Home – Home – Jornals – Professional Education in the Modern World 2014 number 1

The article discusses the real state and perspectives of legal regulation of the electronic educational space. The authors believe that the electronic educational environment cannot be considered as a simple invariant of the educational space. Dramatic expansion of the actors, interacting in the “field” of electronic space, leads to new challenges of its legal regulation. The analysis of the available today in Russia legal framework, including the new Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation” and the Federal Law number 11 dated February 28, 2012 , not only shows their timeliness but also allows identifying their lack of legal format for the existence of full legal regulation. This results in a kind of declarative nature of the rules and their partial diffusion towards ethical orientation. The latter is not normative and cannot be such, so the multiple abstractions resulting in the formation of educational and legal space cannot be resolved on the basis of ethical principles. It is especially topical for the educational and legal space of Russia, which is experiencing a difficult transition period in its development.

The article provides an analytical review of the most appropriate from the point of view of the author methodological approaches to studying very topical problems of integration of education and law. At that, law and education are considered only as social institutions, regardless of their other characteristics. Among the possible methodological approaches the author indicates the systemic, activity-based and the socio-cultural ones. However, according to the author, the most appropriate one is the neo-institutional approach. The author argues that the underlying principles of this approach can more fully analyze the current state of integration of education and law and identify the trends of their subsequent functioning. The author believes that the civil society should become the main sector of the development of integration as interaction. It is the civil society (as an underdeveloped subject of education and law today) that can act as a generalizing entity in shaping the educational legal space. At the same time, the affirmation of the person as the subject of education and law in the discourse of the integration problem of these two social institutions (as a plane of the activity and neo-institutional approach) allows the author to formulate an opinion that the neo-institutional approach in this perspective needs to be modified.

The search for the ways to overcome the education crisis in modern Russia suggests the identification of the prerequisites of innovation activities carried out within the legal field. The aim of the article is to reveal the ontological foundations of the new and traditional in law and education. The article solves the following problems: a) clarification of the content of the terms «liberalism», «traditionalism», «positive law», «natural law»; b) justification of the thesis that positive and natural law is the form of expression of the contradiction between liberalism and traditionalism. The authors use the method of historical and logical unity and the dialectical method in the research. The results of the research: a) the principles of the cosmological variation of natural law are the legal basis of traditionalism in education; b) positive law is the legal basis of pedagogical innovation activities. Conclusion: innovations in the legal and pedagogical space are the result of the transformation of general algorithms of being, caused by the interests and needs of the subjects of law and education.

The article examines the origins of modern professional education, which are rooted in the age of Enlightenment which brought natural justice as a hope for a change in human nature. Natural justice has captured the minds of many educators including those in Russia who became its theorists. Thanks to their work, the idea of perfection of man has found the real embodiment. Free formation of man as a person, his entering the society, open manifestation of his abilities and natural capacity allowed to speak about his rise to the top of mastership and about him as a professional. The current Russian professional education, which creates today the world of higher values presented in the individual abilities to creativity and skills, should take into account the educational ideals identical to the person’s psychological culture.

In the article, there is considered the concept of the distance learning technologies together with their applications in the science of law. These technologies promote the involvement of additional students and expand the education market by eliminating the problems associated with the full-time studying and going away from the place of residence. At that, there are outlined the main problems in the formation of an integral system of distance legal education. There are proposed the basic ways of realization of the process of distance education in jurisprudence. There are addressed the issues of compliance to a single educational standard regardless of the location of the educational institution and the students. There is considered not only the mastering of professional knowledge but also of the competence, i.e. the ability to perform professional activities in this new, specific form of training, which is somewhat different from the usual forms of full-time or extramural learning. We consider some didactic principles of distance training, aimed at exploring contemporary issues of didactics, pedagogical knowledge systematization and consistent access to their practical application.

The philosophers claim that the philosophic category of “quantity” always evolves into “quality”. However, this quantity is not always positive. There has arisen such problem of non-positive transition of the quantity the new laws, adopted by the legislative power of Russia, to their quality. The aim of the article is to outline, on the basis of the analysis made by the authors, the main problems of quantity and quality of legislation of Russian Federation; and also to demonstrate the authors’ own vision of the ways of solving this topical problem.

In the article, on the example of teaching a course of logic and its first topics in the Law Institute, there are considered the following aspects of the education-upbringing process: adequate understanding of the issues and adequate mastering by the students of the studied material; creative, critical, dialectical-materialistic approach to the theory and practice, introducing of the freshmen to the research work, reflection and practical realization of the unity of education and upbringing, the result of which should become the development of personality of the student, formation of the attitude of citizenship, patriotism, professionalism, positive moral qualities.

The article proposes to consider five levels of the philosophical culture of the future expert: the anthropological, gnoseological, ethical-axiological, methodological and ontological ones. The ontological level is analyzed on the example of the problem of a legal norm and the problem of discrepancy of social and legal being. On the ontological level, there is revealed the possibility or lifelessness of a certain way of law application in the existence of the state, the connection or split between a given way of law implementation and the existing reality. The themes of difficult relationship between the person and the law, the law and justice, justice and morals have been long ago identified in philosophy as “eternal”, because each generation and each person have to solve them anew. The legal thinking is a difficult system-forming phenomenon. As the world outlook of the future expert, the legal thinking is formed in a complex way, on the basis ofinterconditionality of all the studied humanitarian and special disciplines. But the philosophy plays the integrating role in this process. In the course of training, the philosophy has to be perceived as complete knowledge which becomes complicated in the process of personal development of the person as the citizen of the country.

The author’s goal is to clarify the reasons for an unusual phenomenon: although many Russian university entrants would like to make a career in jurisprudence, the state policy does not approve this choice. In fact, legal colleges and universities do not encounter difficulties searching for the entrants dreaming of getting a lawyer diploma despite serious problems for the young specialist in finding a legal job. Moreover, legal education is fee-paying almost everywhere. Meanwhile, the state policy is oriented to reduce the number of legal specialists by means of closing down the law departments and declaring as inefficient the legal educational establishments in Russia (mostly, private colleges and universities). It even puzzles, because the state itself bears neither expenses no responsibilities for the young specialist’s career (nowadays there is no assignment of young specialists in Russia). Having studied the specificity of legal education in the context of traditionally formed methods of coordination between the state and its citizens in Russia, the author has come to an unexpected conclusion: the persistent desire of entrants to study law is due to the fact that there is a need for defending their individual freedom with legal methods.

The XXIst century is the century of changes and innovations. The meaning of vocational education is transformed. Today the university education is not equivalent to a long-term prospect of life success. The labor market’s demands for professional and qualified workers are changing very quickly. The need for the human resources, capable of self-adaptation to new problems, is increasing. Education is being actively modernized (LLL, educational constructivism, educational connectivity, knowledge triangle). The philosophical and research issues of vocational education, according to the author, are cross-cultural and interdisciplinary. There is also the demand for the formation of an effective, marketable education. There are presented an analysis of the trends in education development, interaction of classical and virtual education (Coursera, Skillshare, Twitter ...), and the forecasts of supply and demand in the labor market and in the educational market. An increasing role of “Startups” and “Greenfield technologies” is described.

The author carries out a system analysis of the quality of domestic higher education in modern Russia. In the article the indissoluble interrelation of indicators of the quality of preschool, school and higher education is shown; the main reasons for the decrease in the quality of education at all the above stages are established. The following statement is proved: the modern educational reforms, in contract with the declared positive purposes, promote formation of a destructive paradigm of the quality of Russian education, which contradicts the concept of national security of our country and is directed on decomposition of the Russian society and its sharp polarization.

The article is dedicated to providing guidelines for the methods of assessing the professional competence of the agriculture specialists in the Altai Territory. The topicality of the subject increases with the increasing of the role of cadres in the enterprises, since the evaluation of the level of professional competence of the specialist at each stage of additional professional education is a very important and necessary part of the professional activity of the employee. At that, the introduction of the voluntary public certification for the specialists and managers of agricultural enterprises can significantly streamline the process. The authors carried out some work to provide guidelines for assessing the professional competencies of agricultural workers at different stages of professional activities; most importantly, in the context of agriculture being today a strategically important industry.

In line with the Bologna agreements, the Russian education is adopting new educational standards. In this regard, the author of the article suggests upgrading the system of methodical preparation and introducing an integrated training module for the Bachelors of teacher education. The article describes a mechanism for integration of the structure and content of several educational disciplines: «Modern means of assessment of learning outcomes», «Use of modern information and communication technologies in the science education», «Integrative approach to studying natural sciences at school» and «Theory and methods of teaching biology». As a result, there is introduced in the Bachelor Degree program a new discipline, «Methods of education (biology)».

In connection with the adoption of the Law “On Education”, we have taken the path of modernizing the educational system. The author analyzes the current state of the elementary professional education system, its role and importance in solving the personnel training problems. The article describes the concept of educational standard, its functions and reasons for implementation of the Federal National Educational Standards. The content of education in the elementary vocational school, an important part of which is the students’ general education, has undergone significant changes. There are distinguished the provisions of the Law on Education of December 29, 2012 that relate to the reforming process of professional schools.

The aim of the article is to identify the trends in vocational education in the region. According to this aim, an analysis has been conducted of the changes from the beginning of market reforms to the present. It has been found that due to diminishing of the number of students in the institutions of primary and secondary vocational education, and the growth of the higher education institutions, in the vocational education in the region there is being formed a tendency of discrepancy in the size and structure of training. This leads to a shortage of mid-level professionals and skilled workers. At the regional level, we need to strengthen measures aimed at enhancing the prestige of working professions and specialties of vocational education. The authors used a novel approach that allowed considering the problem from the standpoint of the development of private property.

The authors analyze the current situation concerning the directors of agricultural enterprises and show the need for establishing of a system of management of the process of professional growth of agricultural directors. The authors formulate the requirements for this “system” and set out their vision for its structure and content. The purpose of the work is ensuring the efficiency of agricultural production through the systematic growth of professionalism of the managers of agricultural enterprises. There are considered in detail the basic elements of the system and the professional support of the managers of agricultural enterprises, while making emphasis on the individual approach to each manager to ensure sustainable growth of professionalism and motivation to innovate and improve the production efficiency.

The article deals with the content-related components and the objectives of the professional education in modern Russia. The author claims that the activities of educational institutions should be oriented to the formation of “homo creator” in the era of post-industrial modernization. It is argued that for this purpose in the Federal State Educational Standards there should be consolidated the disciplines of the basic part of all educational cycles, increased the number of the academic subjects of the variable part (mainly the “courses by choice”) and strengthened the research component of the curriculum. The author emphasizes that homo creator is not the “all-round developed person”, but it is the person whose constitutive feature is the personal independence.

The article examines the current topical problems of modernization of the education system and the development of modern Russia in the context of globalization. There is substantiated the necessity of the correspondence of the reforms to the historical traditions of the country and the type of society. The authors support the assertion that the limit of the reforms degenerates. As a result, “the reform < ... > inevitably turns into its opposite, i.e., a kind of counter-reform”. The authors develop methodological principles associated with the idea formulated above. The central idea is that the study of the limits of reforms has become very topical for ensuring Russia’s national security.

The author analyzes a serious pedagogical problem of intensification of the learning process in higher education with the use of modern educational technologies, in particular, the technologies of the problem-modular training. There are discussed the possibilities of creative educational technologies. On the background of the new Law on Education, establishing and adopting of the new Federal Educational Standards, the problem of modularity of learning appears in a slightly different light: not only as an innovation, not only as a form or method of enhancing teaching and learning process, but also as a complete and perfect means for changing the approach to teaching, the pedagogical view of one’s work and the work of students of higher education. The work of teacher will undergo significant changes; students’ independence will significantly increase. The approach to the methods of obtaining and evaluating knowledge will change as well. The independent work of the student and the creative work of the teacher can become the basis for a real change in Russia’s system of vocational education.

The article describes various aspects of education in the humanities as related to the complicated situation in the Russian educational space. Education is considered as “the making, the formation of man”; and the goal of liberal education is defined as “the basics of the inclusion into the system of social relations”. Revealing the importance of education in the humanities, the author raises the issues related to the reform of the entire education system and, in particular, in vocational education and indicates that “direct focusing on a specific narrow profession instead of forming socially active, free-thinking and capable of self-realization personality leads to the low-level results”. Further arguments are related to the role of liberal education in shaping the culture of the specialist. Insufficient efforts in this direction, the author believes, are “the result of distortions of the education strategy”, on one hand, and, on the other, the result of “the state’s withdrawal from participation in the educational process”. The author perceives two ways out of this situation: 1) the humanities and social sciences should be introduced by the state in a directive fashion, and 2) the continuity of education should be ensured.

The responsibility of authorities in the new conditions of development determines the future of each country and the planet as a whole. Taking into account the impact of global issues on the education system, the state should have a clear idea about the required features of education in the new conditions of globalization. There is a growing awareness of the fact that mankind, concerned its survival, is increasingly drawn to the problems of education (upbringing), its development and improvement. It is being decided today whether the new century is going to be humane or aggressive, educated or ignorant. The state must take drastic measures to refurbish the educational process and provide it with information channels; must care about upbringing, physical and mental health of students, enhance the connection between manufacture and science and promote the impact of education on overcoming the demographic crisis in the society. However, is it always the case that the immediate and remote consequences of some powerful innovations are being thought through?

In the article, there are indicated the basic features of globalization. The author shows the positive and negative influences of this process on the Russian education. Besides, there are considered the most significant problems in education and the directions of their solving. The main feature of Russia is indicated: geographically it realizes the connection between the West and the East. The author concludes that it is necessary to consider the geopolitical features of Russia in the education system. Modernization of education in our country cannot and should not occur only by acceptance of the standards of the West and submission to it. Studying the system of education of the East is of interest. It is also important to take into account the achievements of the domestic scientific schools.

The article analyzes the specific features of the individual mentality in terms of its influence on the student’s integration into the educational space. The inclusion of the individual into the educational process is determined and regulated by her mental features, thus making relevant the issue of forming and functioning of the individual’s mentality. In this connection the analysis of the structure of the individual’s mentality, its structural levels, components and their interrelation is conducted. This makes possible revealing the peculiarities of its determination. The importance is indicated of the individual’s mentality in the educational process in light of her cognitive and perceptive capabilities, as well as its objectification on the behavioral level. Mentality is viewed as a condition of the individual’s entry into the social environment as well as a factor of its transformation. There are considered the functions of mentality (transitivity, activity), which expose multifacetedness of its social value.

Today, the modular system of teaching is gaining more and more popularity in education, because it reflects to a greater degree the process of development and the result of acquiring of knowledge. The purpose of the paper is to substantiate the effectiveness of the modular system of teaching. The objectives are to characterize the modular system of teaching, justify an innovative model of teaching within the advanced training and identify the advantages of the modular system of teaching. According to the conducted studies, the modular principle promotes realization of the methodological approach in the process of participants’ learning, since, in the conditions of unequal readiness to the knowledge acquisition, it provides selectiveness, the distribution of new information by doses and its accretion to the basic knowledge.