Russia manages to maintain a leading position in the field of training musicians. Despite certain losses that we suffered in the turbulent years of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the domestic music community managed to defend the powerful potential of Russian musical art accumulated over the centuries through considerable efforts.
Comparing the domestic system of music education, which has its advantages and disadvantages, with the experience of the leading countries of the world in this area, it would be possible, with other things being equal, to predict with caution that Russia will maintain a favorable place under the musical sun in the foreseeable future. However, life throws new serious challenges to our country.
Many domestic and foreign experts in the field of musical cultural studies have already noted the growing negative impact of some global processes on the "quality" of music in our country, the "quality" of a person, the quality of music education. The negative factors include crises in the domestic economy and political superstructure, growing confrontation in the world, increased international isolation of Russia, stagnation of intellectual and cultural exchange with leading Western countries. New problems were added to the previous problems in the field of music: difficulties with creative self-realization and employment of musicians and music teachers, an increase in social fatigue, apathy, and a partial loss of passionarity. New (far from always negative, often very positive) stereotypes in the behavior of young musicians have appeared: modified value orientations, the growth of pragmatism, utilitarianism, rationalism, the formation of independent non-conformist thinking. The teacher will have to learn how to motivate young people to study more actively, since at present less than 2% of students of children's music schools associate their future with music (about one out of a hundred). At present, this performance indicator with some reservations can be considered acceptable. However, in the very near future, the requirements for learning performance may increase by several times (we will talk about this later).
New realities require an adequate response from the music education system, the development of new approaches and teaching methods, including the adaptation of the modern student and the young teacher to the traditional, time-tested requirements thanks to which Russian musical culture has reached its heights.
It is fundamentally important to emphasize that the domestic reform of music education, including the task of modernizing the system of advanced training of music teachers, should focus not only and not so much on solving current problems, but on future challenges. No matter how you recall the approach of our famous music teacher A.D. Artobolevskoy to education. Her pedagogy is “long-term pedagogy”. She knew how to look to the future. She formed not only the musician of tomorrow, not only his personality, but also society.
It is appropriate to note here that not all countries in the world link their education system with future changes. Much attention is paid to the predictive development in the field of modeling "new" music teachers is being given in Finland, China and some other countries. In Germany, the concept of education with the expectation of the future is developed by the Federal Institute of Professional Education. As for the USA and most Western European states, the main (although not the only) instrument regulating the education system in these countries is the market, the system of capitalist relations. And here it is necessary to note the fact that the market, being a sensitive and speedy detector of change, does not always work in advance. Often he is late, "hits the tails."
Looking into the future, we expect another serious test. In the medium term, in 10-15 years, Russia will face a demographic collapse. The influx of young people into the economy, art will sharply decline. According to pessimistic forecasts, by 2030 the number of boys and girls aged 5-7 years will be 40% less than the present, also not the most favorable time. The first to face this problem will be the teachers of children's music schools. After a short period of time, the wave of demographic "failure" will reach the highest levels of the educational system. Losing in quantitative terms, the Russian music school must compensate for the numerical shortage by building up the quality potential and skills of each young musician and his teacher. I would like to express confidence that, following the national traditions of academic education, adapting it to new challenges, using the full power of the Russian music cluster, we will be able to improve and optimize the system of searching and becoming musical talents, turning them into diamonds. And the main role here is to play a new more professional music teacher.
How to respond to these challenges? How to orient the system of advanced training of music teachers to the solution of current and future problems?
Apparently, the way out should be sought on the paths of evolutionary transformations, improvement of the advanced training system, including taking into account the advanced experience of foreign countries. It is important to consolidate the efforts of all experts, regardless of their views, on the basis of mutual consideration of opinions, on the principles of constructive rivalry. By the way, Chinese experts believe that "reducing the distance" between the country's scientific elite and practicing teachers would help improve the effectiveness of the reform of music education in the PRC. Such a dialogue would be useful for the development of Russian musical art.
The basis of the decisions taken should be based on the principles of science, gradual reforms, testing different approaches based on experiment (where possible). Make bold use of alternative methods and models of organization of the system of advanced training. And finally, it would be useful to free the approaches to reform from the political component, to be guided by considerations of the expediency and usefulness of transformations.
In developing the methodology and methodology of the future system of advanced training, it is important to bear in mind that almost all countries of the world advocate for the constant growth of the professionalism of their teachers, however, approaches to solving this problem differ. It seems that it will not be superfluous to study advanced foreign experience in this matter.
The results of reform actions largely depend on the correct goal setting. The criterion of efficiency, correctness of the concept of continuous education of music teachers is its ability to provide a comprehensive system solution to the following main tasks. While preserving the historically verified academic traditions of the national musical art, to seek to increase the professionalism of the teacher, building up his creative potential. It is necessary to help the teacher to develop and master modern pedagogical and psychological methods of teaching and educating young musicians, taking into account the NEW QUALITY OF YOUTH, and finally, to take into account in their work new market realities. The state has a lot to do to increase the prestige of the work of a music teacher. The teacher should be able to clearly articulate the goals of education and upbringing, know how to achieve them, develop the required moral and psychological qualities: be patient, sociable, be able to establish contact with "new" children and adults, and have the skills to manage the group (team) , strive to enhance your creative cultural thesaurus.
The teacher is assigned the task of forming a stable interest in self-improvement, to develop the skills of analytical research work. Empiric support fundamental scientific research. We realize that this is a very difficult task. And it must be solved by delicate methods, seeking to not harm other educational components. The experience of China can be in demand here, where standards for research work are set for music teachers. For example, to stimulate the participation of young Chinese scientists (and their foreign colleagues) in improving the educational system of the country, the PRC government at the turn of the century began to implement the “Plan for encouraging distinguished scholars”. As a result, about 200 young scientists were involved in the implementation of this scientific and practical task. All of them were employed in professorships.
Teachers of music in Chinese pedagogical universities of the country are obliged to compile teaching manuals in their specialty. In the People's Republic of China, “Introduction to Musical Culture”, “Musical Education”, “Musical Creativity Using a Computer”, “Musical Psychology”, “Pedagogical Abilities and Skills” and many others can be considered among the most striking scientific works of recent years. Teachers have the opportunity to publish their scientific work in the journals "Chinese Music Education", "Musical Studies", "Folk Music", in the collections of institutes.
To implement the tasks set by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, to implement the concept of lifelong education, it is necessary to create an updated institutional system of advanced training and a modern training infrastructure. It will also be necessary to adjust some of the essential principles and methods of teaching, taking into account new factors. The reform should be based on knowledge of general and musical pedagogy, psychology, sociology, musicology, cultural studies, sociology, etc.
At present, the infrastructure of the advanced training system for musicians is in the process of formation, development, streamlining, and stage-by-stage certification. There are qualitative changes. There is a process of partial decentralization of the privatization of the educational system and at the same time strengthening the high-class former structures of preparation and improvement of music teachers. Perhaps one of the main conditions for the successful development of Russian post-higher music education will be finding the optimal ratio of state and market components in a unified system for the construction of new cadres of teachers. At this stage of the reform, in the current structure of advanced training they set, as was to be expected, organizations that have vast experience in training music teachers and generally remain committed to traditional forms and methods of instruction. At the same time, the number of new educational structures is growing, which often do not yet fully meet professional standards. It is crucial to help their formation and development, thereby providing a competitive environment in this segment of education. Showing such liberalism during the transition period, subsequently the attitude towards those who failed to reach a high level of professionalism should become extremely demanding. You can use the experience of the PRC, where every four years universities are checked for compliance with educational standards. If the organization does not meet the requirements, it is given some time to eliminate the shortcomings. If, after the second check, the results turn out to be negative, then this university is subject to severe sanctions in the form of cuts in funding, limiting the number of students, reducing the number of curricula.
Foreign experience in using market and government regulators, finding the optimal balance between the use of centralized management and private initiative can be helpful. On this basis, it is conditionally possible to distinguish three groups of countries. The first can be attributed to the state where the market plays a dominant role in the education system, and the role of central authorities is secondary. These are the USA, most of the countries of Western Europe. With the category of countries where the role of the state prevails, and the role of the market is of a subordinate secondary character, it is possible, with certain reservations, to include Japan, Singapore, some other countries. The most prominent representative of the third group of states, where the center and the market are relatively balanced, is the PRC. It is important to emphasize that each of these groups contains elements that are interesting for Russia.
Speaking about the US experience in music education, it should be noted that each state (as a result of the federal structure of the country) develops its criteria for the advanced training procedure, its own methods and tools. In other words, in the USA there are no uniform universal requirements, criteria for the quality of music teachers. In Germany, it is the local government, the county government, that assists and exercises control over advanced training. It is noteworthy that in Germany there is no uniform (for all lands) curriculum.
Such a decentralized "market" system is good at the stage of searching for the most effective education model, indispensable as a tool for its constant adjustment. However, at the conservative stage of the system functioning, such diversity sometimes plays a not very positive role in creating a free labor market for music teachers. The fact is that different requirements for music education in each US state sometimes force a candidate for a particular position to undergo training and certification in the state where he plans to work. So he seeks to increase the chances of being hired. "Where he studied - there it was useful." Such "serf" dependence to some extent limits labor migration in the country. Losing in this component, the American tradition of decentralizing powers creates effective compensatory mechanisms that are interesting for Russia. These include various professional, as a rule, public, organizations that take on the functions of coordinators, sources of information, think tanks and even controllers of the quality of education. These include “National Association for Music Education”, “Music Teachers National Association”, “The Music Education Policy Roundtable”, “College Music Society”, “Commission on Teacher Credentialing” (California) and some others. For example, the last of the above organizations, “Commission on Teacher Credentialing”, created a commission of representatives from colleges, universities, trade union organizations, district and district organizations. The task of this commission is to track the most modern achievements in the field of music education and the development of new standards for the training of music teachers in California.
The category of promising organizations of this kind could be attributed to the recently created with the participation of the famous Russian educator Ye.A. Yamburg Russian Association "Teacher of the XXI Century", which is designed at the current transitional stage of reforming the educational system to adapt and adjust the implemented certification system.
It should be recognized that even in the USA, which differ in these matters by a high degree of traditionalism and conservatism, there was a tendency for organizations of the type mentioned to go beyond the territorial framework, to cover the whole country. In 2015 The US Congress adopted the nationwide “Every Student Succeeds Act” program, which replaced the previous “No Child Left Behind Act”. It, although not completely obligatory for use by all American educational structures, is nevertheless designed to become a guide for them. The new program tightened the requirements for teachers, demanded that each state set new standards for highly qualified teachers (see //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_education_in_the_United_ States). A similar function of the all-American “soft” regulator should be played by the declaration adopted in 1999 on the main directions of the education reform “Tanglewood II: Charting for Future”, calculated for a forty-year period.
Evaluating the western experience of music education, we must proceed from the fact that the most tangible results in the field of music, in particular in the field of performing art, have been achieved in the USA and Great Britain.
With a certain degree of caution, it is possible to express the assumption that at the present stage of reforming the domestic system of music education, we are closer to a compromise mixed management model of the advanced training system. One of its main principles is the equilibrium combination of market and government management tools. Возможно, эта модель станет для нас переходной к новой форме мобилизации интеллектуального потенциала страны за счет дальнейшего снижения роли государства.
Правильный выбор соотношения государственных, общественных и частных организаций в определенной мере предопределит, насколько успешной будет реформа музыкального образования РФ. Помимо этого, предстоит найти оптимальное соотношение национальных традиций музыкального образования с принципами "болонизации".
We will continue the conversation on ways of improving the domestic infrastructure, raising the skills of music teachers. Moving in this direction, the Finnish experience (considered one of the most advanced in the world) to develop and implement a long-term professional development program based on universities, institutes, training centers, and schools would be useful to us. It is useful to get acquainted with the activities of the British Teacher Development Agency (“Teacher Development Agency”), which not only organizes mandatory professional development, but also finances study. This practice would be very useful for our country.
Apparently, the idea of forming territorial (regional, district, city) educational clusters, including those created on the basis of the existing educational structures, is promising. One of such pilot projects is the Scientific and Methodological Center of the Moscow Region "Pedagogical Academy of Postgraduate Education".
There is a certain potential for the improvement of teachers in educational musical institutions of the primary level, for example, in children's music schools. Obviously, there are reserves in using the practice of mentoring, exchanging experience, transferring knowledge from more experienced employees to young professionals. In this regard, the American method of such work is interesting, which is called the “Master-Teacher programs”. English experience is curious, when the first year a novice teacher works as an intern under the supervision of experienced mentors. In South Korea, the practice of working with a young teacher of an entire team of employees has spread. Improving the qualifications of teachers would be facilitated by a more active invitation to a music school of specialists for conducting certified classes under the advanced training program (lectures, express seminars, business games, etc.). Assistance in conducting such classes, as well as in the practical implementation of the knowledge gained, could be played by a facilitator (eng., Facilitate-provide, contribute) from among the most advanced teachers in the school or an invited expert.
Foreign (English, American) experience in creating interschool network knowledge sharing, joint training of teaching staff, and solving common educational and other problems deserves attention. For example, in the USA associations of schools are being created, whose competence, in particular, includes the organization of joint inter-school teacher courses.
It seems that in our country there is a future and such a source of knowledge and experience as private teachers. The state, represented by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, could experimentally form (including through the legalization of private teachers) a segment of officially registered private, individual music teachers, work out amendments to tax legislation. This would also be useful in terms of creating a competitive environment in the education system.
Without going into this article in the issues related to the category of private teaching, it is important to emphasize that, for example, in Germany, students trained by private music teachers constitute a large part of the winners of the all-German competition “Youth Music” (“Jugend Musiziert”), which has It has a 50-year history and is conducted by the authoritative German Music Council “Deutscher Muzikrat”. The representativeness of this competition is also evidenced by the fact that more than 20 thousand young musicians take part in it. According to the German trade union of independent teachers, the number of only officially registered private music teachers in Germany exceeds 6 thousand people.
In fairness, it should be said that this category of teachers, for example, in Germany and the United States receives on average less income from their activities than regular music teachers.
It is also interesting to get acquainted with the American practice of using the so-called “invited” (“visiting”) teachers (“visiting music teachers”), better known as “floating teachers” (floating teachers). In the United States began to prepare music teachers, aimed at improving the quality of teaching other academic subjects: mathematics, science, foreign languages. This work is actively carried out in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the John F. Kennedy Center under the program "Changing Education Through the Art".
The topic of development in our country of the system of author's advanced training courses (and training in general) deserves attention. They can be at least two types. Firstly, these are the classic refresher courses, whose leader is a nominal or informal leader, known in his circles as a high-class teacher-methodologist. Another type of such courses can focus on the "star" composition of teachers, operating both on an ongoing basis and in ad hok mode (simulated to solve specific problems).
In concluding the consideration of the organizational structure of advanced training, it is necessary to say about the need to continue work on creating a register of certified organizations authorized to carry out postgraduate training of music teachers. It is important to ensure that all organizations and teachers applying for the provision of quality services strive to be included in the register. This issue can be resolved if everyone who wants to improve their qualifications will know that the services of only these organizations and teachers will be counted during certification. This is the way the American Music Teachers Association (“Music Teachers Association”) acts, which assumes the function of a guarantor of high-quality educational services. The creation of such an organization in Russia with the assignment of a dispatching function for the distribution of teachers to it would contribute to the optimization of work on advanced training. Under certain conditions, this would allow in the future to implement the idea of introducing in each specific subregion and / or educational structure a fixed single day of advanced training (for example, once a month).
It seems that in our country such a source of knowledge as self-education has not yet been fully evaluated and claimed. Among other things, the neglect of this channel of advanced training lowers the motivation of teachers to work independently, constrains their initiative. And, on the contrary, by developing self-improvement skills, the teacher learns to diagnose himself as a professional, correct flaws, plan work on himself for the future. In the UK, the government developed a new educational resource project for those engaged in self-education.
It is advisable to more actively use personal initiative in the mastery of pedagogical science. As you know, Germany is famous for a very high level of independence, autonomy and autonomy of students in its educational institution. They have great freedom in the choice of forms, methods and training schedule. This is all the more curious to observe against the background of the traditional commitment of the Germans to the principles of ordnung. Such a dichotomy is due, in our opinion, to the conviction in the effectiveness of the manifestation of the initiative in the interests of maximally adapting the educational process to the interests of the student.
With the improvement of the Russian system of advanced training, a fundamentally important place is given to the development and implementation of uniform professional requirements for a modern music teacher, as well as the development of criteria for the quality of training. The solution of this key task creates the prerequisites for streamlining, standardization and unification of all components of the advanced training system. It is important to emphasize that a creative approach to the use of such a "formalized" structure will allow you to avoid excessive organization, patterning, stiffness in working with personnel, and to prevent punching of performers of a conveyor type.
Speaking of teachers who provide advanced training for music teachers, it is important not to forget that by definition a teacher cannot be less qualified in his field of knowledge than an object of study.
It would be useful to provide the learner (as is practiced, for example, in Japan) with greater opportunities and freedom in assessing the utility and in choosing the training programs offered to him on an alternative basis (within the framework of the professional standard).
In our country, an important tool for improving the qualifications of a music teacher is the certification system. Recall that in many foreign countries this function is assigned to the system of academic degrees awarded to persons who have mastered the appropriate educational programs. Unlike most foreign countries, certification as a qualification measure in Russia is mandatory and is held every five years. In fairness, we note that periodic certification of music teachers is carried out in some other countries, for example in Japan (after the first two years, then after six, 16, and finally, after the 21st year of work). In Singapore, certification is held every year and affects the teacher's salary level.
In our country, periodic certification could be abandoned if, for example, as an alternative to introduce a more detailed, containing a larger number of intermediate degrees than it is now, the system of assigning academic degrees. Here we must beware of mechanical copying of foreign methods. For example, the modern Western three-stage model for the attestation of scientific workers does not quite fit into the domestic system of continuous, long-term professional development, which is not congruent to it.
Retaining adherence to the certification system, a lot of difficult work is carried out in Russia to develop and improve the performance criteria for certification. At the same time, the fact that music, like art as a whole, is difficult to formalize, structure, and even more so assess quality, is taken into account.
It is curious that such a classically market country as South Korea, for fear of a decline in the quality of certification, imposed control over certification on state bodies.
An analysis of the qualification requirements that are given to a music teacher during certification shows that they are highly professional. The situation is more complicated with the effectiveness of the evaluation criteria for certification results. For objective reasons, the verification of the degree of mastering, the assimilation of the knowledge gained, as well as the ability to effectively use it, is very difficult in practice. In the course of testing the knowledge gained, it is possible to reveal only a vector, a tendency to increase professionalism, but not to fix objectively in points and coefficients this dynamic. Hence, there are some difficulties with comparing the results of testing different subjects. Similar difficulties are experienced by foreign colleagues. In the expert community of most countries, work continues on improving the qualification requirements for music teachers. At the same time, the dominant view is that, despite the low efficiency of the monitoring of the process of improving teachers, other, more advanced assessment methods have not been found at present (see, for example, blog.twedt.com/archives/2714#Comments.לMusic Teachers Associations: Stages for Showcasing or Hospitals for Healing? ”/). This does not mean that it is possible to reduce the control over the quality of certification. On the contrary, it is necessary to intensify the use of criteria for assessing the level of training of those being certified. A definite breakthrough in the field of monitoring the effectiveness of studies could be the creation in the future of an electronic version of the advanced training of music teachers (preferably not primitive, far from the Unified State Exam). Theoretically this is possible. By the way, now in England, China, some other countries, some of the educational programs are provided via the Internet, and in the PRC also via satellite television and radio. In China, mastered the issue of "music textbook tv satellite". To coordinate these new forms and channels of learning (Smart-education), the Chinese Internet Alliance of Teacher Education was created.
The quota of knowledge offered in our country, which is necessary for passing the attestation, is not completely congruent. For example, to obtain the first and highest qualification categories, the amount of professional knowledge required for passing the attestation was set at 216 hours for each five-year period (a bit like “attempts” to measure the artist’s productivity in square meters). At the same time, it should be recognized that the qualitative filling of the quota is so high that it to some extent compensates for the costs of a “quantitative” approach to measuring the new knowledge gained.
For comparison, in Austria at least 15 hours are allocated annually for advanced training, in Denmark - 30, in Singapore - 100, in Holland 166 hours. In the UK, teachers are spent on improving teachers (depending on the category of the institution) annually 18 working days, in Japan, 20 days in training centers and the same in their school. In Denmark, the teacher himself pays for tuition (but once every three years he can receive training on a refresher program), spends part of his vacation.
Certain assistance to teachers in their professional growth could be provided by more advanced practice of developing recommendations by the attestation commissions to the examinee on further areas of professional development (remedial education).
A great role in motivating music teachers to increase their professional level is played by the practice of linking the growth of skill with promotion, increasing salaries, increasing the prestige of the teacher’s work, and other forms of encouragement. In many countries, this problem is solved both at the macro level and within individual educational structures.
For example, in China, at the legislative level, it was decided that "the average salary of teachers should not be lower, but not higher than the level of the average salary of civil servants, and constantly grow." In addition to the fact that the Chinese state is the main donor of the educational system of the country. It is also involved in improving the living conditions of teachers (finances targeted housing programs), as well as their living conditions. At the same time, trying to extrapolate the Chinese practice of financing to other countries, to compare it with the experience of other states, one must take into account the fact that in different countries the expenditures on education in the state budget are not the same. And they, all other things being equal, depend not so much on the preferences of the central authorities, but on filling the revenue side of the budget. In addition to the state, other sources of financial revenues to musical institutions in China are charitable foundations, income from tenants, collective savings, donations, fees, etc. For comparison, in the US, 50% of the budget of these organizations is formed at the expense of the state through local governments. - from private philanthropic organizations, 10% - from own sources: funds from ticket sales, advertising, etc.
To encourage teachers to improve their skills in Russia, a search is under way for an optimal career development system. Part of this issue was raised above, including when considering a foreign system for the assignment of degrees. Since the conditions for a comprehensive adaptation of the Western model of academic degrees to the current system of advanced training in our country have not yet fully matured, the following main levers of influence remain in the arsenal of Russian reformers of the educational system.
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