We have to determine the main contradiction in education, which is the main driving force of its development, based on the objective existence of society,
Reforms of secondary education in Ukraine…
individual individuals and nature, which binds them. This will be a contradiction between the needs of society ("it is necessary") and the needs of individuals (" I want"), taking into account their physical and psychological capabilities ("I can").
It is obvious that such a triad method of determining the main contradiction in education ("it is necessary", " I want", "I can") will allow us:
a) objectively build a hierarchical system of derivative contradictions;
b) to solve them more effectively and adequately in order to reform educational processes.
It should be noted that each of the three main components of the main contradiction mentioned has its own internal strength and resistance, which must be taken into account when looking for ways to overcome the crisis. The mechanical provision of advantages to one side of the conflict not only does not solve educational problems, but also leads the formation, and hence, the development of the state to such crisis states, the outcome of which will require a radical break in socio-political foundation.
On the basis of our main contradiction in education we will form a hierarchical system of derivative contradictions in the educational process:
- requirements for teachers and psychological and physical abilities of students;
- learning and development processes;
- the prevailing group forms of learning and the individual character of the acquisition of knowledge;
- the psychological state of children in the critical stages of critical change in learning technologies;
- educational and developing components of content units;
- methods of information retrieval and explanatory and illustrative education;
- digested by theoretical knowledge and practical skills;
- the ratio of subjects of natural-mathematical and humanitarian cycles;
- activity nature of children and relatively static learning conditions;
- differentiation and integration of the contents of educational subjects;
- achieved level of knowledge and new knowledge;
- range of assessments and spectrum of mental abilities of students;
Degree of development of general educational abilities and requirements of assimilation of all new knowledge:
- distribution of efforts on the actual mastering of knowledge (concepts, laws, facts, etc.) and the use of educational material for the formation of general education skills;
- knowledge that performs general education, developmental functions, and knowledge projected for the future profession;
- differentiated character of educational disciplines and integrated character of thought activity, world outlook;
- professional intentions of pupils and their intellectual abilities;
- formed abstract-symbolic forms of thinking and practical-practical requirements for life;
- the level of knowledge for secondary education and the requirements for higher educational institutions "[7, p.33-35].
Petro Sikorskyi, Igor Kolodii
Among the above mentioned contradictions are tactical, that is, those that are solved by each teacher, and strategic, which are solved at the state level. As you know, the development of science leads to the expansion of the range and depth of knowledge, therefore logically there is a need to renew the content of education, breaking down the basic content of new knowledge. Evolution of the cognitive sphere significantly influences and in some way changes the children's intellectual background. However, cognitive changes are significantly ahead of the growth of mental abilities of children.
Proclaimed in the Law of Ukraine "On Education", including the new, compulsory secondary education was formally implemented. The main reason is ignoring the individual characteristics of the pupils by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and Verkhovna Rada. According to the law of normal distribution (the Gauss’ curve) 2-3% of gifted children are born, 16-18% are capable, 12-13%
with different anomalies, but not 2-3% of pupils according to the Gauss’ curve, because alcohol, ecological disasters increase the quantity of children that are born with different deviations from the norm. In addition, 18-20% of children with low mental abilities are born, and the rest are with average mental abilities.
If in the course of educational reforms, the principle of conformity of nature, which follows from the law of normal distribution of probabilities of childbearing (the Gauss’ curve), that is, to ignore the individual characteristics of pupils, that follows from the law of normal distribution of probabilities, then any reforms in education will not produce positive results.
Although many fundamental changes in education have been made in Ukraine:
the press of a monotheistic doctrine has been put away, the outlook of youth has been liberated from the postulates of Marxism-Leninism, freedom of conscience has been restored, educational institutions have returned to the truthful history, external independent evaluation of secondary school graduates has been introduced, the institution of schools has been democratized. However, the general education school has maintained its structure virtually unchanged, except to take into account changes in the signatures of certain secondary schools (and, as a rule, in cities) at the gymnasiums or lyceums. The government continues to examine educational institutions for survival, without financing for their development.
Currently, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine is conducting another reform of the educational system, which should solve such problems:
- to ensure the maximum comprehensive development of children (intellectual, physical, social, aesthetic, etc.) in preschool and elementary school;
- to equalize the educational achievements of rural schoolchildren in comparison with their city peers, having organized a profile education in lyceums;
- to improve the current 12-point evaluation system, because it does not take into account pedagogical patterns and increases the bias of evaluation;
- to introduce activity and competence approaches in secondary education institutions;
- to improve the process of preparation of pedagogical workers and increase their qualification;
Reforms of secondary education in Ukraine…
- to reduce the number of educational subjects in the secondary classes, using the didactic integration of neighboring subjects;
- to reform the educational system on the principle of conformity of nature, so that each student learns and develops at the pace and mode specified by his nature, and in high school pupils studied in 3-4 parallel profile classes;
- organize an external independent evaluation for graduates who complete basic secondary education;
- to reduce the percentage of graduates of secondary education institutions who enter higher education institutions from 82% to 25-30%, thereby increasing the number of students to vocational education institutions;
- to bring the number of higher educational institutions to international standards (for 1 million people there must be one university).
Since all the components of pedagogical contradictions are related to the subjects of the study, therefore, during their solution it is impossible not to take into account the fact that each child is a unique personality, with its genotype, genetic field, individual domestic and natural surroundings, which create a unique aura for the development of mental and physical forces.
Without taking into account the real individual abilities of children, without reviving pedological research of our pedagogical science, and with it and practice, will never get rid of the bulk of authoritarianism, childlessness and formalism.
Consequently, the principle of natural conformity does not imply only placing in the epicenter of all pedagogical studies the uniqueness of the child, but also the teacher, and make them the basis for the integration of the opposite contradictions, given that social needs are the result of the interpenetration of individual needs and that the creators of society, education have yet and their personal interests and needs.
The main means of realizing the previous principle is the system differentiation of education, which serves as the main component in the organization of the educational process at all levels – from pre-school to high school. But at all degrees, differentiation has its own peculiarities, as it touches both the content and procedural, and structural-system components of education.
The principle of integration of constitutive contradictions is its interpenetration.
We note that the principle of system differentiation reveals the path to a deeper penetration into the essence of the contradiction by decomposing it into derivatives, the creation of an adequate differentiated educational system that would correspond to natural development and the formation of human beings.
The established system of methodological principles enables at each stage of development of education to trace the system of derivatives to the main contradiction and adequately respond to their overcoming by reforming the educational system in such a way that is not forced by methods, but by legal and pedagogical means to make the necessary correction and to encourage teachers and to act in the right thing for society, and hence for them, in the direction.
Consequently, the dialectical approach to management through the investigation of the contradictions of the object of management and the use of methodological principles for solving certain contradictions, allows you to quickly improve the
Petro Sikorskyi, Igor Kolodii
existing educational system, and in conditions of moral and legal constraints – to create a new moral and legal field and to make more radical changes.