Pedagogical culture: definition, components

One of the important and at the same time complex characteristics of the activity of the modern teacher is a complex concept, like a pedagogical culture. Considering the multifaceted nature of the teaching and upbringing process both in the modern school and in the family, it should be noted that it is not so simple to define it, clearly indicating what it is. Nevertheless, we will try to do this, taking into account the ideas of authoritative educators of the past and this century, modern trends in the development of culture and society.

The complexity of the definition

Limit the concept of pedagogical culture by any one, even capacious, definition today is quite difficult. The main difficulty comes from understanding what culture is. About her today written a lot, only her definitions more than five hundred. The second problematic aspect is the complexity of pedagogical activity. Various speculative concepts will not give a complete idea of the object of our research.

The second problem is the complexity of defining the boundaries of pedagogy. It's not a secret that in the role of a teacher you have to speak a huge part of the world's population.

The third problem is that today's culture has turned into a turbulent stream, in which there are many components that complicate the process of educating the individual.

The problems of culture

Metamorphoses of the last decades: changing the political regime, forming an open society, increasing the pace of globalization had a significant impact on the sphere of culture. The change in the role of the state in the cultural education of the society, the absence of the so-called monopoly on culture led to the fact that in addition to freedom of choice and creative self-expression, the appearance of a low-quality cultural product became a significant addition. Instead of freedom of choice received his absence, which is expressed in the fact that there was nothing to choose from.

The translation of the pro-Western way of life has led to a significant loss of respect for the national treasure. Interest in the original national culture, its traditions, is only now slowly beginning to revive.

The substitution of material ideals for spiritual ideals turns a person into a consumer of all possible goods and products, and the lack of an opportunity to acquire both increases social tension in society.

The problems of culture are becoming more evident with the growth of other social problems and all this is definitely reflected in the process of upbringing, which today within the family is limited to the task of providing only material needs. Education institutes also lowered their stakes, turning themselves into repeaters of outdated knowledge in innovative packaging.

Opinions and theories

Returning to the concept of pedagogical culture, we note that it is quite young. Its appearance is due to the fact that in modern society there is a transition from technocratic views to the process of learning to the humanities. Authoritarian attitudes change to democratic ones and, in this connection, the teacher's responsibility increases. There is a need to determine not only the measure, but also the standard of the quality of education. Proceeding from this, there is a need for such a concept as a pedagogical culture.

There are a lot of theoretical developments in this direction, considering various aspects of this problem: communicative, moral-ethical, historical, technological and even physical. In their studies, the authors are united in that they represent pedagogical culture as a reflection of the general culture, which manifests itself in the peculiarities of teacher's pedagogical activity and is realized in the sum of its professional qualities.

Delimitation from related concepts

In the framework of the qualitative characteristics of the teacher's activity, in addition to the concept under consideration, there are also used other similar in meaning: professional culture, competence and others. We define the place of each of them in the system of cultural characteristics of the teacher.

In terms of competence, one can quote the authoritative opinion of A.S. Makarenko, who believed that the skill of the teacher is conditioned by his level in the profession and directly depends on the constant and purposeful work of the teacher over himself. The combination of these two important components makes it possible to obtain pedagogical mastery at the output . In other words, the competence of the teacher, which is an indispensable condition for the formation and development of his skill, makes it possible to form a substantial part of the pedagogical culture.

As already mentioned, pedagogical culture is a part of the general culture of the modern teacher. The professional culture of the teacher can be represented from several sides:

• Cautious attitude to rapidly changing priorities in education and upbringing;
• The presence of one's own pedagogical opinion;
• The identity of the spiritual world of the teacher's personality;
• Preferences in the choice of techniques, teaching techniques, etc.

It should be noted that the presented set of characteristics makes it possible to determine the relationship between professional and pedagogical culture. As already noted, not only teachers but also parents take part in the pedagogical activity. That is, they also have this kind of culture. The above mentioned set of characteristics specifies the activities of the teacher and therefore one can assert that professional culture is an integral part of the pedagogical culture. The latter can be implemented at the professional level by teachers and teachers, while other participants in the educational process (usually parents) are unprofessional.

A few words about other participants in the pedagogical process

Let us consider such a phenomenon as the pedagogical culture of parents. In general, it can be presented as a certain level of preparedness of parents for the upbringing of children. It depends on what the results of this process will be.

The concept includes a number of elements:

• The parents have a sufficient level of responsibility for their children;
• Formation of necessary knowledge about the upbringing and development of the child;
• The development of practical skills that allow the organization of the activities of children in the family;
• Effective communication with educational and educational institutions (kindergarten, school);
• Pedagogical culture of parents.

Pedagogical culture at this level is the sum of various knowledge: pedagogy, psychology, medicine and other sciences.

On the role of ideas in pedagogy

A lot has already been said about this today. Various pedagogical ideas were expressed in due time by Aristotle and Plato, Leo Tolstoy and Grigory Skovoroda, A.S. Makarenko and V.A. Sukhomlinsky.

One of the most famous ideas of the latter was the priority of the process of education before training. The ingenious teacher created his concept on the basis of universal and moral values, giving priority to the development of the child's personality.

Today the pedagogical ideas of the classics have not lost their significance, but, at the same time, new ones are required. Therefore, today, conferences, round tables and other forms of exchange of experience and the production of new ideas are so popular.

Noting the importance of these ideas, the well-known teacher S.T. Shatsky, said that they are the ones that open new paths both in the practice of pedagogy and in its science.

Features of communication between teacher and student

Professional-pedagogical communication is a whole system of interactions between the teacher and the student, which is realized for the purpose of education and upbringing. Elements of the system are determined by a number of characteristics of the trainee and depend on the age, the level of preparedness, the features of the studied subject.

Specialists distinguish two systems:

• Subject-object system in which the teacher is realized as a speaker, and the student is a student, it is also called monologic;
• Subject-subject, where the teacher and student are in continuous communication, conduct a dialogue.

Today, the second one is more progressive, as it allows the pupil to actively participate in the learning process. This form of conducting the lesson allows the learner to get into the subject more quickly, and the teacher gives the opportunity to more objectively assess the student's knowledge.

The definition and levels of pedagogical culture

Finally, after considering all the components, we can give a more complete definition of what the pedagogical culture is. This is a complete system, including as a foundation of universal values, its content forms the methods of pedagogical activity, communication technologies, competence, and the driving component is pedagogical skill and the desire for continuous professional and personal self-development.

On the basis of this definition, the following levels of pedagogical culture can be distinguished:

• High: it is characterized by the presence of all elements listed in the definition;
• Average: lack of proper pedagogical experience affects, as a rule, skill, while competence can be at the proper level; Sometimes this level characterizes the absence of any kind of self-development;
• Low: typical for a beginner teacher, when the technology of communication is still being established, competence is being formed, own methods of pedagogical activity are not developed.