The tutor’s function in the professional training of future masters of dentistry in the conditions of distance education and today`s extreme challenges.
Authors: Skrypnyk Iryna , Kulbashna Yaroslava 
Published: July 2023

The relevance of the research is due to the growing diversity of forms, pedagogical technologies in conducting the educational process and the evolution of the role of scientific and pedagogical workers in higher education institutions.
In higher education, which is developing in the conditions of globalization and internationalization of society, there is an active introduction of pedagogical technologies of distance training and tutoring, updated for modern life conditions and information environment.
The extreme challenges of today - the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and the beginning of the aggressive war by russia in Ukraine have caused forced organizational changes in the educational process in higher education institutions. The face-to-face form of education has become practically impossible throughout the territory of Ukraine, which actualized distance technology, which was used for a long time in a rather limited way, in particular, in medical education. This required education seekers to independently master the thematic materials, and the traditional function of the teacher acquired the characteristics of mentoring and tutoring.
One of the key issues of the introduction of distance pedagogical technology in medical education remains its low effectiveness in forming the praxeological component of professional competence, which is basic for a future doctor, and especially for a dentist. In addition, functional changes in teachers’ work that approaches tutoring methodically and psychologically need to be defined.
The organization of the educational process in Ukrainian higher education institutions became critically complicated in the conditions of the rapid spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, and special conditions were added with the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It is these factors that actualized the distance form in medical education, which was used in a rather limited way in the past. Therefore, the traditional role of the teacher changes to a mentor - a tutor who mainly helps the future specialist to master the educational material on his/her own.
An important unresolved issue remains the implementation of distance training technology and tutoring related to it under modern conditions in medical education, which is based on the praxeological component of professional competence, and how should a teacher transform methodically and psychologically in order to be realized in the role of a competent tutor?
The results of the analysis of scientific sources and own experience give grounds for asserting that it is possible to draw only preliminary conclusions about the results of the introduction of the pedagogical technology of tutoring and distance training in medical higher education institutions of Ukraine. Students prefer face-to-face training even in extreme conditions. They consider the lack of clinical practice to be the biggest problem of distance training. Therefore, we consider the pedagogical technology of tutoring as an auxiliary component of the educational process for the individual correction of the student’s educational process in the conditions of distance education, which is acceptable mainly in extreme conditions, which include, in addition to global problems, temporary restrictions for attending an educational institution with personal reasons on the part of the student. Tutoring is available to the vast majority of classical teachers who adjust their activities by increasing the level of methodical competence and psychological readiness