Metasubject project activity in the system of metaproject education

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Metasubject project activity in the system of metaproject education

Kolesina K.Y., Miroshnichenko A.V.

In the article there are presented the authors' general theoretical positions allowing to consider the metaproject education approach as the mechanism of realization of the goals and objectives facing modern education; there are also revealed goal orientations of metaproject education.

Ensuring of national educational system competitiveness, education quality conformity with social and economic requirements of society have become the major problems of modern education.

Adoption of new educational standards, modernization of curriculums and textbooks, educational content variability cause the necessity of perfection of modern technical, information and methodical support, essentially new approach to construction and definition of new goals and objectives of education, renewal of its content and technologies of the educational process organization.

According to experts, the modern education system “isn't capable to meet the time challenge” (O.E. Lebedev).

As a mechanism of realization of these problems we offer the metaproject approach by means of which it is possible to harmonize tactical and strategic goals of modern education. Briefly the metaproject approach essence is expressed in the person's way of realization and comprehension of the course of life on the basis of metaknowledge, correlation of own personal sense with the ultimate aim - sense of life. Throughout the whole life personality is in the process of self-construction and, creating this project, self projecting, the person is based upon personal experience. During life activity, active participation in various kinds of practice (cognitive, sense searching, social, etc.) he/she transforms both self and the world surrounding, being improved in the spiritual and personal construction.

The sources of understanding of the metaproject approach essence in modern education can be found in philosophical ideas and methods, in humanitarian knowledge, in the basic positions of pragmatism philosophy. Incompatible in a classical paradigm philosophical theories are integrated in educational space as the modern educational concept possesses the unique property - polyparadigmality. As education polyparadigmality we understand an admissibility of coexistence of some methodological systems in which frameworks there are developed the complete, finished models of personality formation and educational process organization, expressed in the form of pedagogical theories, technologies, systems of education [10]. The pedagogical science of the present is in search of the methodological bases which can equip it with adequate, comfortable to a human being ways of the educational process organization. Many authors of pedagogical concepts try to reduce the content of education to a certain minimum necessary for life: to professional functions of knowledge or to satisfaction of market needs. It is appropriate to address to the conclusion of the commission of UNESCO on education for the XXI century in which it warns against any narrowly utilitarian education concept: it should be turned to a human being not as to an economic factor, but as to a development goal. Achievement of flowering of talents and abilities which exist in every person - that is what simultaneously meets both a fundamental humanistic line of education and requirements of justice that are to be met by any educational policy, and also endogenous development true requirements [8].

Transition to polyparadigmal pedagogical thinking affords ground for more productive prediction and realization of novations and innovations (combining them with traditions) from positions of the harmonization of goal sets, a well-founded choice and the integrated combination of various educational strategies, approaches and procedures of any level.

A particular interest for the metaproject education methodology description is represented by the theories considering mentality in a context of the metasystem approach. First of all these are A.V. Karpov's researches (2005). he offers the metasystem approach as a methodology of studying of mentality functional laws. The mental is possible to be understood on the basis of the metasystem approach as mentality not only reflects, but also generates a new reality. As the author marks, “mentality as a system - unlike the overwhelming majority of all the other types, kinds and classes of systems - belongs to an absolutely special, qualitatively specific category which is designated as the system with the “incorporated” metasystem level” [1].

The internal necessity of introduction of a new category of “metaproject education” consists in recognizing: it is absolutely unessential to consider education as a system of the methods directed on the person to meet goals. Education can be considered as an aspiration to cognition personally inherent in every person. As the method of projects is now more than hundred years old, its innovativeness consists not in an algorithm or organizational components already established by its founders, but in the subject content urgency, modern instruments and innovative ways of realization. It doesn't mean for what purpose, what follows, and what we will receive as a result, but what is the subject of our work, by what means and what ways we go towards the goal [6].

Let us consider goal orientations of metaproject education.

The project activity, focused on the metaproject performance, is based on dialogue, cooperation, mutual aid and assumes the exchange of cultural-information, spiritual-moral, emotional-value streams between the metaproject executors (pupils, students), heads, counselors and other persons “involved” in the metaproject according to its problematic. This kind of interaction, providing productive cooperation of the metaproject participants, promotes creation of new, sometimes unique cultural products of informative activity - social, intellectual, cultural, etc. Thus they mean both individual cultural and other values which are acquired by the person, and the values peculiar to education subjects as representatives of various generations and cultures, and also the values developed in the culture of the world or a specific civilization. Thus, in the project process it is formed the experience of activity in the field of national, religious and universal culture, there are formed the culturological bases of family, social, public traditions.

Work on the metaproject stimulates learners' actualization of the available and active search of the missing knowledge, use of the most various kinds of activity and various information sources for this purpose. During projecting there are created the conditions causing the necessity of application of knowledge in non-standard situations, information polysemy understanding, to be guided in the world of information streams which are of great importance in general cultural development of personality.

Already at the stage of its development the metaproject programs the actualization of various cogitative strategies, acquisition of the cultural patterns of thinking, development of the qualities of problem, creative thinking. More than other didactic means it promotes the development of abilities of self-education, introspection, self-control, self-appraisal, demands use of such nonsubject (metasubject) abilities as generalization, analysis, synthesis, comparison, similarity and distinction finding, etc. From this point of view we can call the metaproject education “the procedurally focused” (M.V. Klarin), transforming its goal orientation to development of cognitive personal qualities: thinking, memory, imagination, attention, need for constant selfeducation, self-development.

Work on the metaproject allows the learner not only to learn the world, to discover its new, unknown aspect, but also to begin an active dialog with it, to establish communicative mutual relations - both with the project activity partners, and with the world around. The learner's comprehension of the importance of dialogue and joint activity, acquisition of the ability to interrelate, to listen and understand other points of view, to coordinate own actions, to enter a contest becomes the major result.

Unlike the short-term and even intersubject projects metaprojects always have a social component connected not only with learner's adaptation to modern social and economic conditions, but also with the necessity of their studying, development and participation in these processes. Performance of the metaprojects having social aspects provides retransmission, reproduction of social experience, moreover, its creative adoption, enrichment. The socially focused metaprojects help learners to understand and accept the system of moral values existing in society; projecting itself is a socially significant process as it forms the ability to find solution to the most various problems existing in the metaproject or arising in the project activity process.

The base conceptual thesaurus of the metaproject approach to education includes a number of the most essential categories in a conceptual aspect which are subject to analysis and pedagogical interpretation. Introduction of a new category in the developed conceptual system of pedagogical knowledge means demonstration of “such a condition or quality of the object studied by this system, which description and explanation would nonplus it, i.e. to demonstrate the internal need of the system in a new category, to correlate it with the basic categories of this system” [2, p. 31].

The leading concepts of the metaproject approach to education are metaproject, metacognition, metaproject education, metasubject project content, metaproject educational space and metaeducational environment, metasubject project activity.

In the context of our research we consider the educational metaproject as an independent, research, creative, informative-cognitive, practically and socially focused activity of learners realized according to the project activity program and stages, beginning with a problem formulation and ending with the presentation of project results.

In the metacognition education model (developed by M. Lipman) the essence of education is considered through development of the ability to philosophize among learners: to find a connection between cause and effect, to apply various ways and means of reasonings in search of answers to the questions, interesting them. As the “metacognition” education idea interpretation through metaproject education we understand that, firstly, at projecting the metaproject education content it is important to be based on so-called oppositional steams in which the dialectics of relations between the reality objects and phenomena “is imprinted”. Secondly, as in such problems there are concentrated various sense relations, when the personal experience of the learner contacts with them it is necessary to comprehend the problems of an antinomic character in “the moral imperative” categories. Otherwise the learner's personal experience basing can lead to strengthening of the egoistical relation to the studied content, the priority of one opinion over another.

The following word combination with the meta- prefix is rather often used in the education content projecting. Disclosing the specificity of the content standard realization, in education content the metasubject content importance is emphasized [7]. The content, which in the “formed”, static kind may be called general subject, is developed, as a rule, before formation of the concrete subject content. It acts as a content model concretized at the following levels, during the further work. This “before” is important for us because it shows a movement vector: before, instead of after the development of the content of specific educational areas and subjects it is created the general theoretical representation, and with it - that minimum of the education content which, for the present in a general, but already pedagogically interpreted kind, represents the first step on a way of a concrete definition of general education purposes. When it is made, this minimum may be called supersubject or metasubject.

The idea of creation of the general theoretical content construct before formation of the concrete subject content in the form of the project developed by learners and teachers, quite corresponds to the metaproject education content. It represents itself as important means of the education content renewal in its integrity and unity.

Thereupon it is necessary to take cognizance of the concepts of “metaprinciple” (N.K. Karpova) and “metasubject results” (O.E. Lebedev) introduction into a pedagogical lexicon. Since education is the category of being, and its content, causing an existential being context, should be focused on the integrated unity ensuring of personality, integration is a metaprinciple of education and learning content construction. Its higher, metalevel, is crossing of personality's “sense fields” and culture senses. It is clear that development of such content is rather a difficult pedagogical problem. O.E. Lebe dev notices that the definition of the subject purposes should precede its content selection. The first group of purposes at a subject content level includes purposes - “intentions”, i.e. the purposes defining value orientations, world outlook attitudes, development of interests, formation of needs and achievement of other personal results. The second group of the subject studying purposes includes the purposes describing “the station of destination”, i.e. achievement of results which the school can guarantee. Four kinds of purposes are distinguished in this group:

? the goals modeling metasubject results which can be reached at interaction of some subjects;

? the goals defining metasubject results which can be reached within the limits of the subject, but it is also possible to use at studying of other subjects or in other activity kinds;

? the goals focused on acquisition of knowledge and abilities, supplying learners with general cultural competence, their ability to understand certain problems

and to explain the reality certain phenomena;

? the goals focused on acquisition of knowledge and abilities, having basic value for professional education, a certain profilization direction [9].

The first two groups of the goals are extremely urgent for metaproject education, since in the sequel we will operate with “the metasubject project content” concept.

To the metasubject content and the metasubject results there should correspond the most generalized educational skills. According to N.A. Menchinskaya, in the general concept of “intellectual abilities” it is distinguished the subgroup of “general educational abilities” which are defined as readiness and ability to carry out action according to conditions in which they are performed. These abilities have an intersubject character and concern “metaknowledge”. That is why they call them general, they are used in different fields, at working with different knowledge, thereby predetermine the educational activity success without dependence from its concrete kind. Metaknowledge is a knowledge of the rules, methods of construction of intellectual and sense actions (operations) providing acquisition of the knowledge of the world and own place in it.

It is important to emphasize that general educational abilities are formed only in the personal experience of the learner which also represents rather a difficult formation. In the psychological-pedagogical literature (M.E. Bershadsky, M.V. Klarin, A.V. Khutorskoy, M.A. Kholodnaya, I.S. Yakimanskaya, etc.) it is marked a special complexity of the person's cognitive sphere. The complex of knowledge and intellectual skills and abilities, acquiring by the person during socialization from early childhood to the end of life, psychologists define as the intellectual experience of the person having a three-level structure [11]. The first level represents a cognitive experience providing processing; the second level is a metacognitive experience, allowing to realize control, conscious ordering of own intellectual activity; the third level is an intentional experience (intentio - lat. - aspiration, orientation), the subject's orientation on a certain object, a work method, allowing to consider own cognitive dispositions and motivation, directions of a problem solution search, information sources, means of its representation and etc. education pedagogical quality

From a position of the metaproject approach there are of great importance:

? the cognitive experience enrichment, realized during educational and noneducational knowledge with its specific displays during studying of various subjects, acquisition of certain facts, concepts, classifications, processes, phenomena and processing of this information;

? the metacognitive experience acquisition, allowing to exercise conscious control over intellectual activity: formulation of a purpose and planning of forthcoming intellectual activity, reflection of own experience and estimation of its results; use of special methods of learning connected with experience, images, symbols, nonverbal aspects of speech; formation of skills of business cooperation, communicative interaction; acquisition of figurative-symbolical activity methods - symbolical mediation, sense generalization and etc.;

? development of the intentional experience as defining the learner's orientation on the project activity, aspiration to active participation in information and experimental search of solution of the problems defining the content of the given project and etc.;

? acquisition of the creative experience - the experience of creative activity, the experience of solution of non-standard problems, use of non-standard ways of solution of problems of projecting, performance of research tasks.

The idea of metaknowledge and metacognitive experience essentially raises the sense forming potential of metaproject education, defines guidelines in selection of knowledge and abilities (not only subject, but also nonsubject) which will be of special importance for formation of value orientations of learners, will be claimed during their life activity. Metaknowledge introduces essential corrections in the educational process organization, use of modern educational technologies, the education process informatization, gives it activity and practice focused character.

Let us consider the metaproject technology classification parameters:

? according to a methodological principle: polymodal methodology;

? according to a level of application: general pedagogical (applied in all the systems of education - general educational, professional, professional development, etc.);

? according to technological parameters: metatechnology including a number of “providing” technologies of problem, game, dialog-discussion education and etc.;

? according to a major factor of development: personally and socially focused;

? according to a management type: cooperation, partnership, self-government, tutorship;

? according to a content character: intersubject, nonsubject, metasubject;

? according to used means: audiovisual, computer, visual, technical, etc.;

? according to organizational forms: general school, class, group, individual, differentiated, etc. (interschool, international);

? according to a modernization direction: optimization of the process of formation and development of key competencies of the learner [4].

Comprehension of the metaeducational environment and metaeducational space, potentiating the general sense field enrichment and being the necessary environment of learning, training and education of the creative person helps to understand the essence of metaproject education. As the metasubject project educational environment we will understand the specially organized social-cultural and spatialsubject environment of the learner including the project activity coauthors (teachers, pupils, counselors, etc.), the project activity content, information, technological and resource support providing optimum conditions of the realization of modern educational purposes.

The major constituent, leading component of the educational environment is the metaproject education content, especially integrative processes which stimulate power resources and individual intention of the learner, activating their self-development, self-improvement. Education integration is considered as an integration of various texts in consciousness of the learner, leading to formation of mental concepts and sense forming structures, rather than as a formal integration of various knowledge into a new educational text. “In education, - A.Y. Danilyuk writes, - there is no integration of the content as such. In the educational system there is a consecutive integration of knowledge and consciousnesses”. And further: “integration of various knowledge by consciousness leads to occurrence of new knowledge so the major indicator of the anthropocentric, developing education is the learner's ability to generate new texts” [3, p. 269]. The integrated knowledge “generates qualitatively new, sense reality earlier unfamiliar to the child, expands sense divergency (multi-qualitiveness), possibility to disclose personal sense in more variative displays, at a sense saturation higher level” [1, p. 260].

The integrative knowledge inherently, its projecting forms a basis for the metaproject education content development. Inclusion of integration schemes and mechanisms in the metaproject education system, in our opinion, is capable to give a new impulse to development of integrative processes on the one hand and considerably strengthen positions of the metaproject approach on the other.

As the accumulated pedagogical experience indicates, metaproject education can be realized at a level of independent educational system, at a level of innovative project included in a traditional educational program of school, college, high school or in the form of one or several metaprojects realized by pedagogues of either educational institution.

References

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3. Danilyuk A.Y. The theory of education integration. - Rostov-on-Don, 2000.

4. Kolesina K.Y. Metaproject education: the theory and technologies of realization in the educational process. - Rostov-on-Don: Publishing house “Starie russkie”, 2008. - 250 p.

5. Korchazhkina O. M. // Pedagogics. - 2008. - № 8. - P. 30.

6. Kraevsky V.V., Khutorskoy A.V. The subject and the general subject in educational standards // Pedagogics. - 2003. - № 2.

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