A Strategic Approach to the Professional and Pesonal Development of Students in Pedagogical Education

Abstract

The modern tertiary education is undergoing significant transformations due to digitalization, globalization and individualization of education. One of the most important aspects influencing the professional and personal development of future teachers is a strategic approach. It presupposes the systematic, purposeful and promising formation of a teacher as an integrated personality with a high level of professionalism and developed personal qualities. A strategic approach allows us to structure the educational process in such a way as to purposefully develop students' key competencies, including socio-psychological, didactic, and personal ones, and to develop students' readiness for continuous updating of their knowledge and skills. In recent research, concepts of agency, self-efficacy, and personal responsibility for the trajectory of professional and personal development have been substantially studied, and the duality of the professional and personal aspects has been acknowledged. However, the key research gap lies in the absence of a holistic, empirically verified model enabling linking the macro-level of educational policy, the meso-level of the university environment, and the micro-level of individual student development into a unified strategic logic. Thus, the research aims to determine the essence, structural and functional characteristics of a strategic approach to the professional and personal development of students in the pedagogical education. The research used theoretical and empirical methods: analysis, synthesis, questionnaires, observation, and pedagogical experiment. The essence, structural and functional characteristics of the strategic approach were determined. The socio-pedagogical conditions that contribute to the effective professional and personal development of future teachers were identified (the formation of an educational environment focused on the personality of the future teacher; learning through action and experience; involvement in the activities of professional online communities; the actualization of self-education of students; active interaction and equal partnership between all subjects of the education process). A survey of students was conducted, which made it possible to identify the dynamics of the professional and personal development of the future teachers. The results of the study can be used in the educational activities of universities to optimize the educational process.