Articles

Pedagogical strategy of professional orientation towards the Bachelor career of Economy Education

0000-0001-5265-9198Yadira Hidalgo Castro^{1  *}  , 0000-0002-1754-1271Irisdany Gómez Quintana¹  , 0000-0001-6431-9182Amarilys de Jesús Pozo Contrera¹ 

¹Universidad de Pinar del Río "Hermanos Saíz Montes de Oca". Cuba.

ABSTRACTC

This article addresses the problem related to professional orientation in pre-university students towards teaching. Its purpose is given in function of strengthening the OPP process in pre-university students towards the Bachelor of Education Economics career using a pedagogical strategy as a way, which requires an integration of professional orientation work from a conscious and systematic work with high school students. During the investigation, different methods were used: the materialist dialectic as the guiding method, theoretical, empirical and mathematical statistical methods, all in order to guarantee a broad domain of the object of study.

Key words: Professional Pedagogical Orientation; Pedagogical Strategy; Pre-university Students; Pedagogical Higher Education

Introduction

Cuban education from its precepts sustains the importance of the integral development of the personality of its students to meet the challenges of the times in which they live. In this sense, Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) as a subsystem within the National Education System, is characterized by generating and disseminating knowledge, forming an individual not only integrated to the productive and service process, but also to society and focused on responding to the productive demands of the labor market.

In order to achieve such aspirations, it is necessary to guarantee a solid and deep professional training (OP) in the teachers responsible for the modeling of this qualified middle-level work force. In relation to this ^{Menéndez and León (2014}) propose that Higher Pedagogical Education (ESP) is responsible for directing the formative processes of future teachers. These teachers must learn on the basis of a teaching-learning process (PEA) that, in addition to providing knowledge and skills, development of thinking and abilities, also achieves convictions and values that give ideological orientation to knowledge in all fields. (p.2)

Taking this into account, it follows that the high responsibility for teacher training at this level, as well as in all spheres of political and ideological work, falls on the university, which admits directing this process together with the improvement of the training of these professionals with solid knowledge, skills and values characteristic of a comprehensive general culture and professional technique applicable in everyday situations in the labor, social and formal spheres.

For this process of teacher training for TVE to be successful, it has to start from a solid base, a base that is nourished by the very process of professional orientation that pre-university students receive before entering pedagogical careers, also known according to ^{Barrera (2016}) as Pedagogical Professional Orientation (OPP).

According to this author, the OPP emerges as an independent activity within the OP process itself from the integration of the academic, labor and research components in the university training process of teachers.

There are other Cuban scholars who make interesting theoretical contributions in this line of research; such is the case of Pino (1998), who bases the problematizing approach of the OPP and its influence on the development of the students' professional identity. ^{Matos (2003}) specifies the influence exerted by the relationship with the family, society and the group in the OPP process and proposes a methodology with an integrative approach.

^{Mariño, Pino and Olivares (2009}) emphasize the creative experiential approach of the OPP that allows it to positively influence the professional motivation of students towards teaching.

Another scholar in this area is ^{Barrera (2016}), who proposes in his doctoral thesis a pedagogical model with a group approach, with the purpose of favoring the development of professional interests towards teaching.

On the other hand, ^{Caro (2019}), defends the idea that the OPP is of great importance nowadays, given the influence exerted by the family in the formative process from an early age and therefore proposes a pedagogical strategy to improve the OPP process from the joint work of the family and the school.

All these investigations carried out in the context of the educational system, show the search for scientific alternatives which constitute fundamental references that allow understanding the evolution of the OPP process. It is important to take into account that all of them recognize the importance of an efficient and systematic professional orientation offered in the preceding teachings, and with it an adequate selection of pedagogical careers, specifically the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economy. This situation induces the authors of this research to focus attention on the OPP process in pre-university students.

The work with the OPP in pre-university students has always been carried out in terms of the professional with the purpose that the student continues studying according to his possibilities, needs and interests; thus violating ^Vigotsky's statement "The choice of profession is not simply the choice of one or another activity, but of a particular path in life (...)". (p.147)

Consistent with the above approach, students who opt for pedagogical careers should have an approximate knowledge of their meaning and elementary future tasks, which will allow them to make a conscious choice of the same, particularly towards the aforementioned career, which is so necessary at this time for the development of Cuban society.

The OPP constitutes an important profile of research that has gained special interest in the country after the triumph of the Revolution. It should reach its greatest possibilities in the Pre-university, where there is a group of potentialities that favor the work towards the profession. These potentialities make it possible for students who opt for any pedagogical career to receive the necessary influence to strengthen their interest in the career, that is to say, to reaffirm their professional orientation towards pedagogy.

The above analysis leads to the identification of a contradiction between the current state, determined by the insufficient OPP that pre-university students have towards the Bachelor's degree in Education. Economics; and the desired state, linked to the need to train teachers for TVE with adequate professional pedagogical training.

These considerations give special relevance to the essential problem addressed in this article, which lies in the insufficient OPP of pre-university students towards the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economics, which limits the professional training of future teachers for TVE. Hence, the objective is to develop a pedagogical strategy aimed at strengthening the professional orientation process in pre-university students towards the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economics of the "Hermanos Saíz Montes de Oca" University in Pinar del Río.

This work is the result of an ongoing research, linked to the project "Improvement of the professional training process in the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economics" at the University of Pinar del Río "Hermanos Saíz Montes de Oca". In its contents, first of all, the theoretical references on which the proposal is based are presented. For this purpose, the different ways of professional orientation are merged and the programmed actions make possible the exchange and discussion of personal and group topics, related to the subject of study in general and taking into account its particularities.

Development

Theoretical foundation that sustains the pedagogical strategy of professional orientation for the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economics

During the last four decades, the development of culture, education and science has been a fundamental priority of the Cuban state. This has been expressed not only in the advances in these fields but also in the existence of an ethical-political perception that includes a clear conception of what is being done to satisfy the urgencies of development and the needs of the citizens, which is also rooted in the social transformations that the country has undergone.

Choosing the future career to be studied almost always means an important and complex decision, if one takes into account that at this moment most young people do not know exactly what they want in life, where their best opportunities for development are and above all, that the ideal of their future profession often does not correspond to the reality of it, because it is built from the image that they have formed in childhood of the different professions and not the product of a conscious interrelation with these, which facilitates a self-determined professional choice.

It cannot be lost sight of that the professional orientation that is carried out in the stage of pre-university education has as essential purpose to achieve the preparation of the student to select a determined career and to identify with it, that is to say, to create true interests and emotional bonds with the future profession, which demands to offer him/her the necessary help to face and to solve successfully the conflicts that this complex process generates.

Taking this into account and the economic and social situation that the country has had to face in the midst of a capitalist world, today it is essential to raise the educational work in the pre-university towards the OPP, due to the deficit of teachers that leads to the insufficient results of this as a process with the requirements demanded by the current scientific and technological development.

In addition, the future professional must have moral, political, ideological and humanist values necessary in these times to maintain and defend the Revolution and Socialism, the only way to achieve a better world, there being a deficit in the professional orientation towards pedagogical careers.

The OPP constitutes a priority of MINED and "takes on great importance given the need for the social practice of teaching, since the teacher, from his professional role, leads the education and formation of the new generations and of all the people." (^{Caro, 2019}, p.2)

^{Otero (2001}), for his part, conceives it as:

...a special type of career guidance, which, being a systematic and planned process of specialized assistance, is aimed at helping students learn to know themselves, explore pedagogical opportunities, and make professional decisions that will support their pedagogical career plans. (p.27)

The above definition emphasizes how systematic and planned this process should be, but as for what it is aimed at, the authors endorse the criterion of ^{Caro (2019}) when she expresses that the knowledge and experiences related to the profession are ignored, which hinders their self-determined choice.

^{Del Pino (1998}) defines this process as "a system of educational influences aimed at stimulating the pedagogical vocation in students, their entry into careers of this profile and their permanence and development in them." (p.23)

The authors endorse the definition given by the aforementioned author and join the criteria of ^{Mestre and Lazo (2018}) who state that this process must be planned systematically and professionally, it must be sequenced and student-centered; that is why it must begin, from the preparation of each school year and not only in the terminal year as it is usually done.

The professional orientation process is the source of the development of potentialities, derived from the diagnosis and characterization of each student. The preference and inclination towards pedagogical careers can be seen in the result of the formation of behavioral motives, derived from activities that have in the teaching-learning process their fundamental social conditioning, which strengthen the inductive regulation of young people, when the unity of the affective aspects towards teaching is produced.

The pedagogical strategy proposed in the research, as well as its psychological approach, are based on the referents of the Historical-Cultural School, and we agree with ^{González (2000}), when he expresses that: "In the historical-cultural approach, professional orientation implies designing learning situations that stimulate the formation and development of the subject's inclinations towards one profession or another, as well as his capacity for professional self-determination (...)". (p.180)

From the philosophical point of view, the materialist dialectic is assumed as the basis of the present pedagogical strategy, which allowed studying, analyzing, understanding and evaluating the process of professional orientation towards the Bachelor's Degree in Education. This allowed studying, analyzing, understanding and evaluating the professional orientation process towards the Bachelor's Degree in Economics integrally, through the analysis of its actions and its integration as a systemic process; at the same time, it has guided the conception of the diagnosis, the transformation process and the structuring of the pedagogical strategy's components.

From the sociological point of view, the strategy is based on Marxist, Martí and Fidelista sociology, which starts from the integral and continuous diagnosis of the students, from the selection of the content and its sources and from the limitations and potentialities of the multiple socializing agents. In this way, the importance of the pedagogical profession will materialize in its own personal realization to the extent that the student feels pleasure for his future profession, that he experiences satisfaction in teaching and learning, in contributing to the preparation for life of his students and in being a trainer of competent professionals.

The proposed solution referred to above is closely linked to all these theories, which is why each activity that is carried out must have a particular relationship with the student's development, which even varies according not only to the stages through which his life passes, but also to his own individual particularities and the social context in which he develops, and bearing in mind the socio-historical conditioning of the subject-profession relationship.

Pedagogical strategy of professional orientation towards the Bachelor's degree in Education. Economics.

In order to achieve a higher income to the pedagogical careers, specifically to the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economics, it is recognized that it is necessary to form habits of conduct, values, norms of social coexistence, of conscience about the importance of the teacher adjusted to the concrete historical moment that the country is living in order to form revolutionary teachers capable of contributing to the construction of a better world, where the scientific and technological development product of globalization is taken advantage of and for the benefit of society. All this is possible if the process of pedagogical professional orientation in pre-university students is strengthened. For this purpose, a pedagogical strategy of professional orientation towards the career in question is elaborated as a solution proposal.

For this purpose, some essential aspects were taken into account, such as the mission, objectives, principles, stages, actions, methods and procedures to be used, resources, those responsible for the actions and the time in which they should be carried out; as well as the forms of implementation and forms of evaluation.

The pedagogical strategy proposed for the professional orientation of the pre-university student towards the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economics has as mission: to conceive the improvement of the pedagogical process aimed at the professional orientation of pre-university students towards the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economics from the integrated action of the teaching staff.

In order to achieve the proposed mission, it is essential to determine the general and specific objectives, as well as the principles or regularities that govern it.

General objective: To contribute to the professional orientation of pre-university students towards the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economy through different actions where theory and practice are linked, allowing the development of knowledge, abilities, motivations and attitudes necessary for an adequate pedagogical professional orientation.

Specific Objectives:

• To design actions that favor the development of pedagogical professional guidance.

• To promote exchanges with personnel working in the teaching profession.

• To involve the family in the work of professional guidance of their children.

• Encourage students' desire to know everything related to pedagogical professional guidance.

The proposed strategy is objective because its actions are based on the results of the applied diagnosis and the needs of OPP. It can be applied, adapting it to the specific conditions of each place or region, and it is easy to use by all parties involved. It is susceptible to change, due to its capacity for redesign, in correspondence with the results of the diagnosis, goals and needs. Its actions have the possibility of adapting to the characteristics of each student and of interacting with the contexts in which it operates. It has a systemic character since its conception is based on the interrelation between its components, diagnosis, general and particular objective, stages, actions and evaluation.

This pedagogical strategy is carried out through specific strategic actions in the curricular and extracurricular dimensions, and is structured in three stages, with their respective actions, ordered in a coherent manner. It has been conceived through the functional structural systemic method and constitutes a pedagogical tool that conditions the participation and joint work of the different actors and collectives that participate in this process (pedagogical collective of the university and teaching collective of the pre-university), with the purpose of providing increasingly pertinent formative transformations, in correspondence with the demand posed by society.

The procedure followed for the elaboration of the proposed pedagogical strategy was conceived as follows:

1. Theoretical characterization of the professional orientation process in pre-university students towards the Bachelor's degree in Education. Economics. It is oriented towards the study of the professional orientation process as an object of research through the compilation of books, articles, specialized magazines, brochures, web pages, memoirs of events and theses (masters and doctorates) of various authors (national and international), related to the subject. The result is expressed in the identification of the fundamental features that characterize the process, for its transformation.

2. Diagnosis of the current state of the professional orientation process towards the Bachelor's degree in Education. Economy. It is directed towards the identification of the SWOT matrix (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) of this process supported by visits to departmental meetings, interviews with students and teachers of the pre-university and some other documents were reviewed.

3. Elaboration of the pedagogical strategy for the professional orientation of pre-university students towards the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economy. Based on the study of the referents of the process, the assumed foundations and the diagnosis of the current state of the process as a whole with the state desired by the authors, the pedagogical strategy is elaborated, determining the stages with their respective actions to be followed.

The proposed strategy, as previously mentioned, is structured in three fundamental stages, each one with its specific actions as follows:

First stage: Diagnosis of the professional orientation towards the career Bachelor in Education. Economics

Diagnosis of the current state of professional orientation towards the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economics.

Assessment of the professional orientation of the pre-university students towards the Bachelor's Degree in Education in Economics. Economics based on the dimensions and indicators proposed for evaluation.

Second stage: Implementation of the pedagogical strategy of pedagogical professional orientation through the conceived actions.

Action 3. Development of activities through reflection, exchange of criteria on professional orientation towards the Bachelor's degree in Education. Economy.

Activity # 1: Consists of developing an initial conference in which the student is provided with information about the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economics.

Objective: To contribute to the familiarization with the fundamental elements of the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economics in the pre-university students, providing the development of a climate of belonging.

Activity 2: Exchange visit with students and professors of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (FCEE).

Objective: To contribute to the updating of knowledge about the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economics in the pre-university students in order to encourage them to aspire to enter it, providing the development of a climate of belonging among them.

Activity #3:

Workshop # 1 Assembly of exhibitions on the Bachelor's Degree in Education. Economics and its most relevant results.

Objective: To familiarize students with the elaboration of teaching aids, course and diploma works, master's theses and the results derived from them, awakening interest in pedagogical research. In these expositions, a favorable environment will be created to facilitate the explanation of the work by teachers and students in order to stimulate professional interest in the career.

Workshop # 2: "Illustrious Cuban pedagogues".

Objective: To value the work of renowned Cuban pedagogues in order to strengthen the professional motives that are evident in the students for the pedagogical work.

Activity # 4

Workshop #3: The pedagogical ideology of José Martí.

Objective: To highlight the tasks, qualities as well as the teacher's way of feeling and acting based on José Martí's letter to Enrique Trujillo.

Activity #5

Workshop #4: Screening of the film " The Brigadier ".

Objective: To discuss the most relevant aspects of the film, about the work done by the teacher in the literacy campaign for the reaffirmation of the social and human values of the pedagogical activity.

Activity # 6

Workshop # 5: Personalities of the teaching profession.

Objective: To exchange experiences with retired teachers of the Bachelor's Degree in Economics Education, dedicated to the pedagogical work.

Activity #7: "I can be a teacher" contest.

Objective: To value the attitudes and qualities of the students to be a good teacher, thus contributing to increase their motivation towards the profession.

Third stage: Evaluation of the pedagogical professional guidance process from the implementation of the strategy.

Objective: To evaluate the level of fulfillment of the objectives proposed in the pedagogical strategy in general and of the stages in particular, by means of the application of instruments that will allow to see the changes that are being developed in the process of professional orientation towards the Bachelor's degree in Education. Economy.

The evaluation constitutes a systemic and systematic process, where from the results of the application of each of the forms of implementation, the efficacy and efficiency of the strategy is evaluated, in relation to the achievement of the general objective, allowing to include, evaluate and/or control changes or modifications in the proposals. For this purpose, the achievement of the objectives foreseen for each of the forms of implementation will be taken into account, according to the improvement of the process under study, taking into account the stages identified and supported in relation to the pedagogical professional guidance process.

Methodological details for the practical implementation of the pedagogical strategy

The practical instrumentation of the pedagogical strategy proposed to contribute to the OPP process was conceived for its application in pre-university students, from the curricular and extracurricular aspects, in order to systematize the work with this process, not only for the reality of these students, but also for the subsequent years in favor of the OPP process, in relation to the actions with the different ways for this process and in the specific context of the education in which they will have to work later on.

The practical implementation of the pedagogical strategy favors the process under study, by facilitating the use of the established ways for the enhancement of this process. Its application requires, therefore, that the necessary conditions be guaranteed. In this sense it is necessary:

To train pre-university teachers in order to acquire, from a theoretical and methodological point of view, the knowledge, skills and values necessary to understand and put into practice the pedagogical strategy proposed together with the professors of the course. Such training should respond to the diagnosis of the teachers, in relation to the development of the pedagogical professional orientation process and assume the pedagogical professional orientation process, as a methodological line of work. For this purpose, it is recommended:

• To develop methodological sessions in the different groups, where it is modeled how to achieve the pedagogical professional orientation process, in the specific context of each school group.

• Identify alternative solutions to existing difficulties in the pedagogical professional orientation process, based on the specificities of each subject.

• To guarantee a coordinated and systematic work, which allows the successful implementation of the pedagogical strategy and consequently a more integral preparation of the future teacher for TVE?

Conclusions

The theoretical references discussed and assumed in this article reveal that the process of professional orientation has historically been seen as a system of influences on the subject for the selection of the profession, in which the dimension most investigated by the authors studied is the psychological factor, focusing their attention on the study of interests, motives and professional intentions as decisive elements in the choice of profession, which has limited the approach to this problem with an integrative approach in the different social contexts.

The diagnosis of the current state of the OPP in pre-university students towards the Bachelor's degree in Education. Economics reflects that it has been carried out spontaneously, without an integrative and multifactorial approach, which is related to the limitations in the professional performance of teachers to effectively lead this process.

The pedagogical strategy proposed for the OPP was designed based on the diagnosis of the limitations and potentialities, in relation to the management of this process and is developed on the basis of the principles that sustain it; allowing to assume a participative, self-regulating and transforming methodology with the purpose of achieving among the protagonists the direct relationship between knowledge, skills, motivations and attitudes.

Referencias Bibliográficas

Barrera, I. (2016). El proceso de orientación profesional pedagógica con enfoque grupal dirigido al desarrollo de intereses profesionales pedagógicos. Universidad “Hermanos Saíz Montes de Oca”. Cuba.

Caro, Y. (2019). Estrategia pedagógica para la orientación profesional pedagógica con enfoque familiar en la educación primaria. Tesis de doctorado. Universidad "Hermanos Saíz Montes de Oca", Cuba.

Del Pino, J. L. (1998). La orientación profesional en los inicios de la formación Superior Pedagógica: Una propuesta desde un enfoque problematizador. Tesis de doctorado. Instituto Superior Pedagógico “Enrique José Varona”, Cuba.

González, V. (2000). La orientación profesional como estrategia educativa para el desarrollo de intereses profesionales y de la responsabilidad del estudiante universitario. CEPES. La Habana .

Mariño, J. T., Pino, J. L. y Olivares, E. M. (2009). Motivación y orientación profesional pedagógica: dos propuestas cubanas ante un reto contemporáneo. Santiago de Cuba: Educación Cubana.

Matos, Z. (2003). La orientación profesional vocacional: una metodología integradora para su desarrollo en el preuniversitario del territorio guantanamero. Tesis de doctorado. Instituto Superior Pedagógico «Enrique José Varona», La Habana.

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Mestre, E. B. y Lazo, L. M. (2018). La orientación profesional pedagógica desde la clase en el proceso de formación inicial. Atlante, Cuadernos de Educación y Desarrollo. https://www.eumed.net/rev/atlante/2018/05/orientacion-pedagogica.html

Otero, I. (2001). Modelo de orientación profesional pedagógica para estimular el proceso de desarrollo de proyectos profesionales pedagógicos en los estudiantes. Tesis de doctorado. Instituto Superior Pedagógico "Félix Varela". Cuba.

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Received: November 10, 2021; Accepted: March 02, 2022

^*Autor por correspondencia: [e-mail]