In 1999, the Republic of Belarus began to educate children with severe multiple disorders (SMD). For this purpose, new special educational institutions – correction and development training centres (CDTC) – were opened across the country. Curricula for preschoolers with SMD appeared only in 2011, and curricula approved by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus appeared in 2014. Before 2011, teachers were more engaged in the care and supervision of preschoolers with SMD than in the actual educational process. Currently, changes are taking place in preschool education. The education of children with SMD should be built on a competency basis where the formation of their life competencies should play the leading role. The need to assess the quality of such education has emerged, and, consequently, the issue of professional training of specialists of CDTC in this direction. The aim of the article is to determine the possibilities of the system of professional development of teachers of specialized institutions on the issues of quality assessment of education of pupils with severe multiple disorders at the present stage in the Republic of Belarus. The basic methods in the study of this problem were questioning and content analysis. The experimental base of the study is represented by 63 state educational institutions “Centre for Corrective and Developmental Education” (Brest, Vitebsk, Gomel, Grodno, Mogilev, Minsk regions and the city of Minsk, Republic of Belarus), as well as 8 institutions providing professional development of CDTC personnel (Brest, Vitebsk, Gomel, Grodno, Minsk regions, the city of Minsk, Republic of Belarus). The study involved 345 respondents: 334 teachers of CDTC and 11 employees of professional development institutions. The study was conducted in 2020. The article presents the author’s view on assessing the quality of education of preschool children with SMD, highlights the results of the empirical study, and substantiates the possibility of changing the training of teachers of CDTC in the context of professional development institutions. The obtained data allow us to see a holistic picture of the modern system of professional development for special teachers on the problems of assessing the quality of education of preschool children with SMD, which further allows to adjust the training programs of professional development in specialized institutions (Academy of Postgraduate Education, Institutes of Education Development), to include the most popular topics in their content.
Keyword(s) : quality of education
The Characteristics of the Educational Paradigm of the Near Future: Cultural Context
There are insufficient resources to continue with the existing educational paradigm. This article
analyses the natural dynamics of educational paradigms and sets out an educational model for the
near future. The research examined basic educational patterns and their current state of development,
and investigated the barriers to improving the quality of education and how they may be overcome.
It offers a criticism of existing educational paradigms and how they have changed over time, and
then constructs proposals for a number of features of a new educational paradigm. This leads to the
formulation of a new educational paradigm for the near future with a number of distinctive features.
At its centre are ideas of transformation ‘gates’ of education and their functional invariants. The
notions set out in the article are intended for developers of educational systems, environments, and
programs for rapidly maturing students and adults. This will enable us to overcome the deficiencies
in current approaches to education, and focus on advanced mastery of the future, in which the
current educational standards are extremely out of date.
Narratives by initial teachers: stories about experiences and challenges
The present work focuses on narratives by initial teachers involved in a program called Pedagogical
Residence (PR), developed in a public university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to shed some light on the
main challenges that those teachers face. The main theoretical framework is Teachers Professional
Development (TPD) as developed by Garcia (1992, 2009) and by Day (2001). The data collection
took place during meetings held at the University as part of the PR program offered to new teachers
to embrace their cause and address their concerns and their will to leave teaching for lack of support.
The narratives of experiences were analyzed using thematization (Fontoura, 2011). The main
themes were the separation between theory and practice, the lack of self-esteem, and the need for
peer support. The findings are in line with the literature and the main recommendation is to develop
programs that address real life situations for initial teachers. This study highlights the need for continuous
education that supports teachers’ professional development.
The determinants of the quality of higher education of teacher professional training
There is a high demand for teacher vocational training in secondary vocational educational
institutions. The training of such teachers in post-secondary institutions needs to take into account
the factors (determinants) of its quality and the challenges facing modern educational practice.
Building on earlier work by Russian researchers, particular attention is paid to the ideas about the
quality determinism of higher professional and pedagogical education by integration processes in
the society. However, in the works reviewed there is no agreement of the quality determinants with
the tasks of vocational training teachers’ qualifications as well as with their solutions.
The article highlights the determinants of the quality of vocational training teachers’ qualifications
in higher education, based on the analysis of the actual tasks of vocational training teachers’
qualifications. The research used substantive and formalized approaches to investigate the content
and interrelation of the determinants of the quality of the higher professional and pedagogical
education, together with the actual tasks of preparation and their solutions. It shows the
interdependence not only of the tasks facing educational practice, but also their solutions. In order
to ensure the sustainable development of a society and the knowledge economy, decisions on the
implementation of standards and recommendations of quality assurance in the European Higher
Education Area, must take into account:
• the interdependence of the main spheres of society’s life,
• the integration of competence and cultural approaches in the qualifications of future teacher
vocational training,
• and the orientation of higher professional and pedagogical education.
This work has led to further detailed research in the context of the essence of higher professional and
pedagogical educational quality.
Personal maturity of the teacher in the conditions of CAE implementation
The article is devoted to topical problems of reforming higher pedagogical education. Targeting educa-tional process on the development of personal maturity and competitiveness; the success of a professional is conditioned by several reasons, among which the most significant should be considered: readiness of the teacher for professional activity in the new economic socio-cultural conditions, the competitive environment; the orientation of training activities on professional and innovative searches; the encouragement of interest in self-development and self-realization. The article proposes a view of the construction of a coherent educational system for the development of personal maturity and competitiveness of a teacher.
The structure of personal maturity of the teacher as a component of competitiveness is characterized by the following components: motivational and value component which includes meaningful high motivation of teachers to professional activities, values, cognitive interests, focused on various kinds of social activities, and contributes to self-development, self-actualization, self-assertion, which is an important party for competitive teachers. Reflexive-evaluative component provides the awareness of teachers and evaluation of their potential, the real level of competitiveness, allows carrying out forecasting and designing further professional growth. The activity component consists in the implementation of pedagogical activities, in the implementation of abilities and skills of cognitive, communicative, regulatory and other measures. For the study of motivational-value component of the personally maturity of a teacher, we used verbal frustration test by L. N. Sobchik (2002). The proposed method allows identifying the most important values in a situation of frustration.
To evaluate reflexive-evaluative component we used E. E. Rukavishnikova’s technique aimed at determining the level of reflexivity of teachers which provides stabilization of their emotional peace, mobilization of volitive potential, flexible management. To study self-actualization of a teacher we used the test developed by E. Shostr. To identify the level of development of the components, we used psycho-pedagogical techniques, tests and observation.
The dependence of teacher’s competitiveness from the level of his/her personal development was proved. The interrelation between decrease of teacher’s professional success and the level of development of the components of personal maturity of the teacher was also shown. A detailed analysis of under-development of personal qualities of the teacher, which prevent professional self-improvement and success was described.
It is believed that the formation of personal maturity of a teacher provides not only a desire for a teacher’s self-education, but also contributes to the development of his competitiveness, creation of a professional competitive environment.
On the basis of the study the authors draw conclusions on the development of personal maturity as a component of teacher’s competitivnes.