Pedagogical Education

a system of training pedagogical personnel, such as teachers and educators, for general-education schools and other institutions of learning at pedagogical institutes, schools, and universities. In a broad sense, the term refers to the training of pedagogical personnel for educational institutions of all types, including vocational and secondary specialized schools and institutions of higher learning.

Prerevolutionary Russia. In prerevolutionary Russia, the principal teachers’ seminaries were educational institutions for training primary-school teachers. These teachers were also trained in pedagogical classes at women’s Gymnasiums, women’s eparchial schools, and the women’s pedagogical institute in St. Petersburg. Some higher elementary schools and four-year Gymnasiums had two-year pedagogical courses. Teachers for parochial schools were trained at parochial teacher-training schools and at second-class teachers’ schools. Many teachers, especially in remote areas, had no pedagogical education and received the title of teacher after passing special examinations. Teachers for municipal and district schools were trained at three-year teachers’ institutes.

The teachers’ seminaries and institutes limited further education: a graduate of a seminary could only enroll in a teachers’ institute, and a graduate of a teachers’ institute could only enter a commercial institute. Owing to the efforts of progressive educators, some pedagogical educational institutions offered high-quality training. Teachers at secondary educational institutions were generally graduates of universities, of some nonpedagogical institutions of higher learning, and of theological academies.

In accordance with the university charter of 1804, three-year pedagogical institutes were opened at the universities of Moscow (1804), Kharkov (1811), Kazan (1812), Dorpat (later Iur’ev, now Tartu, 1820), and Kiev (1834). Outstanding was the pedagogical institute of St. Petersburg, established in 1804 as a successor to a teachers’ seminary and in 1816 converted into the Chief Pedagogical Institute. During the 1860’s and 1870’s, advanced courses for women on a university level were established. They trained teachers primarily for women’s secondary educational institutions and for the junior grades of men’s secondary schools. Widely known were the D. I. Tikhomirov Advanced Courses for Women Teachers and Educators in Moscow, the Women’s Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg, the Froebel Courses in St. Petersburg, and the Froebel Institute in Kiev. In 1908, V. M. Bekhterev organized the Psychoneurological Institute in St. Petersburg, an advanced medical and pedagogical school for training physicians, teachers, and lawyers.

Active in the development of pedagogical education were N. A. Dobroliubov, K. D. Ushinskii, N. I. Lobachevskii, D. I. Mendeleev, K. A. Timiriazev, and A. M. Butlerov. Mendeleev ascribed great importance to higher pedagogical education, on which, he maintained, all branches of higher education depend. In 1907 progressive public figures and scholars established the Pedagogical Academy of the League of Education in St. Petersburg, and in 1911 the P. G. Shelaputin Pedagogical Institute in Moscow. Both institutions provided pedagogical training for persons with a higher education. However, the prerevolutionary pedagogical educational institutions did not train enough teachers for the general-education schools.

USSR. The October Revolution of 1917 radically changed the nature of public education, the system of teacher training, and the composition of the student body of pedagogical educational institutions in terms of class origin and nationality. The ideas of V. I. Lenin, and Lenin’s participation in supervising the work of the People’s Commissariat of Education, had a decisive bearing on the organization of new types of schools and on teacher training. The formation of the Soviet system of pedagogical education is linked with the names of N. K. Krupskaia, A. V. Lunacharskii, M. N. Pokrovskii, A. S. Bubnov, V. P. Potemkin, and I. A. Kairov. From 1918 to 1920, relatively small specialized school, preschool, and other pedagogical educational institutions and courses were organized; they were later merged into pedagogical institutions of higher learning. The prerevolutionary teachers’ seminaries were converted into four-year institutes of public education, while other pedagogical institutions of learning became schools for training primary-school teachers.

The system of pedagogical education established in the RSFSR in the 1920’s consisted of pedagogical technicums (since 1937 called pedagogical schools), pedagogical institutes, and pedagogical departments in universities. The last two usually had divisions of social and political education and divisions for training technicum teachers. One of the first major Soviet pedagogical institutions of higher learning was the N. K. Krupskaia Academy of Communist Upbringing, which laid the foundation for the Soviet system of pedagogical education. In 1918, V. I. Ger’e established the Second Moscow University as a successor to the Advanced Courses for Women, and in Petrograd the State Pedagogical Institute was founded.

In the 1930’s, a municipal pedagogical institute, later the V. P. Potemkin Pedagogical Institute, and an oblast pedagogical institute were established in Moscow. The Moscow Pedagogical Institute was founded in 1930 as a successor to the pedagogical department of the Second Moscow State University; since 1941 it has been known as the V. I. Lenin Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. In the 1920’s the Academy of Labor Education (1920–21) and the K. Liebknecht Industrial Pedagogical Institute (1923–42) were founded in Moscow. At this time, pedagogical departments were established at universities in such cities as Vladivostok, Voronezh, Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm’, Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, and Kazan. Many different pedagogical courses, including higher courses, were inaugurated.

The foundation of the Soviet system of pedagogical educational institutions was laid in the 1930’s. Pedagogical and other university departments were replaced by a network of pedagogical institutes, including those specializing in foreign languages. Particular attention was paid to the development of education and culture among the peoples of the Far North, Middle Asia, and Transcaucasia. In 1939 the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute of Peoples of the Far North was opened; in 1958 it was reorganized into a department of the A. I. Herzen Pedagogical Institute. In connection with the developmental characteristics of women’s education several republics in Middle Asia and Transcaucasia established provisional women’s pedagogical educational institutions, which later became permanent.

When universal seven-year education was introduced, teachers’ institutes were developed; during the 1950’s they were reorganized as pedagogical institutes and schools. Teacher training by means of correspondence education and evening education was inaugurated. Greatly facilitating the improvement of pedagogical education were the decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR On Curricula and Routine in Higher Schools and Technicums (1932), the decree of the USSR Council of People’s Commissars and the Central Committee of the ACP(B) On the Work of Institutions of Higher Learning and Supervising the Higher Schools (1936), and the decrees of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the USSR Council of Ministers On Measures for Further Developing Higher and Secondary Specialized Education and for Improving the Training and Utilization of Specialists (1963), On Measures for Improving the Training of Specialists and the Supervision of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education (1966), On Measures for Further Improvement of Higher Education (1972), and On Completing the Transition to Universal Secondary Education for Young People and the Further Development of General-education Schools (1972).

The chief types of pedagogical educational institutions today are pedagogical schools, including those specializing in music; industrial teachers’ technicums; pedagogical institutes, including those specializing in foreign languages; and universities. Teachers of elementary grades, preschool teachers, and senior Pioneer leaders are trained at pedagogical schools. Some graduates of other secondary specialized educational institutions are also assigned to teach in schools. The curriculum for training teachers at pedagogical schools includes the general-educational disciplines studied in secondary schools and specialized subjects, such as teaching methods, the anatomy and physiology of schoolchildren in primary school, school hygiene, psychology, and pedagogy. In addition, substantial teaching practice is provided

for. Teachers for secondary schools are trained at pedagogical institutes and universities.

Pedagogical institutes offer four-year specialization in the fields of Russian language and literature, national language and literature, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, history, drawing and mechanical drawing, preschool pedagogy and psychology, defectology, physical education, music and singing, and primary-school pedagogy and teaching methods. For programs with a double specialization, such as biology and chemistry, geography and biology, and foreign languages, a five-year term of instruction has been established. The curricula of all fields of specialization at pedagogical institutes include the history of the CPSU, Marxist-Leninist philosophy, political economy, and scientific communism. The fundamentals of Marxist-Leninist ethics and aesthetics and the principles of scientific atheism are electives. Other required subjects are pedagogy, the history of pedagogy, psychology, teaching methods, school hygiene, and physical education. Foremost in the curriculum are specialty disciplines in the chosen subject field.

Pedagogical education in universities is marked by more extensive scientific and theoretical training and somewhat less emphasis on pedagogy and methodology. The term of instruction is generally five years. On the whole, pedagogical educational institutions and universities train enough teachers for general-education schools. During the 1974–75 academic year, teachers were trained at more than 400 pedagogical schools, with approximately 300,000 students, and at 199 pedagogical institutes and 63 universities (see Table 1). General-educational schools employed 2.4 million teachers in 1974. In 1914, 280,000 teachers were employed in Russia, and there were 208 teachers’ seminaries and 53 teachers’ institutes. Secondary-school teachers are also trained at certain arts institutes and physical education institutes.