Excursion activities: pedagogical aspect

The article is devoted to the description of excursion activities as a form of development of pedagogical competences. The author assesses the relevance of this form and the importance of systemic organization of excursions during the process of students’ education and cultural and professional development. The article reveals the peculiarities of organizing and conducting ex- cursions as one of the most effective forms of educational systems of an educational institution. The author considers theoretical and methodological approaches to the definition of an excursion”, states its purpose and objectives, gives a schematic representation of a step-by-step procedure of organizing and conducting excursions. The author traces the relations between the influence of excursion activities on both students’ development and the formation of the teachers’ pedagogical competences such as: general pedagogical, objective, management, professional and communicative and reflexive. The paper also presents the experience of the Research and Education Center for Economics and Information Technology under the Institute for Socio-Economic development of the Russian Academy of Sciences in organizing of excursion activity. The Centre provides additional economic education for students. In the framework of the Centre’s activities, a system of excursions to leading businesses and organizations in Vologda is organized. The system of excursions is aimed at broadening and deepening students’ knowledge about the features of the region’s socio-economic development and developing their ability to analyze the received theoretical knowledge. The paper presents the nature of organization of excursion activities for students of 5-11 grades of the Centre. The author presents the existing theoretical approaches to the definition of the term “professional competence”, the classification of pedagogical competences, the ways of excursion’s influence on the teacher’s competence. The author concludes that it is necessary to develop and improve the system of cooperation with the teachers of ISEDT RAS Research and Education Center in order to form their professional competence. Experience in organizing excursion activity in the Centre may be used by the staff working in educational and scientific institutions.