Needs and Abilities in Modern Educational Technologies | Электронный журнал

Needs and Abilities in Modern Educational Technologies

UDC 37.032

Nina A. Dmitrenko – St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, Department of Foreign Languages, Head of the Department, Ph. D. (Education), Associate Professor, St. Petersburg, Russia.

E-mail: ninadmitrenko@rambler.ru

9, Lomonosov st., St. Petersburg, Russia, 191002,

tel.: +7(812)764-20-98.

Abstract

Background: The concept of needs relevance to abilities plays an important role in personality growth of a professional. But it seems to be developed insufficiently in modern philosophical, psychological and educational literature.

Results: There are three main regularities in needs and abilities interaction.

1) Accurate correspondence of needs and abilities. For any need classification the relevant ability classification could be proposed and vice versa.

2) Needs are formed prior to abilities. In economics this regularity corresponds to the law of need increase. Any machinery and technology development inevitably leads not only to satisfaction of existing social needs, but to formation of new ones which cannot be satisfied with these machinery and technology.

3) Abilities are formed prior to needs. In parallel to the second regularity the opposite one acts. In any society some series of abilities is generated which cannot find a practical use in the existing social system. Great discoveries in science and technology usually leave behind their time. It means that the needs, which could be successfully met, have not arisen yet, for example, the invention of the steamer, jet semiconductors, computer, to name a few.

Research implications: In our contemporary society the human needs satisfaction for education requires long and consistent work in order to form and develop a complex hierarchy system of abilities. One of the examples of this implementation is the language teaching program – “Translator/Interpreter in the sphere of professional communication” launched at our university more than 10 years ago. Students begin studying a foreign language having an essential practical need to acquire some special knowledge and skills. But while studying they form and develop new abilities, e.g. the ability to communicate and work in teams, etc. Hence these new abilities appear to be the incentives to create new needs of a higher level, e.g. the need for cross-cultural communication and for continuing education.

Conclusions: The abilities of modern professionals are developed in accordance with society needs system, simultaneously reorganizing the latter and forming a feed-back mechanism, which in its turn, stimulates their own further evolution.

Keywords: abilities, needs, creative activity, educational technologies.

The concept of needs relevance to abilities plays an important role in personality growth of a professional. But it seems to be developed insufficiently in modern philosophical, psychological and educational literature. Needs and abilities are closely related to personality traits.

Abilities are individual personality traits which are considered to be a condition of successful realization of some human activity. As for needs, they are more or less intrinsic necessity of having definite conditions for existence, which could not be realized at some definite moment. It is the creation of these necessary conditions and the satisfaction of human needs which are called ability manifestations.

Therefore needs and abilities exist when being interdependent. Needs, on the one hand, create the demand for ability manifestation and development, and abilities, on the other hand, give the possibility to satisfy needs and stimulate the formation of new ones [3].

Human ability development is by itself one of the fundamental needs of civilization. Strictly speaking, personality growth begins not with abilities but aptitudes. Aptitudes are known to be natural abilities that make it easy for you to do something well. They are anatomical and physiological features, forming the basis of ability development. As a Russian psychologist S. L. Rubinstein wrote, the distance between aptitudes and abilities is very long. The whole way of personality development is between them [4]. There are diverse aptitudes, they can be developed in different ways. Aptitudes are only preconditions of ability development. Hence abilities are formed on the basis of natural biological aptitudes in the process of social development, i.e. education and personality growth. New abilities are formed with labor activity enlargement and its new type emergence.

Human ability development, which starts from the very beginning of their birth, is one of the most important society challenges, meeting of which belongs first of all to the system of education. Psychologists and educationists have been studying aptitudes and abilities for ages. Nevertheless enormous untapped reserves are hidden in them. In the near future the attempt is supposed to be made in using them to satisfy social, group and individual needs.

From our point of view, three main regularities in needs and abilities interaction can be found.

1. Accurate correspondence of needs and abilities.

So far the sole agreed-upon classification of either needs or abilities has not existed. However it is not difficult to note that for any need classification the correspondent ability classification could be proposed or vice versa. For example, on the one hand, there are material and spiritual needs, and physical and mental activity abilities, on the other. Needs are divided into individual and social, and there exist individual and group abilities, respectively. The latter ones as group phenomenon have not been studied enough in psychology and sociology. Then there are routine and creative needs. So, abilities by all means can be subdivided into the ability to repeat mechanically the same acts and operations and the ability to perform creative activity, i.e. to develop new algorithm of action.

2. Needs are formed prior to abilities.

In economics this regularity corresponds to the law of need increase. Any machinery and technology development inevitably leads not only to satisfaction of existing social needs, but to formation of new ones which cannot be satisfied with these machinery and technology. Their satisfaction demands the generation of higher level abilities which will correspond to these arisen needs.

3. Abilities are formed prior to needs.

In parallel to the second regularity the opposite one acts. In any society some series of abilities is generated which cannot find a practical use in the existing social system. Great discoveries in science and technology usually leave behind their time. It means that the needs, which could be successfully met, have not arisen yet, for example, the invention of the steamer, jet, semiconductors, computers, to name a few. In all these cases human ability development creates new technologies and theoretical conceptions which play a part of some sources for the future evolution of the needs system.

In our contemporary society the human needs satisfaction for education requires long and consistent work in order to form and develop a complex hierarchy system of abilities. The existing educational technologies for creation and usage of such a system leave much to be desired. Modern researchers pay attention to the sophistication of education and training in post-industrial (information) society. Intellectual activity in the sphere of information technologies is considered to be supported by the abilities developed while acquiring physical labor techniques. But there is a common opinion that in the epoch of digital technologies the main thing is an early computer training, the usage of which can substitute the other more primitive forms of human activity. However, as I. M. Sechenov, a Russian physiologist, wrote at the beginning of the 20 century, the development of the ability to differentiate objects in space, without which any cognitive activity does not exist, is closely connected with elementary physical activity [1]. Before transferring some functions to a machine, man had to learn how to perform them himself. Therefore in the course of professional training the basic historic forms of labor should be incorporated in some reduced form.

One of the complex and still not well-understood goals of the system of education is to elaborate a specific curriculum for training a professional which will be in agreement with directions and perspectives of post-industrial society. Modern educational technologies and techniques of teaching should balance material and spiritual components of creative activity (e. g. the profession of an engineer). By contrast to a widely spread opinion, creative activity in a modern society is not only spiritual one, it includes an essential material component, e.g. industrial innovation technologies. Innovations are effective in such cases when they satisfy society needs and direct ability development to meet these real needs. At the same time the pattern of ability development of modern professionals (e.g. the ability to study, flexibility and creativity) has resulted in the change of the whole complex of their needs. Qualified professionals in information society use their creative approach in household jobs and leisure activities as well. Their needs are more individual, more complicated and are satisfied with the help of more intricate technologies than it used to be in industrial society. Therefore the abilities of modern professionals are developed in accordance with society needs system, simultaneously reorganizing the latter and forming a feed-back mechanism which, in its turn, stimulates their own further evolution.

One of the examples of this implementation is the language teaching program – “Translator/Interpreter in the sphere of professional communication” launched at Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics more than 10 years ago [2]. Students begin studying a foreign language having an essential practical need to acquire some special knowledge and skills. But while studying they form and develop new abilities, e. g. the ability to communicate and work in teams, etc. Hence these new abilities appear to be the incentives to create new needs of a higher level, e. g. the need for cross-cultural communication and for continuing education in general. Therefore the process of needs and abilities interaction seems to be endless.

References

1. Vasileva T. S., Orlov V. V. Social Philosophy [Sotsialnaya filosofiya]. Perm, PGU, 2007. 352 p.

2. Dmitrenko N. A. Teaching Managers in Small Groups [Gruppovaya forma obucheniya pri podgotovke menedzherov v sovremennom vuze]. Available at: http://economics.open-mechanics.com/articles/606.pdf (accessed 30 December 2013).

3. Orlov S. V., Dmitrenko N. A. Man and His Needs [Chelovek i ego potrebnosti]. Saint Petersburg, Piter, 2008, 160 p.

4. Rubinshteyn S. L. Foundations of General Psychology. Vol. II [Osnovy obschey psikhologii, T.2]. Moscow, Pedagogika, 1989, 448 p.

Ссылка на статью:
Dmitrenko N. A. Needs and Abilities in Modern Educational Technologies // Философия и гуманитарные науки в информационном обществе. – 2013. – № 2. – С. 108–111. URL: http://fikio.ru/?p=781.