Abstract:

Nowadays modernization is taking place in various fields of human life. The issues concerning introduction of innovative teaching methods to schools and universities assume great importance.

The idea of sustainable life-long education requires innovations in teaching methods. However, some teachers, professors and tutors use innovative methods cautiously and prefer to employ traditional teaching methods.

To implement innovative methods at schools and universities it is not enough to be familiar with them, what is more important is to understand and adapt them. The process of creation, evaluation, development, adaptation, and management of innovative methods is important for increasing the efficiency of teaching.

The "innovative" issues as such can be studied from four different angles:
• development of basic theory and methodology of pedagogical innovations;
• study of general and specific features of innovative pedagogical activities;
• search for ways, methods and techniques of implementing pedagogical innovations in educational practice;
• development of innovative pedagogical technologies, forms, and methods, as well as putting them into practice.

Numerous papers on the issues of innovations in the educational process indicate great interest in the subject, as well as obvious lack of its development and focus on the personal qualities of the educator. In some cases the enthusiasm for innovations can damage the content and the process of education.

For innovations to be successfully introduced into educational process it is necessary to overcome contradictions between:
• the need to use innovations, on the one hand, and theoretical and practical unpreparedness of some university tutors and lecturers to apply them, on the other hand;
• the search for new forms, methods, and means of teaching and the lack of didactic material;
• predictability of the results of traditional teaching methods and unpredictability of the results of pedagogical innovations in education.
Application of innovations to teach students to be ready for their future professional activity is effective if:
• innovations are used together with traditional forms, methods, means, and technologies of training, as a tool to ensure the integrity, stability, flexibility, mobility, and the adaptation of innovations for teaching future professionals;
• university professors and tutors are ready to adapt new ideas and innovations, ready for critical self-reflection and self-assessment, creative thinking, and rethinking of the educational process;
• students are ready for innovations, both theoretically and practically, as well as motivated to use innovative methods in their professional activities.

However, first, it is necessary to define such terms as innovation, novelty, novation, innovative, to determine their role in the educational process, as well as to reveal types of educational conditions to apply innovations. The study of the issue has resulted in three types of conditions for successful adaptation of innovative methods for the educational process.

Keywords:

Innovations, innovative teaching methods, contradictions, effective application, adaptation.