Development of primary school teachers' skills to accompany pupils in projects and research

Introduction. It is known that teachers experience difficulties in organizing and accompanying the project and research activities of schoolchildren. This happens at all stages, starting with the formulation of a problem that must be solved in a project or research. Teachers do not know how to accompany the project and research activities of pupils and therefore do not provide the formation of their skills and abilities to perform such activities. Aim. The purpose of the article is to analyze the features of approbating an innovative model of the advanced training process, which ensures the formation and development of teachers' skills in pedagogical accompaniment of project and research activities of pupils. Methodology and research methods. The research sample consisted of a group of 57 teachers of the Republic of Kazakhstan. A meaningful interpretation of the performance indicators of the participants was carried out on a daily basis. To analyze the significance of the results obtained, the Pearson's statistical criterion χ²was used. When processing daily assessments, data for adjacent days were compared. In addition, a comparison was made between the data representing the grades before the start of the first session of the development courses with the data characterizing the grades immediately after the end of the second session of these courses. Results. The study uses an original model of teachers' professional development, which includes three functional subsystems: providing a value-semantic basis for the development of teachers; promoting the optimal development of their consciousness; organization of full-fledged joint activities that are significant for the participants. A program of courses for the professional and personal development of teachers has been developed. The results of diagnostics at the final stage of the experiment demonstrated the development of primary school teachers' skills to accompany the project and research activities of pupils. Pearson's χ²criterion was used to determine if participation in the courses influenced teachers' mastery of basic concepts. It was found that the probability distributions of the assimilation of these concepts before and after courses differ statistically significantly at the level p=0,01. Discussion and conclusion. This study presents a model of mentoring and interactive professional development of teachers in an innovative process of improving their qualifications. This model is an alternative to the cascade model most often used in practice. Such system can become an effective part of the mechanism of lifelong pedagogical education.