Methodology is a doctrine in which the process of organizing activities is investigated. The study is carried out sequentially. In the structure of cognition, the levels of research methodology are distinguished. Let's consider them in more detail.
General information
E. G. Yudin singled out:
- The philosophical level of methodology . He is considered supreme.
- General scientific level of methodology . In its framework, theoretical provisions are formed that are applied in almost all disciplines.
- Specific scientific level. Here a complex of methods and principles used in a particular discipline is formed.
- Technological level. Here a set of procedures is created that ensures the receipt of reliable material and primary data processing.
All levels of scientific methodology are in a certain way interconnected with each other. All of them have a planned independent movement.
Philosophical level
It serves as a meaningful foundation. Its essence is formed by the general principles of cognitive activity and the categorical structure of the entire industry as a whole. It is presented in the form of philosophical knowledge and is developed using specific methods. There is no rigid system of techniques or norms, leading to the dogmatization of knowledge. The structure consists of landmarks and prerequisites for activity. These include:
- Content factors. They represent the ideological foundations of thinking.
- Formal background. They relate to general forms of thinking, historically defined categorical apparatus.
Functions
Philosophy plays a dual role in methodology:
- It expresses a constructive criticism of knowledge in terms of the boundaries and conditions of its use, the adequacy of its foundation and general directions of development. It stimulates intradisciplinary reflection, provides the formulation of new problems, and facilitates the search for approaches to objects of study.
- Within the framework of philosophy, a worldview interpretation of the results of cognition is created from the point of view of a concrete picture of the world. It acts as the starting point of any serious study, a necessary substantial prerequisite for the existence and development of a theory and its embodiment into something integral.
Systems approach
It reflects the universal connection and mutual conditionality of processes and phenomena of surrounding reality. A systematic approach orientes the theoretician and practice on the need to consider events as structures that have their own laws of functioning and their own structure. Its essence lies in the fact that relatively isolated elements are not considered autonomously, but in interconnection, in movement and development. This approach makes it possible to detect the integrative properties of the system and qualitative characteristics that are absent in the elements separately.
Pedagogy Methodology Levels
To use a systematic approach, it is necessary to implement the principle of the unity of educational theory, practice and experiment. Pedagogical experience acts as an effective criterion for the truth of the provisions, knowledge, developed and tested at the empirical level. Practice is also becoming a source of new educational problems. Consequently, the theoretical and experimental levels of the methodology of science allow us to find the right solutions. However, the global problems that arise in the practice of education, raise new questions. They, in turn, require fundamental study.
Relevance of problems
Methodological issues of pedagogy and psychology have always been considered the most relevant. Studying the phenomena occurring in the educational process from the standpoint of dialectics allows us to identify their quality originality, relationships with other events. According to the principles of theory, training, development, upbringing of future specialists are studied in relation to the specific conditions of professional activity and social life.
Knowledge integration
Considering the levels of methodology , one can not say in detail about their role in determining the prospects for the development of discipline. First of all, this is due to the presence of marked trends in the integration of knowledge, a comprehensive assessment of the phenomena of objective reality. Today, the boundaries that divide the levels of methodology are often quite arbitrary. In social disciplines, for example, data from mathematics and cybernetics are used. Information is also being applied from other sciences that did not previously claim to implement methodological tasks in a specific social research. Significantly strengthened the relationship between disciplines and areas. The boundaries between educational theory and the general psychological personality concept, between pedagogy and physiology, and so on, are becoming increasingly conventional.
Complication of disciplines
Methodology levels are undergoing qualitative changes today. This is due to the development of disciplines, the formation of new facets of the subject of study. In this situation, it is necessary to maintain a balance. On the one hand, it is important not to lose the subject of study - directly psychological and pedagogical problems. At the same time, it is necessary to direct concrete knowledge to the solution of fundamental questions.
Direction of directions
Today, the gap between philosophical and methodological issues and the direct methodology of psychological and educational knowledge is becoming increasingly apparent. As a result, specialists are increasingly going beyond the study of a particular subject. Thus, a kind of intermediate levels of methodology arise. There are quite relevant problems. However, they are not yet solved by philosophy. In this regard, it becomes necessary to fill the vacuum with concepts and provisions. They will make it possible to advance in improving the direct methodology of psychological and pedagogical knowledge.
Using math data
Psychology and pedagogy today act as a kind of testing ground for applying the methods used in exact disciplines. This, in turn, is the strongest incentive for the development of mathematical sections. During this process of objective growth, the introduction of elements of the absolutization of quantitative research methods is inevitable to the detriment of qualitative estimates. This trend is particularly pronounced in foreign educational disciplines. There, mathematical statistics often acts as a universal solution to all problems. This is due to the following. Qualitative analysis in the framework of psychological and pedagogical research often leads to conclusions that are unacceptable to power structures. At the same time, a quantitative approach allows us to achieve concrete results in practice, and gives ample opportunities for ideological manipulation both within these disciplines and beyond.
Human role
In professional activities, the subject acts as a determining link. This position follows from the general sociological pattern of increasing the role of the human factor in history, social development in the framework of social progress. Moreover, accepting this statement at the level of abstraction, a number of researchers deny it in a particular situation. Increasingly recently, an opinion has been expressed that in the "man-machine" system, a specialist is a less reliable element. Often this circumstance leads to a one-sided interpretation of the ratio of the individual and technology in the labor process. In such subtle questions, truth must be sought both at the psychological, educational, and philosophical-social levels.
Conclusion
The methodology of pedagogy implements descriptive, that is, descriptive, and iprescriptive (normative) functions. Their presence determines the differentiation of the foundations of the discipline into two categories. The theoretical ones include:
- Definition of methodology.
- General characteristics of the discipline.
- Description of the levels.
- Characterization of sources of cognitive process.
- The subject and object of analysis.
Regulatory grounds cover:
- Scientific knowledge in the framework of pedagogy.
- Certain affiliation of educational activities to the discipline. In particular, this refers to the nature of goal-setting, the use of special cognitive means, the allocation of the object of study, the uniqueness of concepts.
- Typology of research.
- Properties of knowledge by which you can compare and analyze work.
- The logic of the study.
These grounds outline the objective area of the cognitive process. The results can act as sources of replenishment of the content directly of the methodology itself and the methodological reflection of the specialist.