DOI: https://doi.org/10.62204/2336-498X-2023-3-8

THEORETICAL, METHODOLOGICAL AND CONCEPTUAL

FOUNDATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

OF THE FUTURE PSYCHOLOGISTS

Larysa Kalmykova,

DSc. in Psychology, Professor,

Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav, Ukraine,

klo377@ukr.net; ORCID: 0000-0002-7538-2635

Nataliia Kharchenko,

DSc. in Psychology, Professor,

Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav, Ukraine,

kharchenko.nataliia.v@gmail.com; ORCID: 0000-0002-9958-5226

Іnna Мysаn,

Ph.D. in Pedagogy, Assistant Professor,

Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav, Ukraine,

mysan.iv79@gmail.com; ORCID: 0000-0001-9416-4484

Annotation. The article reveals the actual problem of higher psychological education in the specialty 053 Psychology. It is related to the pragmatic issue of creating educational and scientific and educational and professional programs. In the conditions of autonomy of a higher education institution, it is necessary for the developers of these programs to have a modern scientific understanding of the peculiarities of competence approach in education, the types of competencies that should be formed in future psychologists, as well as the key concepts on which these educational documents should be based.

Keywords: higher education, psychological education, competence, declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, skills, abilities.

Introduction. At the present stage, science has formed a general concept of a competency-based approach to higher education, while the algorithms for its implementation in various educational specialties remain underdeveloped. In this regard, teachers face significant difficulties in developing educational and scientific and educational and professional programs. The situation is further complicated by the fact that in modern psychological and pedagogical science there is still a lack of order in the main (basic) terms in the nominations of which the results of education should be presented; inconsistency in the definition of key concepts that define the essence of the competence approach in higher education. Therefore, there is a need to differentiate in content and further integrate several key concepts that underpin educational, professional and scientific programs within one competency-based approach, and to describe some important actions that program designers should take when creating them.

Scientists and managers from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine took an active part in the development of this problem. Among them, it is important to mention such authors as I. Baluba, O. Vostriakov, A. Gozhyk, S. Kalashnikova, V. Klymchuk, V. Kovtunets, V. Lugovyi, M. Fomenko, O. Sharov, A. Shevtsov, and many others. They proposed methodological recommendations for the development of higher education standards, which were approved by the Higher Education Sector of the Scientific and Methodological Council of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and a thesaurus to them.

However, not all the definitions of concepts proposed by the compilers of the thesaurus can be perceived as justified in the psychological and pedagogical sense. Some of them look more like documentary (working) formulations than scientific ones. In our opinion, it is necessary to focus on the characterization of the concepts on which educational and professional and educational and scientific programs should be based. These are such key psychological and pedagogical concepts as competence, competency, knowledge, skills, communication, understanding, responsibility, autonomy, etc. Their definitions should be clarified in the light of modern scientific psychological and pedagogical concepts.

Presentation of the main material. What is the competency-based approach in higher education? To understand its essence, it is necessary, first of all, to distinguish between two general scientific categories, namely: “competence” and “competency”. For the most part, these phenomena are either identified as ability or capability, or distinguished by proving the autonomy of these concepts, or they are wrongly defined through other categories that have an autonomous status, such as “skills”, “knowledge”, etc. In order to use the concepts of “competence” and «competency» in higher education, it is important to look at the meaning of these foreign language words. Competence is a Latin word. Translated into Ukrainian, it means “I correspond”, “I fit”. Thus, professional competence is not knowledge, skills, or even experience. In general, it can be interpreted as the compliance of the declarative and procedural knowledge, professional skills and abilities of the subject of pedagogical activity with the requirements set by the National Qualifications Framework, higher education standards and job responsibilities of a psychologist; as the suitability of the professional experience formed in the personality of a psychologist for the successful implementation of the tasks of psychological education.

As for competency, it is not synonymous with the word “competence”. It is a general scientific term with a completely different lexical meaning. According to the Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language, this term is interpreted as a property similar to the meaning of the word «competent» (Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language, 1973: 250), and in most dictionaries, including original European ones (English, French, German, etc.), this Latin word is translated into different languages as capable.

A comparative lexical analysis of the origin of the foreign language term «competence» by O. Demska-Kulchytska reveals the problem of terminology in the Ukrainian language: if we use a term corresponding to the English word «competence» that would be directly borrowed from English, it should have the form «competence» rather than «competency». Thus, the researcher proposes to activate the term «competency» as a Ukrainian-language version of the term «competence», i.e. ability, capacity.

Taking into account the clarified meaning of the word “competency”, the phenomenon of “professional competence” can be defined as a property of the psychologist’s personality; an integral feature of his/her professionalism, mastery of the depths of the profession); ability, capacity, ability of the subject of professional activity to become and be competent (well-informed, ready, intelligent, meeting certain requirements, highly qualified) in the implementation of a system of pedagogical actions.

Competency in terms of educational tasks is the ultimate goal of their activities in training specialists in higher education, the educational effect achieved by a set of teaching and upbringing tools in higher education, a qualitative characteristic of higher education graduates, and a criterion of its effectiveness.

Given the personality of a graduate, competency is a multidimensional phenomenon. It is an ability, aptitude, capability, state, professional quality, professional trait, etc. These are the personal characteristics of a graduate – a future specialist – that demonstrate to an employer his or her professional and business suitability to perform certain functions in certain positions. If competence, as the compliance of a graduate’s knowledge, skills and abilities with the requirements set by the National Qualifications Framework, qualification characteristics, education standards, conventional requirements and job responsibilities, is gradually acquired in the course of studying at a university when the knowledge, skills and abilities meet these standards, then competency is the end result of such compliance, which certifies that competence has become a real integral part of the specialist’s activity, a property of his or her personality. This property is manifested, as already mentioned, through abilities, capacities, abilities, qualities, traits, etc. Thus, while competence is a basic value, an initial substance, a qualitative characteristic of a specialist as one who meets the requirements of society, industry, production, etc. by his/her knowledge, skills and abilities, competency is his/her derived characteristic that has transformed into a secondary quality and has become an internal, integral part of a professional’s personality, a stable qualitative state of his/her professional activity, a professional asset of the subject of activity, his/her highest need.

When developing educational, professional and scientific programs, it is necessary to define both integral and general competencies and professional competencies. An example of the first type of competencies is the ability to understand the importance of culture as a form of human existence and be guided in their professional activities by universal and national cultural values; the ability to work in a team, guided by modern principles of tolerance, dialogue and cooperation; the ability to use knowledge of regulations and international conventions and knowledge of the subject area in professional cultural and educational activities; the ability to realize the social significance of culture. General competencies can be presented in educational and professional and educational and scientific programs, for example, as the ability to autonomy and initiative: to take on or manage professional actions on one’s own, to put forward new ideas, promising proposals; to show enterprising, energetic, entrepreneurial spirit; to start a business independently, to be its founder; to make informed and responsible decisions, to initiate solutions to current educational problems; ability to tolerate: to show willingness to work tolerantly.

Professional competencies in educational and professional and educational and scientific programs are the vast majority. In their unity, they should form a certain idea of the future psychologist, describe the professional portrait of a modern psychologist who reveals a set of abilities, for example: to carry out theoretical, methodological and empirical analysis of current problems of psychological science and/or practice; independently plan, organize and conduct psychological research with elements of scientific novelty and/or practical significance; choose and apply valid and reliable methods of scientific research and/or evidence-based methods and techniques of practical.

Among the competencies recommended for higher education by European conventions, the ones that imply the autonomy and responsibility of a specialist stand out. We believe that these concepts can be considered in the following formulations:

• autonomy – a stage of professional development of a personality characterized by the ability to independently create or choose principles and technologies of activity and moral and ethical behavior, the ability of a specialist as a subject of professional activity and social relations to self-determination based on his/her own worldview and personal values;
• autonomy (self-government) – possession of independence in solving professional issues, independence in regulating own activities; a state in which the subject (specialist) of professional activity and the object (activity) of management coincide;
• responsibility – the ability to realize and understand the meaning and role of a specialist’s conscious attitude to professional requirements, duties, social tasks, norms and social values; the ability to consciously treat professional activities, assess their consequences for society and results in solving state (educational) tasks.

One of the least studied and under-researched categories among the above key concepts in both domestic and foreign science is the interdisciplinary category of “knowledge”. It has been defined by philosophers, psychologists, educators, cultural studies, and many other representatives of the fundamental, socio-economic, and humanities sciences. Despite the considerable interdisciplinary interest in this scientific phenomenon of “knowledge”, there are not many definitions of it, and they are all quite different in their content and essence. In our opinion, the most constructive, scientifically promising and thorough understanding of the category of “knowledge” as a human mental reality is the interpretation presented by A.A. Leontiev. This scientist considers the psychological status of knowledge as an acquisition of individual consciousness and subconsciousness of a person based on the activity theory: “knowledge is a reference point in the world, necessary to be able to LIVE and ACTION in this world” (Leontiev, 2001: 350). The scientist especially emphasizes the role of knowledge as an orienting basis for any activity, and calls the image of the world the fundamental orienting activity. Thus, based on these scientific ideas, the category of “knowledge” can be defined as the guidelines necessary for the successful implementation of pedagogical activities.

There are several classifications of knowledge. Among them are such groupings of knowledge based on the principle of antinomy as: scientific – non-scientific, explicit – implicit, theoretical – practical, social – individual (personal), methodological – subject, linguistic – meta-linguistic, implicit – explicit, innate – acquired, learned – assimilated, initial – derived, etc.

As the examples of classifications show, they are divided on several separate grounds without focusing on a more or less complete classification. So far, there is no single and consistent classification of knowledge that would unite all types of knowledge, distinguished by different parameters and bases. This is due to the complexity of this phenomenon, its multifaceted nature, multidimensionality, etc.

The most appropriate for higher education is the classification of knowledge into “declarative” and “procedural” (Ellis, 1986: 165) in terms of the functioning of knowledge, i.e., mastering and using it. The importance of this distinction is related to the fact that there are significant differences between knowledge about something and knowledge of how to do it (not only at the level of verbal knowledge, but also in terms of real professional action). This means knowledge of facts and knowledge of strategies, tactics and procedures. After all, in higher professional education, knowledge should be presented to students in a form that guides them on how exactly, in what way, the knowledge will be used in their future professional activities. This is knowledge of technologies, techniques, psychotechniques, methods, methods, forms, and means of pedagogical activity.

Unfortunately, both higher education and school education are largely based on declarative knowledge, while the empirical application of knowledge requires understanding of strategies and tactics for using procedural knowledge in certain professional situations. Moreover, it is almost impossible to directly transform declarative knowledge into procedural knowledge. In a broad sense, the first type of knowledge is represented in education by certain laws, regularities, theories, concepts, axioms, theorems, principles, conditions, prerequisites, concepts, rules, approaches, paradigms, information, facts, events, etc. They are necessary for understanding the chosen profession, its content and essence. Declarative knowledge is mostly knowledge of a particular academic discipline. The second type of knowledge is procedural knowledge, knowledge about algorithms and generalized methods of professional actions; it is a prerequisite for the effective performance of these actions. Recall that an algorithm is “a precise instruction to perform a system of operations in a certain sequence, which allows solving a set of tasks of a certain class. The algorithm leads from the initial data to the desired result through a finite number of steps (actions); at the same time, the data vary within known limits” (Manturov, 1965: 11); the phrase “generalized method” is a certain sample of performing a professional action that demonstrates how to perform these actions.

When interpreting the above concepts, the definition of “professional activity” or “pedagogical activity” is also used. According to the national psychological understanding, this type of activity is defined as follows: it is a system of purposeful, conscious, arbitrary, intentional professionally oriented actions (skills) that are accomplished with the help of professional operations (skills).

Also important in higher education is a concept that directly correlates with procedural knowledge and professional activities. These concepts are “professional skills” and “professional abilities”. What are they?

Thus, professional skills are purposeful, conscious, arbitrary and intentional actions that, in their aggregate, create professional activity in the system; they are reflective, controlled, subject to evaluation by the subject of actions; their course is always based on procedural knowledge – knowledge of generalized methods of action. Any professional skill requires an arbitrary and conscious variation of the choice and combination of operations (skills), depending on the purpose, situation, and the person being trained and educated. Possessing such skills means being able to choose the right style of teaching, to select forms of the pedagogical process in accordance with its tasks, to use the most effective methods and means (for a given purpose and under given conditions). Skills are creative in nature, since conditions are never completely repeated, and the teacher has to re-select the necessary means and operations (skills) each time. Skills correspond to the level of conscious mastery of the use of procedural knowledge.

Skills are automated (brought to automaticity of performance), involuntary, unintentional, little or completely unconscious professional operations. They are performed at a normal pace (speed), are stable, i.e., identical to themselves under changing conditions. If an operation (skill) satisfies the teacher in terms of unconsciousness, complete automaticity, spontaneity, unintentionality, speed, and stability, then the student is performing it correctly – the skill is formed. Skills are stereotypical, mechanical, and regid by their origin. Skills are the level of fluency, almost automatic mastery of a profession.

Both higher education and future professional activity of a graduate of a higher education institution are impossible without his/her competency in communication, in particular the ability to effectively communicate and interact (to produce discourses in different communication situations, taking into account the characteristics of representatives of different age and social groups; to present complex information in a form understandable to communicators, to use modern information and communication technologies).

The modern psychological understanding of communication contradicts the traditional view of it as a process of information transfer. The latest knowledge about this process and its components is provided by modern Ukrainian psycholinguistics, which has accumulated some experience in this area. Suffice it to refer to journals such as “Psycholinguistics” (Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav) and “East European Journal of Psycholinguistics” (Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University), which contain information about communicative acts that is extremely important for both university professors and teachers. Thus, communication is a complex two-way mental process based, on the one hand, on the production of speech (discourse, utterance) in a form understandable to communicators, and on the other hand, on listening, i.e., perceiving and understanding what is said orally or in writing and providing feedback. Thus, communication is a semantic interaction between two or more partners that ensures their mutual understanding and cooperation. For more details, see (Kalmykova, 2016: 259-262).

Semantic interaction can be deciphered in the following concepts: utterance, discourse, and understanding.

We consider an utterance to be correlated with the psychological category of speech actions, with the smallest communicative unit, complete in terms of content and intonation, and characterized by grammatical and semantic structure. The utterance is a unit of real speech production and speech perception, correlated with the situation and a certain semantic context. The utterance is a functional speech unit – a unit of speaking and listening.

Discourse is a coherent text or utterance in combination with extra linguistic (pragmatic, psychological, socio-cultural, etc.) factors; a statement taken in the event aspect; speech considered as a purposeful social communicative and speech action, as a component involved in the interaction of people and the mechanisms of their consciousness (cognitive processes). Discourse is speech «immersed in life»; a set of verbal forms of practice of organizing and arranging the content of communication of representatives of a certain linguistic and cultural community. It is an extroverted figure of communication.

Comprehension is the ability to identify meanings in information that is formed, formulated and expressed by a speaker, subject of oral or written speech; the ability to comprehend the content of a perceived statement. The essence of comprehension is to solve a certain verbal situation (isolation of the essential, separation from the insignificant, establishment of causal, temporal and spatial connections, clarification of properties, etc.

Among the communicative competencies of a teacher, the ability to master professional speech activity is important, which, as a multidimensional phenomenon of psycholinguistics, is understood as the highest – purposeful form of professional speech activity of the subject, independent, self-assessment, self-sufficient verbal interaction and speech influence on the semantic restructuring of the student’s consciousness in the direction designed and programmed by the teacher (Kalmykov, 2015: 65).

Conclusions. Thus, taking into account the essence of all the concepts considered allows the developers of educational and professional and educational and scientific programs of the specialty 053 Psychology to realize the key concepts and to take a much more professional approach to defining both the range of competencies and knowledge, skills and abilities in each discipline, to present in these educational documents of the university the normative content of training of higher education applicants, formulated in terms of learning outcomes.

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