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DEVELOPMENT
OF PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE OF SPECIALISTS FOR WORK WITH CHILDREN SUFFERING HARDSHIP
Т. P. Morozova, Е. S. Slyusareva
This report studies the experience of organization of professional training and retraining of students with higher professional education and experience of work in the area of health care services, education and social security. During three years (2011-2013) courses of advanced training for specialists of the system of education, health care services and social care have been running at the Stavropol State Pedagogical Institution within the scope of the subprogram “The Right of a Child to Have a Family in the Stavropol Territory”. In total, 900 persons from different regions of the Stavropol Territory took part in the courses devoted to discussion of problems of social orphanhood, a system of prevention and social protection of children finding themselves in hardship, as well as organization of work with families committing acts of violence.
The target audience included: managers of educational institutions for children or their deputies, social teachers, psychologists, tutors of preschool educational institutions, including of the combined, compensation type; specialists for protection of children’s rights of the local self-management authorities, specialists of commissions on juvenile affairs; teachers - speech pathologists; speech therapists, teachers of correction (special) and educational establishments for children with hearing disorder, impairment of vision; representatives of medical institutions, including specialists of maternity homes and perinatal centers; specialists of education management bodies supervising special (correction) education; heads of early aid services. Such a broad range of specialists made it possible to look at the arising problems in a systematic way from the point of view of different areas of scientific knowledge and practical experience, to construct interdepartmental relations and to build the best routes of interaction of different specialists in solving the issues relating to fate of children suffering hardship. In the course of organization of the workshop it was important for each participant to hear specialists of other professions: teacher - doctor, doctor -lawyer, social worker, etc.).
The advanced training courses for specialists rendering medical psychological and pedagogical support to children suffering hardship were organized in the form of training seminars. Interaction with students was organized based on the andragogical model of organization of education, in which an adult student was considered as a main “driving force” of education. This model is based on the main principles of andragogy: (1) the principle of priority of independent education; (2) the principle of joint activity of a student and his/her mates and a teacher in the course of preparation and in the process of study; (3) the principle of the use of the available positive life experience (fist of all, social and professional), practical skills, skills of a student as a base of study and source of formalization of new knowledge; (4) the principle of correction of outdated experience and personal attitude that prevents assimilation of new knowledge; (5) the principle of an individual approach to education based on personal needs, taking into account
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social and psychological characteristics of a person and limitations imposed on his/her activities, availability of free time, financial resources; (6) principle of electiveness of education (freedom of choice of purposes, methods, forms, timeframe, places, etc.), etc.
The model is a set of elements focused on development of professional qualifications of specialists in their work with children and their families. Let us look at the content of the structural components of the model. The first structural component - “Target-oriented block” - is represented by the system of targets focused on improvement and self-development of professional knowledge and skills of specialists of different areas of knowledge, who render assistance to children suffering hardship. The block is based on the module-based approach to construction of work programs and is implemented according to the following directions: (a) scientific and theoretical (enrichment of the available knowledge about development of a child’s mentality in ontogenesis, typology of families, factors causing difficulties in the development of a child, etc.); (b) psychological and educational (focused on learning the psychological and pedagogical technologies of the efficient interaction with families and children); (c) deontological (related to the issues of professional culture, ethical standards and rules of cooperation). The second structural component - “Procedural block” - is represented by the forms and methods of organization of students’ education. Main methods include the interactive methods of education based on a dialogue strategy of interaction: discussions in groups, training sessions, case method and others. A teacher who is involved in advanced training, becomes a moderator more and more of the educational process aimed at receipt of new knowledge, which the teacher himself/herself does not have. The function of systematic presentation of the training materials is replaced more and more by provision of consulting services in a certain discipline, which takes place in the course of discussions or in the course of the labor activity.
As a result, at the end of the seminars specialists are ready to establish the best psychological and pedagogical interaction with a child suffering hardship and with his/her family, to upgrade their professional qualifications. In its turn, upgrading the qualification of specialists, “deflection” of the received information through one’s own professional experience, facilitates transformation of professional mentality of a specialist, which is used in organization of new forms of work with a family. A specialist becomes focused on upgrading the level of competences of parents: development of parents’ activity with regard to facilitation of education and socialization of children, and development of educational activities of parents aimed at upgrading the level of their own education. Within this component of the model, teachers of a higher educational establishment carry out methodological support of specialists, who work with families and children suffering hardship.
Thus, professors and teachers of the Stavropol State Pedagogical Institution created organizational, psychological and pedagogical conditions of educational seminars that make it possible to expand professional ideology of specialists of different professional fields, which has an impact upon improvement of quality of services provided to children and their families. As a result, such work ensures social and psychological welfare of a child suffering hardship.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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