, among which the most significant are a person’s initiative, responsibility and self-discipline. In experimental work, a connection was made between the activities of each student and the development of interest in themselves by stimulating the formation of a subjective position in pedagogical activity.

In the course of experimental work, the levels of development of the students’ (educational psychologists) subjective position are determined: subjective-imitational (low); subjective-presentational (medium); subjective-creative (high).

In the course of analyzing the achieved results, namely, reducing the number of students with a low (subjective-imitational) level, increasing the number of students with a medium (subjective-presentational) level and increasing that of a high (subjective-creative) level, the appropriateness of the proposed pedagogical conditions (definition of a subjective position formation as a key aspect of the educational system functioning which is inextricably connected with the environment; the need for the subjects’ freedom of choice, which provides the possibility of self-determination in development; the creation of opportunities for students to implement the initiatives put forward; the interaction between the subjects of the educational process at various levels) for the formation and development of the students’ subjective position in the process of professional education at the university is determined.

As a result, the authors came to the opinion that it is necessary to continue research into the problem of the formation and development of the students’ subject position in the educational activity of the institution, the importance of a deeper study of this issue.

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1. Doctor of Sciences (Education), Professor, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Education; M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Russian Federation. da.danilov@s-vfu.ru

2. Doctor of Sciences (Education), Professor, Head of the Department of Social Pedagogy; M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Russian Federation. ag.kornilova@s-vfu.ru

3. Candidate of Sciences (Education); M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Russian Federation. kornilov@lenta.ru

4. Candidate of Sciences (Education), Associate Professor; M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Russian Federation. sn.dmitrieva@s-vfu.ru

5. Candidate of Sciences (Education), Associate Professor; M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Russian Federation. imarao@mail.ru