Sustainable Learning Process: Assessing the Effectiveness of Teaching Methodology by Analyzing Spatial and Temporal Properties of a Student as a Subject

Abstract

The article outlines the personality of a student as the single channel through which knowledge flows within the cognitive theory of “learning”. This sustainable process is the means of mediating the thought activity of an individual in a higher school. The study estimates personal qualities of a student through the capacity for self-organization, self-regulation, self-development, and realization of the self in the process of cognitive development. The aim is to show how the degree of these capabilities’ influences achieving the fourth goal, “Quality Education”, from the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations is determined. Participants were second year students (n = 120) of Naberezhnochelninsky Institute, the branch of Kazan Federal University. They were assigned to Experimental Groups following the “participation” pattern and Control Groups following the standard teaching methodology. The methodological structure presented is an important step towards putting “smart education” into practice. Attempts are made to show that subjective attitude on the part of the students is an indispensable condition for contribution to self-development as a multidimensional system having a complex structure. With respect to it, a multi-level system of estimation, considered in development with stability and variability (statics and dynamics) being joined dialectically (progress line and regression line), is designed. The obtained data provide evidence of the necessity for changing the basis of educational processes towards formation of subject’s capabilities while studying academic disciplines. This methodology provides for developing a selective approach to every student.