The dynamics of the modern world, scientific and technological progress, the rapid development of information technology require constant changes from mankind in various spheres of life. The education industry is no exception. After all, special knowledge and skills become obsolete very quickly. For example, mathematics for schoolchildren, of course, remains the same as it was 10 and 20 years ago, but the methodology for studying this discipline is changing and adapting to the modern rhythm of life. In such a dynamic environment, human qualities come to the fore. The ability to constantly learn, quick adaptation, the ability to work in a team, the search for non-standard solutions, stress resistance - this is what a modern person should have. It is obvious that the current education system does not keep pace with changes in society and needs to be modernized. Personal development should be a priority in the educational process. Teachers understand this, parents and children want it.
What do parents expect from school education today?
It is wonderful that within the framework of the Educational Forum 2016 in Lviv, on March 3, a Parent Conference was held, which I managed to attend. I will gladly share the results of the conference and my impressions with you, dear readers.
As a citizen, I was pleasantly surprised that there are many caring people who want change and take an active position in implementing innovations in education. There are people who understand that the future of Ukraine depends on the education of our children.
As a father, I liked that teachers are the initiators of a dialogue to improve school education and are ready to change the educational process, taking into account the wishes of parents and children.
Of course, the conference participants have different views on school education. There were parents who sought to completely withdraw from the educational process at school. They didn't want to and didn't have the time to do their homework with the kids, prepare costumes for performances, and do other school-related work. Some of the parents, on the contrary, wanted to work with their children on their own at home and be trained externally. So at first I had no idea how a large number of activists should express their ideas and discuss them in one room. But the organizers of the conference skillfully directed the energy of the participants in the right direction.
The parents' conference of adults was divided into three groups and invited to different audiences. The children worked separately. In each group, participants were seated 4-5 people at the table. Pens and blank sheets of paper were handed out, on which each of us had to write down our vision of a modern school in 10 minutes. After that, for the next 10 minutes, the team at the table discussed their ideas and identified the 7 most important ones. Further, from the seven ideas, we had to choose the three most important ones, which were posted on the board for general information. Many wishes on the board turned out to be similar in essence, but differed somewhat in content. Such ideas were grouped and each group was given a working title. The teams then added the rest of the seven sheets. A general discussion determined which groups the proposals should be assigned to. New groups were created as needed. At the end, each group came up with a generalized name that reflected the essence of the ideas included in it.
Thus, without too much fuss and noise, we received concentrated and generalized ideas that included the vision of each of the parents. After a coffee break, all the participants got together again to share the results and take stock.
So what do parents want from education?
First of all, not knowledge, but the personality of the child should be at the center of the educational process. So that the teacher receives a decent salary, teaches children with inspiration and devotion, improves himself and does not think about a side job. So that the child develops in mind, body and soul, and moral values are at the heart of personality development. To ensure that the educational process is of high quality, interesting and safe. To make knowledge practical and close to life. To have no homework. So that children fall in love with school and part of the leisure time of students takes place at school. For parents to work more closely with teachers in the joint work of raising children.
By a magical coincidence, each group of participants came up with nine generalized proposals for improving schooling. In numerology, the number 9 means the end of the old cycle and the beginning of a new one. Therefore, there is hope that changes in the field of education will take place in the near future, and the wonderful ideas born by the participants during the conference will be taken into account in the models of future schools.
Keywords: mathematics for schoolchildren, Expectations of parents from school education today, Educational Forum, conference, knowledge, modernization, school curriculum
We invited teachers and parents to Psychologies to talk about the role of each side in the process of raising and educating children. The following took part in the discussion:
Anna Popova, teacher of the preparatory class at the Pirogov school;
Alexey Kuznetsov, history teacher at gymnasium No. 1543;
Olga Dvornyakova, PR director, mother of Anton (10 years old) and Daniil (12 years old);
Natalia Demchenko, financial manager, mother of Yana (10 years old) and Mikhail (16 years old).
psychology: What do parents expect when sending their child to school?
Anna:
Expectations are very different. It is important for the ambitious that the child study at a prestigious school - and receive knowledge, and it was not a shame to say where he studies. Usually such parents want their child to succeed in something that they did not succeed in themselves. Others want to give a better education at all costs.
Whether he is ready to go to school, whether he can study in advanced programs is not so important. The main thing is education. By any means. And in terms of education, they have a huge request: “We gave it to you, and you educate it, didn’t they teach you this?” There are many people who care about the child being happy and calm at school, especially primary school. Often these are those who themselves felt uncomfortable at school, or those who see that the child has difficulties: he is shy or, conversely, hyperactive. They don't want to be focused on it.
Finally, some parents cannot or do not want to choose a school for a variety of reasons and send their child to the nearest one. Their principle: as it will be, so it will be.
Alexei:
I will tell you about another type of parents that did not exist before. The old Soviet school clearly indicated to moms and dads their place: to hand over money, help take the little ones to the circus and come when called to get a reprimand. Which, of course, was wrong.
Seeing that the child is uncomfortable, parents can start to fight, or they can pick him up and give him where he will feel good
But today there are more and more parents who build relationships with the school according to the consumption model: “I am a consumer, the school is a provider of educational services. Here is a list of services that you provide me, and it will be convenient for me if you report by e-mail. If the services are not of proper quality, I reserve the right to turn where I should.
What distinguishes the current situation from the Soviet one is the opportunity to choose a school according to at least in big cities. Seeing that the child is uncomfortable, parents can start to fight, or they can pick him up and give him where he will feel good.
What do you do if your parents do not agree with your decision, demand, punishment? ..
Anna:
I prefer the rules to be known in advance. At the first parent-teacher meeting, which we hold six months before the start of classes, I warn parents that there are things that I do not allow. For example, I do not allow fighting. If they object to me that a boy should be able to stand up for himself, I immediately say that in this place we will have a discrepancy.
I also do not allow to offend and tease each other. If this happens, I will start to make comments, and make them strictly. And I won't make any concessions to my parents.
Alexei:
I agree, the rules help, but it happens that at the moment when they are announced, everyone agrees, and then, when it comes to a particular bruise under a particular eye, parents will interpret the situation in favor of their child.
From left to right: Anna Popova, Natalya Demchenko, Alexei Kuznetsov, Olga Dvornyakova.
What helps you establish a constructive dialogue?
Alexei:
Last year, I took class leadership for the first time in the fifth grade and in the fall I met with all the parents, talked with them one on one. First of all, I wanted them to tell me about the child: how they see it. Thanks to these meetings, I learned a lot, not so much about children, but about parents.
Do parents want you to raise students?
Alexei:
I have never heard: "You will learn a paragraph with my child, but do not interfere in education." On the other hand, everyone wants us to educate - but what exactly?
Last year, the children wrote the exam in Russian. We asked them not to bring cribs. The exam was held at another school, and there were not only our children. In the classroom, everyone used what they wanted, except that the teachers were not asked to go online. The next day, my mother came in, indignant: "Now because of your honesty, they will receive less points than those who cheated." This mother wants us to raise her child? Wants. But it is not ready for practical consequences.
Question to parents: how do you feel when your children go to school?
Olga:
Last year our eldest son entered fifth grade. We patiently waited until the first difficult months passed, he would get used to and get carried away by some new subject - so that he himself would be interested, so that there would not be such an endless series of everyday life: he came to school, did time, came home, did his homework, the next day same thing.
But what I definitely didn’t expect was that all the teachers at the meetings would exclaim with one voice: “Your children are just behaving terribly, they can’t adapt to high school in any way! Do something with them!" I tried to talk to the class teacher, but everything happens so quickly, the teacher has no time for anything: to think, discuss what to do.
Natalia:
In my opinion, parents involuntarily pass on their initial attitude to school to the child. I always wanted children to perceive school as a big and fascinating world, where there is everything - friends, teachers, study, human relations. And I expect very little from teachers: to take into account, at least a little, the individuality of the child.
Sometimes it is easier and more profitable for a teacher to put an undeserved four instead of a well-deserved three
According to my feelings, now teachers have become callous, and their indifference sometimes devalues the efforts of children. There was a case when the children were given a creative task, they tried, did it, their parents were attracted, but the teacher did not even check it! I also want the child to be given what he deserves: sometimes it is easier and more profitable for the teacher to put an undeserved four instead of a well-deserved three. And they would not disregard the efforts of a supernumerary three-year-old, for whom a decent result is almost a feat.
Olga:
Once the son received a deuce, we found out why, he redid the task, but the deuce remained. I advised him to approach the teacher and ask how he could improve his grade. And do you know what she said? - "No way".
Alexei:
In our country, there are 1.2 million teachers for 90 million working citizens - this is the most massive profession. And there is a huge number of those who, by and large, have nothing to do at school. What you are talking about is a fundamental defect not of the school, but of our bureaucratic state, which pushes us to hold demonstration events. If today a teacher is engaged in individual work with a child, realizing that they will not add points anywhere, then this is a unique teacher, wonderful, he is in his place.
What do you do if the teacher is wrong?
Natalia:
I had a similar situation with my daughter. She is a shy girl, she won't always stand up and say even if she knows the answer. And she will never go to find out anything. But then I saw that the teacher corrected the correctly spelled word in her notebook to the wrong one. I did not give any characteristics to the teacher, but tried to explain how this could happen.
If the child can defend his position, competently, calmly, then it is better to do it. But the teacher did not admit her mistake and left everything as it is. Then I had to tell my daughter that she did everything right, and the teacher, apparently, was busy with something and could not figure it out.
Alexei:
Yes, unfortunately, very few of us are able to admit that we made a mistake ...
Olga:
Once, when I saw several twos in a row in a magazine, I could not restrain myself and asked where they were from. To which the teacher replied that the boy answers questions in monosyllables, does not know how to reason and analyze. It seems to me that she could stop at the second deuce and discuss this story with us: call, write in her diary ... She knew that he had recently moved, he had a new family, I was his foster mother. He is embarrassed to express his thoughts in front of everyone. It would be important for me that he was understood, listened to, and treated with care.
Should the teacher delve into the intricacies of family circumstances?
Anna:
Of course! That is why I invite parents to “joke around” - to tell about the characteristics of the child, about health, to tell things that may affect his behavior. Or if something serious happens - for example, a dog has died. Of course, I need to know about it, I must be ready for any situation.
Alexei:
Usually the kids tell me everything themselves. Sometimes in hindsight. Or they talk about each other, it's easier for them.
How do you understand the cooperation between teachers and parents?
Alexei:
We are partners in the process of raising and educating children. In matters of upbringing, the parents have the last word: I will never insist on something if it goes against the opinion of mom or dad. Teachers should be teaching. If parents help us, it's great. Any situation can be resolved if there is an understanding that we are acting together.
The child is the third party of this process. As partners, we have both rights and obligations. But it's not on paper. School is a delicate matter, like a theater. Imagine: at a performance, instead of a program, you are given a leaflet with the rights of a spectator. At school, too, you can’t paint everything. Collaboration in a difficult situation is not easy. What does it look like? I, as a teacher or I, as a parent, can not go into confrontation, but step back, cool down and think: maybe everything is not quite as it seems to me.
Why is cooperation difficult?
Alexei:
Because people are different. Is it easy for two parents to cooperate while raising a child?
Anna:
Because of pride. In women, it often focuses on children. Listen to how they say: “My child should be the best”, “He should play the piano, violin, should get an A”, “He is still two years old, and he already knows the letters”, “And I graduated from school at 16 years". Mothers are proud of their children, and, in general, they have something to be proud of. But they are not ready to cooperate, because they do not hear anyone around them.
This year, I begged one mother not to send her son to school, he could not sit still for five minutes. I said that he had not yet played his part, that his nervous system was not ready for stress. In response, I heard: “What will he play with toys until the tenth grade?” What cooperation could I offer her?
"The teacher's word is law" - no, it's not. But parents who show their disrespect for teachers are simply ill-bred.
Now we have other sources of information, it is possible to compare. It turned out that teachers are ordinary people, themselves often poorly educated, worn out, weak ... So you can’t bring up the cult of a teacher in a child! "The teacher's word is law" - no, it's not. But parents who show their disrespect for teachers are simply ill-bred.
For children, especially in high school, it is important that the teacher not only teaches, but also speaks from the heart ...
Alexei:
At our graduation this year, the children said: “Thank you not only for your lessons, but also for our conversations in these lessons about important things. For tea after class. For travel. For hikes. After another child gave this to another teacher, I told the director: “Actually, it's time to close our office. Physicists are thanked for talking about lyrics. Lyrica - for talking about physics. Nobody is working!”
Anna:
They will all learn in the end. But heart to heart and brotherly - this is very important.
Alexei:
It’s good for you to say - in elementary school! ..
How many doubts we hear around us and express ourselves about the modern school! But September 1 comes - and we all meet together again under the roof of educational institutions. We plan our vacations, adjusting to the school schedule, take time off from work to get to the first call and the parent meeting.
It should be recognized that the school of our children is an essential part of our life. 11 years of school is a given that cannot be avoided, a given of our society. For parents with many children, this reality can continue for 15 or more years. How to make friends with this system? Can it become friendly to all participants? And is it possible to enjoy this process? Let's talk about it.
Expectations vs Reality
It is known that our dissatisfaction arises not from what reality is, but from the fact that reality does not meet our expectations. That is, the higher our expectations, the greater the disappointment from a collision with reality. What do we expect from the school?
Any parent expects that the school as a whole and the teacher in particular looks at his child the same way as he does: he sees his uniqueness, worries about him, passes through his difficulties and successes. But the reality is different. I am by no means saying that the teacher does not see every child. On the contrary, I am convinced that pedagogy is a true art and I take my hat off to the representatives of this amazing profession. But it's different. Not a single person in the world knows and feels his child the way his parents do. The parent lives with his child for many years, knows his habits, interests and hobbies. To expect the teacher to see him in the same way is to set the stage for future disappointments from the start.
How does the teacher look at the student? Teachers, just like children, have a new school year. A teacher who loves his job is looking forward to September 1 and meeting with his wards. However, his task is not just to meet with students. His task is to implement the program, show the high achievements of the whole class, agree with the parents, report to the management ... Teachers are praised for the success of students and punished for their mistakes. He is motivated for high scores and scolded for any scratch and, God forbid, injury. For a teacher, those 20-30 children that he sees in front of him is, first of all, a huge responsibility.
Yes, the teacher sees the uniqueness of each child, and sometimes with his professional eyes he sees more than blindly loving parents. But at the same time, the teacher solves a specific problem, which is the result of his work: the knowledge, skills and abilities of his students, which are prescribed in state educational standards. Expecting more from the school is plunging yourself, the child, and the teacher into constant stress.
The best solution for everyone is to accept the fact that your child will study in this particular school, exactly according to the system that is instituted here. If you want a different system, then it makes sense to change the school or the state, but it is pointless to demand from the teacher what he cannot give. But knowing this system is very important. Speak the same language with her, too. Only by speaking the same language with her, you can work together to achieve b about more result.
As you know, they don’t go to a foreign monastery with their own charter. Just as the opera and the cinema, the restaurant and coffee shop on the corner, the train and the plane have their own rules, so the school has its own, determined by law and tradition. First, read the rules that guide the school. Crossing the threshold of the school, you find yourself in the world of exactly the education that is approved at the state level, for which teachers are trained in institutes, the result of which is required from teachers and teachers in the field. Such is the reality. And you should not expect from our school that a student will not be called to the board if he himself does not express a desire, as in Finland (yes, a stressful situation and exposing a student’s unpreparedness is unacceptable there), or that two teacher. And to Sweden, where a capable student can be transferred to a higher class in the middle of the school year (if his parents do not mind, of course), we are also still oh so far away. But, believe me, our system has its advantages. You will definitely see them if you want to.
Change your attitude
Yes, unfortunately, our school is far from being a leader in education quality ratings, and it is often difficult for us, as parents, to come to terms with the approach that is being implemented in it. However, in terms of coverage with education, Belarus can be an example for other states. Everyone learns from us: both in the capital and in the countryside, any child is obliged to receive a basic school education. A mass school, as you know, focuses on the average student. So is it worth expecting miracles and an individual approach in a system that initially has a different vector and direction?
Of course, for each of us, our child is unique. But for the teacher, he is one of dozens of other children. For a school, one out of hundreds or thousands. As sad as it is to realize, our children are only part of the educational statistics. By behavior, by grades, by success. Can we change it?
Of course we can. As you know, if you cannot change the circumstances, then change your attitude towards them. It is in general statistics, for example, that one can more clearly see who stands out from it, who proves with their deeds and results that they are truly unique. The school is the base. Values are formed by us, parents. Respecting other people, looking for options and thinking outside the box, achieving results despite obstacles - all this is formed not only at school, but also in the family.
Whether or not the school meets your expectations, remember that it is your choice. Answer your questions:
- Why did you choose her?
- Do you consider teachers to be professionals, or is it just convenient for you to pick up your child on your way home from work?
- What does a child get in this particular school, apart from knowledge and grades?
The answers to these questions often bring parents back to reality.
Do not expect a miracle from the school, accept the reality you have chosen and teach your child to interact with it. Teach by example. Because even how to do homework and how to treat the class teacher, we, the parents, lay. If you cannot change the school, change your attitude towards it.
At the beginning of the training, I think everyone, not just IT, listeners are asked the question: “what is your current experience in this area and what do you expect from the course?”.
There are three main answers:
- I am familiar with this topic, I want to streamline and systematize knowledge. Which means, as a rule, - I consider myself incredibly cool and came to establish myself in this, due to the fact that everything that they will tell here will be familiar to me. Further, the person throughout the course is looking for confirmation of this fact, which means that any new information is ignored or even disputed. Or he starts working remotely - reads mail, climbs to do something from his laptop, demonstrating with his whole appearance the importance and responsibility of his work and its obvious superiority over the course material.
I used to be like that myself. But is it worth buying self-affirmation for the cost of the course? It's better to choose another way.
In fairness, some people really streamline and systematize knowledge. - We are preparing for a project / I am going to use the technology, I want to get to know the solution better. Usually these are the most interested listeners and it is most interesting to work with them. I was like that too. But I was usually disappointed when I realized that all the teacher could help me with was a manual or a textbook. Russia does not have the highest level of IT education.
- I'm tired of doing small things. Looking forward to career growth. The most unpredictable category. Personally, such a formulation did not occur to me, but, in principle, it is possible to understand. Every admin wants to stop being an enikey. And in general it is good when a person strives for more. That's just, it would seem, if you want more - learn new things. An no. Not all people in this category are set up for active learning.
One of the key features of the IT industry, like that of doctors, is the need for continuous learning. If a person does not study new technologies and products, but simply works with what has developed at work, he does not even stand still, he degrades. Because the IT world is one of the most dynamic. Technology is fundamentally updated about every three years. That is, every three years you have to re-learn even those things with which you have been working closely all this time. And during my career, twice, it can be said, the approach to organizing the server infrastructure has changed radically. Now the third is a software-defined data center and "clouds".
Speaking of "clouds" - the current trends in the development of the IT industry lead to the fact that mid-level specialists - system administrators of small organizations with 3-5 servers - simply will not. The infrastructure of these organizations will go into the virtual environment of service providers and will be outsourced to them. Either qualified specialists in cloud holders and corporations or enikey workers who change mice and cartridges in printers will be in demand. So, it is necessary either to pump very actively or to score and put up with the role of an overgrown “engineer” of the first line.
So, in this light, it doesn’t fit in my head that people who declare the need for career growth intend to study only those issues and technologies that they already work with. Aiming at career growth, no matter vertical or horizontal, implies at least a basic understanding of the subject area outside your area of responsibility. You work in technical support, but if you want to work with servers, study server platforms, technologies: a deep level of AD (websites, trust relationships, policies), PKI, network technologies, IPv6, DNS, DHCP, etc., and not at the level of “what can ”, but at the level of “how it works”. Because if you know how the system works, you can manage it and design solutions based on it. And if you know that when certain buttons are pressed, a certain result is obtained, and in which case you can always google, then one day you will get a situation that the buttons are pressed, but the result is not what you need. And the solution proposed by Google finally brought down the service, because it offered to press new buttons and, moreover, to register some characters in incomprehensible parts of the registry. And pressed and registered. Not paying attention that the version of the product is not the same already.
Even if you are aiming for a boss, you should also prepare earlier - study project management, SMART, delegation and planning. In general, these skills are useful not only for bosses, because the management process is also a system, and if you know how it works ... well, you understand.
For career advancement, you need to learn. Just in order to remain relevant specialist in IT, you need to study. And in order to grow in the field of IT, you need to study doubly.
No, I didn't get involved in promoting IT courses from authorized training centers. Now you can learn in a very large number of different ways - books, training videos, online courses of varying degrees of free (Microsoft Virtual Academy and a number of MOOC platforms like Coursera and Udacity). Of course, courses in a classroom with a live instructor, in terms of efficiency, are the most productive option, since information is received through several channels at once, + discussion allows you to consolidate what you have learned. Provided, of course, that the instructor has an idea about the subject he is teaching. Which, unfortunately, is an infrequent phenomenon in Russian realities, at least in IT. But even on courses it is worth bearing in mind that learning is not an external but an internal process . In other words, it is almost impossible to teach a person something from the outside. Is that to instill some reflexes. Something a person can study only himself. You can’t put a cable in your head and pour in a set of knowledge and skills [on helicopter control] from the outside or from someone else’s head, like in the movie The Matrix, no matter how much we want to.
A teacher, even a good teacher, can only create the right atmosphere. Yes, pictures, text, voice, forming into signs, which in turn form into information, are just a background, meaningless without the internal need of the organism sitting in the audience to learn something. In this light, it is not clear what people expect when they come to the course and plunge into the jungle of social. networks or workflows. That is, on Wednesday, either entertaining or familiar. The reason for this behavior is quite clear. There are two of them:
- I don't need it, I already know it. On this topic, I recall a dialogue with a training center support engineer:
Do you only teach basic courses?
— For now, yes.
- It's a pity.
- Why?
- Nothing new. I already passed them and even passed the exam.The amazing thing for me here is that, having passed a whole bunch of exams on different versions of servers, including the latest ones, working in this area for 12+ years, I used up almost 3 notepads of notes (A5 format), preparing for the track. That is, I found something new for myself, or at least worthy of attention and discussion. And if someone with more than 15 years of experience and experience in related topics acted as a discussion partner ...
- I don't need it, we won't use it. Also a stunningly simple answer. I would like to ask right away, but you, declaring career growth as a goal, intend to work in this place and in this position all your life, is this where this technology (AD CS, Trust Relationship, RODC, etc.) will not be used? And also, why not? Because you know exactly what doesn't fit or because no one knows how to use it?
In fact, both of these answers come from a state that is called unconscious incompetence. You can read more about competency states (there are four of them), for example,. Or .
The individual does not know the subject and believes that he does not need it. Or he thinks he knows - then this is the second round of the competence development cycle, but again - the first quadrant.
But both the first and last (if there is no change in activity) quadrants are stagnation. Stop development.
Why take a course if you're aiming to stand still?
On Common Misconceptions About Learning Expectations
Why do students go to school? Why do their parents send them there almost every day? This seemingly trivial question, for some reason, turns out to be very difficult if you try to answer it honestly. This question has a very simple and, as often happens in such cases, an incorrect and deceitful answer of an everyday plan, in the language that parents speak to their children when they try to force them to do what they do not want. This is the answer: "For knowledge."
Why is the answer "For knowledge" wrong? And look at the question parents ask their children who have returned from school: “What did you get today? What marks? And almost never: “What new did you learn at school today?”. This is our national general cultural setting. Analyze, for example, poetry related to school. In most poems, wishes for schoolchildren to receive “fives” and not to receive “twos”, to sit quietly “on a desk”, etc. will be recorded.
It turns out that the main motive that drives parents when they send their children to school is marks, by and large, the approval of children by the state education system. Let's make a reservation: not all parents. And the proportion of parents who look at the classical traditions of education with skepticism is growing rapidly. But, nevertheless, in Russian society, parents who tend to uncritically and obediently follow the course of formal education dictated by officials are still the vast MOST. They would like so that the child would pass the annual tests and control well, successfully pass the exam at the end, and then enter the state university on the budget (and it doesn’t matter which faculty!). It is important for them that the child could integrate into the EXISTING SYSTEM OF SOCIETY. But this is a system of the past, already obsolete, almost obsolete system.
This is “What grades did you get at school today?” speaks of a complete misunderstanding by parents of the true goals of education, that the correct education of children is not among the priorities of parents, and the benefits of free public education obscure those colossal disadvantages from the practice of depriving children in public school of any choice (subjects, activities, tasks), coercion to perform meaningless tasks, cramming and memorizing paragraphs of the textbook, without understanding the essence of the tasks, substituting marks for cognitive interests and motives.
Let's talk about tests. The success of education in a traditional school has long been reduced to the performance of tests. One test for reading speed and transitional dictations with a lot of semi-meaningful and incorrect tasks for texts are worth something! Tests require you to quickly perform arithmetic, for example, in numbers up to 20, and know which vowels are not written after hissing and voiceless consonants. However, let's think about whether this is all education comes down to and whether its results can be measured in the form of tests?
As ONE of the approaches to measuring the quality of education, tests certainly make some sense. But as soon as the essence of education is reduced to tests, and the tests themselves are absolutized, they quickly destroy education itself. A huge scientific literature is devoted to this, it makes no sense to retell it. Suffice it to recall that almost half of the population of our country and its pedagogical community believe that the introduction of a mandatory USE in test form ten years ago is to blame for the crisis in the Russian school. By analogy with the USE in the 9th grade, similar USE GIAs have been introduced, and there is talk that after the 4th grade, examinations of this type will be conducted. In the opinion of many, children have stopped studying, and teachers have stopped teaching, and are only engaged in coaching them to complete the tasks of the Unified State Examination and similar tests.
We do not deny the need to carry out certification of schoolchildren, however, it is necessary to understand that the tests themselves and the preparation for them are a great, harmful and insurmountable evil that was invented by some specific, albeit nameless, officials (simply because they needed to make the appearance of the work they were doing) . Therefore, taking tests cannot generate any enthusiasm in a serious, thinking teacher (and parent).
Expectations from schooling should be much richer and wider than any test. The main thing in them is the development of various facets of the child's human potential, human tendencies inherent in him from the very beginning. They include the ability to work, explore and learn about the world around you, create order around yourself, express yourself in communication, in the form of sounds, symbols, texts, movements, the ability to get along with others and follow the rules accepted in the community, make conscious responsible choices, perform functions and responsibilities… Doesn't the ability to INTEGRATE into the SYSTEM, “to be like everyone else”, now demanded by some parents, seem like too small and perverted requirements for the child? After all, the school in Russia has always been tasked with the formation of a more perfect, more developed person who would not only integrate into the existing society, but who would change it in a positive way, would make it more advanced.
And tests, as an example of meaningless and unnecessary work, are part of the old, obsolete society, the world. And we, teachers, also, unfortunately, have to prepare for them, allocating some time for this, and having come up with special materials, activities and games for this, but treating tests as a dangerous and insurmountable evil ...
In order to more or less objectively approach the problem of expectations from learning, it is more correct not to try to formulate any requirements and indicators a priori, but at least to observe children studying in different pedagogical systems, to compare their behavior and learning outcomes.
Comparing students from traditional and Montessori schools…
In the summer of 2016, we had the opportunity to observe several children who came from a “regular” school in a summer camp at a Montessori school, and to identify the features of their motivation and behavior in comparison with students who had been studying Montessori for several years (at school and kindergarten).
We are talking about elementary school students (grades 2-4). Such a comparison (students of an ordinary school with Montessori schoolchildren) is quite justified and natural, since Montessori schoolchildren have already advanced quite far in terms of normalization, and the behavior of “ordinary schoolchildren” looks like a deviation from the normal, anthropologically justified behavior of a child of primary school age. And although this study does not claim to be a complete and statistically valid, it is still quite suitable for the role of a pilot study, which allows us to formulate plausible hypotheses for confirmation in the course of this experiment.
Motivation disorders.
A striking feature of children who came from a traditional school is a significant decrease in cognitive motivation. They are not interested in teacher-led presentations in small groups, science experiments, observing plants and animals, and reading books. Invited to participate in Montessori presentations, schoolchildren of a regular school literally languished from boredom, abandoned the work they had begun (for example, work with material that required patience, such as assembling a model from a designer), began to loiter around the studio class, distracting other children from their studies. Such a decrease in cognitive motivation will inevitably lead in the future to a slowdown in the pace of intellectual development, to a general decrease in the internal potential of the child, to the appearance of barriers in mastering educational subjects in this particular child, and to the inefficient work of the entire class, composed of ordinary school students.
The overvaluation of grades.
The reverse side of the decrease in the cognitive motivation of a student of a traditional school is the overvaluation of grades (marks) for him. The child is not interested in new knowledge, but he strives to get a high mark (or not to get a low one), and this is what makes him do the academic work. Naturally, grades that replace cognitive motivation are not capable of ensuring the effective cognitive activity of the child; they push him only to the formal fulfillment of educational tasks and the acquisition of a formal education in general. He doesn't care what he does, as long as he gets a high mark and doesn't get a low one. Grades reduce cognitive activity to memorization, memorization, cramming.
Attention instability.
A child of 6 years old, when he first comes to a Montessori school, can keep his attention on one subject for about 10 minutes (on average). With each presentation and with each experience and demonstration, the stability of attention in children increases and quickly reaches 30-40 minutes, i.e. already 30-40 minutes Montessori-first-grader in the second half of the year can consider and observe something, listen to a story or reading, or do academic work himself. In the 2nd grade, a Montessori student can do academic work (write something or perform calculations, solve problems), practically without being distracted, for 2-3 hours, and it is difficult for him to break away from his studies, even though he feels tired, so he is passionate and concentrated on the actions performed. Students who came to our camp (and, moreover, successful ones) of grades 2-3 could concentrate their attention on educational materials for only 15-20 minutes, after which they needed to be distracted, switch to another activity. Such instability, unformed attention will not allow them to continue to engage in activities that require concentration and concentration, to achieve high results in work that requires attention and perseverance. We are inclined to explain this by the influence of the class-lesson system at school. It is known that a lesson lasting 45 minutes (1 academic hour) allows the child to do concentrated work for only 20 minutes. At the beginning of the lesson, as a rule, there are introductory and organizational phases that do not involve a deep concentration of schoolchildren, and at the end of the lesson there is a final phase, which is associated with writing down homework, summing up the lesson, etc. And this is the ideal case. But in reality, at school, many lessons are held in such a way that the student cannot concentrate and do academic work at all. The result of such training is the tendency of a student from an ordinary school to be constantly distracted, lose the thread of activity, lose focus on objects that are being manipulated. Subsequently, as an employee, such an individual will not be distinguished by high productivity and effectiveness, will be constantly distracted at work.
Violation of socialization. Constant appeals to adults.
Unlike a student in a Montessori school, a student in a regular school builds his communication in such a way that the focus is on the teacher, and not classmates. He constantly appeals to adults (to the teacher), asks them about everything, seeks to tell them something, because he does not know how to solve problems on his own or with the help of classmates. He considers classmates as companions for his leisure (games) or competitors in the struggle for the attention of adults or various resources in the class. The result of such traditional education is individuals who are incapable of joint, collective constructive activity, the ability to situationally perform the functions of a leader or, on the contrary, a follower in the joint activities of children. And this is nothing but violations of socialization. Constant appeals to adults, expectation of their immediate approval (or disapproval) will prevent him from working independently.
Negativity. Rejection of the rules.
A child who came from a traditional school most often has a negative attitude towards school rules aimed at organizing effective independent educational activities of children, so that none of them interfere with each other and, moreover, order in the environment and the safety of materials would be ensured. Traditional school students begin to intentionally interfere with other children, invade their boundaries, intentionally misuse or even damage the material. They constantly show the desire to assemble various constructors "on the contrary", incorrectly.
Such children often give negative assessments of other children, the teacher, and the school as a whole. Apparently, a traditional school, as a rule, does not ensure that its students accept the basic rules and moral norms of school life, forms a negative attitude towards each other in children, and includes their intense competition and struggle.
Tendency to violence towards the younger and the weak.
The reverse side of the competition of traditional school students among themselves, their inability and unwillingness to accept the school rules, forced and formal obedience towards the teacher causes them to respond to aggression towards each other and violence towards younger and weaker children. Such children often beat each other, provoke a fight, and harass younger and weak schoolchildren who cannot answer them. In a Montessori class of different ages, which includes children of 3 ages, and is set up for cooperation and their mutual care for each other, this is especially noticeable.
propensity to play. Laziness.
The lack of formation of meaningful educational motivation among students of the traditional school leads to the fact that they are constantly distracted from educational work and move on to the subject game, which is characteristic of preschool childhood. Children begin to use the materials and objects of the environment in order to play, forgetting about the educational work that has begun, and this game can continue indefinitely without the intervention of a teacher. At the same time, in relation to educational tasks, as well as assignments related to cleaning, duty, caring for plants and pets, etc., students in an ordinary school demonstrate not just laziness, irresponsibility, but also open protest. In a traditional school, due to the insufficiency of what is called educational work, and the general way of life based on the class-lesson system, the readiness to carry out various assignments, bear responsibility, take care of the environment in which they are children, is not formed by the critical adolescence, but which means it never forms.
Inability to organize one's own activities, to satisfy interests.
Children who came from an ordinary school to a Montessori camp showed their inability and unwillingness to independently find positive activities for themselves, occupy themselves, plan and organize their activities. They constantly turned to teachers with complaints of boredom, asked them to offer and organize certain classes for them. This was in contrast to Montessori students who immediately found something to do, fully organized their activities, planned their work and the resources required for it, created self-regulating communities engaged in creative, creative activities. Schoolchildren from a traditional school remain dependent, dependent on adults, constantly requiring control and intervention in their studies.
formal knowledge.
In the course of presentations and educational work, "traditional" schoolchildren showed the formality of their knowledge. Having received an educational task, for example, in mathematics, for addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, they tried to remember the formal algorithm for performing these operations in writing on paper, as a rule, making mistakes and getting confused when performing it, and did not complete the solution. At the same time, students of the Montessori school chose material in the environment that could help them complete a given task, and with its help, demonstrating an understanding of the mathematical side of the actions performed, they found a solution. Most likely, the formal nature of the knowledge acquired by students of the traditional school will not allow them to effectively apply the knowledge gained in school in practice, and this is the general result of the methods and visual aids used in the traditional school.
As an interim...
In the course of observations, we again became convinced of the correctness of the choice made in favor of the Montessori method. It allows you to achieve excellent results in education and upbringing, both in terms of children's knowledge and in relation to their behavioral patterns. At the same time, we do not see how the defects in teaching and upbringing among students of the traditional school, which were noted in the course of observations, can be corrected.
And yet, what does the school give students? Knowledge?
If we talk about a traditional school, then yes, here some subject knowledge is passed on to schoolchildren, but this has become a problem recently: a schoolboy will never be able to apply much of this knowledge in his life. They have no value for him in modern life and therefore cause rejection. Schoolchildren for the most part do not like mathematics and do not do it (realizing that they will never need quadratic equations), literacy has fallen terribly, children have stopped reading fiction (why? It’s better to go to the movies), they completely forgot how to write essays. Other subjects do not cause delight in children either: physics, chemistry, biology, history ... Children are outraged that they have to memorize so much, learn by heart, while you can quickly find everything on the Internet.
In short, education, built on the basis of the teacher's transfer of knowledge skills and abilities, suddenly stopped working, the costs of the so-called "knowledge" approach, or paradigm, in teaching turned out to be extremely high. Most importantly, knowledge-oriented education does not at all prepare for further work, and does not create the prerequisites for further success in the conditions of modern society. And not only here, but all over the world. Therefore, the competency-based approach is widely used there (and has begun to be actively used in Russia). But what are competencies?
These are the results of practical activity that the trainee shows after his training, i.e. not just knowledge and ability to apply it in practice, but also the desire to do it, internal responsibility for the duties and obligations taken. In fact, competencies are the requirements and wishes of the employer to the employee, the conditions for the success of his work. Competence is formed and manifested in the process of practical activity. It cannot arise as a result of even the best presentation of educational material by the teacher.
Unfortunately, few people in Russian education understand this. For 10 years, we have been undergoing a purely formal rewriting of curricula, in which, instead of the old “the student must know the following ...”, they write “in a new way”: “the student must have the following competencies ...”, and competencies are again interpreted through knowledge, skills, abilities and values... And teachers only pretend to form these same competencies without changing teaching methods, still only by explaining and calling students to the board.
With the transition to competencies in our school, little has changed. Children did not want to receive knowledge, so they do not want to form competencies. Everything at school comes under pressure, more precisely, under the threat of a negative assessment, failure to pass the exam (USE), punishment, expulsion, etc. In order to break out of this vicious circle of formal education, many parents and teachers turn to the Montessori system, an alternative to the traditional way of teaching that arose, by the way, in classical German gymnasiums at the beginning of the 19th century. Let's see which model is more correct to describe in the Montessori school. Will it be previous knowledge and skills, will it be competencies, or something else?
It turns out that students in the Montessori school both acquire knowledge and form competencies in themselves and develop something else that goes beyond both the knowledge and competency-based approach, and which makes the Montessori system especially promising and in demand - students develop effective and positive behavioral and cognitive strategies that traditional training does not allow. But let's talk about everything in order.
The Montessori methodology for schools 6-12 (in the AMI standard) includes a voluminous set of subject knowledge, which is presented in the AMI curriculum for schools 6-12. Knowledge is contained in prepared environment materials (eg, charts, timelines, cards, chests of drawers, and boxes) and presentations. Each presentation is a mini-lesson given in a small group. And there are also frontal lessons - key lessons, big stories. Therefore, there is no impassable chasm between the Montessori method and traditional teaching. In both cases, the methodology is based on a carefully selected set of basic knowledge.
Note that this set of knowledge included in the Montessori methodology has certain gaps and shortcomings. So, nothing is said in the Montessori school 6-12 about the conditions for floating bodies, about the law of Archimedes, there is nothing about Pascal's law, everything related to electricity, even such a phenomenon as a thunderstorm, lightning, is completely omitted. There are gaps regarding language and mathematics. For example, AMI trainers deny the need for a separate set of materials on spelling (since there is no such concept in the English language - there is spelling, spelling out words). There is no concept of inequality in AMI mathematics, more-less, set and mapping, and there are only 2 types of problems (for speed-time-distance and for the amount of money in the bank, put under simple interest). This leads to the fact that since these topics are very important for passing national testing and certification of students in different countries, the teacher has to give this to students in Montessori schools to the best of his own understanding. Someone comes up with their own presentations, and someone distributes cards and makes them learn definitions and rules by heart.
Competencies
But from the point of view of the formation of competencies, the Montessori method is much more effective than traditional teaching, since it is built on the basis of students' work with materials, their practical activities. The class-lesson learning process of a traditional school is based on students “listening” to the teacher, and no matter what tricks the teacher resorts to in trying to organize the individual work of students, all this constantly slides into “listening” to the teacher’s transmission of educational information. The Montessori school is a school of "doing", a school of activities, in which children themselves receive information and extract knowledge from the materials of the learning environment, therefore competencies are formed here automatically, moreover, in a practical, applied plane. In the Montessori school, things are much better with understanding and the ability to practically apply knowledge than in the traditional one. There is a lot of motivation and value here. That is why modern competency-based learning standards are, as it were, specially written for the Montessori school, while the compliance of a traditional school with these standards has to be “proved”, as a rule, by wishful thinking.
Strategies
In addition to knowledge and competencies, the Montessori school (with the right formulation of the educational process) gives children something more, it gives them productive personal strategies. But what is it, personal strategies? Personal strategies, as can be defined by expanding K.A. Albukhanova-Slavskaya, are psychological complexes of motives, abilities, styles, attitudes, skills with which a person organizes his life. Strategies include some general characteristics of a person, which, in the old fashioned way, are attributed to the character, to the values of a person, however, we emphasize that personal strategies are an activity, “over-competence” concept.
The organization of the work and life of a traditional school at the present time leads to the formation of personal strategies with many outright defects. These are such negative aspects as indifference to injustice, humiliation and violence, acceptance or even skills of deceit, substitution of meaningful motivation for knowledge and activity by avoiding failures (low marks) or striving for formal success (high marks). Obvious defects in personal strategies are caused by that side of traditional learning that is associated with a lack of choice, no alternative for students: they, as a rule, cannot choose either the subjects studied, or teachers, or tasks, but are forced to act only according to a schedule previously drawn up by someone and plan. As a result, children form only a strategy of subordination by someone for them to the choice made, the decisions made.
Within the Montessori methodology, on the contrary, strategies are formed based on involvement and leadership in groups of different ages, based on cognitive interests and self-realization, the ability to recognize and realize one's own interests. These strategies include the positive interaction of children, conscious adherence to the rules of discipline. It is safe to say that in the 21st century it is precisely such strategies, and not strategies of subordination and survival, that will ensure success.
And again the pyramid
Studies of personal strategies and their relationship with training and education deserve a more voluminous and in-depth reflection, which will be done in future publications. Here we will limit ourselves to a graphical representation of the relationship between the knowledge-based, competence-based approaches and the approach based on personal strategies.
They, as is often the case, form a three-stage pyramid. At the very bottom, at the heart of everything, is knowledge. The 2nd level of the pyramid is competencies, they are impossible without knowledge. 3rd, highest, - personal strategies, it is based on competencies.
Director of the Montessori school "Alisa" (Voronezh),
professor, d.p.s. A.V. Mogilev
