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PROJECT-BASED LEARNING AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF PROFESSIONAL UPBRINGING IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Today, a graduate of a higher education institution must not only be a professional in his field, but also have the ability to design. For this purpose, it is necessary to widely use project-based learning in teaching practice. The main features of students’ project activities are defined in the article. Areas of application of project activities are outlined. Formulated skills necessary for the implementation of project activities.
Keywords: project training, professional education, institution of higher education, social and cultural activities, values.

Babko N. M.
PhD in Economics, Associate Professor,
State University of Biotechnology, Kharkiv, Ukraine

10.34142//2708-4809.SIUTY.2022.42

The relevance of studying the problem of project-based learning for students in higher education institutions (HEIs) is due to the radical changes taking place in modern Ukrainian society. Today, the ability of an individual to consciously build his or her life strategy, to engage in creative activities to transform oneself and the world around him or her, is of fundamental importance. Continuous improvement of such abilities characterizes a person as ready to make decisions and take responsibility for them.

The system of higher professional education is faced not only with the goals of professional training of a specialist, but also with creating conditions for the formation of a personality as a subject of social relations in general. A university graduate should not only master professional activities but also be able to design, change, and develop them depending on the specific situation through reflection on their own experience.

A person’s transformative activity is aimed at the world or at oneself, is conscious and goal-oriented, and therefore requires proactive reflection (design). At the same time, the more conscious such activity is, the more it reflects the personality, the more it can be projected.

In foreign and domestic scientific works in the humanities, design is most often considered either as an element of the technological cycle of transformative activity in a number of its other elements or as its function. Design is often seen as a creative activity based on solving problems of transition from less acceptable situations to the most acceptable ones. By integrating different approaches to defining project activities and giving this phenomenon a broad meaning, we understand it as a constructive, creative activity, the essence of which is to proactively reflect reality in order to transform the individual, his or her own life situation, and the world around him or her [1-5].

Project-based learning as a component of professional education in higher education institutions is a pedagogically organized cyclical process of enriching the individualized social experience of project activities by integrating objective social experience into its content.

Based on the data obtained in the course of the study of this process, we can conclude that the conditions for the effectiveness of project-based learning in higher education institutions are [3-5]:
— stimulating students’ meaning-making in relation to their project activities
— variability of the scope of the student’s project activity
— information and methodological support for student project activities.

In our opinion, it is necessary for students’ project activities to become attractive to them in their procedural (as an expectation of positive experiences in the process of its implementation), target (the purpose of the activity should be realized as a personally significant value), and effective (the value or group of values acquired as a result of the project activity should be more significant than the total of costs and values lost) components.

The semantic optimization of the process component of project activities is possible when forming reasonable expectations of experiencing positive emotions in the process of its implementation. Positive emotions can be associated with attractive communication with other people, recognition of the person’s importance and acceptance by the group, a sense of security and emotional comfort, success, etc. Project activity becomes a carrier of meaning for each individual student only when its goal becomes a personal value for him or her, so it is necessary to provide opportunities for organizing project activities that are diverse in content and focus.

Stimulating students’ sense-making in relation to project activities in the educational environment is realized through [4; 5]:
— actualization of the values that are the goals of project activities in the educational environment of the HEI through the presentation of these values by the community
— objectification of values in the subject-spatial environment of the individual
— Identification of the value context in the eventual and everyday space of the student’s life;
— Creating opportunities for students to experience positive emotions in the course of project activities through a special selection of groups of students involved in the development and implementation of the project, ensuring a positive emotional atmosphere in groups, creating situations of success, etc.

By the variability of the scope of project activities, we mean the choice of the nature, focus, and content of the project developed and implemented by the student. The main areas of application of project activities in higher education institutions are research, socio-cultural activities, artistic creativity, etc. A conscious choice of the field becomes a favorable background for the formation of project experience in the field that is organic to the needs of the individual.

A poor result of project activities can discredit the content of the entire activity. Therefore, in the process of gaining experience, it is necessary to provide information and methodological support for the project process in order to increase the likelihood of a positive outcome. Information and methodological support as a system of pedagogical actions is associated with neutralizing predictable difficulties at the stage of developing a project task, providing prompt assistance during the project and at subsequent stages of students’ project activities. Informational and methodological support ensures the creation of conditions for independent resolution of a problem situation.

The most important obstacle that the teacher and student jointly overcome is the lack of certain skills necessary for project activities. These include the following skills [3-5]:
— predict a future state based on current data;
— trace events backwards from the expected result to the beginning of the project idea
— identify promising ways to solve the problem
— plan collective actions;
— have a holistic view of the project object;
— avoid conflict between organized and spontaneous thinking.

In order for students to overcome the difficulties that impede the success of project activities, it is necessary to provide information and methodological support for the process of its implementation, which can be divided into three stages: preparatory, joint action, and reflective.

List of references

1. Babko N. M., Kvyatko T. M. Information Education of Teachers of Higher Education Institutions as a Component of the Concept of “Lifelong Learning”. Educational Processes Management: Development in Reform Context : monograph / editors Olena Tryfonova & Sławomir Śliwa. Opole: The Academy of Management and Administration in Opole, 2021. P. 241-249.
2. Changes in the higher education system in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. The role of technology in the socio-economic development of the postquarantine world : monograph 42 / edited by Magdalena Gawron-Łapuszek, Andrii Karpenko. Katowice: Publishing House of Katowice School of Technology, 2020. P. 241-247.
3. Organization of project-based learning of students in an inclusive educational environment. Scientific notes. Series: Pedagogical Sciences. 2022. Issue 200. С. 192-196.
4. Project-based learning of history in high school as an innovation in the educational process. Collection of materials. XV scientific conference of higher education applicants of the Faculty of History and Geography. Poltava: IEC NPU, 2022. Issue 4. С. 48.
5. Kravchuk LV. Project-based learning as a tool of partnership pedagogy in NUS. Pedagogy of partnership: realities and prospects: All-Ukrainian scientific-practical conference, devoted to the 104th anniversary of the birth of the Ukrainian. 104th anniversary of the birth of Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi on October 11-12, 2022. 374 с. С. 159-164.