Personal and Professional Development of an Academic Teacher in the Context of the Lifelong Education

Purpose. Search of optimal ways for personal and professional life-long self-perfection of a person in accordance with theoretical and methodological principles of the synergetic pedagogics gives an opportunity to explain in particular the essence of paradoxical dichotomy: on one hand it is structuredness, predictability, adaptability and on the other hand it is elements of chaos, spontaneity and inability to predict the final result. Methods – practical and theoretical. Results. A topical conception meeting the needs of lifelong education is the conception of personality development in the context of the synergetic pedagogics. In accordance with this conception a very important role belongs to the individually oriented educational process related with passing from education to self-education or self-regulated education. One of the newest ideas relating to the modern views on the professional development is heutagogy. It researches organizational peculiarities of autonomous, self-guided education. Heutagogy as a methodological style of lifelong education is embodied in the educational activity that takes place mainly in the plane of informal type of learning but in case of necessity its principles and technological approaches are appropriate to be applied in combination with pedagogic principles and principles of andragogy. Effective development of innovative culture of education, focused on the formation of self-sufficient, creative teacher is implemented in organic interaction with traditional pedagogical culture. Such interaction is manifested particularly in the integrated use of pedagogical, andragogical and heutagogical principles that opens new opportunities for professional development in the synergetic system of life-long education. During this development actualization of personality internal potential takes place.