PARTICIPATORY DESIGN AS A TECHNOLOGY FOR OPTIMIZING THE PROCESS OF IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS IN THE SPECIALTY “SOCIAL WORK AND COUNSELING”

Abstract

Introduction. Educational programs, especially in such practice-oriented fields as social work, must be constantly updated to meet social and historical challenges. Such changes, which are sometimes transformative, must be initiated both from inside the educational environment (primarily by students, as internal stakeholders) and from outside (primarily by employers, as external stakeholders). The implementation of such processes is possible only if the principles of participation are introduced in the processes of improving educational programs. Purpose and objectives of the article is to substantiate participatory design as a technology, the use of which contributes to the optimization of the processes of interaction between students, employers and representatives of higher education institutions in the process of making changes and improving educational programs in the specialty I10 “Social Work and Counseling”. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by the fact that the work proves that the improvement of educational programs for the training of applicants in the specialty “Social Work and Counseling” should be based on the principles of participation (involvement of representatives of a higher education institution, students, and employers in decision-making and into the formation of ideas), and the optimal technology for such improvement of the educational programs may be participatory design. Results. Involving students in the analysis of the educational program emphasizes and allows to implement the principle of student-centeredness. Joint sessions on work on educational programs with the participation of students, employers, and representatives of higher education institutions can contribute to the formation of professional communication skills in applicants, who will gain experience in professional communication even before starting their work, develop their creative potential, activate learning processes, and stimulate innovative thinking of education applicants. Involving employers in these processes contributes to the formation of a common «education-practice» ecosystem, in which there is mutual enrichment of the higher education institution and the employer. The participation of employers working in the social services market of a particular region allows to form unique characteristics of the educational program, according to which it is possible to train a specialist who will be effective in this particular region. Such joint work can also be useful for forming employers’ commitment to the higher education institution as a source of new personnel from among graduate students. Applicants can use the method of self-reflection in the course of optimizing educational programs. Students can analyze their real learning experience, record it, and describe with arguments the features of forms, methods of learning, the use of learning technologies that for some reason do not suit them and should be changed or improved. It is also possible to use stimulating visual material to create collages during participatory design sessions.