Педагогические науки/ 5.Современные методы преподавания

Ст. викладач Войнаровська Н.В.

ПВНЗ Європейський Університет, Вінницька філія, Україна

Organizing Students’ Independent Work in the Process of Teaching Economics in Ukrainian Universities

The goal of independent work is to develop independence as the quality of a personality through educating skills of systematizing material, planning, monitoring and regulating one’s own activity in the process of learning and in practical life.

Recent changes in Ukraine affected all the spheres of its life. Educational system has also altered so that to meet the requirements of the modern business society for highly-qualified specialists in Economics. In addition to it, introduction of the Bologna Convention in Ukraine directed these transformations to considerable increasing of students’ independent work part in the whole teaching process, which needed to be restructured, modernized and improved.

Professor of Kiev National Economic University O.V. Aksyonova in her book “Methodology of Teaching Economic Disciplines” recommends every teacher, occupied with this problem, to keep in mind two axioms:

1. Life’s ambitions and people’s education depends on the social and economic circumstances of every generation. Education improves in such a way so that to give new generations possibilities to move further than the previous ones.

2. The bigger is the part of self-education in the system of education, the advanced is the personality. Almost without overestimation we can highlight that education may be treated as self-education based on the independent work of the students. All the pedagogical and methodological work is directed to the organization of the optimal conditions for such work. It is extremely important for the knowledge of Economics while it is known to be the part of people’s practical life [1].

The teacher leads the student through the knowledge of basic categories and conceptions, which form economic way of thinking. But the teacher is also responsible for bringing up moral-ethical principals of economic behaviour. Well-known psychoanalytic Karen Horney considers: “Contradiction is in our approaches to competition as the progress engine on one hand, but advocating friendship and humility on the other” [2]. E. Shostrom replies to Karen Horney: “When you search you will find an actualizing creative combination, and will try to make your wishes and your ethics appropriate, as the norm for every person on the planet” [4].

By conducting economic disciplines it is significant to rely on the essence of the main notions, contents and examples close to the real modern social-economic life. Then the questions of economic education and economic study become closer. As I.P.Podlasy states that our life offers different examples: in some cases it is rational to set and control time precisely, in others – to demand the quality of the work [3]. It is known that tempos preferred by the students are always lower than the maximal ones. If the terms are not defined, the exercise will not be done and one course will last longer than it is permitted.

The ancient statement “Everything difficult is unnecessary. Everything necessary is simple” would be proper here. Famous books by J. Traut are recommended for those who are willing to plunge in this issue [5].

The problem of enhancing the effectiveness of students’ independent work organization should be examined in five stages. The first stage – is the research of the psychological aspects of the qualitative mastering educational information. The idea about choosing the contents and the methods of teaching in accordance to the type of the students’ mental activity is becoming very popular nowadays. For people with abstract-logical type of thinking such technologies as structures, formulas and diagrams are better. For people with obvious-imaginative type of thinking such methods as talks, comparisons, allegories are more effective.

The second stage – is the development of metacognitive learning skills, or the problem of teaching students to study effectively (modern culture of teaching). Our perception depends on the amount of the information, the number of the objects percept simultaneously. Researches proved that a person is able to perceive not more than 8 (±2) objects not combined by the plot of the information. Trained perception may change this limit.

The third stage presents teachers’ work directed to the optimization and rationalization of time spent on education by students and by teachers. The fourth stage deals with the analyses of the forms of independent work utilization. The fifth stage shows the methodology of independent work organization in the range of the definite course or module.

Organization of the independent work in the universities demands concrete motivation for students, methodological and informative supply. Common standards of estimating projects and essays should be recognized.

Conclusion. Current essay proves that the organization of the students’ independent work in the process of teaching Economics in Ukraine is quite a complicated issue. This kind of students’ activity has been characterized from different points, ranging from its psychological background to practical application in real life. Ways of enhancing efficiency of this work through students’ involving in various traditional and extraordinary pedagogical arrangements have been analyzed. The necessity to enhance the level of economic education in Ukraine requires further research on the topic. Possible extension of this paper may include specific analyses of additional recourses of learning material for students’ independent work in Economics, such as specialized Internet publications.

References:

1. Aksyonova O.V. Methodology of Teaching Economic Disciplines. Kiev: KNEU, 2006. – 280 p.

2. Horney K. Collection of Writings. Translation from English. Moscow: Smysl, 1997. – 272 p.

3. Podlasy I.P. Productive Pedagogy: Book for Teachers. Moscow: People’s Education, 2003. – 540 p.

4. Shostrom E. Anti-Carnegie or Person-Manipulator. Translation from English by A.Malysheva. Psychotherapy, 2008. – 190 p.

5. Traut J. Power of Simplicity: Recommendations for Successful Business Strategies: Translation from English. Saint Petersburg: Piter, 2004. – 302 p.