Topic 1 «HIGHER EDUCATION PEDAGOGY AND TEACHER’S PEDAGOGICAL

SKILLS» AS A SCIENCE AND AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE.

1. Higher Education Pedagogy in the system of pedagogical

sciences.
Pedagogy is the science and art of teaching.

● Science stands for the knowledge of theories of learning and instructional strategies
for teaching.
● Art stands for correctly putting theories into practice and building up teaching
experiences.

Understanding of pedagogy as a science about the upbringing of children was preserved

until the middle of the 20th century. A short definition of modern pedagogy would be the
science of human education. The concept of education is used in the broadest sense,
including upbringing, training and education. However, the expansion of the limits of
pedagogy contradicts the historical title of science
To distinguish between adult learning and child learning, Knowles proposed a new theory of
adult learning, which he termed andragogy. Knowles cast doubt on the appropriateness of
applying the term pedagogy to the teaching of adults.

The system of pedagogical sciences includes:

1. General pedagogy, exploring the basic laws of education.
2. The history of pedagogy, which studies the development of pedagogical ideas and
education in various historical eras.
3. Comparative pedagogy, which examines the patterns of functioning and
development of educational and upbringing systems in different countries by
comparing and finding similarities and differences.
4. Age-related pedagogy, which studies the characteristics of human upbringing at
different age stages. Higher Education Pedagogy is a branch of Age Pedagogy.
5. Special pedagogy, which develops the theoretical foundations, principles, methods,
forms and means of upbringing and education of a person with disabilities in physical
development.
6. Methods of training in various disciplines contain specific patterns of teaching
specific disciplines (language, physics, mathematics, chemistry, history, etc.), using
the best methods and means to assimilate the content of a particular discipline.
7. Professional pedagogy develops principles of upbringing and education of a person
focused on a specific professional sphere of reality. Military, engineering,
industrial, medical and other pedagogy are distinguished depending on the
professional field.
8. Social pedagogy contains theoretical and applied developments in the field of out-
of-school upbringing and education of children and adults. Multidisciplinary
educational institutions (clubs, sports clubs, music and theatrical art studios) are a
means of enhancing upbringing and personal development.
 9. Corrective labor pedagogy contains development of the practice of reeducation of
persons imprisoned for crimes committed.
Higher education pedagogy in the system of pedagogical sciences occupies a special
place... Its development is important due to several factors, including the factor of scientific
potential. Future specialists are trained by representatives of the highest qualifications:
doctors of sciences, professors, academicians, authors of scientific theories, developers of
concepts, creators of innovative technologies in their special fields. Many of them participate
in the creation of new teaching structures for higher education, develop original teaching
methods for students. Often these innovative developments are organized with the
participation of the students themselves. This is the main specific feature of higher education
pedagogy.

2. Higher Education Pedagogy and Teacher’s Pedagogical Skills as

an academic discipline.
This academic discipline acquaints with principles, forms, methods of training in higher
education. It guarantees preparation for future activity.
● The Object of Higher Education Pedagogy and Teacher’s Pedagogical Skills is a
complex system of interacting elements, the main core of which is the goal of
training students as future specialists.
● The Subject of Higher Education Pedagogy and Teacher’s Pedagogical Skills is the
specifically and purposefully organized process between teachers and students to
achieve the goal.
The aim of Higher Education Pedagogy is to identify, promote and publish innovations in the
practice and theory of teaching and learning across all disciplines in higher education.
Objectives of Higher Education Pedagogy and Teacher’s Pedagogical Skills are:
1. study of laws of higher education system and its components (educational, learning
processes, management, teacher, student, etc.);
2. study, analysis and synthesis of practice and experience of teaching in higher
education;
 3. development of new technologies, new forms of organization, methods, learning
tools, upbringing, Management in Higher Education;
4. prediction of higher education in the near and distant future;
5. development of theoretical and methodological foundations of innovation processes.
Higher Education Pedagogy and Teacher’s Pedagogical Skills performs the same
function as any other scientific discipline: description, explanation and prediction of
phenomena which it studies, and implementing theoretical achievements in the practice of
university life.
We can distinguish three functions:
● General function is to analyze the patterns of the teaching process in higher
education, describing the educational facts, events, processes, clarification on which
laws, under any circumstances, why they occur.
● Prognostic function is in reasonable anticipation of educational reality (for example,
what will be the future of higher education in accordance with the purpose of the
social learning process, what will be the educational policy monitoring and
management, etc.).
● Practical (applied, projective-constructive) function is based on the fundamental
knowledge of improved teaching practice and new technology training.
Today Higher Education Pedagogy and Teacher’s Pedagogical Skills is regarded not
only as a science or discipline, as well as art providing knowledge, abilities and skills of the
modern generation.
Higher Education Pedagogy and Teacher’s Pedagogical Skills as art involves theoretical and
applied level.
It is known that the quality of the educational process depends not only on a certain amount
of scientific knowledge. It is necessary to have individual skills, which contribute to a better
supply of material for studying student youth, focus its attention on the most important facts,
having the desire to learn new information and to apply it in practice.

3. Categories of Higher Education Pedagogy and Teacher’s

Pedagogical Skills.
Pedagogical categories are the main pedagogical concepts expressing scientific
generalizations. Many basic pedagogical concepts are actively used by other sciences about
man and society, so they cannot be classified as "purely pedagogical".
The following concepts are classified into the categories of pedagogy: upbringing, training
and education.The category of personality formation is often added as well.

The term "upbringing" is used in several ways:

● in a broad social meaning, as the transmission of social and historical experience;
● in broad pedagogical meaning, as the organization of education in educational
establishments;
● in pedagogical narrow meaning as a deliberate systematic interaction between
teachers and students.
Training is a direct transfer process; learning the experience of generations during
interaction between teachers and students.
As a process, training has two components:
1. Teaching (the act, practice, or profession of a teacher)
2. Learning (the act or experience of one that learns, knowledge or skill acquired by
instruction or study)
Education is the process and result of getting systematic knowledge and skills. Higher
education is a set of systematic knowledge and practical skills, ways of thinking,
professional, philosophical and civic qualities, moral and ethical values, and other
competencies acquired in higher education.

Formation of personality is giving a form, a certain completeness to all components of a

person's personality.

When applied practically, it means:

1. the all-round development of a person as an individual;

2. development of mental processes (perception, memory, thinking, imagination, etc.);
3. the development of a complex, individualized system of the inner world of a person,
the acquisition of new personal qualities.

Pedagogical skills are a complex of personality traits that provides self-organization of a

high level of professional activity on a reflective basis.
The key competence areas are
● facilitating learning and
● creating future.

Another purpose of the teacher education is to support the students to develop their role and
identity. Thus, the third component in teacher education is:
● developing the teacher identity.

The competence area of facilitating learning comprises the following three competences:

● facilitating learning skills, which refer to teachers’ awareness of the theoretical

and philosophical starting points to learning as well as the ability to plan,
implement and assess meaningful learning processes;
● learning environment skills, which refers to the ability of teachers to develop a
variety of safe and accessible learning environments suitable for learning. It also
means the ability of teachers to utilise different digital resources;
● interaction skills, which means the ability of the teacher to act in different
interactive relationships and partner networks in a meaningful and ethically sound
manner.
The competence area of creating future comprises:

● future orientation, which refers to the ability and desire of teachers to be

involved in making the future of learning and society based on an understanding
of the relationships between them. It also means the the courage develop social
equality, democracy and human rights, and
● developmental skills, which refer to a teacher's ability to develop their own
activities.

The competence area of developing the teacher identity is comprised of

● reflection skills, which means the teacher's ability to recognise and critically
assess their basic notions, values and attitudes related to their role as a teacher
as well as their own thought patterns and work methods;
● agency skills, which refer to the proactive approach of teachers to building their
own development path as well as their ability to set goals for their own
development. It refers to the ability of teachers to make different decisions related
to their work, based on knowledge of pedagogy.

4. The Role for Effective Pedagogy In Contemporary Higher Education.

No longer is HE the sole preserve of the privileged few; it is now for the masses. However, a
new narrative is forming and it is one that clearly demarcates the role of the university and
the student-here the student is the consumer of a product and not just a learner .
Students are now positioned as “entrepreneurs of the self ” where HE is a “choice” to
increase human capital and hence an individual’s competitiveness within global economic
markets.

The ready embrace of consumerist ideology across the global HE sector will most
likely see a rise of an open market structure that is highly sensitive to market forces.
Economic theory defines such a market place as one consisting of a large number of rational
profit maximizers (e.g., universities) that try to predict future market values (and adapt
to the demands) and where important information is freely available to all participants. One
could quite easily argue that contemporary HE is firmly embedded within such an
environment.

Yet while there are strong moves toward a more market oriented consumer approach
within HE a values-based resistance is forming. The role of students should not only
count as consumers of a product, but as junior scholars, learners and co-creators of the
experience at the very heart of effective pedagogy.

Universities need to bring students to the very heart of its activity as true partners before it
can deliver an effective pedagogy in these consumer-driven times. By adopting a student-
as-partner narrative, it is possible to include the lived experiences of students
alongside the effective delivery of academic programmes. Compelling evidence
supports the role of experiential work-based learning and the benefit that it has in supporting
a more overarching and inclusive benefit.

The following points need to be taken into account to fight the consumerist approach:

● Embrace students as partners in all aspects of academic culture. Do not pay lip
service to this relationship but instead develop real opportunities for students to
engage. This is the authentic relationship that will lead to a positive student
encounter.
● Drive only innovation that has proven to be effective. Do not succumb to the need for
conspicuous consumption. The contemporary University should deliver excellence by
meeting students’ developmental needs.
● Do not believe the hype. A university can still deliver effective education even in
times of obsessive consumerism.

Higher education (HE) also faces the challenge of responding to an increasing diversity. In
this context, more attention is being paid to teachers and teaching skills positively
related to students learning. Beyond the knowledge identified as key components of an
effective teacher, teachers also need to be capable of unraveling what their students
think and believe, and how they accommodate the new information. More importantly,
teachers need to be able to adapt their own teaching to their audience’s needs.

5. Pedagogical approaches to learning.

Pedagogical approaches are the overall perspectives used to plan and implement one or
more instructional strategies.

Examples of pedagogical approaches are:

 ● Case-Based Learning
● Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL)
● Project-Based Learning
● Goal-Based Scenario
● Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

Case-Based Learning

A learning approach where pupils learn through examining cases, such as stories, events or
phenomena that have supposedly happened. Case-Based Learning is useful for the learning
of important concepts and facts within the context of authentic or real-world situations.

How can this be applied in the classroom?

• Decide the learning goals and topic for the case.

• Consider whether the task designed should be well-structured or ill-defined such that the
pupils must engage in conversation to reach an informed decision.

• Provide flexibility for pupils to make decisions as to what would be the best course of
action.

• Encourage pupils to reason about cases, discuss and debate dynamically on how prior
solutions can be adapted to new problems.

Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) requires learners to possess skills and attitudes that
encourage them to question the world around them and continually seek resolutions to these
questions. The teacher acts as a facilitator of learning.

Follows the sequence: Ask => Investigate => Create => Discuss => Reflect.

How can this be applied in the classroom?

• Ask meaningful questions about the surrounding environment in the Ask stage.

• Data collection activities such as researching resources, conducting experiments and

interviewing people to ‘answer’ the questions asked in the Investigate stage.

• In the Create stage learners make connections with all the information collected and shape
new ideas.

• Discuss stage for pupils to share and ask questions about their new ideas, experiences
and investigations.

• Provide feedback to pupils as they take time to revisit the questions in the Reflection stage.

Project-Based Learning

Project-based Learning holds that pupils will be more deeply involved in their learning
through the creation of meaningful products that others can see, critique, and perhaps use.
How can this be applied in the classroom?

• Assign project for pupils to create, e.g. write a journal on an historical event, create a web
site to promote a health product or develop a video on social harmony.

• Brainstorm on possible topics for the project.

• Expose pupils to the skills and tools that are required in the development of the project.

• Engage pupils to outline their project prior to creation in a variety of ways, e.g. concept
mapping, storyboarding, using timelines.

• Guide pupils to conduct background research and collect data related to the topic from a
selected range of resources. The resources should not be organised for the pupils, as the
act of organising and making sense of information is a key learning event.

• Monitor pupils’ progress as they engage in collaborative work.

• Create opportunities for pupils to present their products and receive feedback from their
peers or external professionals.

Goal-Based Scenario

This pedagogical approach advocates that teachers should identify a specific set of skills to
teach via a Goal-Based scenario, then "embed" that skill learning in a task, activity, or goal
that the pupil will find interesting or motivational.

How can this be applied in the classroom?

• Identify target skills and processes of a certain topic to be learnt, e.g. evaluate, synthesize
and compare..

• Create a cover story to establish the context that is of interest to most of the pupils.

• Plan the specific activities for pupils in the goal-based scenario with appropriate scaffolding
and the use of teaching resources, such as simulation, internet search.

• Build learning environment to support the target skills such as providing web resources,
showing videos and organising field trips.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

PBL begins with the idea that learning begins with a problem or a query that the learner
wishes to solve. The problem is ill-defined and it is based on complex, real-world situations.
It may be interdisciplinary as it requires accessing and using information from a variety of
subject domains.

How can this be applied in the classroom?

• Present a real problem without giving all information needed to solve the problem.
• Create opportunities for pupils to discuss, pose questions and write down what information
is known, what information is needed, and what steps to take.

• Learners identify learning gaps, find, evaluate and use relevant resources and research
strategies to solve the problem.

• Engage in cooperative work to seek multiple solutions to the problem.

• Learners present their solutions and critique one another’s work.

Task for independent work: Prepare a report about the history and
system of higher education in a foreign country.

History of higher education in Japan

Formal education in Japan started in the Ancient period, about 500 A.D, when the Chinese
language system was introduced. Only the aristocracy had access to education. The first
real school, the Daigakuryo (the university), was started during this period. It focused on
providing government officials with a background in Confucian practice. They were placed in
government positions at levels that corresponded to their success at the university. During
the following aristocratic period the curriculum made a transition from Confucianism to the
music, visual art, calligraphy, and dance.

During the Medieval period, Japanese education paralleled the militarism of the times. With
the rise to power of the warrior class and the shogun (military dictator), education added
skills for warfare. The medieval education for warriors included training in weaponry and
horseback riding.
Toward the end of this period, Japan's educational system was subjected to a new influence
—Jesuit Catholic missionaries. Educational facilities emphasized general education,
vocational training, Western technology, and Christianity.

The modern period (19th century) is marked by Japan having been "opened" to the outside
world after years of isolation. Education stressed the imperial ideas and availability of the
appropriate level of education to all people. The most distinguished university of the period
was Tokyo University. Later other imperial universities were established, such as those in
Kyoto, Hokkaido, Osaka, and Nagoya.

Many Western Christians established the so-called "Schools of Western Learning." The
three most famous schools, or "bands", were located in Kumamoto, Sapporo, and
Yokohama.

Japan's best-known private university, Doshisha University, was founded in 1875 by a

member of the Kumamoto Band. It had six main academic groupings—theology, law,
economics, letters, commerce, and engineering. Doshisha was the first university in Japan to
admit women.
From the 1890s to the start of World War I Japan's rush to industrialize led to a greater
focus on industrial education. A notable trend of the period after World War I was the
expansion in the number of colleges and universities. The militarism of the 1930s and the
beginning of World War II marked educational facilities as tools of the state; textbooks
were used to reinforce the nationalistic objectives of the state.

After its defeat in World War II Japan was occupied by the Allied Forces, which altered the
educational system. Specific features of the reformed system were:

1. Duration of higher education, with 4 years of university

2. Education of handicapped people
3. Replacement of government-produced textbooks with privately published texts
4. Shift from total central control of education to much greater autonomy
5. Permission to have teacher unions.

The decades since the 1950s have brought few structural changes to Japanese education.
However, a number of political events have related to education, such as: criticism of
government influence on textbooks in the 1960s; student demonstrations in 1968 against
rising costs of a university education; the introduction in 1979 of a common general
admission exam for public universities.

Japanese system of education

In Japan, higher education starts upon completion of a total of 12 years of primary education
(6 years in elementary school) and secondary education (three years in both lower and
upper secondary schools).

Japanese higher education institutions include universities awarding bachelor’s, master’s,

doctor’s and professional degrees, junior colleges awarding associate’s degree, and
colleges of technology, as well as specialized training colleges.

The standard period of education is 4 years for bachelor’s degree, 2 years for master’s or
professional degree and 5 years for doctor’s degree. However, the standard period of
studying medical sciences is six years.

Universities are divided into categories by their founding basis: national universities originally
established by the Japanese Government, public universities, which are established by local
public entities, and private universities, which are established by corporations.

The staff of any national university is appointed by the president. However, as for the
teaching staff, each department of a university selects candidates for appointment and the
president formally approves the decision. To assure the quality of education, independent
inspections are carried out by Education Councils.

In order to support students having difficulties for financial reasons, interest-free or interest-
bearing scholarship loans are granted. As for foreign students, there are additional offers for
financial assistance, such as tuition reductions and exemptions.