Теоретичні і методичні засади оцінювання професійної діяльності викладачів у вищих навчальних закладах США (друга половина ХХ – початок ХХІ століття).

Abstract

У дисертації проаналізовано американський досвід оцінювання професійної діяльності викладачів у вищих навчальних закладах США; розглянуто теоретичні і методичні засади оцінювання професійної діяльності викладачів у ВНЗ США у другій половині ХХ – на початку ХХІ ст. Деталізовано історичні періоди зазначених часових меж, висвітлено педагогічні методи, підходи, стандарти, принципи визначення професійної діяльності викладачів у вищій школі США і подано їх розгорнуту характеристику. Окреслено структурні складники, критерії оцінювання, розкрито суть понять «професійна діяльність», «портфоліо», «педагогічна компетентність», «стандарти», здійснено порівняльний аналіз оцінювання та аналіз стандартів INTASC, NCATE і NBPTS професійної діяльності викладачів США; виявлено особливості забезпечення освітніх послуг в умовах реформування вищої освіти та модернізації вищих навчальних закладів; розроблено і запропоновано анкети щодо визначення педагогічної компетентності викладачів в українських навчальних закладах, з’ясовано доцільність використання досвіду США і впровадження його у ВНЗ України. На основі порівняльно-педагогічного аналізу встановлено важливу роль підходів до процесу оцінювання професійної діяльності викладачів у вищих навчальних закладах України, що забезпечують об’єктивність, науковість, обґрунтованість і переконливість діагностики їх якісних показників.

The thesis is a study of the problem of the theoretical and methodological basics of assessment of the lecturers’ pedagogical activity at the Higher Educational Institutions not only in the USA, but also in Ukraine for the period between the second half of the XX-th – beginning of the XXI-st century. Nowadays, educational systems should be opened for new ideas, approaches, and technological innovations, that will best help the faculty (professors and lecturers) in increasing their professional level and in better serving the country’s present and future. It is important not only for the lecturers, who have just started their pedagogical careers, but also for the qualified professors, who feel the needs to improve or even change their approaches to the teaching methods, and their target to improve the level of their students’ knowledge. In doing that the faculty should not only upgrade the qualification levels if it’s teaching staff, but also enrich the lives of the faculty professors through their additional and on-going self-education. The idea of the life-long learning is an important concept in the USA, as well as in many other Western countries and, therefore, one can obtain invaluable experience from their existing practices. However, the foreign experience only cannot be considered fit as a replacement to the available national practices. Our study is a profound survey of the main problems of the faculty pedagogical skills assessment at the Higher Educational Establishments of Ukraine and USA. Education is the first key point towards opening the doors into the future of any country. The social and economic development is based and relies upon the available educational system. Thus, assessment of the pedagogical activities of the professors and their lecturers as a feedback on the quality of teaching methods being used is an essential element in improving the teaching process, as well as that of the students’ knowledge and the entire educational system as it is. The main task of our study was to compare different approaches to the assessment of the pedagogical skills at the Higher Institutions of Ukraine and the USA, and to select the main and progressive approaches which have withstood the time testing and proved to be really efficient. We have analyzed a substantial amount of pedagogical literature – separate scientific articles, field studies, and study papers – published by the Ukrainian and American scholars. Although certain practices can definitely be borrowed, we also wish to emphasize that there is a common weak principle about each of those i.e. they disregard the possibility of and need interchange of opinions in the course of discussing the results of the above said feedback with the students. It is known that it is impossible to obtain deep knowledge in any subject without deliberations, discussions or exchange of the opinions. Many lecturers in Ukraine consider it to be ethically wrong to ask for the students’ opinion of their personal professional skills. Their reasoning in favour of such a position is that the students are not sufficiently objective and qualified to pass on their own judgments. It is claimed that the students’ assessment is motivated by rather their emotional attitudes, than is based on the professional standards of the faculty or on the actual level of the subject by a certain lecturer or professor. Despite the existence of such sometime quite categorical positions , we still maintain that an anonymous assessment by the students, with all relevant amendments to the teaching process to follow, should be practiced as a reliable means of establishing the actual quality of the teaching and mastering of the program material by the students. It is also a good method for obtaining an unbiased opinion on the quality, feasibility and efficiency of the teaching methods being used, that of instructors’ integrity, consistency and wholeness of the studying process, as well as a means of measuring the reimbursement of the teacher’s qualification level. In our study the INTASC, NCATE and NBPTS standards relevant to the pedagogical activities of the USA teachers and professors have been thoroughly considered, requirements to awarding the Master’s Degree for the teachers and professors of the higher educational establishments have been analyzed, and the directing guidelines for improvement of the teachers’ and professors’ pedagogical competence have been highlighted. The essential points of the five principal proposals in regard of awarding the Master’s Degree for the right of teaching a subject at a higher educational establishment have been considered. These proposals were worked out by a National Council and highlighted in the NBPTS standards. They include the provisions he the teachers an professors shall be aware of, as well as how those should act in the process of pedagogical activities. The suggested proposals are directed at improvement of the pedagogical competence: lecturers shall teach their students well, the former shall have deep knowledge of the subject being taught and the teaching methods to be used in teaching the subject, systematically analyze the pedagogical activities and achievements as well as the leading experience of their colleagues, constantly improve the individual knowledge and competence, bear responsibility for the organization and assessment of the students’ progress in the subject learning or studying. Therefore, teachers’ pedagogical competence as being a harmonious combination of all professional features of the teacher or lecturer, his/her experience, knowledge, skills and aptitudes that are fully applied in the educational, organizational, methodological, scholarly and cultural component activities or the educational process, and which are based on high moral and democratic principles of educating and training students, a beneficial culture of communication, a creative scientific pursuit, availability of basis for new progressive ideas and implementation of new educational technologies, personal responsibility for the quality of the educational process and implementation of the authority to define the qualitative level of the students’ knowledge and that of the professional level of the teaching professional staff at institutions of higher education.