The category of understanding in the process of forming postgraduate students' research competencies

Abstract

Introduction. The capacity to solve research problems is one of the key universal competencies of future highly qualified specialists. Meanwhile, the process of understanding occupies the central position in research activity. However, the problem is that, unlike most epistemological procedures, the experience of understanding, deeply personal and often unique, is difficult to explore and transmit.Purpose setting. In this connection, the purpose of the research carried out at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology and Religious Studies of the KSPU named after V. P. Astafiev during 2017–2021 was to trace the dynamics in postgraduate students» ideas about the phenomenon of understanding. More precisely, to identify their reflected experience of understanding and, accordingly, the features of formation of research competencies.Methodology and methods of the study. The target group included about 50 respondents annually. A typical and non-standardized interview, a survey, a participant observation, elements of the comparative method and longitudinal study, content analysis, logical analysis, and the phenomenological method were used. Surveys, conversations, unstructured interviews conducted among students not only allowed to reveal their ideas about the phenomenon of understanding, but also become a tool for forming these ideas, a means of learning and development. At the same time, the educational process itself acquires the features of a scientific search.Results. The answers showed that students clearly distinguish epistemological concepts, choose the right definitions, evaluate statements. 75 % of respondents did not make any obvious mistakes. Data were obtained concerning the perception of the difference between the natural sciences and the humanities, between explanation and understanding, as well as data concerning attitudes to a number of other problems.Conclusion. It has been established that by the end of the first year of study, postgraduate students demonstrated a number of stable achievements: they were aware of the key position of understanding in the system of epistemological procedures and categories; they were able to see the multidimensionality of understanding, its non-reducibility to other epistemological procedures and categories; they master post-nonclassical cognitive strategies and are open to new paradigms in science, education, and social practice. As the comparative analysis shows, the dynamics of students' epistemological preferences is reflecting the trends observed in science and education (a turn from a normative approach to an interpretative-humanistic one, and some other trends).