Pedagogical science/ 2. Issues with preparing specialists

Kazak N.V.

Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno

Preparation of the future teacher for work with elementary school children

The strategy of moving the society to the new model of steady development involves implementation of the conceptual move of the teaching process into the stage of fundamental reforms and creates favorable situation for sharp raising in the area of creating teaching technologies. Prior meaning is given to humanitarian technologies in developing teaching, because modern society has a need in raising independent responsible person. Academic independence presupposes successful student learning activity, which is enriched by his intellectual feelings and worries, which by surprise of his success transform into the feeling of confidence in his own abilities – a skill to learn.

Researches (V.N.Petrova, V.V.Rubtsov, G.A.Tsukerman and others) define the skill to learn as a result of the psychological and personal development of the child, new education, which is formed in learning cooperation. It gets it’s expression in the “changes in the cooperation structure… from common action divided with a teacher, to the supported action, and further to mimicking and self-development” [1,p.20].

The research of joint learning activity of students with the teacher (A.L.Zhuravlov, V.Y.Laudis, V.V.Rubtsov, G.A.Tsukerman and others) led to the conclusion that we can relate to the learning cooperation such as an interaction in which the teacher a) creates a situation which demands restructuring the ways of action that the student has developed; b) organizes the learning material in a way that makes the student find the ways of his inability, incompetence and point them to the adult; c) steps into the cooperation with the student only with their initiative, with his request for actual help.

There is a necessity in front of the teacher who chose the way of building cooperation with the students. It is a necessity to seek new psychological-pedagogical means that would provide for involvement of the students into the learning activity, control over their achievements and the success of his own activity.

Therefore, learning cooperation of the students in studying is a type of the student and teacher activity that foresees cooperation of the teacher with especially organized small group of students, whose common activity is directed towards informative-subjective communication, practical solution of the presented learning task, mastering of the common ways of action, control and valuation.

In this case forming of the knowledge, abilities and skills transforms into the means of developing of educational and personal qualities of the students from the purpose of studying, and elementary school students themselves become the subjects of studying. The definition of the subject is connected to the problem of the group cooperations and communication. Such move of the accents in purposes and content of education brings a number of specific demands from the professional preparation of the future elementary school teacher, especially topical is the problem of forming the skills to cooperate not only from the student, but also from the future teachers.

The problem of forming the learning activity of the future teacher is examined from different points of view in the pedagogical researches of the before mentioned authors: a) point of using group form of education; b) using the possibilities of lecture studies; c) purpose of studying in higher educational establishments, etc.

In our research learning cooperation of students is examined as the activity, which is taken for the collective teaching of the studying activity and intensive development of the object-practical sphere in the unity with other spheres of the psyche. The problem of preparing a teacher, who is capable of organizing the education with humane directive, using learning cooperation of children for forming their learning independence, is looked at as the activity that is performed by students in the process of “living” the childhood form of learning interaction.

That leads to the conclusion that training of the teacher should include: participating in teaching cooperation in studying as the main methodological principle of the modern education; experience of academic-educational activity in learning cooperation, which is organized on practical studies of methodical disciplines of elementary school; experience of constructing the purposes of school education in accordance with the values of cooperation in education process; experience of implementation the given methodological principle in the process of solving problem-methodical tasks, which are included into the content of preparing teachers; the experience of thinking own professional activity in the context of new tasks. This preparation results in the readiness of the teacher for implementation of teaching based on learning cooperation of students, preparation of the teacher to focus the efforts on creating such an atmosphere that would promote forming of the wish and skill to learn in children.

The orientation on the methodology of educational subject of elementary school is necessary to solve the issue of preparing the future teacher. Each certain methodology takes into consideration certain part in solving that task.

It is the experience of experimental work in forming the learning independence of elementary school students in academic-teaching process that lets us come to a conclusion that teaching course “Introduction to School Life” is fundamental in relation to the rest of the subjects of elementary school in order to build learning cooperation. Therefore, the methodological course with the same name is the base of forming new didactic skills in future teachers. The skills of cooperation are the main values of the aforementioned course. The learning cooperation of students in the course “Introduction to school life” is organized in two stages. The first stage is directed first of all to the production those skills, actions, that are missing in the student’s experience. The second stage directs learning cooperation to the implementation of the existent, previously formed actions. That stage is the productional practice for students, including the practice “Child’s First Days at School”, which includes mastering school course “Introduction to School Life” in its program.

The program of the course “Introduction to School Life” includes four modules: “Academic-learning activity of elementary school students in learning cooperation”, “Forms of teaching work with elementary school students based on learning cooperation”, “Role of the learning cooperation in forming the personality of the elementary school student”, “Monitoring of teaching work with students in learning cooperation”.

The next criterions certify that the future teacher is ready for the organization of the learning cooperation: didactic literacy criterion, the main indicator of which is the forming of knowledge about group, collective-distributive activity of students in developing education: personality-psychological readiness criterion, the indicator of which is positive attitude towards innovations in teaching; technological-methodical readiness criterion, the indicator of which is practical organization of common learning activity of elementary school students.

Literature

1. Petrova V.N. Pedagogical cooperation, or When teaching and learning is liked. – M.:Publishing firm “Sentabr”, 1999.