Vol 18, No 4 (2021)

The purpose of this study is to describe a MSc course aimed at preparing the elite of engineering education, providing knowledge, developing skills and experience that will allow graduates of Master degree programs not only to find a job, but also to build a successful professional career and a happy life consciously. The presented master’s course introduces the best practices of leadership development from the rector of KNRTU-KAI, Albert Gilmutdinov (2012–2021) (based on his book «Leadership Lessons»), advanced experience in the development of leadership skills from Russian and foreign universities, as well as a unique American teaching methodology aimed at the peculiarities of training engineering personnel. The study reveals the problems of training modern engineering specialists: engineering student negative attitudes (I cannot learn English, it is too difficult to apply for a grant, an interesting job can only be found by acquaintance); inability of young people to answer questions about how to find a job in their life, how to work hard and not get tired, how to become successful and at the same time maintain good relations with people. The team of authors of the course believes that the results of the implementation of the Leadership Lessons project can be of professional interest not only among masters students, but also among all students of engineering schools, increasing the personal activity of students, their demand in the labor market, as well as strengthening ties between employers and the university.

The paper describes distance learning opportunities for blind and visually impaired students. The research aims at analyzing various tools and techniques that are necessary for their participation in online scientific projects and conferences. Methodology includes analysis of pedagogical studies, the survey carried out during International Conference for Students at Samara State Technical University, examination of educational activities performed for blind and visually impaired students all over the world, in particular the experience of American Foundation for the Blind. The findings show that distance learning programmes for blind and visually impaired people are becoming popular in many countries, but in Russia there are only a few of them. The authors prove the necessity of doing research in this sphere. It is recommended that more distance learning opportunities are created for such students at Russian universities. The analysis shows that it is even easier to plan the inclusion of blind and visually impaired students in the online scientific events that are not new and have already been held for wider public. The authors conclude that it is essential to adapt the existing system of distance learning using special tools and techniques, which are described in the article. These are accessible platforms, software used with assistive technologies, keyboard controls, audio description, smartphone apps, etc. Special emphasis is laid upon planning webinars for blind and low vision participants. This research can serve as a guide for making online scientific events accessible for all people.

The training of a specialist at a university is determined by the quality of the educational process, during which it is necessary to take into account the situation on the labor market. Successful training largely depends on the student’s self-education, which is difficult and limited in the context of a pandemic. The conditions of today’s realities dictate the methods and forms of the process of self-education of students. During the pandemic, students practice self-education on a remote basis. We consider this form as a complex functional system with its own logic of development and relatively independent stages of learning via the Internet. Changes in various fields of activity are observed daily, which increases the requirements for the quality of education of a competitive individual; the idea of online education using electronic information platforms that serve as a means of self-education of students at the university is analyzed. The process of organizing the educational process in disciplines and tasks from the position of digitalization, through the introduction of modern digital technologies in the process of education of academic courses at the time of the pandemic in the country and the world, becomes significant. The conceptual apparatus considered in the paper: «information space», «educational space», «self-education», «competence», «competence approach». It clarifies the need to teach the discipline in combination to acquire professional experience; the idea of revealing and enriching the inner potential of each person, his development and self-education throughout his life is substantiated; a detailed analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature is given. The results of a comprehensive study conducted at Chelyabinsk State University confirm the dependence of communicative competence on the student’s self-education during the pandemic.

Taking into account the need to clarify the terminological framework of modern pedagogy, the concept «pedagogical situation» in general and its place in the pedagogical discourse in a cross-cultural aspect is discussed. Today, the concept of «situation» gains a general methodological significance though lacks a clear definition. Based on the analysis of interdisciplinary research, we concluded that the integral concept of “situation” includes: presence of subjects, dynamism, external conditions, causal relations, chronotope. The analysis of scientific sources proved that in pedagogical discourse of Russian- and English-speaking authors the term “pedagogical situation” is used incorrectly, the concept of “pedagogical situation” is mistaken for other pedagogical categories at the theoretical level, there is no unified approach to its definition. Thus the pedagogical situation analysis in Russian language pedagogical discourse is centred on the formulation of a pedagogical task, and in the English-speaking pedagogical tradition it is based on the triangle diagram that includes a teacher, a student and content. In the conducted cross-cultural and partly interdisciplinary study, a “pedagogical situation” is conventionally understood as a process of interaction of subjects of pedagogical activity (educational process) with a certain task in a certain place and time.

The paper actualizes the importance of modifying the portrait of a 21st century teacher, which is being transformed in an era of uncertainty. On the basis of theoretical analysis, the authors fixed the modern requirements for a teacher working in the digital era: professional, creative, information, communication, social competence; multitasking; emotional intelligence; cultural, professional and pedagogical mobility. Differences were identified between the modern teacher and the teacher who worked at school 10 years ago; identified professional risks. During the empirical research, quantitative (questionnaires, content analysis) and qualitative methods (polls, interviews, included and non-included observation, analysis of the teachers’ creative works) were used. The research involved 300 teachers from the Pskov and Moscow regions, as well as from the city of St. Petersburg. The empirical research carried out made it possible to supplement the teacher’s professiogram with practice-oriented skills. Based on the results of the research, the authors propose a professional development program for teachers called «The Modern Teacher and the Challenges of the 21st Century.» The advanced training program for teachers is based on the provisions of the system-activity, anthropological and synergetic approaches, and is implemented through interactive forms of work. The topic of classes, forms of conducting, and the features of interaction with teachers during the courses are described. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of meaningful updating and implementation of advanced training programs for teachers working in the digital era. The professiogram of a modern teacher has undergone a transformation: a multi-tasking teacher-manager who owns technical means and knows how to find contact with children living in digital reality becomes a teacher of a new formation.

The paper is devoted to the study of divergent thinking as one of the structures of intellectual and creative development of primary school children with speech disorders. The methodological foundations of the research problem are analyzed. The tools for the study of divergent thinking for primary school children are selected. The main components of divergent thinking of young schoolchildren in the context of their general intellectual and creative development are highlighted. The concepts of “intellectual and creative development”, “divergent thinking”, “typology of primary school children with speech disorders” are specified. In the course of the study, objective indicators of the development of divergent thinking were obtained, as well as the features of this type of thinking in younger schoolchildren with speech disorders. The author shows the features of divergent thinking of younger students. The results obtained can help teachers in the development and selection of adequate methods and techniques in correctional and developmental work with younger students with speech disorders.

The paper presents the results of a study of strategies for transferring the meanings and the value orientations of young people in social networks. The Internet is so firmly rooted in our everyday life that we can no longer imagine our life without it. It is penetrating into an increasing number of human life spheres, becoming the environment in which communication, educational and work processes, leisure and shopping take place. It’s hard not to notice that the youth audience is especially interested in the virtual environment. The Internet and, in particular, social networks are becoming the environment that influences the formation and development of society, the dissemination of ideas, news, trends. On the Internet, one can observe both the amazing consolidation of users who are able to create a news agenda, and the disunity of many contradictory judgments, meanings and forms of their presentation. The purpose of this study is to identify the strategies for the translation of meanings that Internet users resort to when commenting on posts on social networks, and to study the value orientations of young people using various strategies for the translation of meanings. The study includes the author’s questionnaire, the method of diagnosing M. Rokich’s value orientations, methods of mathematical statistics (H-Kruskal-Wallis criterion, 22-criterion). Terminal and instrumental values characteristic of the 6 strategies of meanings transferring have been determined; the strategies most often used by users with abstract and concrete terminal values are revealed. The research helps to understand how the transferring of meanings takes place in a network and according to which characteristics of the value sphere users with different strategies for the meanings transferring differ.