SEMANTIC DETERMINISM OF THE PHENOMENA OF MENTORING AND ITS ANALOGUES IN THE PERCEPTION OF TEACHERS AND THE CHOICE OF EFFECTIVE MODELS OF COLLABORATION IN THE PEDAGOGICAL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

The authors of the article note that in modern pedagogical science there is a terminological diversity of phenomena that are considered as pedagogical technologies. However, the authors emphasize the presence of a contradiction between the demand for these technologies and the lack of a clear understanding of their essential differences among teachers. A custom-designed questionnaire was developed to assess educators’ comprehension of the semantic determinism underlying the pedagogical technologies under examination and identifying educators’ key preferences regarding collaborative model. The results of the study show that youngest teachers consider interaction with experienced colleagues to be fundamentally important for their professional development. The authors argue that early-career educators demonstrate readiness for collaborative engagement and acquisition of valuable pedagogical experience while developing practical competencies. The authors suggest that pedagogical science should refrain from overburdening educational practice and educators with excessive and redundant terminological complexity. The work recommends focusing on two main fundamentally different models of interaction: mentoring (the dominance model) and tutoring (the support model). The researchers believe that this will simplify the conceptual perception of these technologies by teachers and increase the effectiveness of their application in educational practice. The paper states that teachers prefer mentoring as the most optimal form of cooperation between young and experienced teachers. The authors suggest that the demonstration of benchmark examples of pedagogical skills by senior colleagues should contribute to the fastest adaptation of young teachers to the professional environment. The work emphasizes the need for a systematic approach to organizing interaction between teachers, which should contribute not only to the professional development of young specialists, but also to improving the quality of education in general.