Abstract:

Modernization of higher education in Russia asks for the development of pre-service teachers' skill to set a goal, identify a problem, suggest hypotheses, present arguments, predict consequences, adopt alternative points of view. The above-mentioned requirements constitute the content base of pre-service teachers’ professional competence, which is understood as the skill to solve non-standard problems determined by the conditions of real pedagogical activities. How can the given requirements be achieved? Due to the application of modern educational technologies, precisely a video case technology, the authors claim. In modern practice, a video case technology is widely used in training pre-service teachers, the methodology of its use for developing their skill to formulate a pedagogical problem still remains insufficiently studied though. This circumstance, according to the authors, determines the subject of the study: development of pre-service teachers' skill to formulate a pedagogical problem on the basis of video cases. Thus, the aim of the study was to develop and experimentally test the methodology of using video cases to develop pre-service teachers' skill to formulate a problem when solving pedagogical tasks. The methodological basis of the study was competency-based and contextual approaches which aim at achieving the result, which is not the sum of the learned information, but the skill of a person to professionally act in various pedagogical situations. The research methods used in this study were the analysis and systematization of theoretical sources and a pedagogical experiment. The authors theoretically justify the potential of video cases as a means of developing the skill to formulate a pedagogical problem. Video cases immerse participants in a real problem situation, which allows them to realize that there is no single correct answer, and offer optimal solutions to the situation. The main conditions for the successful implementation of this technology are defined. The main criteria for assessing the relevant skill are considered. 50 BA students participated in the experiment. 5 sub-skills were measured: problem understanding, problem description, clear problem formulation, differentiation between facts and opinions, and objective consideration of the problem. At the ascertaining stage, the skill to formulate the problem according to the above-mentioned criteria was diagnosed. In the control group, the experiment was carried out according to the traditional case study technique, and in the experimental group, a developed technique which included a triple-stage model: the selection of video materials in accordance with the topics studied, problematization of pedagogical disciplines content, the definition of didactic and methodological structures of classes, was approbated. The control stage of the experiment confirmed the authors’ hypothesis that video cases develop pre-service teachers' skill to formulate a pedagogical problem, for video cases as allow activating mental activity, developing the ability to analyse situations, getting deeper into the essence of the studied phenomena if compared to the traditional case study technique. The technique presented in the study can be applied to different disciplines and combined with other teaching techniques.

Keywords:

Methodology of video cases application, pre-service teachers training, professional competence, skill to formulate a pedagogical problem.