DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCES OF FUTURE TEACHERS THROUGH VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES
The article is devoted to the urgent problem of finding effective means of developing future specialists’ professional competencies. We believe that a significant potential in its solution is students’ participation in volunteer activities. The article analyzes the essence of the concept of “volunteer activity” and reveals its substantial characteristics that are significant in terms of the professional competence development. The article highlights the requirements for volunteer training and provides readiness criteria for this activity. Volunteering can have a special impact on the process of future teachers’ professional growth. The article underlines that volunteering, as a type of humanistic socially useful activity, creates favorable conditions for the formation of a system of axiological pedagogical orientations and contributes to the process of self-development and self-organization. This work describes the progress and results of the study of the impact that volunteer activities exert on the development of future teachers’ competencies and presents the data, demonstrating examples of leading Kazan universities’ volunteer practices aimed at working with children and substantiating the research technique. The main methods of the study are: the analysis of theoretical sources and practices of real volunteer activities, the content analysis, and the interview method. The article will appeal to teachers and students, solving the problems of the professional pedagogical competence development.