Non-formal adult education: opportunities for professional development of autistic children social support subjects

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Non-formal adult education: opportunities for professional development of autistic children social support subjects

Introduction

Today both national and foreign scientists point out the steady increase of the number of children on the autistic spectrum. Autistic spectrum (AS) is a wide spectrum of various forms of disorders, grouped by common traits, namely: difficulties in establishing social relations, conversation and special kind of behavior stereotypy. The term “spectrum” highlights that children within the AS may differ from each other significantly in terms of their character and symptom severity, their dynamics during development.

Autistic spectrum belongs to psychological development disorders - they are caused by specific features of structure and functioning of the central nervous system.

Today there are no statistical data about the number of autistic children in Ukraine. Difficulties of implementing education for autistic children are related to lack of training for a mobile social support subject, who would be capable of purposefully and effectively providing qualified assistance both to a child and to those who surrounds them/family. There is an issue of constant enhancement of skills and re-training of such professional. Formal education does not fully satisfy the professional need of such professional due to its focus on academism of knowledge. Non- formal education in such conditions becomes “the source of acquisition of the necessary knowledge and the form of adapting to contemporary integration processes, as it is more purposeful and deliberate, opening new opportunities for person's self-fulfillment at any age”.

Presentation of basic material. Every country of the world develops in its own way, influencing the establishment of the national education system. It is important, within the terms of integrating the countries into the common educational and scientific field, to coordinate main terms and concepts within the education field on the international level.

The issues of developing various kinds of non-formal education in Ukraine and abroad became an object of study for numerous Ukrainian scientists of the latest period - Aleksandrova V. (non-formal education in the context of lifelong learning), Vasylenko O. (non-formal adult education as an issue of theory and praxis of educational activities), Honcharuk A. (adult education and its non-formal types in foreign countries), Nychkalo N. (basics of non-formal professional learning), Rasskazova O. (development of non-formal education as a component of lifelong learning) etc.

Taking into consideration the topic of our research, we shall specify the term “non-formal adult education” and define its characteristic features.

The Memorandum on Lifelong Learning of the European Council held in 2000 highlights that non-formal education is an equivalent component of education process throughout the entire life. The main goal of non-formal education is a search for applicable answers to challenges in the field of education, such as: decline of civic and political participation of population, requirements of information society, international integration, activation of globalization processes and increase of gaps between systematic changes in economics on one hand and formal education on the other [1].

Analysis of International Standard Classification of Education (ISCE 2011), developed in the course of UNESCO activities, defines non-formal education as one that is “institutionalized, purposeful and planned by a person or an organization that provides educational services”. The main feature of non-formal education is considered to be that it is complimentary and/or alternative to formal education during the lifelong learning process [2].

The Law of Ukraine “On Education” standardizes adult education (article 18), namely defines it as a component of lifelong learning, aimed at realization of every full-aged person's right for lifelong learning, taking into consideration personal needs, societal development priorities and needs of economy. State authorities and local government authorities are guided by this law to create conditions for formal, non-formal and informal adult education.

We define non-formal education as one that is usually obtained via educational programs and does not imply assigning state-recognized educational qualifications by education levels, but may conclude with awarding professional and/or assigning partial educational qualifications [3].

According to definition by Honcharuk A., non-formal education is an organized, structured and purposeful educational activity carried out outside the formal education institutions, aimed at satisfying various educational needs of different age groups and does not grant a legalized diploma [4, р.33].

Scientist Teriokhina N. analyzed documents developed by the Council of Europe, which allows defining the following features of non-formal learning: voluntary; available to everyone; obtained in various places and in various situations; learning process is related to pedagogical goals; compliments other learning components throughout the entire life, namely formal learning; emphasizes competencies gained through active participation in activities, everyday life; relies on experience and action, striving to satisfy the needs of participants [5, р.111].

Based on generalization of international practices of non- formal education, Mukhlaeva T. singled out the following features: “orientation towards specific educational demands of various social, professional, demographic population groups; special care when regarding certain population categories; lack of compulsory nature, the basis is personal motivation of adults; great personal interest in learning; internal responsibility of those who are learning for the result of education activities; development of personal qualities that create prerequisites for worthy personal life, successful participation in societal activities and labor; providing an ability to better understand and, if necessary, change the surrounding social structure; development of mobility within the terms of contemporary fast-changing world; flexibility of organization and learning methods; high activity level of those who are learning; selfevaluation of obtained results by listeners based on criteria significant for them; the basis for relations between those who teaches and those learns is mutual respect, democratic culture and the culture of participation” [6].

Analysis of scientific research on the outlined topic enables us to assert that non-formal is carried out by various subjects of education field (including civic, non-commercial organizations), aimed at adaptation of adults to rapidly changing social, economic, technological, political environment, their integration into society, active participation in societal processes, constant renewal of knowledge, skills and abilities regardless of person's age. Aside from the fact that non-formal education of autistic children social support subjects is meant to keep the social and educational competence of such professional on a necessary level, it can also assist in providing effective psychological and pedagogical support for families that find themselves in harsh life conditions and are taking care of autistic children.

Efficiency of such support is determined by a range of properties of non-formal education, which set it apart from formal education. Among these properties we should first and foremost single out flexibility, which presents itself in ability to rather quickly discover the socio-educational requirements of autistic children social support subjects, who ended up in a crisis, to develop learning programs aimed at filling the deficiency in social- pedagogical competence, which manifested in a person during crisis, to select a team of trainers possessing the necessary knowledge and technologies, to create conditions comfortable for learning, taking into consideration their social-psychological, social-pedagogical and other traits, emerging as a consequence of crisis' influence on them.

Based on the above, we can assert that today non-formal education is education institutionalized, purposeful and planned by an education institution without provision of educational program and qualifications recognized by the national education management authorities, or with no qualifications at all, and is additional, alternative and/or complimentary to formal education during lifelong learning. It serves to realize the right of person of any age for access to education but does not imply obligatory uninterrupted structured sequence in obtaining education and may be short-term and of low and high intensity, namely in a form of short-term courses, seminars, practical trainings. Although non- formal education itself does not award formal qualifications, recognized formal qualifications may be obtained by mastering a certain number of separate non-formal education programs for autistic children social support subjects and corresponding approval of obtained knowledge, skills and other competencies by an authorized body.

Non-formal education of autistic children social support subjects is based on a number of principles, most important of which are:

- “learning in action” - obtaining various abilities and skills during practical activities;

“learning to interact” - implies obtaining and developing views on differences between people, ability to work as a group and in a team, as well as accept those around you as they are and cooperate with them;

“learning to learn” - obtaining the information searching and processing skills, the skills for analyzing personal experience and uncovering individual educational goals, as well as an ability to utilize the above in various life situations [7].

Today the field of non-formal education for autistic children social support subjects is inhomogeneous and develops mostly uncontrollably. It is represented by various organizations with their own goals, interests and distinctions in approaches, principles and ways of organizing activities. We single out three groups that provide such services:

commercial non-governmental organizations;

non-formal education in the “third sector”, provided by noncommercial non-governmental organizations and structures;

additional education in governmental sector (government institutions).

We shall now review these non-formal education segments in detail.

The list of non-formal education programs for autistic children social support subjects that exist on an education services commercial market is incredibly expansive in terms of themes and forms. It is a wide range of commercial courses and seminar's for professional and personal growth of the aforementioned professional. For the most part such learning is practically oriented and is based on project method, enabling the listener to solve real problems emerging at their workplace. Additionally, the learning process involves mostly active learning methods: cases, role-play, social-pedagogical accompaniment simulations, situational tasks and exercises, tests, brainstorming, analytical tasks, discussions, field trips, computer modeling, specific examples, issue analysis etc.

At present, private educational services, just like services in non-commercial field, are mostly of additional compensatory nature and perform extracurricular function relative to main formal education. Non-commercial non-governmental organizations and structures in the field of non-formal education constitute a separate group of adult non-formal education. Unlike state additional education system for autistic children social support subjects, established by law and standardized, working according to approved programs, possessing a system of standards, licensed, accredited and controlled by special institutions, the adult education in the non-commercial non-governmental organizations sector is free of all of the above.

In their programs, civic organizations are focused on development of personality, their social and civic competencies, satisfying other educational demands of a person that are related to rapid impermanence of the surrounding reality.

Educational programs of non-commercial non-governmental organizations are mostly oriented towards the result rather than process, participation in them is based solely on the principle of voluntariness. Here occurs a search for new forms of organizing educational programs, innovations, experiments not only in the field of adult education, but education in general.

It is exactly in non-formal education of autistic children social support subjects that the methods, forms and content are realized, despite being for various reasons unrealized in the formal education system. Here they can be evaluated with further adaptation, verified for viability and implemented into formal education.

Usually there is no concept of “academic year” in non-formal education. Duration of learning in this field may be from one hour (for example, one lecture), several days (training), up to several years (lengthy learning course). Although, as mentioned, in actual practice it is exactly short-term education courses that are most prevalent in non-formal education. A number of organizations are successful enough in promoting a democratic and affordable non- formal education form for autistic children social support subjects known as study circles.

Government entities and additional education structures. When speaking about this group of non-formal education for adults/autistic children social support subjects it is necessary to take the following into consideration:

the term “non-formal education” may be used with this group quite arbitrarily, as the term “additional adult education”, assigned in regulatory documents, is more suitable for them;

for most government education entities the non-formal education programs within the terms of additional adult education are not the main type of activity, but a secondary one, enabling them to earn additional financial revenue;

this is first and foremost about the intent of departmental entities for improvement of qualification and staff re-training to remain functional and adapt to a new reality; education autistic social

we can speak of expanding the functions of higher education institutions, within which specialized learning centers emerged, offering education services for adults on commercial basis outside the terms of obtaining higher education;

a wide range of state education services providers in the social and mass-culture field exists, for whom such type of activity is non-formal and does not imply issuing due-form diplomas and certificates. These include, for example, public social service centers, community centers, art and artwork creation centers etc. These institutions' education programs are in many ways similar to those that are offered by non-governmental organizations of similar directions.

Lately due to spread of COVID 19 and implementation of quarantine restrictions we see more and more introductions of distance learning and the number of distance learning programs in the non-formal education field increases constantly. Thanks to development of information technologies, the distance learning format enables us to harmoniously combine group studies “in person” with virtual space, as well as individual work using information technologies. These technologies ensure flexible learning schedule and individual approach to every listener of the program. Multi-level structure of distance programs in business education involves an ability to start learning from various program levels. Learning through webinars carried out by organizations, as well as individual teachers, trainers and consultants in the field of social support for autistic children, is also under active development.

In order to implement newest non-formal education mechanisms for autistic children social support subjects and scientific pedagogy workers, post-graduate students and students within the higher education institution in Municipal Establishment “Kharkiv Humanitarian-Pedagogical Academy” of the Kharkiv Regional Council, an integrated online lectures course “Inclusive education” involving foreign specialists from Istituto Don Calabria, Italia, was carried out. During the online course, an Istituto Don Calabria approach to inclusive education in Italy was implemented, namely the main achievements of subject matter experts regarding approval and usage of biopsychosocial approach, inclusion and multifunctional intervention process, aimed at holistic socialization of persons with special educational needs. The lecture course is designed for 1 ECTS credit (15 hours of webinar classroom sessions and 15 hours of self-education), involving foreign specialists from Italy's leading HEIs and rehabilitation institutions.

In February 2021 an implementation of project work “Basics of volunteering in inclusive educational environment” began within the higher education institution in association with All-Ukrainian Civic Organization “Resource Teachers Association of Ukraine” and “Flowers of Life” Charity Fund as part of Kharkiv Region Development Strategy for 2021-2027, aimed at improving the social support subjects' level of knowledge on the following topics: volunteering as a phenomenon of civilized society; characteristic features of volunteering in inclusivity-oriented education institutions; information and communication technologies in volunteer's work under conditions of inclusive educational environment; functional role of personalized resources in the work of special and inclusive education specialists; incommunicative children in inclusive space: strategies, technologies, approaches; hints as an instrument for increasing the efficiency of teaching and upbringing autistic children; visual timetable: how to teach task performance without adult control; self-stimulating behavior of autistic people: reasons and correction methods. The course is designed for 1 ECTS credit, 30 hours (16 hours of online learning, 14 hours of self-education). After successful completion of the course, the listeners are granted a certificate.

Conclusions

Thus, innovative educational transformations in contemporary education system require a new kind of specialist and pose certain requirements to their training. Non-formal adult education is one of the key components of lifelong learning. Main education, appearing in its general mass form, is necessary and mandatory for every member of society, but requires more and more additions of types and forms of learning that match the educational requirements in relation to personal requirements of citizens, possessing a steady tendency for growth. That is why a gradual rejection of state monopoly on adult education occurs and a transition to multipolar system based on balance of state, various social groups and individual interests can be observed. Contemporary complex adult education system is characterized by an increase and expansion of non-formal education programs aimed at both professional and personal development of autistic children social support subjects.

References

1. The Memorandum of the European Council 2000.

2. Recommendation 1437 (2000). On non-formal education. 24 January 2000.

3. International Standard Education Classification.

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