The professional activity of the head of the educational institution as a sphere of formation of his/her professional creativity

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The Professional activity of the head of the educational institution as a sphere of formation of his/her professional creativity

Nabochuk Alexander, Ph.D. in Psychology, Hryhorii Skovoroda University

Професійна діяльність керівника освітньої установи як сфера становлення його професійної творчості

Набочук Олександр, кандидат психологічних наук, Університет Григорія Сковороди

Introduction

In the opinion of scientists (Mykhalchuk, & Onufriieva, 2020), the search for the essence of professional creativity in the process of implementation of practical activities by the manager can be carried out by obtaining (revealing) systematic scientific knowledge about individual aspects of a real process of explication of professional creativity and synthesis of individual creative elements of professional activity into a single whole harmonious structure.

Thus, it becomes necessary to investigate some aspects of the process of creative professional activity: the relationships between practical creativity, professional activity and professional skills and competence of the manager; definition of the object and subject of creative practical activity; explanations of the source of professional creativity in people's practical activity; invention of creative system tasks in the manager's practical activity; determining the difference between creative practice-oriented activity and non-creative (routine); actualization of the criteria of practice-oriented professional creativity; the ratio of theoretical and practical aspects of professional creativity (Guilford, 1982). At the same time, the concepts of “professional creativity of the manager” and “creativity of the manager in practical activity” are considered by many authors as identical concepts (Drobot, 2013).

However, we believe that pedagogical creativity is not an explained process of pedagogical activity, but rather a specific activity aimed at solving creative tasks and problems. Complex creative tasks in the professional activity are arisen if the subject of professional activity is aware of the existence of a certain situation that will reflect the contradiction between the need to solve a special task and the lack of the necessary professionally significant experience, systematic scientific knowledge to solve this or that task; between knowledge of how to solve a particular problem and the impossibility of using them due to lack of time or the need to find a more optimal way of solving a given problem or task.

Practice shows that not all the subjects of professional activity solve problems creatively. The characteristics of non-creative activity were highlighted by J. Flavell (1995). The scientist notes that non-creative pedagogical activity is characterized as such one that is carried out according to traditional forms, ways and methods without attempts to improve them or identify their optimal combinations. This is such activity according to well-worn stereotypes, according to old, unoriginal, well-known ways of performing activities (Guilford, 1980). At the same time, nothing new is introduced to the content of professional activity, the old, well-known activity is only adapted to new conditions (Fredericktown, 1984).

Our definition of a manager's professional creativity does not contradict by scientists (Crookes, 1989) and their understanding of professional creativity, namely, because professional creativity is a process of finding new non-standard ways of solving professional tasks or problems of analyzing professional situations, making professionally balanced decisions. We also believe that professional creativity is clearly connected with professionalism, professional skills, which aim to objectify a certain level of professional self-awareness (Collins, & Amabile, 1999).

Professional creativity is also focused on professional skills, professionally significant experience of a specialist (Barnes, 2009). However, it often happens that a specialist moves to the level of professional creativity before he/she masters the skills, finding and proposing new professional solutions, which is a very important point that should be encouraged in a case of a young manager (Agrawal, 2020).

Scientists (Івашкевич, 2015) also emphasizes the relationships between professional skills and professional creativity, who defines professional skills as a process of independent existence outside of the professional activity. Researchers consider professional skills as a synthesis of a high level of the development of professional thinking, knowledge, skills, abilities acquired by the individual, as well as mastered emotional and volitional means of expressive explanation of intentions, which in their relationships with highly developed personal qualities of a specialist will allow him/her to effectively and qualitatively, creatively develop and do tasks (Моляко, 1989). The concept of “professional skills” is characterized with a high quality of solving problems and tasks by the manager in the process of implementing different professional activities. Thus, professional activity is positively correlated with professional creativity and professional skills (Bredart, 1989).

So, the aim of our research is to show the professional activity of the head of the educational institution as a sphere of formation of his/her professional creativity.

Methods of the research

The following theoretical methods of the research were used to solve the tasks formulated in the article: a categorical method, structural and functional methods, the methods of the analysis, systematization, modeling and generalization.

The results of the research

As a basis for the study of the professional activity of the head of an educational institution, the existing scientific theories of the management of educational institutions in the psychological literature were laid (Cilibrasi, Stojanovik, Riddell, & Saddy, 1999), conceptions of leadership and styles of implementation of professional activity of managers.

It should be noted that the professional activity of the head of an educational institution has certain specific features:

- the complex, multivariate content of the professional activity, which is characterized by a constant search for productive ways of solving management tasks and problems in unforeseen situations, which facilitates the manager to actualize his personal and intellectual individual capabilities: the latter often prompts the manager to implement a creative approach in professional activity;

- requires high emotional and volitional stability and high speed of flow of mental reactions in order to invent an original way of responding to extreme and changing situations of the surrounding world;

- a high level of development of moral and professional qualities of the individual. In this case, we are talking about the formation of the value-meaning sphere of the leader's personality.

The main requirements for the professional activity of the head of an educational institution are: a) adaptation to the conditions of the institution's activity; b) the ability to communicate with people productively; c) the implementation of professional modeling, integration of physical, mental and intellectual efforts for this purpose; d) holistic paradigm of professional creativity.

In our research the professional activity of the head of an educational institution will be investigated taking into account the methodological principle of recognizing the subject of activity as dominant. This principle is based on the concept of S.L. Rubinstein (Flavell, 1995; Drobot, 2013; Hunt, 1986), which reveals the central position of a person in the world and his capacity for self-development, self-determination, self-improvement, achievement of the highest optimal level of development, such as raising himself/herself to the highest level, namely the achievement of a harmonious whole personality (Onufriieva, 2017).

However, the idea of personal growth does not mean a person's focus on his creative self and does not reduce the process of self-improvement to the achievement of a clearly defined life goal. Also, the achievement of subjectivity is not compliance with a predetermined limit of a certain level, but is only a continuous movement towards personal growth and self-improvement. The personal development of the manager as a subject of professional activity does not mean that he facilitates the maximum degree of self-realization of the individual. However, without achieving a high level of personal development, the realization of professional creativity becomes impossible.

So, in our research we will consider the concept of “personal development” of the head of the educational institution in the paradigm of two directions.

The first direction is based on:

-propositions onthree aspects of the activity (Кривопишина, 2013): 1) the activity is real and practical, its products are significant for a person; 2) a person carries out creative activity independently, modeling certain conditions of activity; 3) the internal which is actually mental component of real activity and has its own clearly defined scheme, structure, model; it includes the goals, motives, orientation of the individual.

This direction of psychological research actualizes our attention to the personal qualities of the subject, as well as to the ways of organizing various forms of his/her activity, such as communication, activity, cognition, which largely determine the performance of creative activity. Moreover, creative activity cannot be perceived in the form of activity that is realized with the help of immanent driving forces in the form of consistently realized goals and motives. Creative activity is carried out by a subject who consciously and quite arbitrarily brings the internal self-organization of mental processes, states, motives, abilities, etc. into conformity. Thus, it becomes possible to solve those externally assigned tasks that the subject formulates for himself, considers personally significant, and which he singles out from the set of objective conditions and requirements of real activity, since the latter, as a rule, takes the form of objective socially balanced character. At the same time, it is the subject who is the organizer and executor of real creative activity, actualizing his internal psychic personal activity in accordance with the external conditions of performing professional activity. At the same time, the formation of an individual as a subject of activity is a process of reorganization, a qualitative transformation of mental and personal properties necessary for the implementation of this activity, which determines their use as resources and means in accordance with the requirements and conditions of performing creative activity.

The second direction of the Psychology of the professional creativity of the head of an educational institution greatly specifies the concept of “subject of the activity”. In researches the criteria have been created that allow determining the subjective nature of professional creativity: algorithms for the explanation of creative activity, updating the professional culture of the head of an educational institution; models of formation of professional competence, professionalism, mastery of the manager, optimal use of psychological and personal resources in the activity.

The principle of the subject of creative activity is specified through the following understanding of this category:

- the subject of creative activity is a person with certain new formations, qualities and properties that imply a person's desire to independently rebuild the entire system of his/her mental organization;

- creative qualities of the subject are actualized through the resolution of contradictions between the already formed, stable personal capabilities, features, harassment, motives of the individual and requirements for the implementation of creative professional activity, which society treats its performer;

- the manager's function as a subject of professional creativity is to resolve the contradiction in this (the one that is being carried out at the moment) activity and during the entire subsequent professional life;

- as a subject of professional creativity, the manager forms his individual unique way of organizing professional activity, which corresponds to his personal qualities, attitude to activity (taking into account the peculiarities of goal setting, motivation to achieve) and requirements, objective characteristics of this particular type of activity;

- the subject is an integrative person who coordinates, regulates professional activity and reconciles the entire system of his individual, psychophysiological, mental and personal capabilities and features with the conditions and requirements of professional activity, not partially, but in a whole, harmonious system;

- a person as a subject of professional creativity regulates his activity taking into account updated mechanisms of self-regulation, in accordance with the requirements of creative activity and his personal capabilities.

Thus, as a subject of professional creativity, the manager aligns his own natural and mental potential with the requirements of his profession and carries out self-organization of mental and personal capabilities and abilities; organizes time and space in which internal (mental, personal) activity is realized and coordinated and objective organization of real activity is carried out; the subjective method of explication of professional creativity is chosen, which corresponds to the internal and external conditions of self-realization in the professional sphere; objectively transforms the given conditions and requirements of professional activity to obtain an objectively optimal and subjectively harmonious result.

The third direction (Astle, & Scerif, 2011) is characterized by indicators of the effectiveness of professional activity and the productivity of professional creativity: a) a personal way of quantifying the creative product, the importance of highlighting not only its special, creative conditions, but also the requirements that the manager puts forward for the activity as a creative product; b) the choice of creative activity strategies.

The fourth direction (Derwing, Munro, Thomson, & Rossi- ter, 2009) is directly related to studies of the mental organization of the head of an educational institution as a subject of mental activity and is studied as a kind of integral psychological characteristic.

The development of professional creativity in the professional activity of the head of an educational institution is determined, first of all, by his/her personal and professional development, which, in turn, has a direct connection with the meaningmaking of an individual, the formation of the value-meaning sphere of his personality.

So, the process of professional creativity is the process of forming a creative personality oriented towards high professional achievements. This process is explained in self-development, professional activities and professional interactions, which, on the one hand, determine the development of the professional creativity of the manager, and, on the other hand, are the result of the formed ability of the individual to professional creativity. The professional creativity of the manager is also characterized by a harmonious combination of basic, dominant qualities that form competence. At the same time, the personal qualities, professional knowledge, abilities and skills of the manager are always explained at the level of professional creativity. The level of professional creativity desired by the manager is achieved to a large extent thanks to a defined, clearly formed professional position (performance of creative activity at an innovative and creative level), based on professional demands, convictions, which, in turn, involve forecasting the expected result of creative activity, formulating clear, balanced and stable criteria for evaluating professional creativity.

We can talk about the proper level of formation of professional creativity only when the manager's system of knowledge, abilities and skills is constantly enriched, when the range of creative, original professional tasks and tasks significantly expands, and professional activity acquires a creative and innovative character. In this context, the statements of scientists become relevant (Amabile, Conti, Lazenby, & Herron, 1996), that who has learned to learn, learned to adapt and change, must understand that no knowledge is truly reliable, and only the process of finding new knowledge creates grounds for recognizing reliability as such. This opinion of scientists (Amabile, Conti, Lazenby, & Herron, 1996) emphasizes the special importance of the manager's creative acquisition of professional knowledge, skills and abilities. In the first place, the manager's ability to accumulate various facts and information, the ability to analyze them from an objective point of view, comparing new, received information with that which was already known before, is actualized. Only under such conditions the process of professional creativity is possible.

Acmeological features of the manager's professional creativity are revealed in the understanding of professional creativity as a special type of the activity. The analysis of professional creativity as an activity, first of all, must begin with the definition of the purpose of this activity. The purpose of professional creativity is to create a new, original and unique product of professional activity. Such a product can be:

- material - a new way of solving professional tasks and problems or the actualization of new professional actions;

- spiritual - the analysis of professional situations, making professionally balanced decisions, as a result of this it is professional self-affirmation and self-determination and, as a result - the development of professional self-awareness, the improvement of professional skills and satisfaction of the manager with the results of his/her activities.

The purpose of professional creativity corresponds to the need to find something new in the professional activity. It should be emphasized right away that it is quite important to find out what is meant by the word “new”. In the above definitions of professional creativity, “new” means “values that are characterized by social significance”, as well as something that “never existed” before. In our opinion, the latter needs to be clarified.

This “new” can be absolutely “new” ways of carrying out professional activity, and new methods and forms of carrying out professional activity, and a new level of personal development as a professional. For the manager, in addition to new things in his/ her activity and in his/her personality, there is a third area of search for new things, such as subordinates and their professional activities. New ways, forms and methods of professional activity can be: 1) new ones, which did not previously exist in management practice; 2) new for a specific manager, but which are existing in management practice; 3) improved old ways, forms and methods of professional activity. This is confirmed in the research of scientists (Hunt, 1983), where it is noted that non- creative acts on a general social or any other truncated group scale can be regarded as truly creative in relation to a certain individual or a group of people. Beyond such a difference, professional creativity is inevitably regarded by us as the achievement of a rather limited number of people.

Thus, we can argue for the existence of different levels of professional creativity that will have different outcomes. Any activity ultimately has its results. The result of professional creativity, in our opinion, is a new and original product. We also consider the results of professional creativity to be a new, original understanding of the subject of work (new ideas, laws, principles, techniques, technologies, etc.).

Thus, having defined the professional creativity of the manager as a special type of professional activity and as a kind of practice-oriented level of managerial creativity of the manager, highlighting its structure, we outlined the paradigm of analyzing the structure of psychological criteria and indicators, the levels of development of the professional creativity of the manager of the educational sphere of the activity. We will analyze these aspects in more detail in the process of formation of professional creativity of the heads of educational institutions in other our researches.

We believe that the professional creativity of a manager is a process of carrying out creative activity, because it is professional creativity aimed at solving tasks that are characterized by the absence of a solution method in a given subject area, or the absence of such a method in a given management subject. The latter can be explained by the lack of subject-specific knowledge necessary for a specialist to solve this problem. In the process of implementing professional creativity, the manager becomes aware of new knowledge for him/her as a kind of indicative basis for further development of a method of solving managerial and professional problems and tasks. In professional creativity, at first, the manager is in some uncertainty: there is no clearly formed opportunity to develop new subjects of professional activity and, on their basis, to invent a way to solve the task; this kind of uncertainty is due to the absence of any other knowledge that will clearly determine the development in asking questions.

Conclusions

The practice of the manager's creative professional activity, its reflection in theoretical studies, allows us to conclude that professional creativity is a specific activity, which is characterized by a professional direction with the aim of finding new, nonstandard, original and unique rational solutions, which facilitate a new solution to use creative problem tasks by individual tasks in the professional activity and their implementation into practice.

We believe that professional creativity is a necessary condition for the improvement of professional skills, and, in turn, professional skills cannot exist outside the creative attitude of an individual to his/her activity. It is the dialectical relationships between professional creativity and professional skills.

A new method of managing the activities of subordinates, having been obtained in the process of professional creativity of the manager, with the aim of actualizing highly effective management tasks in any professional field, can have three aspects of its analysis. The first aspect determines the direction of the manager's analysis of his/her own activity and his/her personal and professional development, which implies a high level of formation:

- personal reflection, which involves effective self-regulation;

- managerial reflection;

- professional self-awareness;

- autopsychological competence;

- creative abilities.

The second aspect is the direction of the manager's analysis of the personal and professional development of subordinates, which assumes a high level of formation:

- interpersonal reflection;

- professional communication skills;

- balanced position of the manager;

- creative potential;

- acmeological knowledge and experience of interaction with subordinates (experience of getting to know one's own subordinates and organizing the acquisition of this experience).

The third aspect is the direction of the manager's analysis of joint creative activity with subordinates, which he/she manages as a manager and a professional. This direction requires a high level of training in both managers and subordinates:

- intellectual reflection;

- professional thinking;

- professional knowledge and experience of both a manager and a professional in one or another field of the activity;

- creative attitude to professional activity;

- acmeological culture.

These structures of directions for the analysis of professional creativity are quite conditional, although they have clear boundaries and are correlated by us in this way only in a research plan. But this will allow us to structure professional creativity clearly in the future, in further our researches.

professional creativity head

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