3.2. The educational system of the school

The educational system as a socio-pedagogical phenomenon has many varieties (types). The type of educational system is determined by the content of system-forming activities. So, in educational systems of schools, lyceums, gymnasiums, the only system-forming species may be cognitive activity. In the educational system of the institution of additional education (children's art center, youth association, club, etc.), the backbone activities are determined by the profile of the institution. In a school at an agricultural enterprise, labor is one of the systemic activities. A variety of educational system also depends on the type of school, its location, number of students, experience of the teaching staff, traditions, etc. In addition, we can talk about the educational system of individual teachers - class teachers or subject teachers.

Most often in educational theory and practice we are talking about the educational system of the school, the expediency of the creation of which is due to the following factors:

• integration of efforts of subjects of educational activities, strengthening the relationship of the components of the pedagogical process;

• expansion of the range of opportunities due to the development and involvement in the educational process of the natural and social environment;

• saving time and effort of the teaching staff at the expense of continuity in the content and methods of the educational process;

• creation of conditions for self-realization and self-assertion of students, teachers, parents by expanding business and interpersonal relations in a team.

The educational system of the school includes a set of components, including the following: 1) a subsystem of goals and ideas; 2) the community of people who implement them; 3) a subsystem of activity and communication; 4) social and natural environment, mastered by the school team.

The first component is the main determining and integrating factor in the formation, functioning and development of the educational system. The educational system of the school can not be imagined without a goal, because in the absence of targets, educational activity loses its meaning, because its essential characteristic is focus. According to the apt expression of V. A. Sukhomlinsky, in an educational institution and walls can bring up, but it is possible that the whole team of the school will not be able to be brought up if the teachers act scatteredly and without purpose.

Along with the goal, the team of the educational institution determines the aggregate of ideas on the basis of which it models and builds its livelihoods. These ideas can be the main provisions of the school's Charter, the principles of building an educational system, the rules of the Code of Life at School. Ideas can be summarized as follows:

• the principle of creative self-development of the individual;

• principle of humanization and democratization of educational relations;

• The principle of reliance on the interests and needs of students, teachers, parents and other participants in the educational process;

• the principle of orientation to universal values ​​and reliance on national, regional and local traditions.

The second component of the educational system of the school is the cumulative subject of the educational process, which is represented by members of the community of children and adults who realize together and separately the goals of upbringing and joint activity. The nature and forms of interaction of the subjects of the educational process should correspond to the level of development of the collective of the educational institution. To do this, we must take into account the heterogeneity of the team, in which the following groups may exist:

- initiative, which is a generator of ideas and organizer of activities;

- supporters of the initiators and "sympathizers" with them;

- individual groups or individuals who have a negative attitude towards the goals of the educational system and hinder its construction;

- indifferent to everything that happens person.

These groups exist not only in the teaching room, but also in the student and parent environment. Therefore, to ensure the effective functioning of the educational system of the school, the initiators should use various ways to interact with these groups.

The value of the third component - the subsystem of activity and communication - is as follows. The success of the functioning of the educational system depends largely on the correct choice of the system-forming activity, the ways and forms of interaction between members of the school team in the process of joint affairs, the degree of personal and social significance of the work done.

Educational activity is a system-forming one if it meets a number of requirements: a) expresses a common collective need and is personally attractive in the eyes of most schoolchildren, if not all; b) not formally, but naturally and realistically corresponds to the main goal and tasks of the educational system; c) is associated with other activities and has a specific place in the holistic content of the educational process; d) the teaching staff owns the technology of the optimal implementation of educational activities; e) in this team there is a material and personnel base for its successful implementation.

The fourth component of the educational system of the school is the internal and external environment developed by the school team (educational environment). The environment is a living space in which the main goals, objectives and plans of the participants in the educational process are realized. It should be remembered that not all the social and natural environment surrounding the school is educational, but only that part of it that is mastered by the school team. The development of the educational environment is carried out in several ways, including:

- familiarization of schoolchildren with the environment in the process of expedient, concentric, gradual increase in the radius of mastering and expanding schoolchildren’s knowledge of accessible objects;

- pedagogization of the environment through the participation of parents and the public in the affairs and management of the school, teaching them psychological and pedagogical literacy;

- personalization of the environment, due to the fact that each individual and each student community must find their favorite niche in the environment, their friends, specific objects for the application of their forces;

- the formation of students of an adequate attitude to positive and negative environmental phenomena.

The creation and development of the educational system of the school consists of several stages.

At the stage of formation, a certain idea, an image of a future school, is introduced into an existing or newly created school. The purpose of the educational system is determined, the concept of its creation is developed: the principles of the activity of the pedagogical and student groups, the priority and backbone activities, and the forms of their organization are outlined. The main goal of the first stage is the selection of leading pedagogical ideas, the formation of a group of like-minded people. An increasing number of teachers, students, their parents involved in joint activities are involved in the process of creating the system. The main characteristic of the school’s educational system at this stage is its desire for orderliness.

At the stage of stable development of the educational system of the school, the school team develops, collective activity becomes leading, a stable public opinion is formed. Self-management and co-management bodies are being created, the most effective educational technologies are being worked out. The main difficulty of the pedagogical management of the school educational system at this stage is to agree on the pace of development of student and pedagogical collectives.

The third stage - the final design of the educational system of the school - is characterized by the fact that the school team acts as a community of children and adults, united by a common goal, a joint activity, and creative cooperation relations. The focus of the educational system is the education of a free, humane, spiritual, creative person, the development of a democratic leadership style and relations. There has been a significant increase in the culture of teachers-educators, their finding a humanistic position, mastering the technologies of humanistic education. The system accumulates and transfers its traditions. The educational system of the school and the environment actively and creatively interact.

The fourth stage - the restructuring of the educational system of the school - comes when disintegration phenomena associated with the search for a new, original school community are intensified. The reasons for such phenomena may be a lack of novelty, teacher fatigue, the desire to renew the life of the school. The phenomenon of crisis is a natural process in the development of the system, during which it enters a new stage of post-crisis development, where integration processes again become dominant.

Restructuring or updating the educational system can be not only progressive (developing), but also conservative (destructive) in nature. The leading role in this is played by the pedagogical concept that underlies the system, as well as the dominant activity, which is the main system-forming factor. The system changes radically if pedagogical concepts change along with the change of the dominant activity.

The system is updated due to innovations leading to its changes. However, the new stage can end with the collapse of the system, when, after the crisis, there will be no next round of development, but the disintegration of the backbone links will occur. The collapse of the educational system is often associated with the departure from the school of its author.

The success of the school as an educational system and the effectiveness of its movement from one stage of development to another can be evaluated on the basis of two groups of criteria. The first group of criteria that allows you to answer the question whether there is an educational system in this school can be represented by the following indicators:

• orderliness of the school’s life (the content, scope and nature of the educational work correspond to the opportunities and conditions of the school);

• the presence of the existing single school team;

• integration of educational impacts, concentration of pedagogical efforts.

The second group of criteria, giving an idea of ​​the level of formation of the educational system and the effectiveness of its functioning, may include such indicators:

- the degree of proximity of the system to the goals, the implementation of the pedagogical concept, ideas and principles that underlie the educational system;

- the general psychological climate of the school, the style of relationships, the student’s well-being, his social security, his inner comfort;

- the level of education of students.

These criteria are conditional, they can be specified in relation to a particular educational system of the school.