EDUCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL INDEPENDENCE AND ABILITY TO LEARN
Introduction. The standards of modern Russian primary, secondary, higher education in one way or another include the requirement to form and develop such a key competence for education as the ability to learn: this is primarily associated with the student’s mastery of a complex of universal educational actions. However, the selection of a list of such actions is not enough to understand how and what is being formed and developed. Methodology. The purpose of the research is to study the problem of the formation and development of the ability to learn as a leading component of the educational and professional independence of future specialists. The main research method is a theoretical analysis of the problems of the formation and development of the ability to learn as a leading component of the educational and professional independence of future specialists. The novelty of our research is in an attempt to substantiate the theoretical aspects of the analysis of the problem of the formation and development of the ability to learn as a leading component of educational and professional independence of students in the process of teaching and upbringing at a university. Results. The concept of “independence” is used in modern human sciences and in pedagogical practice in several semantic contexts: 1) to describe a special (high) quality of educational activity of a person seeking to understand what he is studying (“deep”, contextual, self-directed), 2) to describe a special form of educational activity within the traditional educational process (“independent work”), 3) to describe the form of educational activity outside the framework of the traditional educational process (non-traditional or alternative education); 4) to describe a special (higher) stage of training and education of an adult (heutagogy). The ability to learn in each of these contexts is also defined in its own way: 1) as the ability and willingness to independently direct their learning activity towards comprehending oneself and the world; 2) how to successfully complete homework and other types of independent work; 3) as a desire and willingness to learn “everything and everywhere” and / or realize a specific interest that does not find satisfaction within the framework of the main program of the school and university; 4) as a developed ability to self-study, achieving professionally, personally and interpersonally significant goals. Conclusion. Modern domestic researchers interpret educational and educational-professional independence as a concept in different ways, but they usually regard it as an integrative quality of a (whole) person. This quality is born in dialogue with significant others: the assimilation and appropriation of social experience of generations by schoolchildren and students is carried out in partnership, dialogical interaction with significant adults / mentors or leaders and peers / colleagues. The experience of independence and autonomy of teachers and classmates / classmates becomes a meaningful experience that is appropriated by a person on the way to their own independence. And, being assigned, it is broadcast further. To form the ability to learn as an important component and criterion of educational and professional independence, a person needs a dialogue, support, joint, shared with another, equally enthusiastic and interested person, a search for truth. A person needs a detailed reflection, a study of his own and someone else’s (teacher / mentor and fellow practitioners / colleagues) experience. In the list of what forms and develops schools and universities, educational and educational and professional independence and the ability to learn are basic skills that determine the success and effectiveness of education.