Cluster-modular approach to designing educational programs in continuing education system

the article is dedicated to the development of current approaches to designing the content of teacher education and educational programs ensuring the implementation of the «Project of Modernization of Teacher Education in Russia». The author analyzes the influence of a new vision and methodology of teacher education on the objectives and content of professional teacher training. It results in the formulation of cluster-modular approach as a means of complex solving of conceptual, technological and managerial problems. The categorical apparatus of competencies, resulting in different types of competencies («possession», «ability» and «readiness»), is provided in accordance with the different types of learning environments and processes. The author compares a cluster-modular and traditional (thematic) approaches to the content of teacher education, formulates the principles of modernization of educational institutions for teachers considering a cluster-modular approach. In conclusion, the paper develops a six-layer model of the description of educational programs for teachers in the context of cluster-modular approach. The article should be of interest to administrators and instructors in teacher education, students of pedagogical profiles as well as everyone who is interested in the problems of modernization of the national teacher education in Russia.