Professional Training Of Social Workers Within Higher Education

Abstract

Changes in the socio-economic and technological fields taking place in modern society require the training of more qualified specialists – multifunctional, able to implement certain urgent tasks in conformity with contemporary world standards. The methodological basis is studying the co-existence essence of the specialist’s professional training. It implies the additional subjects of activity, who act independently with a constant sense of responsibility, relying on the reflected values ​​and meanings. The difference between the educational notions “environment” and “space” is analyzed. Considering professional training within specially designed personality transformation, the authors propose three general indicators based on the classification developed by Yu. P. Povarenkov: professional performance, professional identity and professional maturity. Relying on the basic ideas and goals of the future social worker’s professional development, the authors have identified the levels, indicators and criteria for its effectiveness, reflecting both the educational activities themselves and the psychological and technological components of the educational process. The student evolves as an activity subject only within certain educational conditions: the motivating environment of the educational institution as a factor providing for the active development of new knowledge, skills and abilities; competently organized training aimed at increasing students’ and teachers’ effectiveness; monitoring of students’ creative development, their improvement in personal and professional communication

Keywords: Cco-existence essence of the specialist’s professional trainingeducational environmenteducational spacehigher educationprofessional trainingsocial workers

Introduction

Changes in the socio-economic and technological fields taking place in modern society require the training of more qualified specialists – multifunctional, able to implement certain urgent tasks in conformity with contemporary world standards (Gray & Herr, 2000; Ermakova, Koryakovtseva, Bugaychuk, & Upeniece, 2015; Koriakovtseva, Timonin, & Bugachuk, 2016; Sergeeva, Bedenko, Karavanova, Tsibizova, Samokhin, & Anwar, 2018).

Fadeev (2005) defines a professional as a person who has found his/her vocation, acts as a subject of his/her own activity and can achieve results which exceed the initial goal.

In many Russian and foreign works on psychology and pedagogy the term “professional” is studied within several realities. The key ones are revealed through interpreting the professional as the subject of the work being done; as an individual with a certain speciality; as a representative of the human society; as a person endowed with a special creative consciousness (Gray & Herr, 1998; Коriakovtseva, Bugachuk, Upeniece, & Arnis, 2017; Tatarinceva, Sokolova, Mrachenko, Sergeeva, & Samokhin, 2018). Different points of view on the essence of this concept determine a multidimensional study of the professionalization process, its basic properties, principles and development trends. Characterizing the professional, Volkova indicates the four main factors which are inherent in subjectness (not to be confused with another notion – “subjectivity”): the active nature of the activity, its meaningfulness, reflexiveness and the person’s responsibility for the final result and side effects caused by free choice (Volkova, Rusalov, & Nilopets, 2017; Volkova, Rusalov, & Nilopets, 2018; Koryakovtseva, Yuferova, & Bugachuk, 2017). Besides, the author emphasizes the incompleteness of the mentioned characteristics (Volkova et al., 2012). The motives and goals of the professional which determine his/her activity at a profound level, as well as their direct and indirect connection with the content of this activity, are of considerable interest to scientists (Bloom & Krathwohl, 1956; Hug, 1985; Shadrikov, 1982; Klimov, 1989; Markova, 1996). According to Busygin (2005), a person is a professional to the extent that he/she has mastered modern methods and technologies in order to solve emerging problems. Based on this criterion, the authors single out three levels of professionalism: low, medium and high (p. 202).

Problem Statement

Professionalization is the process of improving the person’s knowledge, skills and abilities in the activity context, implying a certain subject (represented in the given culture) and ways of working with it.

There is no doubt that the professionalism formation is accompanied by the emergence of a specific, “professional” personality type, having significant differences from that of an individual who is not a professional in the relevant field. Klimov regards professionalism not only as developed skills and prominent results within a certain profession, but also as a special psychological structure distinguished by a pronounced systematic character (Klimov, 1996). It is also noted that professionalism is not a simple set of characteristics, but a system of components distributed in a certain way.

Nowadays professionalization is often interpreted as necessary evolution of consciousness and self-awareness, covering almost the whole specialist’s life – from his/her student years to retirement age. This approach is based on the key principle underlying the Soviet-Russian psychological science – the principle of Rubinstein, according to which the individual’s consciousness and activity exist in dialectical unity.

Research Questions

In Slobodchikov’s opinion, the co-existence essence of the specialist’s professional training (hereinafter referred to as CEESPT) implies the additional subjects of activity, who act independently with a constant sense of responsibility, relying on the reflected values and meanings (Slobodchikov, 1994).

Investigating this essence, Pavlov emphasizes that a large number of diverse associations determine the comparative function of communication processes and their correspondence with professional standards fixed in a given culture. Due to this, a person chooses a profession and develops as a specialist (Pavlov, 1996). Markova (1996) assumes that one of the main external conditions necessary for achieving high results is a positive professional climate, which stimulates the worker to demonstrate his/her true potential. Another important condition is the existence of special situations that can push a person to the heights of his/her personal effectiveness.

Starting to analyze the CEESPT of the future professional in the modern educational space, a researcher should correctly interpret and correlate the basic concepts – “environment” and “space”. Zeer & Meshkova (2007) regard the first as a part of the second. The authors emphasize the multidimensionality of space, its intertemporal nature, on the one hand, and the one-dimensional nature of the environment, limitations imposed on it by the current moment, on the other hand. According to them, “professional and educational developmental space” results from intensive interaction of individuals and various social groups with two environments: educational and socio-professional. This refers to a special organizational and pedagogical system favouring the formation of students’ ability to independently discover their own abilities in different aspects of the chosen profession (Zeer & Meshkova, 2007, p. 106).

The CEESPT of the future social worker is very important for his/her evolution as an active subject developing his/her activity in the college or university with a sense of responsibility and without outside help. The CEESPT is an alliance of participants in the professional and educational space, based on common meanings and values for improving the social worker’s personal and professional characteristics.

Purpose of the Study

The structure of professional consciousness includes a set of meaningful, mandatory purports, along with general and specific information related to the goals and means of the activity, its plans and prospects, interaction participants, effectiveness assessment criteria, etc.

The basic clusters of professional consciousness are professional goals, principles, guidelines, scenarios of activity and the specialist’s self-awareness.

Professionalization is perceived as a way of an individual’s existence and self-presentation, the formation of his/her subjectness, which creates conditions for independent, creative career development throughout his/her working life. Besides, the training process affects both substantive and applied aspects of the relevant activity (considering their co-dependence). It should also be emphasized that at some point the employee begins to make his/her own contribution to the evolution of the chosen profession, improve its environment or even design a new subject area

Research Methods

Professionalism is a multisided, complexly arranged system, which includes two subsystems – activity professionalism and personal professionalism.

Activity and personal types of professionalism are interrelated categories. However, within a broad approach to the second phenomenon, it includes requirements for various properties of the certified or future specialist. In general, personal professionalism is formed and developed along with inclinations and abilities, as well as professionally significant characteristics, which are the individual’s complex properties (such as memory and attention) and personality traits (empathy, restraint, etc.).

There is a principle that may be considered the key one within the professionalization phenomenon. It consists in individualization of activity, creation of a system involving substantive and organizational-applied concepts, which form the conditions for planning and managing one’s activity.

According to Sukhodolskiy (1998), labour individualization is not the employee’s activity, but an algorithm for adapting it to reality; not finding a specific standard-based approach, but correcting the standard with due attention to individual specifics. The algorithm of labour individualization is interpreted as the practical realization of an abstract idea, of one’s own imagination.

There are two types of criteria which allow making conclusions about the employee’s professionalism level (Druzhilov, 2002): external (the quantity of manufactured products, their quality, the ratio of result and costs, etc.) and internal (professional assessment of the specialist: 1) professionally significant characteristics, skills and abilities; 2) motives of professional activity; 3) opinions on one’s own contribution to the common cause; 4) ambition level; 5) ability for self-regulation; 6) interaction with colleagues).

Findings

Considering professional training within specially designed personality transformation, we propose three general indicators based on the classification developed by Povarenkov (2002):

The indicator of professional performance reflects the degree of an individual’s professionalism and the extent to which he/she meets the requirements of the society as a whole and the professional community in particular (quantity and quality of manufactured products, efficiency, predicted evolution, etc.).

The indicator of professional identity reflects the subjective importance of activity for a person as a way of satisfying his/her own social and spiritual needs and increasing the emotional comfort level – satisfaction with the chosen profession, job, vector and pace of career growth, as well as life in general. The structure of the professional self-concept includes perceiving oneself as a representative of a professional macro group and the bearer of the corresponding culture: norms, values and traditions.

The indicator of professional maturity reflects the ability to adequately assess the difference between one’s own professional needs and opportunities, on the one hand, and the criteria that need to be met, on the other hand.

When a specialist is regarded only as a specially trained person with specific skills and abilities, many employees think that all they should do is mechanically implement received information in practice, without analysis, synthesis and other complex mental processes. A prospective attempt to abandon such an approach in favour of an orientation toward improving abilities (primarily creative ones) and analyzing the acquired experience is the paradigm in which the model of specialist training is not a formal scheme, but the exact opposite – a set of valuable recommendations for realizing promising ideas.

The basis for this model (let’s call it psycho-pedagogical) is the three components identified in the 1990s (Derkach & Zazykin, 1997) and developing in the following order:

• cognitive professionalism as the foundation of professionalism in a broad sense;

• communicative professionalism as the ability to implement the knowledge system in practical activities, as an emphasis on communication, interaction of people;

• self-development professionalism as a factor contributing to the dynamic evolution of an integrated professional activity system through adequate assessment of its potential and elimination of detected shortcomings.

The key to the social worker’s professional development is the perception of himself/herself as a self-regulating subject of activity. Along with developing a special professional motivation, the CEESPT implies mandatory control over the process of forming special abilities and characteristics needed within the chosen sphere.

Relying on the basic ideas and goals of the future social worker’s professional development, we have identified the levels, indicators and criteria for its effectiveness, reflecting both the educational activities themselves and the psychological and technological components of the educational process.

For a comprehensive assessment of the student’s success, we propose a general and a number of particular criteria represented by certain indicators.

Our approach to assessing effectiveness of a specialist who realizes himself/herself in the social sphere contributes to filling all the components of the assessment complex with functional content, as well as to revealing the relationship between them.

The application of the introduced criteria and indicators enables us to talk about the three effectiveness levels of the CEESPT: adaptive-orientational (basic), subject-effective (standard) and innovative-creative (advanced).

The first level is adaptive-orientational . Attention to one’s own needs and abilities is almost absent. There is an adaptation to the given educational environment (university), as well as mastering the fundamental principles of professionalism and general information about the surrounding reality. An individual begins to analyze those traits of his/her personality, which are most often mentioned by his/her acquaintances. The student does not show any interest in his/her actions and thoughts, does not see any sense in conscious self-improvement.

The second level is subject-effective . A future social worker has signs of stable, emotionally positive attention to the chosen profession and to his/her own needs and abilities. There is a constant wish for self-development and self-analysis within a certain system, along with formation of solid guidelines and values. The individual views himself/herself as a factor that largely determines his/her own professional evolution.

The third level is innovative-creative . The student continuously analyzes the typical and specific features of his/her personality, temperament and character, as well as the motivation and results achieved in various activity fields. He/she reads scientific and other works that have received recognition among the representatives of his/her profession, uses the received information for self-knowledge and self-diagnostics, considers personal growth an indispensable condition for professional growth.

Conclusion

Activity should be considered as a basis for personal and professional growth of a student or certified worker. A person may become a true professional if his/her profession appeals to those general abilities and personality traits which motivate him/her to work. The organization of such a relationship between motivation and needs, on the one hand, and their practical implementation, on the other hand, allows us to analyze the professional and personal evolution of a university student. Preparing to fulfill social assistance activities, the future professional begins to understand its goals and objectives, to perceive the surrounding reality in a different, “enriched” perspective, develops psychosocial techniques and corresponding skills and abilities, becomes the bearer of new properties which play an essential role within the chosen profession. Such awareness about the further duties serves as a basis for their implementation in practice using a creative approach.

The student evolves as an activity subject only within certain educational conditions: the motivating environment of the educational institution as a factor providing for the active development of new knowledge, skills and abilities; competently organized training aimed at increasing students’ and teachers’ effectiveness; monitoring of students’ creative development, their improvement in personal and professional communication.

Psychological and pedagogical conditions conducive to raising the professional level of a student preparing to work in the social sphere can be realized more productively due to established educational space and motivated team. To prepare a qualified specialist with a significant professional and personal resource, the education space should fulfill three functions: motivating, supporting and corrective.

Acknowledgments

The authors of the article express deep gratitude to Natalia L. Sokolova, PhD in Philology, the Head of the Institute of Foreign Languages of Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, and Svetlana A. Sharonova, the Deputy Head (research), Grand PhD in Social Studies. The publication has been prepared with the support of the “RUDN University Program 5-100”

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