Innovative teaching methods in the context of internationalization of education

This article presents the results of a research conducted on the basis of the groups of foreign students studying for a Master Degree in Management at Tomsk State University, Tomsk Polytechnic University and the University of the Balearic Islands (Spain). The University of the Balearic Islands has been selected as a testing site for the research because of the fact that one of the authors was studying in the study group. In the theoretical part the authors discuss the concept "internationalization of education" by the example of the research results of J. Knight and Hans de Wit, who define internationalization as the process of introducing an international dimension into the research, educational and administrative functions of higher education. The peculiarity of this definition is the authors' emphasis on the inextricable connection of all higher education functions in the internationalization process and complex influence of the internationalization process on these functions. The authors noted that one of the undoubted advantages of education internationalization is the increasing accessibility of the higher education, expansion and strengthening of international cooperation, intensification of academic and student mobility. The UNESCO data used in this article confirm the active phase of the internationalization process at the present stage of development of the global society. Along with such traditional leaders of the international educational services market as universities of the United States of America (16.5 %), the UK (13 %), Germany (6.3 %), France (6.2 %), Australia (6.1 %) and Canada (4.7 %), during the last decade there are new active members including universities of the Russian Federation (4 %), Japan (3.5 %), and Spain (2.5 %). Internationalization of higher education leads to the fact that the problem of the students preparing for their professional activities at the international intellectual labor market acquires a special significance; that is why the teaching methods used in the educational process, including the work with foreign students, also become significant. The authors conducted a survey of foreign Master students in order to identify how often the innovative teaching methods are used in the educational process and how they contribute to education quality improving. Among the foreign students studying in Russia, there were the representatives of China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Ukraine. Foreign students of the Spanish university were from Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, China, Hungary, France and Nigeria. All the respondents completed their Master's Degrees in 2014. The questionnaire consisting of 12 questions with the proposed answers was anonymous. According to the research results, the active use of innovative teaching methods such as case-study, problem- and project learning, interactive lectures, round tables, discussions and others enables to develop both professional and common cultural competence. The majority of the students of Russia and Spain note the effectiveness of interactive teaching methods that shows in the ability of independent decision making, creative task solving, presenting of the work results both in the native and foreign language. The effectiveness of the innovative teaching methods is achieved not only due to the more complete re-creation of the real conditions of the professional activity, but also due to the more complete student inclusion into the learning process.

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