A series of interviews with teachers of Stavropol State Agrarian University is continued by Candidate of Philosophical Sciences, Associate Professor Nikolai Gavrilovich Guzynin. Why do students need to take notes? Why is it necessary to engage in a discussion with a teacher? Why is philosophy needed in non-humanitarian specialties? How to conduct a lesson with maximum benefit for students? - answered the lecturer of SSAU.
Nikolai Gavrilovich is a lecturer with many years of experience, his path in teaching took place in 5 higher educational institutions, where, in addition to philosophy, he taught many humanitarian disciplines. And this did not prevent him from successfully writing monographs, scientific articles, educational literature, as well as activities in the Council of Veterans of SSAU as a chairman.
Nikolai Gavrilovich, tell us, how many years have you been teaching?
The total teaching experience is 52 years, and I have been working at the Stavropol State Agrarian University for about 30 years. Prior to that, he taught at the Kuibyshev State Pedagogical Institute, Arzamas State Pedagogical Institute named after A.P. Gaidar, Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after V. I. Lenin - where he also completed postgraduate studies and defended his Ph.D. thesis in philosophy - Stavropol State Pedagogical Institute. Since 1994 I have been working at our agrarian university.
The main motive for returning to my native land to continue teaching was the ever-increasing nostalgia for the Stavropol land so close to me. As they say in this case: where he was born, he came in handy there. And the choice fell on the agricultural university, since it is close to me in spirit, because I myself was an agrarian, born on the land of the Temizhbeksky state farm, famous throughout the Soviet Union, in the Novoaleksandrovsky district.
For many years of pedagogical activity, he taught various disciplines: within the framework of philosophy - dialectical and historical materialism, atheism in the Soviet years, then in the post-Soviet period - religious studies, cultural studies, ethics, aesthetics for bachelors. At the masters he taught philosophy and methodology of science, philosophical questions of natural science, philosophy and technical sciences, etc., and at the faculty of secondary vocational education - history and social science.
What university did you study at?
Graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of Rostov State University in 1975. In 2006, it was transformed into SFU. In my opinion, integrative processes in education for the most part have negative consequences. Much is lost from these consolidations, including the traditions and scientific schools of universities, which were then introduced into federal universities. Similar integrative processes have taken place in the general education system, in agriculture, and medicine.
What do you like about the teaching profession?
My main passion is to communicate with students, to try to arouse their interest in discussing issues and problems. And then, when students enter into a discussion, argue, not just taking the position “I disagree because I disagree,” but argue their opinion - this is like a balm for my soul for me. Great joy arises when the student himself begins to comprehend the conceptual apparatus of philosophy and, on this methodological basis, seeks to reason and comprehend complex philosophical questions and problems. Then I realize that, as a teacher, I influence the thought process in the mind of the student and my work is not in vain.
Is there anything you don’t like about your profession?
Naturally, as with any profession, there are pros and cons. The Achilles' heel of modern Russian education is external technical organizational guidelines, requirements and instructions. They are accompanied by the need to write a stream of various papers, programs, plans, largely divorced from the educational process. In my opinion, there should be a minimum of programs and other methodological documents that set standards, only the most necessary, useful and universal. When a teacher gives a lecture or a practical lesson, he will not constantly look at what is written in the instructions, because each teacher has an accumulated professional methodological experience that he uses.
Have there been setbacks along your professional path?
My main professional failure: I have been working for many years, but did not defend my doctoral dissertation, did not realize my creative potential and settled on the PhD degree. This means that there was not enough goal-setting and systematic work, it was necessary to clearly plan the time.
There were also conflict situations with students. This happened when they behaved undisciplined: they were late, interfered with the conduct of classes and tactlessly bickered. In general, our students are good, the vast majority of them are. But there are also those who behave rudely. Some students lack internal discipline and self-control. Often they are engaged in self-justification of their negative actions, and this does not give the opportunity to make adjustments to the behavior, because there is inertia to act as before. The student's attitude to learning now is a mirror of what he will be as a specialist in the future.
What are you professionally proud of?
Professional pride for me arises when I manage to get through to students, and they understand the thoughts, views and views that I hold in the field of philosophy. It's nice when students are active in the classroom: they systematically prepare thoroughly, raise their hands, speak, argue - this is wonderful. It is very important to take notes, because they are the embodiment of the thoughts and intellect of the student, as well as a mirror of the attitude towards learning. The synopsis is a help, assistant, adviser and the main tool of intellectual activity for the development of a particular subject. Without it, a normal student and specialist cannot take place. It is also necessary to maintain an individual dictionary, because working with concepts is the key and code for understanding the information and meanings of texts, lectures and educational literature. Students who systematically prepare for classes leave a very good mark on the soul. I appreciate them and encourage them in every possible way. And the greatest joy and pride arises when students begin to think, reason, and argue independently, because this is where the highest purpose of the student's educational activity is manifested - to form the ability to think independently.
In your opinion, have students changed since you started teaching?
Previously, students were more restrained and worked much more. During my studies at the university, we worked very hard. On weekends, they disappeared in libraries, now you don’t meet this. We were more fixated mentally and ideologically biased. Now, from the modern galaxy of students, not everyone demonstrates such educational workaholism. But this does not mean that all students have become quitters. They are now more informed, they receive knowledge from different sources, they have a certain outlook. The advantage of today's students is that they look at the world with a more open mind. In general, students at our university are positively assessed.
Some of the students believe that philosophy is not needed in technical specialties. However, without a sufficient volume and depth of knowledge in philosophy and the humanities, it is impossible to act effectively in a wide variety of professional activities. A certain cultural outlook, a philosophical vision is needed, which gives a systematic, creative and critical approach to the analysis of certain phenomena. Philosophy unfetters the student's thought and makes its flight free and capable of many creative accomplishments in any specialty.
What do you think a teacher should do to make his influence on students as positive as possible?
The recipes are simple. Firstly, it is necessary to teach students to work systematically. You need to start not with the educational process, but with certain conditions in order for this process to be effective. Attention should be paid to organizational issues, note taking, discipline, to accustom students to constant work, attentive and systematic attitude in preparation for practical classes. This condition gives a very positive result. The teacher should conduct classes creatively, and not monotonously dictate the lecture. If a student uses the “horse” method, without taking his head off the summary, mindlessly taking shorthand to the last letter and comma, he does not have the physical and temporary opportunity to comprehend the material. The student should not thoughtlessly steal the teacher's thoughts and reproduce them, shedding balm on the soul of the teacher who encourages such mechanical and mirror memorization of the material. The student should not be driven into the Procrustean bed of knowledge and thoughts of a teacher or a textbook that discourages getting acquainted with other sources and positions in various disciplines. It is extremely important for a student, on the basis of the information received at lectures, to get acquainted with a fan of various positions and points of view from other sources of information in order to form their own opinions, justified by their thoughts and reflections. Taking into account the main purpose of the educational process - to teach the student to think independently, not to think in a stereotyped way - teachers should not abuse the use of numerous slides during lectures, as their visual range exaggerates the sensory perception of images and inevitably damages the rational understanding of the material. The minimal use of slides, thoroughly explained by the teacher, will lead to the synthesis of sensory-visual perception and rational comprehension, as well as the emergence of a qualitative effect of a non-trivial understanding of the lecture material. Here, as in many ways, there should be a measure and harmony between the schematic-figurative preparation of lecture material and filtering it through the mental sieve of the students' intellect.
Yes, philosophy is not directly involved in the formation of the professional qualifications of future agricultural specialists. But it develops in the minds of students the elements of creative thinking, promotes the synthesis of knowledge, which in itself is largely helpless. Thus, philosophy contributes to an indirect influence on the future level of student professionalism, which consists in understanding not only at the level of knowledge "What is this problem?", but also at the level of methodology - "How?" and "In what way?" solve it.
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