Tutor’s support of teachers’ professional development: conceptual framework and design in Russian and European universities
The authors' appeal to the topic of tutoring support for the professional development of teachers is due to the multifunctionality of the teacher-tutor, who carries out his professional activities in multitasking conditions. A teacher-tutor acts on the basis of a given interaction situation, he identifies weak positions of a teacher, strengthens them, promotes the enhancing of professional and digital competences, which allow to reveal the tutee’s potential, and stimulates to form a self-reflection of a tutee, as well. The aim of the article is to identify issues that will allow to enlarge the vision of tutor’s support of a teaching activity as an integral component of the educational process in the system of higher education and professional retraining of teachers in modern conditions. The authors’ participation in the international consortium of the project "Pro-VET" - "Professional development of teachers of professional schools based on the best European practices" of "ERASMUS +" Program, and doing research within the Project framework, allowed the authors to conclude, that the key problem of tutor’s support in Russian and international system of higher education is pedagogical (insufficient possession of technologies for realization of tutor’s support), and psychological (non-formation of the tutoring position) unwillingness (unpreparedness) to implement educational tasks arising in the field of the new position of the tutor. The essence of tutor’s support of teacher’s professional activity is revealed: it is a stage-by-stage pedagogical activity based on the principle of individualization of education, which purpose is to reveal to a greater extent a creative/professional potential of the tutee, taking into account his personal and professional characteristics. The results of effective tutor’s activity are classified: formation of teacher’s identity, high motivation to implement the innovative technologies, pedagogical and psychological readiness for professional development. It is proposed that a teacher can be in the position of a student (it is called “tutor’s tutor”), at the same time, a teacher-psychologist directs a teacher in his aspiration to effective self-realization. It has been proved that the online course “Developing skills for tutoring in the e-learning context”, designed within the framework of the “Pro-VET” project, is effective, and was developed to help resolve the most complicated psychological, pedagogical, and communicative problems, appearing in the course of pedagogical interaction in the process of teacher’s professional development. The article is intended for practical teachers, research scientists, and graduate students who deal with the problem of tutoring support for the professional development of higher education teachers in the context of digital transformation of education.