Search

Background. The article addresses the issue of developing reflective skills of future teachers during their university training. The object of the research is students' reflective skills determining their disposition to professional pedagogical activity. The purpose of the article is to examine the dynamics of reflective skills development of students majoring in pedagogics through their reflective activities during the learning process. Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the research is reflective, competence-based and system approaches. The author used the following methods: comparative analysis of pedagogical facts on the research topic, testing, pedagogical experiment, and survey. The collection of empirical data was carried out by using various pedagogical tools such as the questionnaire for self-understanding in the process of communication (by William Stephenson); the experimental technique of cooperative reflection (by T.F. Usheva and others); the method of activity analysis (by S.D. Neverovich and others), and the questionnaire for individual manifestations of reflection by A.V. Karpov. The study included 73 students of pedagogical specialties of Irkutsk State University. Results. The results of the study demonstrate positive dynamics of developing reflective skills of students majoring in pedagogics. Organizing the learning process based on reflective activity allowed to develop personal reflective skills in the beginning. The next stage included developing intellectual, communicative and cooperative types of reflective skills. The process of developing cooperative reflective skills turned out to be the hardest to start. Mainly, this process is complicated by problems in reaching agreement of students' activity positions and planning their collective actions. The dynamics of developing reflective skills does not depend on the stage of higher education (studying for bachelor's or master's degree). Students of every stage of higher education demonstrated the same trajectory of developing the four types of reflective skills.

The article is devoted to the problem of information and communication technologies usage in the foreign language classroom. Some practical recommendations of students' pedagogical support provided through the computer training program are offered. The article responds to call for principles and teaching practices that address the worldwide problem of various aspects of a foreign language lesson. It draws on educational research and extensive experience with classroom practices to explain important principles for combining the process of speaking teaching, listening skills’ training and grammar practice. In contrast to other subjects the lesson of a foreign language should develop the understanding of languages and cultures through various experiences, fostering a positive attitude toward communication. For this reason, we should follow the individual approach in teaching English. According to this goal we suggest that usage of a training program helps providing harmonious social and psychological interaction between the teacher and his students, choosing the tasks according to the level of each student, organizing various activities in the foreign language classroom, carrying out objective control over the students’ progress.