Comparative analysis of didactic difficulties of Russian and foreign teachers
Authors:   Vyatka State University, Korshunova Olga V. , Selivanova Olga G. ,   Vyatka State University
Published: November 2020

The need to solve the problem of improving the quality of education actualizes the comprehension of the problem of identifying, establishing the causes of occurrence, developing ways to overcome the didactic difficulties of teachers in the information society. However, no scientific studies based on the results of the works of foreign scientists on this issue, systematically reflecting the essence of the issue for Russian schools in a comparative way in modern conditions, have not been found. At the same time, comparative analysis can contribute to a deeper understanding of the educational situation in the context of the study of professional didactic difficulties of both Russian and foreign teachers. The hypothesis of the study is the assumption of the presence of invariant (regardless of historical time, country) and variable (determined by the socio-cultural conditions of a particular country, the territorial location of the educational organization (village-city), professional and personal characteristics of the teacher, etc.) difficulties of teachers. The purpose of the study is to formulate and characterize the current state of the problem of identifying, establishing the causes of its occurrence, developing ways to overcome the didactic difficulties of teachers in a comparative aspect. The methodological foundations are systematic, monitoring and praxeological approaches with leading methods of content analysis, "panel research", theoretical generalization of empirical data based on the results of the activities of 15 innovative regional sites in the Kirov region (a sample of 68 teachers from urban and rural schools). The results of the application of the methodology "Professional needs and difficulties of teachers" made it possible to confirm the theoretical conclusions on the difficulties of foreign teachers and to record the empirical facts of the didactic difficulties of teachers in Russia. Thus, significant similarities were revealed between the difficulties of teachers of the studied groups in 10 studied blocks (50 competencies) of a teacher: personal, legal, economic, managerial, general cultural, general educational, communicative, psychological, methodological, technological. The processing used qualitative methods of mathematical statistics. Urban educators show a higher level of professional hardship. Difficulties of varying degrees were identified for all studied competencies. 4 groups of difficulties were identified: 1st group: difficulties experienced by more than 50% of teachers (3 indicators each); 2nd – from 40 to 50% (5-6 indicators); 3rd group – from 30 to 40% (more than 10); 4th group – less than 30% (about 30). At the same time, it was found that more than half of the respondents experience difficulties due to the low level of proficiency in digital technologies; the presence of a professional deficit in pedagogical communication is confirmed by the choice of the indicator “contact with people” (43.24% of rural and 72.73% of urban teachers); makes it difficult for teachers to independently study didactic theories and achieve meta-subject results, etc. The classification of teachers' difficulties developed by the authors on the basis of "design, implementation and analysis of holistic learning", which allows to systematically identify similar and different elements of didactic difficulties of teachers in Russia and abroad; presented the author's interpretation of the term "didactic difficulties of teachers" in the context of determining the axes of the didactic triangle; generalized scientific and methodological options for overcoming the didactic difficulties of teachers of general education in Russia and abroad (organizing methodological work at school, conducting communication and creativity trainings for teachers on relevant topics) expand the theoretical understanding of the problem under study and can be useful in organizing the activities of school, municipal and regional methodological services in the implementation of scientific and methodological support for teachers of general education.