Higher Pedagogical Courses

fixed courses that train teachers for secondary general and vocational educational institutions from among those students who have graduated from a university. In prerevolutionary Russia such higher pedagogical courses included courses for women (Froebel courses) and two-year pedagogical courses in six educational districts.

In the USSR the first higher pedagogical courses were organized by the People’s Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR in 1920 for teachers of secondary-level schools. These courses had a term of instruction that lasted four months, and in 1921 this was extended to one year. From 1922 such courses were called higher scientific and pedagogical courses. In 1924 there originated on their basis higher scientific and pedagogical courses at the pedagogical department of the Second Moscow State University (MGU); these courses trained not only teachers of pedagogy and the methodology of individual subjects for specialized secondary educational institutions but also scholarly personnel. Among those actively participating in the work of these courses were P. P. Blonskii, A. G. Kalashnikov, E. N. Medynskii, A. P. Pinkevich, and other prominent teacher-training specialists. After the reorganization of the Second MGU as a pedagogical institute, the higher pedagogical courses continued to be taught at this institute (now known as the Lenin State Pedagogical Institute in Moscow) until 1933, and they trained teachers of pedagogical disciplines for pedagogical technicums, as well as inspectors who were methods specialists for public education departments.

During the period 1944-52 the Lenin State Pedagogical Institute in Moscow organized higher pedagogical courses with a one-year term of instruction to train teachers in special subjects for pedagogical schools.

From 1924 through 1940 higher pedagogical courses were also organized at certain higher educational institutions for persons who had graduated from these institutions; during a period lasting from one to two years they studied psychology* pedagogy, and methods of teaching special disciplines. Such courses were conducted at the Leningrad Technological Institute (1921-30), the Leningrad Agricultural Institute (1925-29), the K. A. Timiriazev Agricultural Academy (1924-29), and the Higher Arts and Technical Studios (1926-27).

The higher pedagogical courses given by the G. V. Plekhanov Institute of the National Economy (1925-29) trained pedagogical personnel for the educational institutions of the Central Union of Consumers’ Societies of the USSR; subsequently these courses became the basis for the Higher Pedagogical Institute of Applied Economics and the Science of Commodities, which functioned until 1935.

During the period 1938-40 higher pedagogical courses were conducted at the Moscow Institute of Soviet Cooperative Trade (with a term of instruction ranging from six months to one year). Within the system of the Central Union of Consumers’ Societies of the USSR in Moscow (1944-59) higher pedagogical courses trained teachers for technicums and for schools of consumer cooperative societies.

In 1967 higher pedagogical courses were established in association with the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR for the purpose of retraining teachers of pedagogy and psychology for universities and pedagogical institutes. In 1969 these courses were reorganized into the Institute for Improving the Qualifications of Teachers of Pedagogical Disciplines at Universities and Pedagogical Institutes affiliated with the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR.