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ERIC EJ1115532: Orientation of Senior Pupils to the Choice of Teaching Professions PDF

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL & SCIENCE EDUCATION 2016, VOL. 11, NO. 13, 6135-6146 OPEN ACCESS Orientation of Senior Pupils to the Choice of Teaching Professions Regina G. Sakhievaa and Elena А. Kuvaldinab aKazan (Volga region) Federal University, Kazan, RUSSIA; bVyatka State University, Kirov, RUSSIA ABSTRACT The importance of the study is due to the problem of lack of the teaching staff. Despite the sufficient number of graduates of pedagogical faculties, the number of those who really want to work in the profession and devote their lives to the teaching profession is limited. Many schools, especially in rural areas, have to face shortage of specialists. The article is aimed to solve the problem of organizing the work of preparing senior pupils to the choice of the teaching profession at school. The leading method of this research is the pedagogical experiment, in the process of which the program of the club named "The Leader», was developed and tested, and the content of which is revealed in this article. The article reveals the potential of school teaching clubs as one of forms of career guidance. We have proved great potential of effective orientation to teaching professions using a variety of opportunities of club work, forming organizational, communication and leadership skills of senior pupils. The material of this article can be useful for social educators, class teachers, those who work with senior schoolchildren. KEYWORDS ARTICLE HISTORY Career guidance, choice of teaching profession, Received 1 April 2016 potential capacity of club activities Revised 29 April 2016 Accepted 29 April 2016 Introduction The relevance of the study The choice of the future profession is one of the most important and difficult decisions in life. In our modern high developing and changing society, some professions lose their relevance and are no longer in demand, they are CORRESPONDENCE Elena A. Kuvaldina [email protected] © 2016 Sakhieva and Kuvaldina. Open Access terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) apply. The license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, on the condition that users give exact credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if they made any changes. 6136 R. G. SAKHIEVA AND E. A. KUVALDINA replaced by new professions, and this variety puts a graduate to a standstill. The transition to the labor market has made significant adjustments and changed approaches to the development of the theory and practice of career guidance of young people. We often see such situations when in tough market conditions the employee may not have a permanent and well-paid job throughout his working life, especially when it is connected with the same profession. The main attributes of a successful person today are a good academic background and abilities to develop in the direction of a chosen professional field. Consequently the choice of the profession is a significant problem for the personality, and it is also the choice of lifestyle and the way of self- development. Career guidance is a systemic activity. It includes the target setting, objectives, principles, forms, methods, efficiency criteria, levels, directions and other structure forming elements: professional diagnostics, professional selection, professional education, social and career guidance, career training (Mitin, 2014; Shaidullina et al., 2015). The aim of career guidance is to help young people in choosing their future profession in accordance with their inclinations, interests, desires and abilities, as well as with the needs of the city, the district, the village, in which they live, and the whole society. The basis for the choice of the future profession should be the point of intersection of the individuality of a young person and the demands of the profession. The kudo of the teaching profession is still very low (Kuvaldina and Protasov, 2012), according to our research nearly 63% of the senior pupils said they would not choose the teaching profession under any circumstances, 37% are ready to change their minds if the teachers get a higher salary and have fewer responsibilities. In the organization of club activities there are various opportunities that allow us to maintain the effective work of targeting senior pupils to the choice of teaching professions. The essence of the problem The analysis of the research on the problem let us identify the essence of the concept of career guidance as a scientific and practical system of young people training of choosing a profession, which takes into account the individual characteristics and needs of the individual and the labor market, carried out through professional information, professional diagnosis, professional advice and professional adaptation (Kodzhaspirova and Kodzhaspirov, 2005). In the process of professional information we form a representation of economic structures and enterprises, real or expected demands for specific professions, health requirements for the profession, vocational schools, where senior pupils can obtain the desired profession. Professional consultations allow us to study and compare the capabilities and desires of the person with the requirements of the profession to his knowledge, personal qualities and health. The aim is to work out recommendations on the most preferred areas of employment. Professional diagnostics helps to draw the conclusion about the suitability of a person to a particular type of activity, and professional adaptation allows a person to INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL & SCIENCE EDUCATION 6137 adapt to the contents and conditions of a particular type of employment (Stepanov, 2005). The main idea of career guidance lies in the fact that a pupil is recommended a wide sphere of professional activity, within which he is given a list of different professions. Tasks and functions of career guidance Management theory considers the process of career guidance as a part of a more general process of social orientation of young people. This means that the choice of a profession is regarded as the desire of a person to take a particular place in the social structure of the society, that’s why it is very important to pay special attention to career guidance in school, so that the person after getting professional education could be competitive in the labor market. N. A. Mitina (2014) says that career guidance is implemented through the upbringing and educational process, extracurricular and out-of-school work with pupils. Specific goals and objectives of each educational organization depend on the recruitment needs in certain areas of professional activity, the level of the deficit, the possibilities and conditions in a particular region or a city. M. A. Boldina and E. V. Deeva (2012) identified the functions that are fulfilled in the process of professional orientation: – the social function is responsible for the embracement of values, norms and specific system of knowledge by the person that allows him to be a freeman of a society; – the economic function involves improving the qualitative of workers, increasing the professional activity, skills and productivity; – the psycho-pedagogical function is responsible for the identification, formation and registering the individual abilities of young people; – the medical and physiological functions maintain accounting of individual health and physiological qualities requirements that are needed to carry out professional activities. Organization of club activity for orientation of senior pupils to the choice of teaching professions Club activities in the educational organization can be considered as an element of extra-curricular educational work. Involving pupils in club activities is based on the principles of voluntary participation and the interests and needs of pupils. Some special conditions are organized in club activities, under which students have the opportunity to develop their creative abilities and their personalities, to communicate with their friends, to find ways for self-expression and self-assertion as well as to relax. In modern literature on Pedagogics there is no generally accepted concept of a club association. However, the main idea of this concept is that it is an association of people on a voluntary basis, with common interests. S. T. Shatsky (1980), who made a significant contribution to the club movement in Russia, pointed out that the basic idea of the children's club is to create a centre where children's lives are organized on the basis of the requirements emanating from the child's nature. In his opinion, such centers appear because of the need "to learn to live, to adapt to life." During the Soviet period the club work played an important part in the work of educational institutions. The project to create 6138 R. G. SAKHIEVA AND E. A. KUVALDINA a school, "open to the world" is of the greatest interest (Tubelsky, 2012), in which the communication with different specialists (e.g. musicians, writers, engineers, doctors, economists) is the essential condition for the lesson. The principle of volunteerism allows us to organize club activities of professional orientation to teaching professions for those students who tend to this type of activity and want to get acquainted with the work of the teacher and to try themselves in this area. S. L. Paladyev (2002) divides club activities into types: frontal, individual and group. Frontal club work can be organized in the form of school actions, holidays, parades, fairs organized by the pupils on the principle of voluntary participation. Group club activities are organized through the work of club associations. Individual club activities can be conducted through the development of projects made by pupils in providing them with counseling or educational assistance. Participation in the activities of various associations within the school allows pupils to find the most favorable conditions for testing their capabilities, acquiring new knowledge, carrying out the desire to find their profession and realization of their individual creative plans. In addition to the possibility of using accustomed forms of career guidance, tools and techniques, such as talks, presentations, excursions, meetings, etc., club activities let us use other non-standard methods and tools for career guidance. We also used career guidance games, professional tests and trainings. Career-guidance games are needed to create situations that develop various qualities: the ability to think creatively, to find solutions, to act, to argue. These qualities are difficult to develop in daily life, but they are necessary for the teaching profession. This opportunity to become the organizer of the game allows senior pupils to acquire completely new knowledge and skills, and encourages teenagers to reflect on the problems of professional self-determination. This opportunity to become a teacher gives senior pupils a chance to try themselves in a particular professional activity, forming ideas about the circle of professional duties and essential qualities. All this helps them to make the conscious, reasonable choice of the profession. The training form of work develops the necessary qualities and forms the skills of a leader behavior, which helps not only to target pupils to the choice of teaching professions, but also contributes to a better socialization of the members of the club. Materials and methods Methods of study We used a complex of complementary methods in our research: – theoretical methods: theoretical analysis and synthesis of pedagogical, psychological, scientific and methodological literature on the research problem, generalization, comparison, classification; – empirical methods: pedagogical experiment (summative and formative assessment); testing, study and generalization of psychological and pedagogical experience, qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results of the experiment, methods of mathematical statistics. The experimental base of the study INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL & SCIENCE EDUCATION 6139 The experiment was conducted during 2014-2015 school years, 10 classes took part in the experimental work (54 pupils of the MBEI "SSGE № 20" of the city of Kirov. Results On the summative stage of the experimental work the diagnostics of the level of pupils’ interest in teaching professions was carried out using the technique of studying the factors of profession attractiveness (the modification by Rean and Kuzmina, 2013) and the methods of "Matrix of Profession Choice" G. V. Rezapkina (2007). Summarizing the results of the study, we found that only 11 out of 54 respondents (20.37%) have the interest in the teaching profession. The other respondents’ interest in teaching professions is either weak or absent, and the number of those who deny interest in teaching professions is the majority (61.11%). One of the features identified in the interpretation of the diagnostic results is that 70% of respondents revealed different levels of interest and propensity for choosing the teaching profession. This probably means that these respondents didn’t make the choice of their future profession and need career guidance. According to the results we identified the experimental and control groups. The results are illustrated (Figure 1.) Figure 1. The levels of expressiveness of senior pupils’ interest in teaching professions in the experimental and control groups In the experimental group, we realized the program of club activities of career guidance of senior pupils to the choice of teaching professions. The program "The leader" (for senior pupils) was developed and realized on the basis of the theoretical analysis of psychological and educational research and the results of the formative stage of the experiment. The objectives of the program include: 1. Development of motivation of senior pupils in choosing teaching professions. 6140 R. G. SAKHIEVA AND E. A. KUVALDINA 2. Development of cooperation skills, communication, organizational and leadership skills. 3. Development of initial professional experience. To organize the work of the club different advertising activities were held, every participant of the experimental group received an invitation to join the club. At the first lesson we informed the participants of the program of the club activities, discussed and adopted the rules of behavior. We tried to make lessons interesting, free in format, where each participant could express his views. The classes included game tasks, small group work, and educational tests. At first the participants were involved in career guidance games. At the first stage of the game the participants were asked to think about who the "leader" could be. The participants drew professional mind maps and described the qualities of the teacher. Then senior pupils discussed and solved pedagogical problems, and at the final stage they made photo collages on the teaching profession. At the end of the lesson the children were offered to answer the question if they would like to have these qualities. Almost all senior pupils gave positive answers. As it turned out, some of the senior pupils disliked such an essential quality of the teaching profession as responsibility. The second part of the course was held in the form of training. The aim of training sessions was to develop communication and leadership qualities of participants. The teacher is always surrounded by people: pupils, parents, colleagues, etc. And he must find the contact with people, understand and be understood. At the beginning of the training each participant was asked to self-assess his level of communicative skills, using a drawn ladder. During the lessons the pupils did a variety of exercises that helped them to develop communication and leadership skills. Almost all the participants were active and self-motivated and easily agreed to do the exercises. At the end, the participants were asked to return to the assessment of their communication skills. They came to the conclusion that they needed to develop their communication skills. During the game "Swamp" the pupils showed themselves as an unorganized group. Nobody wanted to take responsibility for solving the problem. This suggests a low level of group cohesion, there was no leader who would take the responsibility. The group was sincerely upset each time they couldn’t succeed in the game. At the end, at the stage of reflection, the pupils discussed the things they liked and disliked in the games. The next stage of training was pedagogical probes, and all the games were conducted by the participants themselves. It was difficult for the leaders to explain the instructions of the game clearly to other participants of the club. The children were patient and supported each other. After playing each game was discussed, the participants tried to define the purpose of the game, its pedagogical nature. The creative activity for the junior pupils was the next task in pedagogical probes. During the week, senior pupils in subgroups developed a written script of their creative activities. The final event of the program of this pedagogical club was the creative activity for the pupils of the fifth grade. The senior pupils themselves delegated duties, agreed with the headmasters and found all the necessary equipment. They were very excited, but managed to do everything planned. When we discussed the results with the pupils, we found out that many pupils got a very positive INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL & SCIENCE EDUCATION 6141 experience. But there were those who remained dissatisfied with the work. In the course of the work there were some quarrels and misunderstandings among the participants. But on the whole the senior pupils decided that the experience they had gained in the course of the work at the club was useful, because they realized all the pitfalls of the teaching profession. Some participants showed an increased interest for teaching profession, and they asked us to tell about our personal pedagogical experience. The most risky part of the implementation of the program of targeting senior pupils to the choice of teaching professions was the factor of voluntary participation. It meant that the participants were free not to attend the club activities, which in turn would negatively impact on the results of the study. To prevent this situation, we tried to make the classes interesting and we succeeded in it. The participants formed their own attitude to teaching professions, based on the experience gained in the club. At the control stage of the experiment the level of interest of senior pupils in teaching professions in the control and experimental groups was studied. The same technique was used for the diagnostics as at the summative stage. To test the effectiveness of our work, we used the methods of mathematical statistics: G-test marks for the study of the general shift of direction in the experimental and control groups and test U Mann-Whitney test to identify differences between the experimental and control groups in the level of expressiveness of interest of senior pupils to the teaching profession. We begin with the evaluation of statistical significance of the shift in the control group. We verify whether the restrictions are obeyed: the number of respondents is n = 27, 5 <n <300. We formulate the hypotheses: H0 – the intensity of the shifts in the typical direction does not exceed the intensity of the shifts in the atypical direction. H1 - the intensity of the changes in the typical direction exceeds the intensity of changes in the atypical direction. The typical positive shifts are the shifts (as there are such shifts), and the atypical are the negative (since there are fewer such shifts). We exclude from consideration the zero shifts and get n = 7. Gemp = 3, since the amount of the atypical shift is 3. According to the table we define the critical values for n = 7: Gkr = 0 (p <= 0.05) Gkr = 0 (p <= 0,01) The resulting value Gemp is more than Gkr (p <= 0.05), consequently the resulting shift is statistically unreliable, we reject H1and accept H0- the intensity of the shifts in the typical direction does not exceed the intensity of the shifts in the atypical direction (Figure 2). 6142 R. G. SAKHIEVA AND E. A. KUVALDINA Figure 2. The levels of expressiveness of senior pupils’ interest in the control group in the teaching profession Next, acting by the same algorithm, we can estimate how statistically significant the shift which has taken place in the experimental group is. We verify whether the restrictions are obeyed: the number of respondents (n = 27, 5 <n <300). We formulate the hypothesis: H0 - The intensity of the changes in the typical direction does not exceed the intensity of changes in the atypical direction. H1 - The intensity of the changes in the typical direction exceeds the intensity of changes in the atypical direction. We exclude the zero shifts from consideration and get n = 23. Gemp = 3 In the table we define that the critical values for n = 23: Gkr = 7 (p <= 0.05) Gkr = 5 (p <= 0,01) INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL & SCIENCE EDUCATION 6143 Figure 3. The levels of expressiveness of senior pupils’ interest in teaching professions in the experimental group The resulting value Gemp is less than Gkr (p <= 0.01), consequently, the resulting shift is statistically significant, we reject H0 and accept H1- the intensity of shifts in the typical direction exceeds the intensity of shifts the atypical direction, thus it can be concluded that the use of the program of club activities for senior pupils significantly increases the interest in the teaching profession (Figure 3). Let us analyze the differences between the experimental and control groups in the level of expressiveness of interest of senior pupils in the teaching profession. We verify whether the restrictions are obeyed: the total number of respondents n = 54, 5 <n <60. We formulate the hypothesis: H0 - there is no difference in the expressiveness of interest in the teaching profession in the experimental and control groups. H1 - there are differences in the expressiveness of interest in the teaching profession in the experimental and control groups. The total sum of the ranks ∑R = 1485 The sum of the ranks of the results of the experimental group ΣRe = 855.5 The sum of the ranks of the control group results ΣRk = 629.5 Uemp = 27 * 27 + 27 * 28/2 - 855.5 = 251.5 Ukr = 268 (p <= 0.05) Ukr = 229 (p <= 0.01) 6144 R. G. SAKHIEVA AND E. A. KUVALDINA Figure 4. The levels of expressiveness of senior pupils’ interest in teaching professions in the experimental and control group The obtained value Uemp is less than Ukr (p <= 0.05), consequently, we reject H0 and accept H1 - there are differences in the expressiveness of interest in the teaching profession in the experimental and control groups (Figure 4). We can conclude that the implementation of the club program helped to increase the interest in the teaching profession among senior pupils of the experimental group. Discussions The problem of career guidance requires not only the theoretical analysis, but also the experimental studies. An organized system of measures of studying professions and characteristics of various types of professional activity helps young people to choose a profession taking into consideration individual abilities and inclinations as well as the opportunities provided by the society. Career guidance is a system of measures aimed at promoting young people to choose their future professional field. Different scientists study the aspects of the problem that interests us. E. A. Klimov (1984), L. P. Krivshenko (2014), N. A. Mitina (2014), N. V. Samoukina (1999), S. N. Chistyakova (1974) and others analyzed the characteristics of career guidance of students. S. T. Shatsky (1980), R. F. Minnullina (2013), S. L. Paladyev (2002), G.I. Chemodanova and K.A. Kolokolova (2012), O. V. Shilina (2013) and others studied the opportunities of organizing the club activities at school. Conclusion In conclusion, it is important to underline the theoretical significance of the research, which is reflected in generalization and systematization of the material on the use of club activities preparing senior pupils to the choice of the teaching profession. Thus, the career guidance of senior pupils to the teaching profession with the help of the pedagogical club "The leader" was successful, as we managed to raise interest in the teaching profession, to

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