Using Interactive Teaching Methods In The Context Of The Modern Educational Environment

Abstract

In the process of training future teachers, there is often a need to test the knowledge and skills obtained at lectures and seminars in conditions close to the real situation of school. This problem can be solved by using interactive learning methods. Interactive learning has a number of advantages, as it is associated with group interaction and activity of all participants in the educational process. Participants of interactive training stimulate and activate each other. In the conditions of using interactive teaching methods, joint educational activities turn into a model of social communication of individuals. Interactive teaching methods create an environment in which the relationship between the teacher and students gives educational classes not only cognitive, but also educational character. In this regard, interactive methods go far beyond the educational goals. The paired lecture provides opportunities for intensive interaction between the teacher and students. Such a lecture will be effective and interesting when the content of the theoretical material has different points of view on the same problem. The seminars use interactive methods such as analysis of specific situations, tasks – "cases", group discussion, role-playing, brainstorming, games-dramatizations of real professional situations, etc. Interactive learning methods help to improve the quality of training of future specialists due to the fact that the development of knowledge actively involves thought processes stimulated by the need to perform direct actions.

Keywords: Educational environment, interaction, interactive learning, students

Introduction

Significant and intensive recent changes that have affected almost every aspect of human life have a great impact on the requirements for modern education. There are two directions in improving the effectiveness of higher education: to modernize the organizational and content aspects and to optimize the professional activities of teachers. This is possible using complex and system approaches. It is also important to take into consideration that students of pedagogical universities usually are not prepared to work in school.

Analysing the profession concept, we can conclude that the profession is not only certain characteristics of professional activity of an employee. It also assumes a qualitative characteristic of mastering the specialty that a person develops. This quality means, to some extent, the person’s way to the top of professionalism and improvement of the personality of a professional (Burlakova, 2015). The very fact that different professionals have different levels of professionalism leads to the need to speak about a professional evolution of a person. In the context of our research, the training of future teachers for professional activity in modern conditions is a priority direction for the development of teacher education in the country. The aim of the university is to teach the students to learn; thus, to prepare them for self-education throughout their entire life in order to improve their professional knowledge and reach the top of pedagogical professionalism (Dze & Burlakova, 2019).

Problem Statement

For the first time, the concept of «interaction» was considered in psychology as a process of organizing interaction between communicating individuals, i.e. in the exchange of not only knowledge, ideas, but also actions (Andreeva, 2003). Interaction is of particular interest for modern pedagogy, in the context of the organization of the educational process. Interactive learning is updated due to the fact that it is associated with group interaction, the activity of all students, and the emotional involvement of each student in the work. Participants in interactive learning can stimulate and activate each other. In terms of interaction, there is an opportunity for competition and rivalry. Students fully get the opportunity to gain experience in using their knowledge and skills in practice, in specific situations of communication, expressing their own thoughts, opinions and ideas (Penskaya, 2012).

Joint educational activities with the use of interactive methods of model social communication between individuals. Laudis (1989) pointed out that during the joint educational activities, personal components of the educational interaction, and not students’ knowledge have a direct impact on their inner world and they are the main carriers of the educational function of training.

Interactive teaching methods create an environment in which the relationship between the teacher and students gives educational classes not only cognitive, but also educational character. In this regard, interactive methods go far beyond the educational goals. They are a means of self-knowledge and knowledge of other people, form a worldview, contribute to personal development and understanding of the actions and motives of behaviour of others, develop students' communicative competence, which is so necessary in the field of human relations (Badmaev, 2001).

Research Questions

In the process of professional training of future teachers, there is a constant need to test the knowledge and skills obtained at lectures and seminars in conditions that simulate real school situations. During the practice at school, it is possible to ensure the development of certain practical skills. However, often during the practice at school, the student is left alone with problems, without receiving feedback from teachers-mentors about the quality of their training, about the relevance of their skills. Such difficulties can be overcome by using interactive learning methods in the classroom.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the research is to determine the most effective methods of interactive learning in the process of training future teachers.

Research Methods

The methods of our research are: content analysis of literature on the problem of professional training of future teachers, supervision of students and teachers of the first 3 years of work at the school, analysis of the received material.

Findings

The specificity of interactive teaching methods is that they not only model, but also implement in practice the subject-subject relationship of the teacher and students in the educational process. Creating conditions for students, the teacher usually acts as the organizer of training (Aslan, 2019). Collaboration, interaction and co-creation are the priority forms of interaction between teachers and students in the conditions of interactive learning (Volkova, 2017). The results of such training are achieved by mutual efforts of participants in the educational process.

The paired lecture provides a number of opportunities for intensive interaction between the teacher and students and students with each other. We usually conduct a pair lecture together with a colleague who teaches the same or similar courses. According to our observations, such lecture is effective and interesting, especially when the content of the theoretical material has diametrically different points of view on the same problem. In this case, each teacher highlights and justifies one of the approaches to the issue under consideration. At the end of the presentation of theoretical positions on the problem, students take an active part in a joint discussion of the issues considered.

Teachers may have difficulties in preparing for the lecture, because it is important not only to choose a variety of material on the topic, but also to formulate questions that students in the group should find answers to at the end of the lecture. We organize the process of discussing different points of view on the problem using discussion. For example, after the presentation of the theoretical material, students can be asked to divide into two groups, depending on which point of view is closer to them and more correct in their opinion. Then the group members formulate questions for the opposite group. Teachers at this stage of the class act as consultants. Then the groups ask each other questions and discuss the answers they received. These questions can also be addressed to any of the teachers.

The advantages of a pair lecture as a method of interactive learning are that students form a need and develop the ability to comprehensively consider the problem under study. Students have the opportunity to understand and remember the received information well, not in the process of reproducing ready-made knowledge, but in the process of joint activity.

During the seminars, we tested such interactive methods as analysis of specific situations, tasks – cases, group discussion, role-playing, brainstorming, games-dramatizations of real professional situations, quests, e-learning, mind-maps teaching, etc. (Gagic, 2019; Gianelli, 2018; Kicherova & Efimova, 2016). Online training is of particular interest. It has been sufficiently tested in the context of a pandemic. Some platforms make it possible to effectively use active forms of learning (Koroleva, 2016). However, according to a survey of students, they preferred to use agile technologies in distance learning, which were most interesting and effective for them in the process of learning the course content. It is necessary to briefly present the methods of interactive learning that we have tested, which, in our opinion, are the most effective.

The method of analysing specific situations is quite easy to prepare and use. It is based on a description of a real professional situation or emotional and behavioural aspects of human interaction. When analyzing a specific situation, students need to «get used» to the proposed circumstances, understand and evaluate the positions of other participants. We use the method of analysing specific situations in classes of the psychological and pedagogical courses. In preparation for the lesson, the teacher develops a specific professional situation from the experience of school teachers for its comprehensive analysis. Here it is important to consider a number of requirements:

• the chosen situation is logically related to the content of the theoretical course;
• the chosen situation corresponds to the future professional activity of students;
• the content of the selected situation reflects the real professional situation, events or facts;
• the selected situation corresponds to the level of training of students.

Tasks – cases open up wide opportunities for studying the material in classes. This method involves working in micro-groups. The essence of it is that the participants of each microgroup independently select and describe a real problem situation from their life experience. Then the students of the two subgroups exchange compiled cases and within a certain time (40 minutes) find ways to solve it. Students work together in a group to develop (or remember) solutions to the proposed situation. At the final stage, the subgroup participants discuss other possible solutions to the case (Burlakova, 2015).

The development of the case is carried out according to the following scheme:

• the name of the situation, its content (where and when it occurred, how events unfolded);
• actual information needed to clarify it (participants, external environment, conditions, etc.);
• the wording of the question to resolve the proposed situation.

The developed case is provided on a separate sheet of paper and passed to another subgroup.

Group discussion, as an interactive method of teaching, was used by us in seminars on pedagogy. The algorithm for this activity can be presented as follows. At the first stage of the work, students watch fragments of films on pedagogical topics («Scarecrow», «We will Live until Monday», «French Lessons», etc.) and observe their characters. In preparation for the seminar, students can watch one of the proposed films in full as homework. In the course of viewing, each student records the answers to the proposed questions. At the second stage of the work, after viewing fragments of a film, students report the results of observation and give answers to questions. At the third stage, a group discussion is held on the main issue. In the process of preparing for the discussion, students are divided into two subgroups, depending on which point of view they find fault with: a) «the situation could have been prevented»; b) «the situation could not have been prevented». In subgroups, panellists select arguments to defend their own position and formulate questions for a group of opponents. Then the group discussion procedure is carried out. The teacher during the discussion monitors its rules, compliance with the rules, and encourages the activity of participants. At the end of the discussion, the participants of each subgroup are given the opportunity to discuss the opinions of their opponents, if necessary, adjust their own point of view and make the necessary additions. At the fourth (final) stage, the results of the discussion are summed up, and impressions are exchanged about the proposed form of practical training.

Role-playing allows students to model situations of future professional activities. After the role-playing game, it is discussed. Participants share their experiences of lost roles, express their opinions about the interaction process, and note the positive and negative aspects of communication. Role players describe the difficulties they had to face during the role-playing game. The teacher acts as an organizer and consultant during the game. At the summing up stage, the teacher gives the participants of the role-playing game the opportunity to share their experiences, correlate them with existing knowledge, and analyze the practical experience of using the theoretical material obtained during lectures.

Conclusion

Thus, methods of interactive learning contribute to improving the quality of future teacher training due to the fact that the theoretical material is tested and honed in practice during seminars in the process of activity training as the development of knowledge actively involves thought processes, stimulated by the need to perform direct actions. Using theoretical knowledge, students can analyze and evaluate the phenomena that they will encounter in their future teaching activities. In addition, interactive methods have a huge educational effect when a student not only expresses a scientifically reasoned point of view, but also expresses their personal attitude to the problem, their worldview and moral position.

Acknowledgments

The group of authors expresses sincere gratitude to the leadership of the Institute of Socio-humanitarian technologies, MGUTM, Director of the Institute, Ph. D. Julia G. N., and scientific head of the Institute, Prof., Dr. S. E. Shishov, for the opportunity to conduct work on testing the effectiveness of interactive methods during lectures and seminars with students – future teachers of a foreign language.

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