Reflective-Value Support As A Pedagogical Phenomenon

Abstract

The problem of reflective-value support of teacher training at the university is of current relevance due to socio-economic changes that caused revision of the main positions of higher pedagogical education. The conceptual and terminological analysis defined basic concepts of the considered problem. The analysis of the positions of scientists towards understanding of the process of pedagogical support highlighted its main characteristics.  The paper presents the author's definition of the concept of "reflective-value support of professional and creative training of students at pedagogical universities", which is considered to be a pedagogical phenomenon of a complex, nature that implies pedagogical effects on the objectively conditioned process of the formation of the reflective-value position of future educators in the system of creative education at pedagogical university. The content analysis highlighted main structural components of the reflective-value support of the professional and creative training of students, which represent a system that reflects the essence and dynamics of the studied process. The value component determines the activities that ensure the adoption of pedagogical and universal values that affect the internal emotional guideline of the behavior and activities of future educators. Creativity in solving pedagogical problems, ability to search for a new, non-standard, original, rational and optimal solution is the creative component of the pedagogical support. The ability to establish productive, constructive, benevolent interpersonal relations among participants of communication characterizes the communicative component. The cognitive component implies cognition. Functional analysis of the studied phenomenon identified main functional components: motivational-value, cognitive, communicative-regulatory, reflective-value, component of self-development.

Keywords: Supportpedagogical supportreflectionvaluesvalue reflection

Introduction

Social and economic changes in society caused a serious revision of the teacher training process at the university. The most important pedagogical aspect of our research is pedagogical support aimed to ensure formation of a reflective-value attitude to creativity in the teaching profession in higher education.

Problem Statement

The analysis implies consideration of issues related to the degree of this problem development in modern pedagogy. In particular: a typical characteristic of the state of knowledge of reflexive-value support of professional and creative training of students at pedagogical universities, the dynamics of the degree of the problem development, the current resources and possibilities for creative solution of the problem, its scientific and pedagogical support.

Research Questions

The basic concepts of the problem of reflective-value support of professional and creative training of students at pedagogical university are lined up in the following logical series: value, reflection, reflective-value support, professional training of the student at pedagogical university. The concept of "support" becomes both the starting and the central point in this chain.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to determine the basic concepts of the considered problem, to give the author’s definition of the concept of "reflective-value support for professional and creative preparation of students of pedagogical universities", and to determine structural and functional components of this process.

Research Methods

The conceptual and terminological analysis was employed to define the basic concepts of the considered problem: support, pedagogical support, reflection, values, value reflection. The analysis of the attitudes of scientists towards understanding of the process of pedagogical support highlighted its main characteristics.

The content analysis revealed the main structural components of the reflective-value support of the professional and creative training of students, which represent a system that reflects the essence and dynamics of the studied process: value, reflective, creative, communicative, cognitive.

Functional analysis of the essence of the studied phenomenon identified the main functional components: motivational-value, cognitive, communicative-regulatory, reflective-evaluative, component of self-development.

Findings

Support is traditionally understood as a process carried out together with something or someone. It is defined as a specific type of human activity to supervise someone or something and to render necessary assistance. Within the framework of the studied problem, we are more interested in complex support formed in the educational process at the university, which is one of the leading principles of its organization. This is a pedagogical support. It should be clearly stated that pedagogical support is a process, and it can be applied only to pedagogical phenomena, which is professional and creative preparation of students at pedagogical universities.

Pedagogical support is understood by scientists as "pedagogical activity, which implies not only preventive teaching of the individual to plan his own way of life and individual educational trajectory, to solve problems, but adult’s permanent readiness to adequately respond to the student’s physical and emotional discomfort and/or people surrounding him on his request for interaction" (Alexandrova, 2006, p. 32); "creative activity of educators, which unfolds in two interrelated processes: self-creation (continuous and purposeful) and motivation of students to create" (Shishkin, 2006, p. 104); "a pedagogically expedient system of measures of influence on educational processes to reduce deviations from the optimal trajectory of their development" (Yakovleva, 2012, p. 47), and others.

An analysis of foreign sources suggests that pedagogical support is viewed through the aspect of tutoring support (Ashwin, 2005; Huffman, 2007; Rosado, Rendas, & Gamboa, 2001; Xiao, 2012).

Based on the historical and pedagogical analysis of the problem (Tsiulina, 2016), and the conceptual and terminological analysis of the scientists' positions with regard to understanding of the pedagogical support, we identified its main characteristics. Pedagogical support:

1) assumes an active influence on the process supported; therefore, it is of activity nature;

2) has the beginning and the end, continuous from the beginning to the end in its essence;

3) is realized in optimal conditions to form the environment for existence of the supported phenomenon;

4) is individual-oriented that corresponds to the prevailing conditions and features of the supported phenomenon;

5) ensures an optimally targeted course of the supported phenomenon, and therefore it is of managerial nature;

6) does not exist without the supported process and exists only against its background;

7) relies on the results of monitoring diagnostics, which determine the direction of educators' support;

8) is of address-contextual character, is activated and corrected when it deviates from the project trajectory (Tsiulina & Grevtseva, 2018).

Considering the above, we understand pedagogical support as a pedagogically determined and expedient system of measures of active influence on individual-oriented educational processes that ensures an optimally focused trajectory of the development of the supported phenomenon. Pedagogical support becomes reflective-value when the system is formed to transform professional and pedagogical values ​​into students' individual and personal values​​.

Consider other concepts of the reflective-value support. The concept of "value" is the key component in the concept of "reflective-value support". It indicates that the formation of a value attitude to the profession and teaching is based on the reflective analysis.

Isaev (2004) reports the need to form the educator's professional-pedagogical culture, the main component of which is the axiological component, which is a set of educator's professional values. Thus, professional values ​​are an important component in teacher training.

The emergence or development of a certain value during professional training of students will be determined by the social meaning as a result of deep awareness of the need and significance of the creative approach to the profession of modern educators. Meaning is the fundamental dominant of human existence, which is currently becoming particularly acute. This value is relevant at all times. It determines the whole life strategy of a person and is mainly acquired by a person during education. Thus, the relationship between the concepts of "value" and "meaning" becomes evident.

According to classification of types and forms of activity, the most important is inclusion of the individual in productive activities, "associated with the development of new meanings, goals using new means" (Yudin, 1997, p. 33), a necessary component of which is creativity that allows purposeful transformation of the self and the environment.

Any values, primarily appearing as personal values, represent mental forms of the project of the future and create the sphere of due in space and time. The pedagogical aspect of the problem of the student orientation in the objective cultural values ​​is that objective values ​​become subjectively meaningful, stable life orientations of the personality, its value orientations, and the result of value self-determination.

Value self-determination of a person as a pedagogical phenomenon refers to the process by which the individual acquires the meaning, goals and possibilities of his life in the space and time of education. This is associated with the need for formation of the semantic system of the individual, in which the central place is occupied by the problem of the meaning of life determined by self-positioning of the student’s personality.

The lack of professional values ​​in educators indicates a limited life, social and professional experience, and lack of readiness to productively perform educational activities. The educator’s self-determination of values and the development of his value orientations show the reflective-value attitude to pedagogical activity, which is an indicator of the humanistic orientation of the individual.

Social and professional behavior of the educator and his active social and professional position depend on the role the educator assigns to his professional and pedagogical values. The basis for the formation of this position is a reflective-axiological attitude to the choice and subjectivization of pedagogical values. It is characterized by the unity of the objective and the subjective, in which the objective position of the educator is the basis for his subjective position in assignment of professional values.

Thus, issues related to the educator's professional values are now becoming increasingly relevant. Professional values ​​play an extremely important role in the formation of the educator's personality, act as the highest level of regulation of the individual's behavior, express his interests and needs, and determine his attitudes and motivation in the field of professional activities.

In the process of professional training, a reflective-value attitude is formed towards the pedagogical profession, the goals and means of pedagogical activity, which indicates the core of the educator’s personality.

Modern humanistic pedagogy defines the content of modern education as value-semantic and value-oriented. Value reflection plays a special role in this education.

Value reflection is one of the effective ways to form and develop the system of value orientations and the ability for critical self-analysis. Value reflection is carried out axiologically

The object of value reflection of the individual is individual values and forms of their manifestation, and the means of reflection are models of the desired future and present (G.A. Gushchina, V.K. Eliseev, S.V. Malanov, etc.) Thus, value reflection initiates the ideas about common values ​​that act as a model to consider the existing individual values (Volochkov & Ermolenko, 2004). The basis for reflection is self-knowledge, and the results of reflection form the basis for self-identification and identification of the forms and methods of its development.

An analysis of foreign sources on reflection related issues shows that activities of different specialists are based on reflection: studies related to the development of self-reflection tools for personal values ​​of designers (Huldtgren, Detweiler, Wiggers, & Jonker, 2011); development of a model to support the processes of reflection in students in higher music education (Kivestu & Leijen., 2014); reflection in engineering education (Turns, Sattler, Yasuhara, Borgford-Parnell, & Atman, 2014); reflective training for trainee teachers and university professors (Pollard et al., 2008); studies focused on the attribute of the reflective profile of students enrolled in international bachelor programs (Stillisano et al., 2015), and others.

Reflection helps to be aware of the meaning of the activities, to set goals correctly, and to correct mistakes. Reflection, which is the norm, creates a pattern of behavior in real conditions of practice and in life. Reflexivity, as a characteristic of the individual, becomes universal and enables harmonization of living space, both your own and the surrounding one.

In this regard, pedagogical orientation of the institution and the content of higher education acquires special significance.

Formation of a reflective position is based on the specifics of the leading type of activities of students, whose main activity is professional knowledge. The content of higher education implies productive cognitive activity through discussion and argumentation, and through continuous development and improvement. The practical component of the educational process of future educators contributes to the formation of the students' reflective position. This motivates students to develop new constructive strategies for subject and non-subject activities during teaching practice. In discussions, the students being in the state of reflexivity feel that they are participants of the process, which motivates them to search for adequate ways of interaction to ensure effectiveness and cognitive satisfaction with the process of joint awareness of their emotional attitudes to themselves, to the world, and to the activities. This approach to learning ultimately leads to an obvious improvement of reflexivity.

In this regard, the phenomenon of reflective-activity pedagogy should be considered. Taking into account the provisions of reflective-activity pedagogy developed by scientists, it becomes possible to form a reflective-axiological position of the personality of the future educator in the process of his professional and creative training at the university. This will result in the formation of a sustainable attitude of the individual to his own activities and to himself as a subject of future professional activity.

The relevance of the pedagogical support of reflection increases, which ensures formation and enrichment of the experience of future educators. This is manifested in readiness for a conscious choice of the actions optimal in various pedagogical situations.

The pedagogical support of this process will be a set of organizational and pedagogical conditions aimed at creating a reflective-axiological learning space. These conditions include student-centered learning technologies; the focus of the content of academic disciplines and production practices; the use of various modern forms, methods, techniques and adequate means, which effectively contribute to the formation of students' value-reflective position in the process of professional and creative preparation.

The formation of the ability of future educators to value reflection and culture of self-reflection is becoming one of the essential tasks of the reflective-value support of the professional and creative preparation of students at pedagogical university.

Thus, based on the foregoing, we can formulate a general concept. Reflective-value support of professional and creative training of students of pedagogical universities is a pedagogical phenomenon that has a complex, managerial, task-oriented, targeted, and continuous nature, and implies pedagogical effects on the objectively conditioned formation of the reflective-value position of future educators in the system of creative education at pedagogical university. This ensures students' readiness for creative self-realization in quasi-professional activities, and for further professional and creative self-improvement throughout life.

Based on the analysis, it seems reasonable to identify the main structural components of the reflective-value support of the professional and creative preparation of students at pedagogical universities: value, reflective, creative, communicative, and cognitive.

The value component involves activities that ensure the adoption of pedagogical and universal values ​​that determine an internal, emotional guideline of the behavior and activities of future educators. The reflective component characterizes the ability of critical self-analysis and awareness of its activity based on reflection. The creative component represents creativity in solving pedagogical problems, the ability to search for a new, non-standard, original, rational and optimal solution. The communicative component characterizes the ability to establish productive, constructive, friendly interpersonal relations among the participants of communication. The cognitive component is represented by knowledge.

The criteria for analysis of the functional component are the reflective-value support of the professional and creative preparation of students; strategies for the implementation of these functions; communication skills required for the implementation of these functions.

We have identified functions and strategies for implementation of these functions in the educational process:

- motivation and value function – analysis and adoption of universal and pedagogical values ​​as the basis for professional and creative self-determination and self-development of the educator; development of the value field of the individual; self-motivation as a strategy for self-development;

- cognitive function – cognitive activity in the main issues of professional and creative development; accumulation of socio-cultural experience; formation of the individual educational strategies for professional self-education and self-development;

- communicative-regulatory function – development and conduction of communication with the ability to regulate relations based on the reflective analysis; communication between spiritual culture and different spheres of social practice;

- reflective-evaluative function – self-awareness, comparison, contrast; status assessment; evaluation of the results of the activities and development; socio-moral self-estimation; self-knowledge;

- self-development function – self-improvement and development of personal qualities; preservation of the inner harmony and freedom; development of meanings and interests; understanding and tolerance; love.

Conclusion

The identified structural and functional components of the reflective-value support of the professional and creative training of students of pedagogical universities are a system that shows the essence and dynamics of the process studied.

To sum up, it can be noted that the reflective-value support is a promising direction in the preparation of modern university educators.

Acknowledgments

The study is carried out within the framework of the scientific project Value-semantic Guidelines for the Formation of Digital Culture of Future Educators of the Comprehensive Program and Plan of Research, Design and Scientific-Organizational Activities of the Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Education at the South Ural State Humanitarian-Pedagogical University for 2018–2020 years.

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