Graduation Qualification Works of Undergraduate and Graduate Students in Geographical Education: Types and the Need to Use Foreign Developments

Abstract

The graduate qualification work (GQW) is analyzed as a result in the student’s education system, the implementation and protection of which provides for the maximum, in comparison with academic disciplines and practices, the number of competencies. The issue of the organization and primary installations of research activities in the format of the implementation of the GQW is considered. Two primary problems are analyzed that need to be thought about even before choosing and formulating the topic of the GQW: the choice of the work’s type and the need to take into account modern international experience in pedagogical research. These two problems are closely interrelated. For theoretical generalizations, a large array of information is needed, as well as a mastery of a variety of concepts and topics. The absence of foreign concepts in the student’s “theoretical baggage” impoverishes this diversity and limits its possibilities. Among the leading research methods are: typological approach, observation and abstract methods. All GQWs can be divided into four types: practical, theoretical, combined and compilation. Practical work is more often performed by correspondence students who work at school and generalize their pedagogical experience. Theoretical works are written more often by full-time students. Combined works are an attempt to combine theoretical and applied formats. Compilation works are found, although teachers have a policy of removing them from protection and revision. The use of foreign developments is a mandatory requirement of the Basic Professional Educational Program of Higher Education for Bachelor’s Degree, which means that it is automatically extended to the work of undergraduates. But the obligatory presence of theoretical research in the GQW is required only for undergraduates, that is, purely practical work with a review of someone else’s theoretical tools is allowed for bachelors.