The increasing of school attractiveness as a key problem of its renovation in the period of social changes

Yakymchuk Oksana

Анотація

Привабливість школи для дітей, батьків, громад та вчителів - складний і багатовимірний феномен. В даній статті розглядається декілька його аспектів, а саме необхідність осучаснення та інноваційного переоформлення змісту навчальних предметів, програм, підручників. Таке завдання має вирішуватися на всіх рівнях - від міністерського до окремого навчального закладу. Але особливу роль в оновленні та реформуванні змістовної частини національної освіти мають відіграти вчителі нового покоління. Підготовка нових педагогічних кадрів - завдання педагогічних університетів, які мають суттєво оновити концептуальні засади навчально-виховного процесу, забезпечити компетентнісний підхід, впровадити новітні технології, всебічно переосмислити вітчизняний та зарубіжний педагогічний досвід, новітні реалії суспільного буття, реалізувати все це на практиці.

Предметом дослідження є оновлення школи в період соціальних змін. Метою статті є вивчення привабливості школи як ключової проблеми її оновлення в період соціальних змін. Методологія вивчення привабливості школи ґрунтується на використанні системного, логічного, історичного, діалектичного підходів та методів. Результати наукового дослідження. Постать вчителя, його авторитет, психологічно- комунікативні якості та особистісно-професійні компетентності є одним з ключових чинників, на основі яких формується і забезпечується привабливість навчального закладу в цілому. Практична цінність результатів. Щоб навчально-виховна діяльність та поведінка вчителя приваблювала учнів, педагог має повноцінно володіти і активно застосовувати інноваційно-гуманістичні технології, проявляти особистісну творчість і креативність. Базою навчально-виховного процесу, звичайно, є науково розроблені методичні та дидактичні принципи і технологічні прийоми. innovative textbooks pedagogical

Ключові слова: зміст освіти, зміст навчальних предметів, навчальні програми, підручник, компетентність вчителя, творчість вчителя, привабливість школи.

ЯКИМЧУК, О.И. - кандидат философских наук, доцент кафедры психосоматики и психологической реабилитации, Национальный педагогический университет имени М.П. Драгоманова (Киев, Украина)

ПОВЫШЕНИЕ ПРИВЛЕКАТЕЛЬНОСТИ ШКОЛЫ КАК КЛЮЧЕВАЯ ПРОБЛЕМА ЕЕ ОБНОВЛЕНИЯ В ПЕРИОД СОЦИАЛЬНЫХ ИЗМЕНЕНИЙ

Привлекательность школы для детей, родителей, общин и учителей - сложный и многомерный феномен. В данной статье рассматривается несколько его аспектов, а именно необходимость осовременивания и инновационного переоформления содержания учебных предметов, программ, учебников. Такая задача должна решаться на всех уровнях - от министерского до отдельного учебного заведения. Но особую роль в обновлении и реформировании содержательной части национального образования должны сыграть учителя нового поколения. Подготовка новых педагогических кадров - задача педагогических университетов, имеющих существенно обновить концептуальные основы учебно-воспитательного процесса, обеспечить компетентностный подход, внедрить новейшие технологии, всесторонне переосмыслить отечественный и зарубежный педагогический опыт, новейшие реалии общественной жизни, реализовать все это на практике.

Предметом исследования является обновление школы в период социальных изменений. Целью статьи является изучение привлекательности школы как ключевой проблемы ее обновления в период социальных изменений. Методология изучения привлекательности школы основывается на использовании системного, логического, исторического, диалектического подходов и методов. Результаты научного исследования. Фигура учителя, его авторитет, психологические, коммуникативные качества и личностно-профессиональные компетентности является одним из ключевых факторов, на основе которых формируется и обеспечивается привлекательность учебного заведения в целом. Практическая ценность результатов. Чтобы учебно-воспитательная деятельность и поведение учителя привлекали учеников, педагог должен полноценно владеть и активно применять инновационно-гуманистические технологии, проявлять личностное творчество и креативность. Базой учебно-воспитательного процесса, конечно, являются научно разработанные методические и дидактические принципы и технологические приемы.

Ключевые слова: содержание образования, содержание учебных предметов, учебные программы, учебник, компетентность учителя, творчество учителя, привлекательность школы.

Problem statement in general and its connection with important scientific or practical tasks. For a full analysis of such a philosophical and educational phenomenon as the attractiveness of school, it is important, first of all, to pay attention to a detailed investigation of the content of educational subjects, curricula and textbooks whether they correspond the realias of modern life, or whether they are too formal, ideologized or estranged from it.

According to experts' conlcusions Ukrainian education is still very far from the standards used for teaching and bringing up schoolchildren which are used in developed countries of the world. The system of education organization is very far from them too. The leading tendency in education, especially in its content part, today become freedom, creativity, variability, which allows every child and young person to influence independently on the content and formal characteristics of individual strategies of learning, upbringing and self-development. The approaches formed by the Soviet school practice still dominate in Ukrainian school. Rapid changes of values both in society and in education is the reality of our days. The acquisition of formal knowledge and skills does not become the leading one, but the humanity of relationships, freedom of self-expression, cultivation of individuality, creative self-realization of the individual reality dominate. The Ukrainian school is largely dominated by routine, which removes the child from the educational process. Very often the child goes to school as on Golgotha. Renewing school practice is the task that cannot be postoponed for later on. The latter should be done on a serious theoretical basis. Let's dwell on this in more detail.

The analysis of recent researches and publications in which solutions to the given problem have been suggested and which the author uses. The problem of the attractiveness has found its reflection in works of Ukrainian researchers that have shaped the basic principles for the renewal of the school in the period of social changes. Among them are V. Andrushchenko, N. Bohush, A. Veremchuk, N. Viatkina, V. Kremen, T. Kliueva, V. Kotelenets, V. Kyzenko, V. Maksymenko, O. Topuzova and others.

Among foreign researchers of the educational environment, it is worth mentioning E. Erikson, L. Vygotsky, J. Piaget and many others.

The subject of the research is the renewal of the school in the period of social changes. The goal of the article is to study the attractiveness of the school as a key problem of its renewal in the period of social changes. The methodology of studying the attractiveness is based on the use of systematic, logical, historical and dialectic approaches and methods.

Presentation of the basic material research with sudstantiation of the obtained scientific results. The main functions of modern education are as follows: socialization - education, upbringing and development of the child, as a result of which he will be prepared for an active, independent life in society; human-creating, preservation and reproduction of human ecology, its physical and spiritual health, personal freedom, meaning of life, creation of conditions for its development and self-realization; cultural preservation and transmission, reproduction and development of culture, promotion of national and universal cultural identification [1, p. 277]. Thus, school curricula, subjects, textbooks should not just provide precise knowledge and information materials required for the study, but to form a certain educational structure in which the pupil will be able to orieantate independently, but with the help of teachers' and parents' support to independently navigate in content and formal component of their own educational trajectory. This does not mean that curricula should be fixed on every separate pupil, but they should provide a quantitative and qualitative variable component, which will inevitably increase interest to learning and make it more attractive for both pupils and their parents.

In general, the task of increasing the attractiveness of the content of educational subjects, curricula and textbooks is a too complicated task even for educational systems, where the variability of instruction has been used for quite along time. It is always difficult to find the optimal balance between different components: the material that all the pupils should master, the knowledge that is available to separate groups of pupils, skills and abilities that must be mastered by all the pupils who strive for specializing in a particular subject sphere. Even more difficulties arise when such a necessary element in teaching and upbringing as the axiological filling of the educational process is added to the content and formal component. "The problem of selecting the content of education is the most important one in the pedagogical science of all the countries. Between the formulated learning objectives (in any hierarchy) and the curriculum, there will always be springs and gaps between the curriculum and the textbook, which make it possible to compile a set of varied curricula and textbooks of different complexity" [there, p. 277]. In any case, today the absolute majority of teachers recognize the necessity to realise the principle of variability of curricula as one of the main factors which determine and ensure the attractiveness of school for pupils and parents.

Unfortunately, even today we have to ascertain that the content of secondary education at the level of curricula, subject diversity, textbooks, technological and pedagogical diversification in Ukrainian school remains very limited. In fact, despite all the declarations and intentions of a competency approach active introduction and innovative technologies of personal learning, the content and formal filling of the educational and upbringing process in the Ukrainian school it remains basically post-Soviet and rudimentary.

Today it is obvious that the true "modern paradigm of education is aimed at achieving high educational results owing to accentuating on the individual abilities of those who study, their personality-oriented learning and upbringing, taking into account their interests and educational needs, involving them into active learning activities on a competency basis. The content of education, according to the thoughts of many experts, plays a leading role in this and also becomes one of the determining factors of improving the quality of education. Therefore, it is no coincidence that recently the content of school education has been very much criticized by the pedagogical community, parents, pupils and other persons concerned with the problem, because they think it affects its effectiveness, causes a low level of general education, deteriorates quality indicators of secondary education from year to year" [2, p. 5]. Taking this into account one can state for sure that today there is an urgent necessity to reform Ukrainian education precisely in the aspect of its content filling. The school will not turn into the institution that will attract children and students until the educational process gets rid of the excessive, unjustified bureaucratization, dependence on the administrative authorities and authoritarian pedagogical methods.

From our point of view, there is only one way to get rid of such a negative phenomenon, which directly reduce the level of attractiveness of today's Ukrainian school for children and youth. It consists of the comprehensive implementation and use of innovative humanistic technologies and competence approach in pedagogical practice. Every child has to be recognized as a key subject of the educational and upbringing process, which should be fixed not only in the declarative statements of government officials, but also implemented in every definite educational establishment. "The main purpose of school is to ensure education and development to clever, gifted and talented children in accordance with world and national criteria, to create conditions for intellectual, spiritual and professional development of the personality. The achieving this goal is ensured by the realization of the following basic principles of education: 1) national orientation - the construction of education taking into account its history and folk traditions; 2) humanism - the assertion of a person as the highest social value; 3) democracy - creating conditions for active participation of teachers and children in solving actual problems of the educational institution activity; 4) activization of pupils' cognitive activities - intensive mastering of knowledge; 5) formation of creative potential; 6) unity of education and upbringing" [3, p. 34]. Only in case when on the level of education curricula, subjects, textbooks the listed principles are realized one can hope that education will captivate children, give them the possibility for an all-round creative self-realization and development school will attract children as a place where one can really fulfill certain personal plans and get knowledge basis for further life and creative self-affirmation and strategic life planning.

One must not forget that the content of education, embodied in curricula, subjects, textbooks, should focus on the actual needs of modern society, especially on the rapid development and dynamic changes in technological sphere. Children should be prepared to enter adulthood after graduation. Taking this into account, we should emphasize that the content of modern education can't be determined for a long term, but must be constantly adjusted and changed in response to socio-technological surroundings. "The content of education is a clearly defined system of theoretical knowledge and practical skills that pupils must and can master during the definite time. The content of education includes knowledge, experience of reproductive activity, creative activity background and also an evaluation activity experience. On the one hand, the content of education, should reflect the level and nature of scientific and cultural achievements, the level of social life, the level of economic status, political and social transformations (i.e. reflect everything what is accumulated in the experience of mankind and society) and, on the other hand, content of education should be aimed at solving the tasks which society puts forward before education, i.e. it is summoned to fulfill the social order of society at this stage. Hence the need to constantly improve and clarify the content of education" [4, p. 16-17]. It is necessary to use significant resources (professional personnel, material, technological, social, intellectual) in order to implement such a continuous improvement and refinement. Today's reality shows that in Ukraine such resources are limited. Thus, the Ukrainian educational community faces an extremely difficult task. In a limited time, it is necessary to make several reformist breakthroughs for improving the content of curricula, subjects, textbooks in order to meet the cognitive and axiological needs of student youth.

In modern philosophy of education there is a clear paradigmatic position that the content of education, which is realized through the creation of subject and content filled appropriate programs, textbooks and manuals, should be child and personality oriented, innovative, humanistic in its formal and pedagogical embodiment. In other words, school should provide every pupil with all the tools as well as content and program complex for personal self-realization, which can be implemented within the frames of socially approved, supported by parents, community and professional educational community. "The modern educational paradigm is aimed at maximum consideration and development of individual abilities of pupils and also foresees the introduction of personality-oriented learning and upbringing, design and realization of renovated educational content, which will ensure the formation of key and subject competencies of secondary school graduates. One of the top priority tasks is to create a new generation of school textbooks, based on competent, active basis, which provide an opportunity to ensure the individualization of learning and favour to the creative development of an individual. Under existing conditions the modernization of content is one of the determining factors of ensuring the quality of general secondary education which have reached the objective necessity to regulate the constructive dialogue between the textbook developers and their main customers: pupils, teaches, parents. The format of such a dialogue should be aimed at ensuring a maximum openness and transparency, as well as strengthening the role of a teacher in choosing the textbook" [5, p. 4]. Thus, today there is an urgent necessity for the maximum possible diversification of educational and upbringing programs and textbooks. Without diversifying this element of the integral system of teaching and upbringing, it is impossible to wait till the school begins to attract pupils. The latter no longer perceive outdated methods and forms of teaching and upbringing, and also require the maximum possible modernization of curricula and textbooks, which, moreover, should focus on full implementation of innovation- humanistic and competence pedagogical paradigm.

When we speak about increasing of the attractiveness of the national school, it is important to pay attention not only to the modernization and improvement of the curricula content, subjects and textbooks, but also to the active and comprehensive implementation of qualitative, relevant, innovative and humanistic educational technologies, informationizational ensuring of educational discourse process and game methods of conducting lessons, etc. Innovative and humanistic approach to pedagogical and technological supporting of the educational process today is a nonalternative way to attract children and parents to school education.

"The priority direction of modern school development has been the humanistic orientation of education, where the leading role is given to a personality oriented approach, which takes into account the needs and interests of the student, and also the implementation of a differentiated direction and approach to learning. Now the pupil, his personality and also his unique inner world are in the focus of attention. Therefore, the main goal of a contemporary teacher is to choose methods and forms of organizing pupils' educational activities which optimally correspond the raised goal of personality's development. During recent years, the question of the new technologies' application at schools is more often raised. These are not only new technical means, but also new forms and methods of teaching and a new approach to the education process" [6, p. 109]. It is not an easy task to introduce new technologies and methods, especially in such a traditionalist institution as school. It will demand a strong will of every presonality, as well as the change of several professional generations, in order to abandon the usual, developed, automatic kinds of activities and behaviour, even if they are openly outdated in content and form. That is why today the problem of training an absolutely new generation of teachers is extremely acute, who will have a new world outlook and style of thinking, as well as the latest technological and competence base, acquired while studying at the pedagogical institute of higher education. A teacher who will use the latest innovative, humanistic pedagogical technologies and personality-oriented methods will be able to turn school into a desirable surroundings for every pupil where he will have a possibility to realize his talents and meet his needs for getting new knowledge. "It is necessary to create such conditions that will give a possibility to increase children's interest to learning, teach them to realize what remains unclear, and ultimately teach them to study. And then the pupil will begin to enjoy the process of independent cognition and the result of his educational work. The teacher has a leading role in solving these problems. It is necessary to reconsider his work, to master new methods of teaching a contemporary schoolboy or a schoolgirl, to look with a fresh eye at the very design of the lesson, as well as the form of its conduction. In accordance with everything mentioned, innovation should characterize the professional activity of every teacher" [7, p. 94]. Feeling that every individual teacher and school teaching staff as a whole in general strives for constant innovative self-improvement and the educational process improvement, parents will have more confidence to such an educational institution. As far as the children are concerned, modern innovative and humanistic pedagogical technologies create a favourable surrounding environment for the harmonious development of their personal abilities and desired competencies.

It is the teacher who has the main responsibility for pupil's personal qualities acquared during his studying at school. If parents and children themselves feel that under the guidance of a particular teacher, pupils gain a significant progress in teaching and education, the figure of such a teacher will be perhaps the best advertisement for the educational estanlishment where he works at. And as you know, the teacher not only provides knowledge but he also diagnoses the level of their mastering. The spiritual qualites of the teacher, his world view and moral position are of particular importance. "A teacher must be distinguished by a deep mind, high feelings and strong will based on science and social experience, world outlook and moral beliefs, realistic political culture, the ability to communicate with pupils and parents " [8, p. 492-494]. The formation of every pupils' cognitive and personality's axiological basis depends on the teacher, his personality to a great extent. Every teacher's action, every influence on the pupil, every professional statement must be based on a solid scientific and pedagogical basis. In such a case, the figure of a teacher will really attract pupils and parents, turning into a key factor of the school attractiveness as a whole.

One of the most important factors of the teacher's attractiveness is his creative attitude to his work. The teacher will correspond modern needs of pupils, parents, colleagues, management bodies, when he is oriented on constant creative and innovative self-improvement. The country should create an effective and not formal, ramified and diversified system of postgraduate pedagogical education where every teacher will be able to aprobate his own creative ideas and innovative implementations. "A contemporary teacher is an extremely educated person who is capable of flexible reconstructing the direction and content of his professional activity. This is the person who works in the format of creative searching and is ready for innovative activities, working at his own progress, raising educational and cultural levels independently. Such teacher is able to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, has a critical thinking and also a stable system of motives and needs for socialization, capable of working actively and creatively as well as having an artistic inspiration for preparing lessons" [9, p. 122]. Creative search and constant innovative attitude of the teacher allow him to improve various content and formal dimensions of the educational and upbringing process. Pupils of all ages are bound to feel when a teacher fills every lesson or an educational hour with a creative energy and innovative search. This certainly significantly increases the level of attractiveness of school activities for children and students. Thus, the attractiveness of the subjects' content, programs and textbooks is one of the key factors in increasing the general level of the school attractiveness. On the one hand, the vast majority of our country's educators adhere to the opinion of the necessity of the content of Ukrainian education radical modernization. On the other hand, there are many obstacles to the practical realization and implementation of the plan, because of which many curricula, subjects, textbooks remain quite outdated, and therefore uninteresting and unattractive for children and students. What should be changed? First of all, from our point of view, it is necessary to achieve the maximum variability of these training and education components. Curricula, classes' subjects compositions, textbooks and manuals must meet the concrete requirements of students, teachers, parents. All these persons must have the posibility to choice. They should orient on their own goals and the key one is the quality of education, its final result in the form of knowledge, competencies and values. Hence is the next requirement for new curricula and textbooks. They should embody the idea of individual orientation, as well as meet the educational needs for pupils on a competency basis. This can be achieved only when a cardinal modernization of the content of subjects, programs, textbooks, as well as materials used in our country's schools will take place. For the present, the Ukrainian school in all its manifestations is filled with many rudimentary elements of the Soviet education and authoritarian pedagogy, which does not meet the requirements of modern students and the national parents' community. Finally, the content of education and upbringing must correspond the contemporary socio-technological realias, which are developing and changing extremely quickly and dynamically. This requires constant review of the content of subjects, curricula, textbooks taking into account social and technological progress. Only on condition of fulfilling of all the enumerated demands and conditions one can hope that school subjects and textbooks will begin to attract Ukrainian children and students' youth. They will not arouse the feeling of aversion because of excessive standardization and obsolescence.

Conclusion

References

Список використаних джерел