Teachers' preparation to lifelong self-development

the article discusses the ways to overcome the crisis in teacher education and to prepare teachers for lifelong professional self-development. The analysis of the social research results, the practice of pedagogical universities, and the official information from the Ministry of Education and Science leads to the conclusion that it is impossible to train a qualified teacher at the current content and technologies of teacher education. The problem is in the discrepancy between teacher education and teachers' professional activities. Traditionally, future teachers learn academic subjects which cannot give a holistic understanding of their profession. The paper proposes to organize the study material within the framework of key teacher's professional tasks and situations. Future teachers are supposed to study the modules instead of traditional academic disciplines. In these modules theory will be integrated with case-studies and real teaching practice. Consequently, students acquire not only the knowledge, but also the values, the model of profession, and practical experience. The most important indicator of teacher's professional competence is self-development ability. The educational reality requires continuous updating of technology, a successful technique should not be repeated. It is determined by rapid expansion of information, the development of the content and standards of education, changes in children's and parents' psychology. The author proposes the technologies to prepare a teacher to professional and personal self-development as well as the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the process. The result of successful professional self-development is a unique educational framework adapted to a teacher's personality and ensuring possibilities for personal fulfillment. The author's conclusions are based on observations and experiments; the research participants were teachers and students of pedagogical universities and colleges in southern Russia. The study was sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science under the assignment №2014/411 (in the field of scientific activity), project code 911.