Foreign language future teacher’s pedagogical support in Ukraine

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Foreign language future teacher's pedagogical support in Ukraine

Palaguta I. V.

Lecturer at the Department of Foreign Languages

Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University

Key words: professional life, professional development, young teachers ' competence, pedagogical support, institutions of higher education, school experience supervisors, mentors, methodology teachers.

The article is devoted to the role of the pedagogical support of foreign language future teachers in Ukraine.

Adaptation or introduction of young teachers to the profession is the most difficult period in their professional life, which requires specially designed scope of support to be provided. To overcome these difficulties specially organized work is required. On the part of the young teacher, it must be focused on understanding the personal attitude to the profession and making a professional choice through self-perception. On the part of teachers, it is to provide the young teacher with pedagogical support through mentoring.

In Ukraine, there is no single approach to the definition of “pedagogical support”. It is considered as a special sphere of pedagogical activities aimed at helping future teachers to develop and promote their self-development, in solving their individual problems related to the promotion of education, developing requirement for successful independent actions; systematic, purposeful teacher's activity (or team of teachers), which provides a disclosure of future teacher's personal potential by providing a specific help to him in self-overcoming difficulties in learning and self-promotion in professional and personal fulfillment; assisting students in overcoming difficulties, based on his subjective experience and owning the means of detection and solving their problems. Mentioned above, future teacher's support is understood as a specific help to a young teacher, which is based on knowledge of his individual characteristics, attitude to his problems, difficulties, which appear in his professional life.

The results of the research “The study of foreign language future teacher's pedagogical support in Ukraine” are presented and characterized. Mixed mode research, which is a combination of qualitative (phocus groups) and quantitative (questionnaire) methods have been applied. Taking into account the data of the a focus - group research, we have come to the conclusion that all the participants of the focus - groups had some difficulties in their school practice and that their school experience supervisors helped them by providing a pedagogical support.

The opinion that students should get the pedagogical support from their university teachers, who are their school experience supervisors, as well as their school teachers, who are their mentors and also methodology teachers, who are their teachers at the University is proved.

ПЕДАГОГІЧНА ПІДТРИМКА МАЙБУТНІХ УЧИТЕЛІВ ІНОЗЕМНОЇ МОВИ В УКРАЇНІ

Палагута І. В.

викладач кафедри іноземних мов

Уманський державний педагогічний університет імені Павла Тичини

Ключові слова: професійне життя, професійний розвиток, компетентність молодого вчителя, педагогічна підтримка, заклади вищої освіти, керівники практики, ментори, вчителі методики.

Статтю присвячено ролі педагогічної підтримки майбутніх учителів іноземної мови в Україні.

Адаптація чи вступ молодого учителя на посаду - найважливіший період у їхньому професійному житті, яка вимагає спеціально організованої педагогічної підтримки. Щоб усунути всі ці труднощі, потрібна спеціально організована робота. Із боку молодого вчителя ця робота повинна бути зосереджена на розумінні майбутнього вчителя свого ставлення до професії і професійному виборі через самосприймання. Із боку досвідченого вчителя ця робота полягає у забезпеченні майбутнього учителя педагогічною підтримкою за допомогою менторингу.

Представлено поняття «педагогічна підтримка». Визначено, що педагогічна підтримка - особлива сфера педагогічної діяльності, яка спрямована на допомогу майбутньому вчителю розвиватися, вирішувати свої особливі проблеми, розвивати вимоги до успішного саморозвитку; систематична діяльність учителя (або вчителів), які забезпечують професійний розвиток майбутніх учителів, надаючи їм особливу педагогічну підтримку у подоланні труднощів під час їхнього професійного становлення. Загалом педагогічна підтримка майбутніх учителів - це особлива допомога майбутнім учителям, яка зорієнтована на знання про їхній особистий характер, відношення до їхніх особливих проблем, труднощів, які з'явилися у їхньому професійному становленні. Представлено та охарактеризовано результати дослідження «Вивчення педагогічної підтримки майбутніх учителів іноземної мови в Україні». Проведено дослідження у змішаному форматі, а саме у поєднанні якісних (фокус-група) та кількісних (анкетування) методів. Беручи до уваги дані дослідження у фокус-групі, ми дійшли висновку, що всі учасники у фокус-групах мали деякі труднощі під час своєї шкільної практики, і їхні керівники шкільної практики допомагали їм, забезпечуючи належною педагогічною підтримкою.

Доведено думку щодо того, що студенти повинні отримувати належну педагогічну підтримку з боку їхніх учителів, а саме тих, які є керівниками практики, вчителями у школах, а також менторами, які є їхніми викладачами у закладах вищої освіти.

Problem statement

In a rapidly changing society, the problem of the future specialist's compliance with the needs of immediate activities is exacerbated. Society needs a teacher, able to work flexible in a non-standard way in a dynamic, changing modern education. The training and professional development of such a teacher is a long, holistic and continuous process. It is focused on the formation of personal qualities, professional abilities, knowledge, and skills that would meet the standards of a modern teacher. However, there is a shortage of competent, energetic teachers with diverse knowledge, who have necessary skills to work independently and who are able to correlate theoretical knowledge with real school practice. pedagogical self development foreign language

Young teachers ' professional induction is obviously the most difficult period in their teaching career. To overcome these difficulties specially organized work known as pedagogical support is required. On the part of young teachers, it requires an understanding their personal attitudes towards the profession and making a professional choice through self-perception. On the part of professional teachers in the educational process in modern society - teachers, it is to provide the young teacher with pedagogical support [3].

The purpose of the article is to present the results of sociological research “Foreign language future teacher's pedagogical support in Ukraine” and to provide recommendations to professionals who work with students, how to facilitate the process of student's pedagogical support at higher educational establishments.

Presentation of the main research material

The problem of training teachers to accompany academic activities is widely covered in the writings of P Blonsky, P. Bunakov, V. Vodovozov, N. Pirogov, D. Semenov, K. Ushinsky, and others. The essence and functions of tutoring was considered in the works of N. Borisova, V. Davydova, C. Dudchik, T Kovaleva, D. Elkonin, and others.

Since in Ukraine the teaching support is presented only by the tutor, we will dwell on this particular form. The tutorial system was first launched at Cambridge and Oxford universities and has been traditional for these institutions since its inception. However, the system has undergone some changes by now. The tutorial system of pedagogical support for the future teachers' professional development involves an individual approach aimed at providing the student with the necessary knowledge and skills, as well as acquired experience in a certain discipline.

In Ukraine, there is no single approach to the definition of “pedagogical support”. It is considered as a special sphere of pedagogical activities aimed at helping future teachers to develop and promote their self-development, in solving their individual problems related to the promotion of education, developing requirement for successful independent actions; systematic, purposeful teacher's activity (or team of teachers), which provides a disclosure of future teacher's personal potential by providing a specific help to him in self-overcoming difficulties in learning and self-promotion in professional and personal fulfillment; assisting students in overcoming difficulties, based on his subjective experience and owning the means of detection and solving their problems. Mentioned above, future teacher's support is understood as a specific help to a young teacher, which is based on knowledge of his individual characteristics, attitude to his problems, difficulties, which appear in his professional life [3].

The term “pedagogical support” was first used by O. Gazman. By his definition, its essence is in common with the pupil to determine the interests, goals, possibilities and ways to overcome obstacles (problems) that prevent him from preserving human dignity and achieve positive results in learning, self-education, communication, and lifestyle [2]. Consequently, the term “tutor” means “I observe”, “take care” (an assistant, mentor, student's lawyer) [1].

The urgency of tutoring today is due, firstly, to the fact that tutor technology is aimed at satisfying the educationalneedsoftheindividual,countryand society, their harmonization. Secondly, it clearly demonstrates the dependence of the country's development on the individuals' educational outcomes and is aimed at their elevation. Thirdly, it is determined by the need for a personally oriented pedagogical interaction. Fourthly, in connection with this pedagogical education personification, the construction of its own program is carried out according to individual abilities. And fifthly, the need for the formation of the subject-subjective relations of participants in the pedagogical process accompanies future teachers' personal and professional development [3].

In order to determine how future teachers perceive a pedagogical support, how they receive it and from whom, we conducted a research, which we conventionally divided into two stages.

The first stage was directed on a focus - group research. The purpose of the focus - group research: to find out which of the teachers (a school experience supervisor, a methodology teacher, a teacher - mentor at school) provides the future teacher with an appropriate support; to know if there are any difficulties in their professional development, who and how solves these difficulties.

The focus - group discussions took place in an informal atmosphere. The focus - group consisted of six persons. We asked them only three questions:

1. What difficulties did you have during your school practice?

2. Who helped you to overcome these difficulties (a school experience supervisor, a methodology teacher, a teacher - mentor at school)?

3. How did they support you? What forms did they use?

On the first question: “What difficulties did you have during your school practice?” The participants of the focus - group told us about the difficulties which they are faced with during their practice at secondary schools.

The first problem, which all the participants in the focus - group are faced with, is the organization of a lesson. One of six participants in the focus - group answered:

“During a school practice there are difficulties in organizing a lesson, because only the correct preparation for the lesson will bring results, professional experience and development”.

The second problem is how pupils should be interested in a lesson. Two participants of the focus - group replied:

“As for me, difficulties are emerged in pupil's interest in the classroom; it is difficult to make it so interesting for all pupils to listen to what I'm telling about”.

“And I think that the lesson will succeed, when I will be able to interest pupils in order to have some effect from the lesson I presented. From the way I recommend myself for the first time, it depends on whether a pupil will love my subject or not.

Another problem, which future teachers are faced with during their pedagogical practice, is to establish relationships with pupils. Students understand, that they and pupils relate to different age groups, so they are not always being able to understand each other. They believe that the attitude of the teacher to pupils should be not only official but also personal. The personal attitude of the teacher to a pupil is expressed in relation to a pupil as an individual-unique person. The teacher must respect every pupil, empathize, rejoice and suffer with him. But it is seldom worked.

On the second question: “Who helped you to overcome these difficulties (a school experience supervisor, a methodology teacher, a teacher - mentor at school)” five of six participants of the focus - group responded that it is the school experience supervisor who provides them with the greatest support than a methodology teacher and a teacher - mentor at school.

“When we came to school for the first time, a school experience supervisor came with us, because we did not know where to go and what to do. It was the school experience supervisor who introduced us to the school headmaster and a teacher, which presented us to a class in which we subsequently presented our lessons”.

“When I was going to present my first lesson to pupils, it was the school experience supervisor, not a teacher at school, who helped me in preparing for the lesson and its organization, found the right approach to pupils who listened to me with a great pleasure.”

But one of the participants of the focus - group replied:

“I prefer a school teacher; a teacher taught me how to present a lesson, told me about the individual characteristics of every pupil, paying attention to problematic pupils, so it was easier for me to present my first lesson”.

According to the third question: “How did they support you? What forms did they use?”. Almost all the participants of the focus - group replied that the school experience supervisor uses such forms as: own example, approval, encouragement, explanation, different kinds of motivation.

“During the pedagogical support, I really like advice of the school experience supervisor, her sincerity, encouragement, through which we receive a lot of emotions”.

“Our school experience supervisor provides us with a variety support, for our achievements we are often praised. If there are any difficulties, the school experience supervisor can apply not only for advice, but also for a specific support”.

“But I like that a school experience supervisor, a methodology teacher, a teacher - mentor at school are constantly enter our position, remembering their student years and with understanding help us with their advice”.

In summary, we can conclude that all the participants of the focus - groups had some difficulties in their school practice and that the school experience supervisor helped them by providing a pedagogical support.

After discussing in focus - groups, we conducted a second stage of our research in order to find out how future teachers relate to those people who support them in the process of their professional development. We decided to do this in the form of a questionnaire using the ordinal scale of assessments or as it is still called the Laykert's Scale. In order to “determine” someone's thoughts, the Lickert's Scale is one of the most popular and reliable ways to do it. The scale will give us the opportunity to determine the future teachers' judgments and attitudes to the pedagogical support by using the answer options in the range from 1 division to the second. Unlike a simple question that requires “yes” or “no”, the Lickert's Scale makes it possible to determine the degree of students' judgment according this problem.

So, we offered students three similar questionnaires, which contain 10 questions. The first one about a school experience supervisor, the second about a methodology teacher, the third about the teacher - mentor at school.

Now we want to mention some important functions of those people who support our future teachers. School experience supervisors define the best schools for practice; distribute students in groups, to schools; approve individual student plans, supervise their implementation; carry out methodological assistance in preparing for the lesson and writing a lesson plan; check up their plans, attend their lessons, different types of activities, analyze and evaluate them; provide scientific and methodological assistance to school teachers in the organization of work with students- practitioners; during the protection of pedagogical practice give a description of a student- and offer an assessment of his work.

As for methodology teachers, they teach students to write and prepare their first lessons; conduct their first lessons with their group mates; check up their mistakes and help to avoid them.

Teacher - mentors at school introduce students with the plan of their work, conduct open lessons for students-practitioners and arrange their discussion; advise students and help them to prepare for lessons, write a summary of lessons and plans for educational activities; create conditions for conducting lessons by students and introduce them to various activities of the teacher; give student's characterization and evaluate his educational work.

Thus, let's look at the results ofthree questionnaires, especially at those questions, which are the most interesting for us.

According to the first questionnaire relating to a school experience supervisor, the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and tenth questions are of a greatest interest for us.

Table 1

Student's answers to the questionnaire about a school experience supervisor

Table 2

Student's answers to the questionnaire about a methodology teacher at the University

Table 3

Student's answers to the questionnaire about a teacher - mentor at school

As for the second question: “The school experience supervisor's consultations are of a great importance”, most students, that are 35 of 100, agree with this statement. It was found that the school experience supervisor's consultations are really important because without them it is difficult to plan a work and conduct first lessons; it is difficult to find a common language with the students, to establish relations with them.

The results of the fourth question: “The school experience supervisor organizes demonstrative lessons at a high level” shows that demonstrative lessons conducted by the school experience supervisor are at a high scientific and methodological level. Students believe that without demonstrative lessons it would be difficult for them to plan and conduct their own lessons, because the own school experience supervisor's example helps them in it.

As for the fifth and sixth questions: “You discuss your problems with your school experience supervisor” and “You discuss your personal problems with your school experience supervisor”, we combined them, because 40 students of 100 for the fifth and sixth questions give the same number of answers. It should be noted that students believe that they can always apply to school experience supervisor both in professional and personal issues, because if it happen that the student feels bad during a practice, the school experience supervisor always understands them, supports them and always enters their position.

Not at the worst level is the eighth question: “You often get answers to your questions during your school experience supervisor's pedagogical support” According to students' responses, we conclude that the methodologist always encourages and advises future teachers how to plan and conduct lessons, students always get answers to their questions, the methodologist does everything possible that students feel good at a secondary school during their pedagogical practice.

As for the last question that interests us: “You want to be look like your school experience supervisor”, the majority of students, nearly 30 of 100, dream of being look like their school experience supervisor. Because their school experience supervisor is very good, sensitive person, respects students and teachers, skillfully and successfully organizes a methodical work, always helps students to establish relationships with pupils, which is very important during the pedagogical practice.

Conclusions and prospects for further development in this direction

So, pedagogical support plays an important role in the foreign language future teacher's professional development. It is very necessary for future teachers to get an appropriate help when they need it most of all.

Experience teachers (schools experience supervisor, a methodology teacher and a teachermentor) have to help foreign language future teachers during their pedagogical practice, when they learn how to be a teacher and how to cope with difficulties if they have some. When all these experience teachers will work in a team, they help future teachers to feel themselves in the role of a real teacher and be sure that they made a right choice in their life.

REFERENCES

1. Cawelti, G. (1995). Tutoring. Handbook of Research on Improving Student Achievement. Educational Research Service. 175 p.

2. Demianenko, N. (2006). Tutoring system: updating experience of Great Britain. Journal of Scientific Works.

3. Palaguta, I. (2020). English foreign language future teacher's pedagogical support in Ukraine. Pedagogical comparative studies and foreign education-2020: global space of innovations.

ЛІТЕРАТУРА

1. Кавельті Д. Тьюторство. Посібник з досліджень покращення навчальних досягнень студентів. Educational Research Service, 1995.

2. Дем'яненко Н. Система тьюторства: оновлення досвіду Великої Британії. Journal of Scientific Works. 2006.

3. Палагута І. Педагогічна підтримка майбутніх учителів англійської мови в Україні. Педагогічна компаративістика і міжнародна освіта - 2020: глобалізований простір інновацій. Київ, 2020.

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