COGNITIVE-ACTIVE STYLE AS A FACTOR IN THE SUCCESS OF VOCATIONAL TRAINING

The paper discusses the features of the cognitive-activity style of adults who master the working professions in the training centers of the Russian Railways. Style is defined as a parameter of educational activity, which should act as a criterion for evaluating the educational content created for distance learning of adults. To identify the features of cognitive activity, the authors have used the methodology from “Learning Style Survey” by Rebecca L. Oxford. Diagnostic results of the components of the learning style in a sample of workers (53 people) made it possible to describe its significant features: the predominance of the audio-visual channel for receiving information, the focus on joint activities, the combination of intuitive and logical methods for solving problems, the preference for strictly regulated activities, analyticity and concentration of thinking on details. The analysis of the influence of the learning style on the mastery of the “Labor Protection” subject has shown that significant differences in grades are associated with the predominance of the audiovisual type of perception and synthetic thinking. Students with these style features tend to be more successful. The data obtained in the course of the study on the characteristics of the cognitive style of adult men mastering working professions made it possible to formulate recommendations for creating training content taking into account the laws of andragogy: study materials should maximize the use of all channels of perception, but the main thing should be voice articulation of information; it is necessary to apply active and interactive teaching methods, involving the interaction of students; the study process should be maximally algorithmized, the sequence of students’ actions and the rules for their implementation should be clearly expressed and objectified; it is important to present the training material not only in a precise, but also in a synthesized and generalized form, to stimulate the development of abstract theoretical thinking, demonstrate the place of a particular case in the general system of phenomena or concepts.