Priority Fields of Teachers’ Professional Development in Terms of Open Education Worldwide

Abstract

Abstract The article is devoted to the problem of teachers’ professional development within the concept of “open educational resources”. The author analyzes the project “Massive Open Online Courses” (MOOC) as one of the modern achievements in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) for the development of adult education, namely teachers’ professional development in the context of globalization. It has been determined that MOOC is an innovative form of free distance learning, which is represented by full-fledged interactive training courses based on open access to the Internet for the simultaneous participation of a large number of people. Conceptual bases of creation and functioning MOOC, which are based on two key principles of the theory of learning organization - Cognitive behaviorism and Connectivism have been characterized. It has been found out that most of the discussions developed around the main implementation problems of MOOC are: the presence of two different types of MOOC; the role of the teacher in MOOC; participation of students in MOOC; understanding and use of “mass” in MOOC; tracking the border between openness of MOOC and control over their quality. The analysis of the contemporary MOOC platforms shows that the most popular pedagogical-oriented courses are: the development of students’ thinking; e-learning and digital culture; schools: history of school education, educational policy; how to become a developer of blended learning technologies as well as development of educational technologies.