Author: Ishchenko Tatiana, Reshetnev Siberian State University of Science and Technology, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Contemporary problems of society and its challenges emerge to some
extent due to the thinking and active ability of the generation that created
them. Then the question arises: what are the thinking and active abilities of a
modern person who is capable of consciously approaching the solution of these
problems and resolving these contradictions? If the training process in higher
education is aimed at obtaining ready-made information, then most likely the
devaluation of knowledge will continue, since a student who is not involved in
the active thought process of cognition loses interest in this process,
receiving neither emotional saturation nor intellectual satisfaction. In this
case, the problem of the concept and the problem of means of comprehending the
content of education become even more acute, while the educational process,
which is alien to the logic of knowledge, seems impoverished and defective. If
the student masters the content by means of logics and didactics of cognition,
then there is a transition from reproductive activity, which does not require
understanding of what is being comprehended, (direct connection) to creative
work, in the process of which a powerful transformation of consciousness takes
place (feedback). Taking this path, we solve the most important problem of the
concept and the related problem of the means of its discovery, development in
order to create a consistent system of conceptions in a particular area of knowledge.
In this regard, Hegel noted that concepts must be derived, and scientific positions
must be proved [1, p. 688]. He devotes the third book to the doctrine of the concept,
focusing on the thought that “A subject as it is, without thinking and without
a concept, is an idea or even just a name; it is only due to thinking and
concepts the subject becomes what it is. Therefore, in reality, the point is in
them alone; they are the true subject and content of the mind, and everything
that is usually understood by the subject and content” [1, p. 941]. This means
that the logic of the educational process is necessarily aimed at the
development of conceptual theoretical thinking, identifying the means of
developing thinking, developing the ability to follow the path of inferential
knowledge.
Thinking, according to E.V. Ilyenkov, assumes the ability to ideally
interact with a subject in the logic of its nature, diverse connections with
other subjects, and therefore “to teach specifically human thinking is to teach
dialectics” [2, 3]. However, under the current conditions, these ideas do not
find implementation, since training and assessment are based mainly on
memorizing certain patterns, information and its reproduction, developing
skills of their unconditional comprehension. Then we get a “mind educated
formally”, incapable of independent investigation of phenomena and objects of
reality, resolution of difficult situations, all the more so – resolution of
contradictions. Non-critical reproduction of the results of modern science
based on ideas about nature and society, according to E.V. Ilyenkov is
positivism, which he believes in the future will be “rejected by science
itself, overcome by its own development” [3, p. 354].
Development and implementation in the educational process of certain
methods and techniques of the formation and development of the personal
principle in an individual capable of non-standard problem solving does not
solve the main problems of the development of an integral personality, the development
of the subject of thinking, capable of transformations. Under these conditions,
thinking itself, as an “ideal form of subject-based practical activity and
communication”, cannot be reduced to “various situational, rational operations
with the given content” [8, p. 10-12]. While the development of thinking is
considered on the basis of empirical standards, there is no need to talk about
the thinking ability, the ability to understand.
Movement along the path of concept discovery presupposes the learners’
mastery of some basic concepts, a developed ability to operate them, establish
relationships between them, and identify problem situations that require
resolution. At the level of formal logic, these tasks are not solvable, but
going beyond its limits (dialectical logic) requires transformative conscious
activity of the subjects of cognition.
If in modern education development of skills prevails over
development of the ability to think creatively, then there will emerge a need
to identify the “divide” between conscious thinking, that is, ideally conscious
activity and stereotyped activity (as noted by G.V. Lobastov), which does not
require knowledge in the form of knowledge, but requires it in the form of a
skill [5, p. 249]. At the same time, educational process, based on reproduction
and patterns, will lack a subject, lack thinking. But then we can’t speak about
the development of a personality capable of transforming the professional
sphere, the society. Mastering concepts in a particular scientific field of
knowledge, the ability to judge and the ability to derive a concept represent
the means of transforming practice as a realized theory, and therefore as the
means of manifestation of a professional who is capable of solving existing
problems and demonstrating subjectivity.
In modern pedagogy, sometimes teaching technologies are being
developed, which is based on the integration of several approaches, but the
development of the subject of cognition is again spelled out according to the
template as a trajectory of movement in the subject material that is known for
the student, which has nothing to do with the discovery of knowledge in
individual and collective activities, where the principle of development -
contradiction - remains on the sidelines. In this light, Hegel’s idea that “in
the process of cognition, which understands the matter of one’s own actions,
the alienated attitude of the subject to the object is removed” becomes
extremely relevant [1]. The development of thinking contributes to the
development of the position of the subject of educational activity, the subject
of labor, capable of transforming his own nature and surrounding reality. The
mental competitiveness of subjects of cognition in the educational process,
based on the laws of logic and didactic laws, will allow them to be involved in
the search for objective knowledge. Because “the active, dynamic side has
always relied on thought, as the beginning of any activity”, “the active
abilities of a person as universal ideal forms of real subject-transformative
human activity” [6]. It is under these conditions that the subject of cognition
acquires spiritual freedom! Then he is cable of resolving contradictions
reflecting the historical course of human development, reasonably determining
conditions for survival and development in a turbulent environment.
Under conditions of uncertainty, a special role belongs to thinking,
which is cable of penetrating “beyond the external sensory side of an object
into its essential content”. The exacerbation of the contradiction between the
rich nature of the subject content and the methods of its development by the
subjects of the educational process leads to the search for optimal ways of
developing the cognizing, developing the sphere of education. And here there
arises a need for a didactic system capable of reasonably determining the
conditions not of a stereotyped nature, but of a content-based nature,
reflecting the logic of cognition and movement of the subject of this process
in this logic.
How does the mind of the cognizer move and what kind of conductor is
necessary to orchestrate the process of cognition? What subjective ability does
a teacher need to have? “The subjective power of the teacher lies in the
developed ability of movement in the material of sensuality according to the
logic of the concept”, to help the student see what is fundamentally
inaccessible to human sensibility, to implement the “sensory form of movement
of non-sensible content, because we are talking about the movement of thought,
tracing within the framework of sensory material of productive imagination the
formation of the entire completeness of the subject in its entirety, in its
range from beginning to completion” [6, p. 423].
Education must necessarily change. Since problem solving requires an
interdisciplinary approach, awareness of what is happening, the ability to
analyze and formulate judgments, the educational process based on the modern
didactic system, on the one hand, directs the vector of development to the analytical
and synthetic paths of cognition, and on the other hand, equips university
students with the tools of cognition, allowing them to construct independent
judgments, to offer several solutions under conditions of uncertainty while
considering problems, carrying out a view of the future, predicting the
development of events. This will require the creation of conditions under which
the qualitative levels of learning will provide for the development of
flexibility of thinking, imagination, which is possible on the basis of the
process of understanding, including the thinking ability of the cognizer
through understanding, comprehension and generalization of the comprehended
material. Only then comes the level of assimilation and application by analogy
with the transition to the creative level.
In the course of reflections, questions are posed that require
resolution, a search for grounds: How do we explain the sometimes manifested
fusion of science and everyday consciousness under current conditions? How does
the process of understanding determine the development of a person’s thinking
ability? Why is mastering scientific concepts a condition for entering the
investigated area? As a result of what do the outcomes of the development of a
scientific problem represent the means of transforming practice? Why does logic
sometimes remain on the sidelines of the educational process, personality
development and making reasonable decisions for the benefit of a person and the
society?
The challenge to education, government and business is obvious and
requires joint conscious activity that corresponds to the key features of work.
This is confirmed by the findings of Peter Tufano (Dean of Said Business School
at Oxford University), based on the study, that the stronger the pressure on
business, the more rapidly the traditional model of business education becomes
obsolete. The author of an analysis of problems in the sphere of education in
the 21st century among the current challenges highlights the call of society to
business to act more consciously, to compromise, to create curricula that allow
students to understand the needs and problems of all stakeholders, and not
treat them as ways to economic benefits for shareholders, and this will require
theorists and educators in history, philosophy and other humanities. Businesses
are encouraged to start fighting climate change in cooperation with the
authorities and civil society, which means preparing students to solve these
problems through the comprehension of the sciences that study climate change, etc. Here, we need to pay attention to the balance of two factors of success:
competition and cooperation. The point is that students think in categories,
think about problems that will require the efforts of more than one generation
to solve [7].
If we carefully consider the proposals of the dean of the business
school, we can develop some theses of didactic character. If business addresses
the need for the students to operate with categories, if the consideration of
problems requires a thinking subject of cognition, then the order goes to the
field of education as a whole. For the education it is necessary to respond to
the challenges of the time, but what will be the approaches and how much will
they correspond to the ideas of classical philosophy, reflecting the context of
the development of thinking and active abilities of a person. The nature of
human thought lies in the ability to generalize. The thought is developed in
the objective movement of an object from origin to completion. Thus,
generalization acts as the ability to determine ways to resolve contradictions
and act rationally. Substantial abstraction and generalization, according to
V.V. Davydov, represent two common aspects of the ascent of thought to the
competitive. At the same time, the author notes that the theoretical concept in
terms of content “acts as a reflection of the connection between the universal
and the individual (essence and phenomenon), and in terms of form - as a way to
derive the individual from the general” [4, p, 363]. Reliance on the ideas and
principles of classical philosophy, pedagogy and psychology is necessary in
transforming the educational process, in identifying the movement of the
concept, and therefore the subject of cognition.
Didactics, considered as the relationship between psychology and
philosophy, the implementation of the didactic system in the educational
process will allow its subjects to move along the path of deriving the concept,
to master the real tools of cognition, to change the style of relations,
raising it to the level of expanded reproduction of knowledge, a democratic
style of communication, actively transforming nature activities. The general
circumstances of the educational process are associated with the involvement of
the stages of cognition (sensory cognition through images and logical cognition
through concepts - principles of conformity to nature), forms of labor
(individual labor, simple and complex cooperation) and forms of thought
(concept as a moment and judgment as a process), teaching means (language,
feelings, thoughts), which contributes to self-compulsion, the birth of an
internal motive, the discipline of the student’s thought [9]. The logic of the
educational process, the successful organization of the cognition process are
due to the chosen scientific methods, methods of cognition and methods of
teaching, and the emergence of the subject of cognition depends on the mastery
of these methods by teachers and educators.
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