The nature of interaction in pedagogical situation

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Introduction

The notion of "pedagogical situation" is often used to refer to the totality of all objective factors, tasks and problems that a teacher encounters. At the same time, the term "pedagogical situation" includes everything: spontaneous circumstances, emerging difficulties, the student's position in the family, and a variety of relationships in which he or she enters. In our opinion, it is wrong to call everything that is related to children, what happens in their environment, spontaneously arises in their lives a pedagogical situation. Since the concept of "pedagogical situation" both in the literature and in practice is interpreted too arbitrarily, on the basis of our research we proposed our own dynamic definition of the concept "pedagogical situation" (following the understanding of the dynamic nature of the educational process). We defined "pedagogical situation" as a process of pedagogical interaction between the subjects of pedagogical activity, within the framework of which a single pedagogical task of translating a unit of culture in specially organized pedagogical conditions and space-time continuum is solved [1].

Since we consider a pedagogical situation as a process of pedagogical interaction between the subjects of pedagogical activity, it is relevant to consider in detail the essence and specificity of the "process of pedagogical interaction" within the boundaries of a pedagogical situation.

Literature review

The phenomenon of communication is devoted to the works of such scientists as B.G. Ananiev [2], G.M. Andreeva [3], A.A. Bodalev [4], L.S. Vygotsky [5], M.S. Kagan [6], A.A. Leontiev [7], M.I. Lisina [8], B.D. Parygin [9], S.L. Rubinstein [10], and others. Their studies revealing the essence of communication, its structure, types, etc., served as a basis for the development of applied aspects of this problem and, first of all, for the problem of pedagogical communication and interaction.

V.S. Grekhnev [11], I.A. Zimnyaya [12], V.A. Kan-Kalik [13], S.V. Kondratieva [14], M.P. Kulachenko [15], A.V. Mudrik [16], I.I. Rydanova [17], and others have made a significant contribution to the study of the problem of pedagogical communication and interaction as a special type of communication, revealing its specificity, main functions, mechanisms. Communication as an integral part of pedagogical activity was considered by S.N. Batrakova [18], A.Yu. Baranov and T.V. Malkova [19], M.S. Kagan [6], and others. The study of cultural aspect of pedagogical communication is considered by Е.V. Bondarevskaya [20], I.F. Isayev, Y.N. Shiyanov and V. A. Slastenin [21], and others.

Thus, the phenomenon of pedagogical communication is sufficiently studied. At the same time, the analysis of pedagogical practice shows that a significant part of teachers continue to carry out pedagogical communication on the basis of subject-object relations, demonstrating misunderstanding of the role of pedagogical communication in the educational process.

Materials and methods

The selection of research methods is justified by the peculiarities and difficulties of describing pedagogical terminology with the use of pedagogical semiology. This approach suggests the following methods to be used in the research: the content analysis, the componental analysis, the systematic and structural analysis, the method of general scientific and pedagogical literature logical analysis, the method of dictionary definitions analysis, the method of interpretation and contextual analysis, the method of synthesis, systematization, generalization and comparison.

Research results

Using component analysis, as well as the analysis of definitions, we analyzed in detail the concept of the process of pedagogical interaction in the framework of pedagogical situations.

The definition "pedagogical" indicates the sphere of realization of interaction – educational, cognitive, educational, training, etc.

The word "interaction" is composed of two parts – "inter" and "action".

"Inter" implies the presence of multiple parties depending on the particular situation. Among the main content-relevant features of situations, many researchers include the composition of situation participants or actants, according to the terminology of semantic syntax and lexical semantics, within the framework of which they are widely studied [22; 23; 24; etc.]. The founder of the theory of actants L. Tenier considered actants as elements of the denoted situation: "Actants are beings... participating in the process in any form and in any role, even as mere figurants or in the most passive way" [25, p.121]. In this interpretation, the concept of actor replaces, especially in literary semiotics, the terms character and actor. The term participants of a situation means "objects directly interacting in a situation or acting as a carrier of a feature or condition" [26, p.223]. In a pedagogical situation, the composition of such actors can be as follows: it can be two participants (a preschooler and an educator, a teacher and a pupil, a teacher and a student, etc.) included in the educational process, three and further, up to the group as a cumulative subject, differing in composition, in the nature of the activity performed (class, circle, etc.).

"Action" in psychological interpretation [27; 7; 10; etc.] is defined as one of the components of activity, which is prompted by its motive and correlates with a certain goal. "By action," writes A. N. Leontiev, "we call a process subordinated to the idea of the result to be achieved, i.e., a process subordinated to a conscious goal" [28, p. 103]. In this view, action acts as an arbitrary intentional mediated activity aimed at achieving a conscious goal and solving a certain task, a minimal fragment of activity that preserves the qualities of the whole, primarily its unity or the personal meaning of the situation. Human activity is carried out in the form of a chain or sequence of actions [29].

Human activity almost always takes place in conditions of interaction with other people. In psychology and sociology, interaction is considered as a joint activity, which is an organized system of activity of interacting individuals, as a process of establishing relationships with other people, a process aimed at the exchange of information and spiritual values that stimulate the formation of personality, the reproduction of objects of material and spiritual culture. The life of modern people is a life in the conditions of a particular culture, civilization.

Interaction can be presented as a coordinated group activity to achieve joint goals and results, to solve a problem or task that is significant for the participants. Interaction becomes pedagogical when one party (teachers, parents) acts as mentors. The pedagogical process is a developing interaction of its subjects aimed at solving educational tasks. Pedagogical interaction is a "deliberate contact between a teacher and students, the consequence of which are mutual changes in behavior, activity and relationships" [30, p. 43]. M.Y. Kondratyev notes that the main characteristics of interpersonal interaction in pedagogical activity as an interactive side of communication are subject matter (the presence of a certain object requiring a joint solution of the problem, serving as the subject of this interpersonal interaction), explicitness, reflexive ambiguity and situationality [31].

Pedagogical interaction, as a rule, is characterized by great regulation, dictated by the very structure of the educational process: who, when, with what purpose, on the basis of what content, etc. enters the process of joint actions. Practically for the first time Y. K. Babansky addressed pedagogical interaction, interpreting it as mutual activity, cooperation of teachers and students in the process of their communication [32]. The most complete definition of pedagogical interaction, in our opinion, is given by E.V. Korotaeva, who understands pedagogical interaction as a deterministic educational situation of a special connection of subjects and objects of education, based on event-informative, organizational-activity and emotional-empathy unity and leading to quantitative and/or qualitative changes in the organization of the pedagogical process [33].

Actually, interactions organize the learning process itself in its various manifestations: real (here and now) and mediated (distance), active (subject) and passive (object), short-term (class, lesson) and long-term (the whole learning process), etc.

Pedagogical interaction, according to Y.K. Babansky [32, p. 29], includes the following factors: active perception, own activity, which manifests itself in mediated and direct influences on the teacher and on the pupil. This definition emphasizes the mutual activity in communication between teachers and students, which began to gradually displace the former interpretation of the relationship between the teacher and the pupil, reduced to pedagogical influence (the teacher's influence on the consciousness, will, emotions of the educated, on the organization of his activities and communications in the interests of the formation of knowledge, skills, skills, certain qualities of personality). Pedagogical interaction fulfills a developing role for each participant. On the one hand, the teacher helps children in their development (mental, moral, emotional, physical, etc.), and on the other hand, children stimulate the development and self-improvement of the teacher in his professional-pedagogical and universal qualities of personality. Interaction is necessarily inherent in a bidirectional relationship determined by the reactions of the participants of the activity, which correct the efficiency of obtaining the final result.

The process of creating a pedagogical situation is two-sided. On the one hand, the teacher purposefully creates or uses already existing objects; includes the child in interaction with them; regulates this interaction by changing the parameters of the environment; plans a certain pedagogical result. On the other hand, the child in accordance with his individual needs, subjective perception and personal qualities selects and organizes various elements of the environment into a situation (not always coinciding with the project conceived by the teacher), defines it in accordance with his own experience, and on the basis of this builds his relations with them" [34, p. 16]. Dialectic definition of the subject of interactions is complemented by a natural change of object and subject positions for each of the participants of interaction. Both teacher and student can be in different positions in a pedagogical situation. And in this regard it is necessary to distinguish such processes as influence and interaction.

The dominant influence, the unidirectional relationship between teacher and student, became the basis of the so-called object pedagogy. Usually in the humanities it is accepted to call the initiating, influencing party the bearer of subject-practical activity and cognition, the source of activity directed to the object. The object is usually understood as a fragment of reality, to which the activity of the subject interconnected with it is directed. Consequently, it is possible to define the characteristics of the object: it must be connected through activity with the subject and be a direct addressee of his activity. All these features, of course, correspond to the position of the student in the pedagogical situation and educational process, and the student is defined as a trainee. Such a student is characterized by executiveness, lack of independence in determining the goals of learning activities, decision-making, self-analysis and reflection. Therefore, traditionally, the teacher's position has been defined as subjective in learning activity, while the student's position is defined as objective, i.e. accepting.

In a pedagogical situation, the teacher is freely oriented in the conditions of pedagogical interaction. The student, however, is informed only about the nearest educational actions, so the image of a holistic activity is not formed in his/her mind. Consequently, the actions performed by him/her are discrete in relation to the situation, which, in fact, is the basis for defining the student as a passive object of pedagogical influence. In this sense, the participants of pedagogical interaction are initially in unequal conditions. The teacher has the opportunity to manage the pedagogical situation, because he has a generalized image of the process of pedagogical activity, which allows him to see the future, to lead to the predictable result. And for the student they create conditions for active inclusion in the process of activity only at individual operations. This is a natural asymmetry of pedagogical interaction, which is largely amplified by the learning situation itself. The usual teaching system turns out to be oriented to subject-object interaction in which the positions of the teacher and the student are in disequilibrium. This disequilibrium is natural for the learning situation and can optimally influence the development of the pedagogical situation, but it can also become a serious obstacle in the formation of active cognitive and life position of the subjects of education and lead to a breakdown of interaction.

Rethinking the pedagogical space in the light of social events, taking into account the duality of the educational process led to the need to replace the unidirectional concept of "impact" with a qualitatively different category. From this position, the pedagogical process can be defined as a purposeful process of promoting human education and development, carried out by adapting the cultural experience of mankind into the cultural experience of the student in specially organized pedagogical conditions.

Modern pedagogy is focused, first of all, on the organization of subject-subject interactions, in which both teacher and student are subjects, collaborators in joint cognitive activity. Both sides are characterized by activity, purposefulness, and productivity in the educational process. In such a position the pupil can be called a learner, i.e. striving to show independence in judgments, assumptions, choice of the way of activity, control and evaluation of actions. Interaction in this case turns out to be equilibrium, but its productivity depends on the unity of realizing the goal of joint activity. Subject-subject relations mean singling out the learner as a subject, recognizing him as a key value of the entire educational process, the development of his abilities based on individual capabilities as the main goal of education [35]. So, modern teachers rely on the idea of the student's subjectivity, his ability to creative work in all areas of life activity. The student is not only a product of learning, each person carries an individual, personal, subjective experience, strives to reveal his or her own potential.

Pedagogical process is a process of interaction between a teacher and students. The teacher's activity is a meta-activity, i.e. an activity aimed at organizing and managing other activities. A teacher in any pedagogical situation organizes his activity in such a way that it becomes effective for other participants of the pedagogical process - students. Thus, in the pedagogical process the teacher actively influences the student in order to transform and develop him/her. Being the organizer of the pedagogical process, the teacher acts as the subject of pedagogical activity, and the object of activity is the student, the learner, to whom the teacher's efforts are directed. The object of pedagogical activity is a person, an individual, with his/her peculiarities, desires, needs, emotions and opportunities. As a result, the object of pedagogical activity turns out to be its most active subject, and the activity itself from subject-object becomes subject-subject. Therefore, in pedagogical interaction, the teacher's activity is aimed at stimulating the activity of students, which ultimately leads to coordinated activity to achieve joint results, to solve the problem significant for them. The teacher and the student become equal participants, subjects of the pedagogical process.

Discussion and conclusions

In a pedagogical situation there is a constant interaction in the system "teacher-student" (subjects and objects) with the leading role of the teacher. The student as an object of the pedagogical process is an individual, developed and transformed in accordance with the pedagogical goals of transmitting the basic values of culture. The student as a subject of the pedagogical process is a developing personality endowed with natural needs and tasks, which, having internalized these basic meanings of culture, becomes a carrier of culture, i.e. finds itself in culture, survives, satisfies its needs, interests and aspirations, becomes happy, etc.

In our opinion, subject-object relations in pedagogical situations act as a dialectical unity of opposites. A person is an object and a subject of pedagogical interaction, an object of pedagogical influence. At the same time, his position is determined by the form of activity of the teacher in relation to another person on whom the pedagogical influence is directed. We can say that the student is a subject, appearing as an object of educational influence; in this paradoxical relation of the participants of the situation consists the dialectics of the pedagogical process. A pedagogical situation is always oriented to the interaction of one person performing pedagogical functions with another person (people) for the purpose of his/her development and improvement; it determines the nature of emerging and developing relations of subjects.

About the authors

Victoria V. Dobrova

Samara State Technical University

Author for correspondence.
Email: victoria_dob@mail.ru

Cand. Psych. Sci., Associate Professor, Head of Foreign Languages Department

Russian Federation, 244, Molodogvardeyskaya st., Samara, 443100

References

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