One of the important and at the same time complex characteristics of the activity of a modern teacher is such a complex concept as pedagogical culture. Given the multifaceted nature of the educational process both in the modern school and in the family, it should be noted that defining it, clearly indicating what it is, is not so simple. But still, we will try to do this, taking into account the ideas of authoritative educators of the past and present centuries, modern trends in the development of culture and society.
Complexity of definition
To limit the concept of pedagogical culture to any one, even capacious, definition is quite difficult today. The main difficulty comes from understanding what culture is. A lot has been written about her today, only her definitions are more than five hundred. The second problem point is the complexity of pedagogical activity. Various speculative concepts will not give a complete picture of the object of our study.
The second problem is the difficulty of defining the boundaries of pedagogy. It is no secret that a huge part of the world’s population has to act as a teacher.
The third problem point is that modern culture today has turned into a turbulent stream, in which there are many components that complicate the process of personal education.
Culture issues
Metamorphoses of recent decades: a change in the political regime, the formation of an open society, and the increase in the pace of globalization have had a significant impact on the sphere of culture. The changing role of the state in the cultural upbringing of society, the absence of the so-called monopoly on culture, has led to the fact that, in addition to freedom of choice and creative expression, the emergence of a low-quality cultural product has become a significant add-on. Instead of freedom of choice, we got its absence, which is expressed in the fact that there was nothing to choose from.
The broadcast of a pro-Western lifestyle has led to a significant loss of respect for the national heritage. Interest in original Russian culture and its traditions is only now beginning to gradually revive.
Substitution of spiritual ideals with material ones transforms a person into a consumer of all kinds of goods and products, and the lack of the opportunity to acquire both of these increases social tension in society.
The problems of culture become more and more obvious with the growth of other social problems, and all this in a certain way affects the education process, which today within the family is limited to the task of providing only material needs. Educational institutes have also lowered their bar, turning into repeaters of obsolete knowledge in innovative packaging.
Opinions and Theories
Returning to the concept of pedagogical culture, we note that it is quite young. Its appearance is due to the fact that in modern society there is a transition from technocratic views on the learning process to the humanitarian. Authoritarian attitudes change to democratic ones and in this connection the teacher’s responsibility grows. There is a need to determine not only measures, but also the standard of education quality. Based on this, there is a need for such a concept as a pedagogical culture.
There are many theoretical developments in this direction, considering various aspects of this problem: communicative, moral, ethical, historical, technological and even physical. In their studies, the authors are united in that they represent the pedagogical culture as a reflection of the general culture, which is manifested in the characteristics of the teacher’s pedagogical activity and is realized in the sum of his professional qualities.
Delineation from related concepts
In the framework of the qualitative characteristics of the teacher’s activities, in addition to the concept under consideration, others are also used that are similar in meaning: professional culture, competence, and others. Let us determine the place of each of them in the system of cultural characteristics of the teacher.
Regarding competence, one can cite the opinion authoritative opinion of A.S. Makarenko, who believed that the skill of the teacher is due to his level in the profession and directly depends on the teacher's constant and focused work on himself. The combination of these two most important components allows you to get pedagogical excellence. In other words, the teacher’s competence, which is an indispensable condition for the formation and development of his mastery, allows us to form a substantial part of the pedagogical culture.
As already mentioned, pedagogical culture is part of the general culture of a modern teacher. The professional culture of the teacher can be represented from several sides:
- careful attitude to rapidly changing priorities in education and upbringing;
- having your own pedagogical opinion;
- the originality of the spiritual world of the teacher’s personality;
- preferences in the choice of methods, teaching techniques, etc.
It should be noted that the presented set of characteristics allows us to determine the relationship between professional and pedagogical culture. As already noted, not only teachers but also parents are involved in pedagogical activities. That is, they also possess this type of culture. The above set of characteristics concretizes the teacher’s activities and therefore it can be argued that professional culture is an integral part of the pedagogical one. The latter can be implemented on a professional level by teachers and teachers, and on an unprofessional other participants in the educational process (usually parents).
A few words about other participants in the pedagogical process
Consider the phenomenon of the pedagogical culture of parents. In general, it can be represented as a certain level of parents' preparedness for raising children. It depends on what the results of this process will be.
The concept includes a number of elements:
- parents have an adequate level of responsibility for their children;
- the formation of necessary knowledge about the upbringing and development of the child;
- development of practical skills to organize the life of children in the family;
- effective communication with educational and educational institutions (kindergarten, school);
- pedagogical culture of parents.
The pedagogical culture at this level is the sum of various knowledge: pedagogy, psychology, medicine and other sciences.
On the role of ideas in pedagogy
A lot has already been said about this today. Various pedagogical ideas were expressed in due time by Aristotle and Plato, Leo Tolstoy and Grigory Skovoroda, A.S. Makarenko and V.A. Sukhomlinsky.
One of the most famous ideas of the latter was the priority of the educational process before learning. The brilliant teacher created his concept on the basis of universal and moral values, giving priority to the development of the personality of the child.
Today, the pedagogical ideas of the classics have not lost their significance, but at the same time new ones are required. Therefore, conferences, round tables and other forms of exchange of experience and the production of new ideas are so popular today.
Noting the importance of these ideas, the famous teacher S.T. Shatsky said that it was they who opened up new paths both in the practice of pedagogy and in its science.
Features of communication between teacher and student
Professional and pedagogical communication is a whole system of interactions between a teacher and a student, which is implemented for the purpose of training and education. Elements of the system are determined by a number of characteristics of the student and depend on age, level of preparedness, characteristics of the studied subject.
Specialists distinguish two systems:
- the subject-object system, in which the teacher is implemented as a speaker, and the student is a listener, it is also called monologous;
- subject-subjective, where the teacher and student are in continuous communication, are in dialogue.
Today, the second is considered more progressive, since it allows the student to actively participate in the learning process. This form of the lesson allows the student to quickly understand the topic, and the teacher gives the opportunity to more objectively assess the knowledge of the student.
