Tasks typology for the formation of functional literacy in the process of an English and primary school teacher training

The purpose of the article is to identify one of the aspects of the problem of pre-service teachers' training - the formation of functional literacy of primary school students. The issue of the formation of functional literacy as a condition for ensuring the competitiveness of Russian education and as a prerequisite for achieving Russia's technological sovereignty is being raised at the state level. The concept "functional literacy" as an educational result is included in the new editions of the federal state educational standards for primary and basic general education. The concept of functional literacy is associated with the ability to solve practical life problems based on the acquired subject knowledge and meta-subject universal learning skills. Traditionally the concept of functional literacy is referred to the category of adults or youth, college students. Russian authors refer this issue to basic general education and it is concerned students in grades 5-9. In the new edition of the federal state educational standard, the formation of functional literacy is considered as a result of basic and primary general education. Regarding to the Russian and foreign languages, functional literacy is considered as a result of a subject. Moreover, sufficient or insufficient language proficiency at the level of functional literacy is reflected in the results of the assessment of mathematical functional literacy and literacy in sciences. The difference in the process of formation of functional literacy in elementary school is determined by the specifics of the tasks available for solving by primary school students. New editions of federal state educational standards point to the difference in the formation of functional literacy in primary and secondary schools. In grades 1-4 it is associated with the intended purpose - to interact with a changing world and to continue education. In grades 5-9 it is associated with the intended purpose - further education and orientation in the world of professions. The tasks that students solve in the process of developing functional literacy coincide at different levels of education: educational tasks and life problem situations. The researchers of Perm State Humanitarian Pedagogical University identified the specifics of the process of functional literacy development in elementary school. The functional literacy formation is determined by the typology of tasks available for primary school students to solve. In the zone of actual development, primary school students can independently complete tasks for knowledge, implementing and reasoning in a situation of certainty. In the zone of proximal development, primary school students, together with the teacher, can complete tasks for reasoning in situations of uncertainty that require hypothetical-deductive thinking. The inclusion of the concept "functional literacy" in the federal state educational standard of general education implies the need to train a teacher to achieve the specified educational result. The problem of including the issues of the formation of functional literacy in the programs of higher pedagogical education is also relevant. It is also significant in training pre-service teachers who will work both in primary and secondary schools, teaching both Russian and foreign languages. In the context of the implementation of the core of higher pedagogical education, the relevant work can be carried out within the framework of courses of pedagogical and subject-methodological modules. The article is devoted to the problem of including tasks corresponding to the typology of tasks for the formation of functional literacy in the program of an online-course. In Perm State Humanitarian Pedagogical University an online course "Pedagogy" is developed and implemented in a mixed format. Three types of tasks are placed in the system of electronic support for educational courses: "knowledge", "application" and «reasoning". Tasks that match the type of activity with the typology of tasks for the formation of functional literacy of students in the general education system allow students to gain their own experience and realize their specifics. The article contains examples of different tasks types. The article also describes the results of a comparative analysis of the difficulties that arise when performing of various types tasks for the formation of functional literacy: on the one hand, the difficulties of Russian schoolchildren based on the publications of Russian experts, on the other hand, the difficulties of a pedagogical university students based on the empirical research of the authors. A comparative analysis shows aspects in which the difficulties of schoolchildren and pedagogical university students coincide, and made it possible to identify areas for further work with students. Particular attention in working with pre-service English and elementary school teachers requires the formation of the skill to formulate a detailed reasoning in writing, including the skill to formulate conclusions based on the information presented explicitly, the ability to build reasoning based on hypotheses, the ability to assess the objectivity of information in texts, refer to additional sources. The study is based on material that reflects the specifics of pre-service teacher training for the functional literacy formation of primary school students. As a research perspective, the authors note the need to detail and specify this aspect, as well as the appropriateness of the relevant study in terms of teacher training for the formation of functional literacy of primary school students.

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