Krinchik Elena P.

The academic methodological rethinking of the actual educational process at a single higher education institution is considered as an important component of the institution’s inner research and identity. The sociological and, especially, educational psychological research, from author’s perspective, create the necessary informational background for the improvement of the educational process at the each higher education institution, as well as for the promotion of reforms at the level of the education system of the state. A short characteristic of the special branch of the international academic and applied research – an Institutional Research (the within-institutional studies at a university), and of the work at the Center of inner monitoring of the Higher School of Economics — National Research University are presented as an argument. It is concluded that such studies are underestimated in the context of improvement and development of the professional training of students at the department of psychology of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, and that there is a necessity of the creation of such kind of center.

The article describes the main ideas of A.A. Verbitskiy’s model of contextual learning of high school students, and some of the results of questionnaire study of Moscow State University psychological department students’ impressions, collected from them after the completion of general psychological practicum course. In his model, A.A. Verbitskiy attempts to solve the crucial methodical (if not methodological) controversy of higher professional education, which is that students must master the basics of professional activity during their learning activities. The students’ evaluation of general psychological practicum appears to be consistent and comparable with the foundational principles of A.A.Verbitskiy’s concept of high school education.