About Vasiliev in school education. Mission is possible: how to improve the quality of education at school (E. N. Kukso). What kind of extension will it be?

Working in the field of education, every teacher asked the following questions:
1. How to get children interested in a subject?
2. how to resolve conflicts between students and teachers?
3. How do you feel about the administration, which constantly demands reports, events, and improved performance indicators?
4. How to avoid succumbing to emotional burnout?
5. Why does the school turn into one of the departments of the bureaucratic apparatus, where everyone shifts responsibilities from one to another?
6. Why has the school administration and teachers spent many times more paper in recent years than before?

1. Relevance of the topic
Learning actually takes up a person’s entire life. This process begins in childhood and continues until death. After all, the word training should be understood not only as visiting various educational institutions. Something is comprehended by a person independently in the process of life. But we receive the bulk of knowledge, mental and spiritual development at school. Every person remembers their golden school years. But, probably, every student would still like to make some changes in school life. Therefore, having had the opportunity to express our assumptions about what can make school life more interesting and improve the quality of education, we began by analyzing the reasons for the hostility that students show towards school and the learning process, and tried to find means to suppress this hostility.

2. Hypothesis
A favorable environment at school enhances the student's desire to learn.

3. Goals
1. Reconsider the generally accepted views on school

2. Make suggestions on how to improve the quality of education

An important condition for increasing efficiency educational process is the systematic receipt by the teacher of objective information about the progress of educational and cognitive activities of students. The teacher receives this information in the process of monitoring the educational and cognitive activities of students. Control means identifying, establishing and assessing students’ knowledge, i.e. determining the volume, level and quality of learning material, identifying learning successes, gaps in knowledge, skills and abilities of individual students and the entire class in order to make the necessary adjustments to the learning process , to improve its content, methods, means and forms of organization. The main task of control is to identify the level of correctness, volume, depth of knowledge acquired by students, obtain information about the nature of cognitive activity, the level of independence and activity of students in the educational process, determine the effectiveness of methods, forms and methods of their learning. Performing the function of guiding the educational and cognitive activities of students, control is not always accompanied by grading. It can act as a way for me to prepare students to perceive new material, identify students’ readiness to master knowledge, skills and abilities, generalize and systematize them. Control has important educational and developmental significance. The psychological and pedagogical functions of control are to identify shortcomings in the work of students, establish their nature and causes in order to eliminate these shortcomings. As a teacher, it is important for me to have information both about how students have acquired knowledge and about how they acquired it. Control also plays a large educational role in the learning process. It helps to increase responsibility for the work performed not only by the student, but also by the teacher. Accustoming schoolchildren to systematic work and accuracy in completing educational tasks. In general, testing knowledge is a form of consolidation, clarification, comprehension and systematization of students’ knowledge. Listening to the answering comrade, the students at the same time seem to repeat again what they themselves learned the day before. And the better the inspection is organized, the more conditions there are for such consolidation. Therefore, it is necessary to organize so that actual knowledge is revealed as deeply and completely as possible. Checking is an incentive for students to study regularly and to work diligently. In this regard, the element of probability and surprise present in most testing cases is undoubtedly useful. Therefore, control is an important and necessary component of teaching and involves the systematic observation of the teacher over the progress of learning at all stages of the educational process.

If the student’s answer or work deserves an excellent or good grade, then a mark is always given and accompanied by a value judgment, from which the merits of the student’s answer or work would be clearly visible. If the student’s answer turns out to be weak and deserves an unsatisfactory grade, then I use the delayed marking method, i.e., do not give an unsatisfactory mark yet, so as not to traumatize the student at first, but limit myself to an appropriate value judgment or tactful suggestion. This pedagogical measure is dictated by the following. If a student's weak answer or work has not yet been evaluated by the teacher, he is given the opportunity to improve the quality of his academic work in order to receive the desired grade. Thus, the student has a desire to take advantage of this opportunity, better master the educational material and receive a positive assessment, i.e., this measure activates the stimulating function of the assessment. Current control is carried out in everyday educational work and is expressed in the teacher’s systematic observations of the student’s educational and cognitive activities in each lesson. Its main purpose is to promptly obtain objective data about the level of students’ knowledge and the quality of teaching and educational work in the classroom. The information obtained during lesson observation about how students master the educational material, how their skills and abilities are formed, helps the teacher to outline rational methods and techniques of educational work. Correctly dose the material, find optimal forms of students’ educational work, provide constant guidance to their educational activities, activate attention and awaken interest in what is being studied. Here you see not only the level of preparation homework at the moment, but the growth of each student is visible, which is not only educational, but also has a great educational role. At the same time, I often remind the children that at the moment they are like artists on stage. If the student’s answer or work deserves, although positive, but a lower grade than he usually received, then I first find out why the student answered worse than usual, and then carefully weigh whether the intended grade will have the desired effect on the student, that is, it will does it serve as an incentive to obtain more in the future? highly appreciated. And if this is so, a mark is given, and in a value judgment I point out the weak side of the answer or work. If I come to the conclusion that the answer does not have the desired effect on the student (it will not become a stimulating or educational factor), I do not submit it. In this case, I limit myself to a value judgment, from which the student must clearly understand that the mark was not given to him this time because it is lower than what he usually receives for his answers, and also be aware of what he needs to do to get a higher mark . When a student's answer or work deserves a satisfactory grade, it is necessary to find out the reason for the poor work and only then decide whether to give a mark or use the delayed assessment method. In the latter case, it should be taken into account that the reasons for a bad answer can be respectful and disrespectful. Unexcusable reasons include the student’s laziness or careless attitude towards academic work. Giving an unsatisfactory grade to careless students should force them to work more diligently in their studies. The teacher should keep in mind that receiving a “f” causes disappointment in one student, while another perceives it indifferently; It can stimulate one student to actively work aimed at improving academic performance, but it has a paralyzing effect on another, and he completely “gives up,” being confident in the hopelessness of the current situation and in his inability to catch up. You cannot traumatize a student with unsatisfactory grades if he does not succeed, for reasons beyond his control. As much sensitivity and goodwill towards his students as possible, with reasonable pedagogical requirements for them and as little formalism as possible - this is what is required from every teacher. A teacher is not a controller or recorder of students’ achievements or failures in educational work. He needs not only knowledge, but also a search for methodological techniques, the use of which would awaken and develop students’ interest in learning, and would make learning truly developing and educating. Thematic control. Identification and assessment of the knowledge and skills of students acquired not in one, but in several lessons, are ensured by periodic monitoring. Its goal is to establish how successfully students master a system of certain knowledge, general level their assimilation, whether it meets the requirements of the program.

Periodic control is carried out, as a rule, after studying a logically completed part of the educational material. I admit, honestly, not everything worked out right away: at first there was a sufficient amount of unsatisfactory work. Together with the children, I analyzed the reasons for failure. She always gave the child the opportunity to complete his education and receive a positive assessment. During such testing, students learn to think logically, generalize the material, analyze it, highlighting the main, essential. For myself, I have identified several features of this type of control: 1. The student is given additional time to prepare and is provided with the opportunity to retake, retake the material, and correct a previously received mark. 2. When setting the final mark, the teacher does not focus on the average score, but takes into account only the final marks on the topic being passed, which “cancel” the previous, lower ones, which makes the control more objective. 3. The opportunity to obtain a higher assessment of your knowledge. Clarification and deepening of knowledge becomes a motivated action of the student, reflecting his desire and interest in learning. Final control The final test and assessment of knowledge, skills, abilities, students is carried out at the end of each quarter and school year. Its goal is to determine the volume and depth of acquired knowledge and skills, their strength and awareness.

The test results serve as the basis for assessing student performance, which characterizes the degree to which students have mastered knowledge, skills and abilities in accordance with the requirements curriculum. The final grade reflects the results of students' work for the quarter or academic year. However, it does not represent the arithmetic average of all grades received by students for the year. The teacher must have a good understanding of the process of each student mastering knowledge and skills, see successes and failures, and the students’ attitude towards them. Only if all these conditions are met, the teacher can objectively evaluate the students’ work. In the final assessment of student performance, if the task of assessment is a purely control function (for example, quarter or other tests, one-time test surveys and papers, cut-offs), then objective marks for them are given to all students without exception. Monitoring the level of achievements of students in biology is carried out in the form of written work: biological dictations, tests.

For a student, the mark is main indicator his actual success in learning. At the same time, grades, or rather the dynamics of their changes, to some extent reflect the effectiveness of the teacher’s work. Since the results of progress monitoring are expressed in the assessment of knowledge, skills and abilities, it is very important that students are convinced that their performance is being assessed objectively. Correct assessment and pedagogical tact of the teacher strengthen students' faith in justice, they cultivate the desire to move forward.

An important part of a teacher’s image is the extent to which he is eloquent. When communicating with students, the teacher should not forget about the tone in which he speaks to other people. Not only the emotional state of students, but also their performance depends on this.

It must be emphasized that our children highly value a teacher who has a sense of humor. Here's what they write in their profiles:

… Smile more often (7th grade, female)

... The personal qualities of a teacher are very important to me, especially humor! After all, if you are without him all the time, you can become sad. (7th grade, female)

... When you see a teacher in a good mood, you immediately feel joyful and good at heart. (7th grade, female)

… I would like every teacher to have a sense of humor. (7th grade, male)

...Always the image of a good mood. (8th grade, female)

...The most important thing is that the teacher treats us well and can joke when necessary (8th grade, male)

...You can’t come and teach a lesson without emotions, you need to joke in moderation... (10th grade female)

... It's better when the teacher is cheerful, not boring. (7th grade, female)

PRIORITY VALUES

1. Professionally important qualities of a teacher are love for children, the desire to understand and help. If communication with children is not a teacher’s priority value, he should not count on the love and trust of children, even if he knows his subject and teaching methods very well.

2. PSYCHOEMOTIONAL STATE

The characteristics of a teacher’s behavior and perception are largely determined by the state of his nervous system. With information and emotional overloads characteristic of working at school, disturbances in the teacher’s motor and speech behavior and health problems are possible.

3. SELF-ASSESSMENT

Self-esteem, or self-perception, is a person’s assessment of himself, his capabilities, qualities and place among other people. A teacher’s ideas about the principles of teaching, his entire “personal pedagogical philosophy” are largely determined by his self-esteem.

4. TEACHING STYLE

The formation of style is influenced by a number of factors: personal characteristics, life attitudes, experience. Teaching style can contribute to a teacher's effectiveness or make it difficult for a teacher to carry out his or her professional responsibilities.

5. LEVEL OF SUBJECTIVE CONTROL

The level of subjective control shows what degree of responsibility for our relationships with people and the facts of our lives we are ready to take upon ourselves. The profession of a teacher requires a willingness to be responsible for another person, sometimes at the cost of one’s mental comfort and personal time.

A modern teacher, as practice shows, must take into account the psychological aspects of the lesson and constantly test the student’s degree of development, his memory, attention, will, composure, and perseverance. What to follow in doing so? His main task is the desire to recognize the student in all manifestations and understand him. How to maintain an optimal psychological regime in the classroom? First of all, eliminate everything that prevents the student from concentrating, distracts, irritates him in the classroom environment, in the behavior of his friends or teacher, or in his own work. Therefore, it is extremely important for a teacher to have special psychological knowledge and practical skills in order to notice everything from the expressions of students’ faces and control their attention, excite and switch it. Taking into account the interests, abilities, pace of thinking, preparation, attitude towards students, and the character of students in each class is the main condition for a creative lesson, which, thanks to this, inevitably varies and maintains freshness. A demanding theater director usually does not have enough rehearsals, but their excess does not always lead to a positive result. If the director meets the production schedule, is it because he uses time skillfully (this is good), or because his creative demands are reduced (this is bad)? If he doesn't fit in, is it because the demands are high, or because he doesn't work well with the actors? If a teacher does not fit into his 45 minutes of a lesson, it means that he works ineptly with students, it means that not everything was thought out and taken into account in his lesson plan- a kind of director-pedagogical explication of the lesson. A lesson, as we believe, is a kind of performance, the idea of ​​which is conceived by the teacher-director in the quiet of his office. Just as the director writes an explication of the future performance, so the teacher carefully thinks through the architectonics of the future lesson. By architectonics we mean the teacher’s unique construction of a lesson, based on the compositional principles of constructing a performance. Just like a theater director, without the enthusiasm of the entire team for the artistic merits of the play, there can be no success in working on a stage embodiment, so a teacher, if he cannot captivate the topic of the lesson, its constituent components, the lesson will pass ordinaryly and unnoticed. It is necessary to start a lesson plan by revealing its topic. The theater director in the play determines, first of all, the leading idea and the ultimate goal. We will call the main or leading idea of ​​the play the answer to the question: “What does the author claim regarding this object?” The idea of ​​the play expresses the author's thoughts and feelings in relation to the reality depicted. In the purpose of the lesson, the teacher defines the tasks that he solves in this particular case for teaching and educating students. A lesson, like a work of art, absorbs the thoughts and feelings of the teacher, expressing his attitude to the topic. It is very important that the teacher, when drawing up a lesson plan in which the topic and tasks for solving this topic are in unity and harmony, does not turn it into a bare abstraction, devoid of real life support. And this easily happens to novice teachers when the objectives of the lesson are divorced from the topic of specific facts, the conditions for creating creative search, and the joint activity of teacher and student. The main material for a theater director in art is the creativity of the actor, and for the teacher-director - the creativity of his students in independently acquiring knowledge in the classroom. It follows from this: if students do not think, if they are passive, creatively inert, the teacher has nothing to create the fabric of the lesson from, because he does not have the necessary material in his hands. Therefore, the first duty of the teacher is to evoke in the student creative process, awaken his organic nature for full-fledged independent creativity. When this process arises, a second task will be born - to continuously support this process, not to let it go out and direct it towards a specific goal in accordance with the general plan of the lesson. Since the teacher has to deal not with one student, but with a whole team, his third important duty arises - to continuously coordinate the results of the creativity of all students in such a way as to create a full-fledged lesson. If the tasks of a theater director include the process of fulfilling his main function - the creative organization of stage action, then the tasks of the teacher include the creative organization of the work of all students in the lesson. A teacher must be able to captivate students with his assignments, inspire them to complete them, excite their imagination, awaken their creative imagination, and quietly lure them onto the path of true creativity. How creatively and creatively the topic of the lesson is presented will determine how much it will intrigue and attract the attention of students. Psychologists believe positive emotions powerful motivators and inspirers of human activity, for without them there has never been, is not and cannot be the human search for truth. The emotional and intellectual background of the lesson is supported different ways. 1. Firstly, thanks to the use of interesting information in the content of the studied and additional material. 2. Secondly, thanks to the use of interesting information, the inclusion in the lesson of information about certain discoveries; data, most often related to the life and work of famous scientists; a story about the possibilities of the inquisitive mind of a person inspired to creative search. 3. The third direction, leading to maintaining the emotional and intellectual background of the lesson, lies in ways to skillfully involve students in work that is interesting to them. There are many such methods, and their choice is associated with the use of various types of problem situations, which inevitably turns something familiar into a new, sometimes unexpected, side. This surprise, this surprise that arises in students, is very important for the success of further explanation of the educational material. 4. And finally, the fourth direction. It is associated with the form of expression of the teacher’s emotional attitude to the educational material. Any teacher must remember that the beauty, imagery, and emotional intensity of what is being studied are immediately transmitted to the students.

Differentiated and individual approach to training

The problem of differentiated learning continues to be relevant today. What is differentiated learning and an individual approach to learning?

Differentiated learning is usually understood as a form of organizing educational activities for different groups of students.

Individual approach– an important psychological and pedagogical principle that takes into account the individual characteristics of each child.

The fact that learning in one way or another must be consistent with the level of development of the child is an established and repeatedly verified fact that cannot be disputed.

Different students acquire knowledge, skills and abilities in different ways. These differences are due to the fact that each student, due to his specific developmental conditions, both external and internal, has individual characteristics.

The psychophysiological characteristics of students and different levels of their mental abilities naturally require different learning conditions to ensure effective learning for each student or group of children. In the context of a classroom-lesson education system, this is possible with individualization and differentiation of training.

How to build the process of differentiated learning?

Practitioners say: according to the degree of mental development and performance. Theorists believe: according to the degree of assistance to the student. Differentiation can be carried out according to the degree of independence of students when performing educational activities.

This work is complex and painstaking, requiring constant observation, analysis and recording of results.

For myself, I divided this work into several stages:

Studying the individual characteristics of students - physical (health), psychological, and personal. Including features of mental activity, and even living conditions in the family.

In this regard, the words of K. D. Ushinsky come to mind:

“If pedagogy wants to educate a person in all respects, then it must first of all get to know him in all respects.”

To do this, I use personal observations, questionnaires, conversations with parents, and also rely on the results of examinations conducted by our psychologists and speech therapist.

2. Identification of separate groups of students that differ:

Different levels of mastery of the material at the moment;

Level of performance and pace of work;

Features of perception, memory, thinking;

Balance of excitation and inhibition processes.

3. Compilation or selection of differentiated tasks, including various techniques that help students cope with the task independently, or associated with increasing the volume and complexity of the task.

4. Constant monitoring of the results of students’ work, in accordance with which the nature of differentiated tasks changes.

Each of these stages is difficult in its own way. Each teacher has his own approach to assigning groups of students. From my point of view, it would be more correct not to divide children into “weak” and “strong”, but to classify them into three conditional groups. These groups are not permanent; their composition may change.

Group 1 - children requiring constant additional assistance.

Group 2 – children who can cope on their own.

Group 3 – children who are able to cope with the material in a short time with high quality and help others.

Children of group 1 are characterized by low and unstable performance, increased fatigue, difficulties in organizing their own activities, and a low level of development of memory, attention, and thinking. They need constant stimulation, strong motivation, clear tracking of the time schedule, checking the quality of tasks, and including developmental tasks. Teachers usually pay maximum attention to these students to the detriment of others.

Children of group 2 are most satisfied with the teacher; there is little hassle with them. They have good memory and attention, normally developed thinking, competent speech, they are distinguished by diligence, conscientiousness, and high educational motivation. They need constant unobtrusive attention from the teacher, a little stimulation, and the inclusion of creative tasks.

Children of group 3 have “academic giftedness,” which is a unity of cognitive need, emotional involvement, motivation and the ability to regulate their actions.

How can a practicing teacher make each lesson productive and as effective as possible for all groups of students? How to “present” the material so that the gifted do not get bored, and children with learning and development difficulties understand it?

The effectiveness of a lesson depends on a number of factors. The teacher begins to work on it while writing the calendar-thematic plan. It is important to think over the place and role of each lesson in the topic, the connection between the lessons of the course, and allocate time for introduction to the topic, consolidation and practice, monitoring and correction of results.

It is important to start directly preparing for the lesson with goal setting; we know about the triune goals of education: training, development, education.

To diversify everyday teaching, teachers usually use various forms and genres of lessons.

In a blitz lesson, students are asked to solve problems throughout the lesson. Internal and external differentiation brings variety and interest to this lesson: the teacher selects tasks of three levels of complexity, and leaves the right to choose the complexity of the task to the student. The lesson is assessed by rating, depending on the complexity and number of problems solved. For a high rating, the student must solve, for example, 3 difficult and 6 simple problems - the choice is his.

Students, having quickly gained the required points, act as consultants for weaker students, teaching them.

Even the most unsuccessful students can cope with the tasks, because they can handle tasks with a low level of difficulty, and in case of difficulty, they can always take on another task or use the help of a consultant.

The following tips will help the teacher when implementing a credit system:

1. Before the test, ask students to answer the questions in writing: What was unclear about this topic? What caused the difficulty? What would you like to know more about?

2. Based on the children’s answers, draw up test questions and prepare consultants (you can contact them in case of difficulty); work with experts on all questions of the topic (students who will accept answers on the theoretical and practical parts from classmates).

3. To select experts and consultants, you can ask the guys to draw up a questionnaire on the topic covered. After working with educational literature, highlighting the main points in the topic, formulating them in the form of questions, finding answers to them, children can freely navigate the material.

4. In order to attract “average” and “weak” students to actively work on the test, the “strong” ones are assigned the role of observers: they must monitor the taking and passing of the test, help the inexperienced expert, and direct his activities.

Thus, during the lesson, all students are active, aware of the importance and significance of the roles they perform, learn to ask leading, provocative questions, and oppose each other.

5. Try entering rating system assessments in order to avoid labels as “C” or “B”, although these grades are extremely rare in test lessons. The success of everyone instills in children confidence in the high-quality performance of test work, which is confirmed by expert computer programs.

When conducting control, teachers must analyze the work, bring it to the attention of students, and work on mistakes.

When working with differentiated tasks, it is important to take into account the zone of current and proximal development. And for this it is important to constantly monitor the results of work, diagnostics, both after studying each topic and during the study of the topic.

I use differentiation at different stages of the lesson. The types of differentiated tasks depend on the goal set by the teacher.

If a teacher cares about the development of children and the success in learning of each student, then he will definitely implement an individual and differentiated approach to teaching.

Almost a year ago, in August 2016, Olga Yuryevna Vasilyeva was appointed Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. In such subtle areas, changes occur slowly, and the results generally take years to make themselves felt. Nevertheless, it is possible and necessary to analyze what was proclaimed, started, and done by the new minister. About what O.Yu. managed to achieve. Vasilyeva for a year of work as minister and what awaits Russian schoolchildren and students in the coming academic year, - in the material profiok.com.

Attention to teachers

Olga Vasilyeva immediately said that she considers strengthening the prestige of the teaching profession and improving the quality of teacher education to be one of her main tasks. “My most important concern is pedagogical education, teacher training, otherwise we will not be able to solve all the problems,” she repeated in a recent interview with the Izvestia newspaper.

Let us recall that Russian President Vladimir Putin gave instructions back in December 2015 to develop a national teacher growth system. The bottom line is that work to improve the quality of teaching and teacher training will be ongoing: teachers will constantly improve their qualifications. Ideally, every three years.

The idea, according to the minister, “will come to life very soon.” To begin with, teachers will be certified. This is necessary in order to determine their level of proficiency professional competencies. So far, certification will take place in 13 Russian regions that have expressed such a desire. Of course, there is no talk of any punishment for those who show unsatisfactory results. Just research will help you understand how to build a system of advanced training for teachers, and what to pay attention to first. In the future, when building this system, it is planned to take into account the opinions of graduates secondary schools- a few years after they finish school. Preparations are also underway professional standard teacher, which should be hired by 2020.

Qualification is qualification, but the profession of a teacher is largely a “human factor”. As Olga Vasilyeva likes to repeat, education is not a service, but a mission that combines training and education at the same time. It is important that teachers feel the attention of the state, and that society finally appreciates the importance and value of a school teacher. Here I would like to say, for example, that the final of the “Teacher of the Year” competition, through the efforts of Olga Vasilyeva, was held last year not just anywhere, but in the State Kremlin Palace. In June of this year, mentors of graduating classes, whose students distinguished themselves during the final certification, were received in the Kremlin by Vladimir Putin. By the way, at this meeting Olga Vasilyeva publicly asked the president to show a concert dedicated to Teacher’s Day on one of the central channels. “There are five million teachers in the country who have never in their lives seen a concert dedicated to Teacher’s Day in prime time,” the minister said, adding that the president’s personal presence at the concert, coinciding with the final of the “Teacher of the Year” competition, has become would be “great happiness.” “Okay, we’ll do it,” replied the head of state.

At the time of Olga Vasilyeva’s arrival at the Ministry of Education and Science, the existing Federal State educational standards(FSES) were too vague. They did not answer the main question: what should a child know and be able to do “at the end.” Therefore, it was decided to fill these standards with content. At the end of July, public discussion of draft new standards for grades one through nine ended. Now they clearly state what a child should know in each grade in each subject. The standards have not yet been approved, but the matter is clearly moving towards its logical conclusion. It is important that a large number of experts took part in the discussion and preparation of these documents: there is a chance that nothing critically important will be missed.

Changes to the Federal State Educational Standard are only part of the work to create a unified educational space. The minister’s idea is simple: moving from school to school, including changing city of residence or even region, a child should not experience any problems with the school curriculum. At the time Olga Vasilyeva joined the Ministry of Education and Science, the federal list contained 1,423 textbooks. The minister immediately said that this was too much - and by the end of the year she made some progress. For example, starting from this academic year, schoolchildren will study from textbooks written on the basis of an approved historical and cultural standard, and there will be only two or three lines of such textbooks. The development of concepts for teaching physics, chemistry, biology and foreign languages ​​is also planned for the current year.

At the same time, Olga Vasilyeva believes that children should not experience any overload. The school schedule should be designed so as not to force children to sit through eight lessons a day, leaving them time for homework, sports and other extracurricular activities. By the way, in school plans there is a so-called extracurricular activities- mandatory 10 hours free classes After school. According to the minister, these should include sports, technical creativity, music, literature and chess. Olga Vasilyeva has been talking about chess often lately. It turns out that there is a statistic: children who play chess have, on average, 40 percent higher academic performance ( Is it true, maybe, on the contrary, the most talented people are interested in chess? -profiok.com). Chess is good not only because it develops a child, but also because it does not require large financial investments or organizational measures. There are developed methods, and any teacher can master chess himself and teach it to children.

It should be especially noted that from September 1, a 35-hour astronomy course will return to Russian schools. Returning, in the words of Olga Vasilyeva, “triumphantly.” Indeed, the situation was paradoxical: in a country that had been leading in space exploration for decades, astronomy was not taught in schools. Despite the fact that from this year the subject will become compulsory, its introduction is carried out quite gently: for example, schools can decide for themselves from which half of the year to include astronomy in the schedule and in which grade to study it - in the tenth or eleventh. All-Russian testing work in astronomy will begin in 2019, the Unified State Exam is not planned at all.

New quality of the Unified State Exam

You can often hear dissatisfaction with the Unified State Exam, but if you take a closer look at the survey data, you will notice that among those who oppose the exam are mainly representatives of the older generation. Young people have long either gotten used to it or resigned themselves to it, but in the minds of very young schoolchildren, the Unified State Exam has almost always existed.

The undeniable and important merit of the Unified State Exam is the role of a “social elevator”. Before the introduction of the Unified State Exam, many capable children from the provinces had practically no chance of entering “advanced” capital universities.

As for the system itself, it is constantly being improved. This year, physics, biology and chemistry were removed from the Unified State Exam test tasks. Thus, the test part remained only in the foreign language exam.

The results of the Unified State Exam 2017 turned out to be better than last year: much fewer violations were recorded, a significantly larger number of graduates managed to overcome minimum threshold. We have not heard anything about corruption during the Unified State Examination for a long time. They say that the only way left to get a guaranteed 100-point student is to send your child to study in Dagestan for a year. Of course, there are not very many people interested, and besides, other ways to get into the desired university have appeared - for example, subject Olympiads or targeted training.

Olga Vasilyeva constantly says that you should not treat Unified State Exam scores as a goal and turn schooling into preparation for the Unified State Exam. In her opinion, at school there are no important and unimportant, necessary and unnecessary subjects. The student must fully master school curriculum, and then pass your chosen exams without any stress.

In order for schoolchildren to pay attention to all subjects, test papers appeared. After it became clear that schoolchildren had lost the skill of so-called “functional reading,” that is, the ability to retell what they had read, there was talk about introducing oral tests in the Russian language in the ninth grade, and essays became an admission to the Unified State Exam in the 11th grade. Starting from 2020, it is planned to introduce a mandatory Unified State Exam in history, and from 2022 - in a foreign language.

Training of specialists

This year, 57 percent of school graduates have a chance of enrolling in government-funded places at universities. Compared to previous years, the number of budget places has not decreased, but they have been redistributed in accordance with government priorities: more - for engineering, technical, pedagogical and medical specialties, less - on legal and economic ones. High Unified State Examination points- not the only way to get into prestigious university. A pass for admission can also be victories in subject Olympiads, the list of which is approved by the Ministry of Education and Science (this year there were just under a hundred of them). Another way is to conclude an agreement on targeted training with an enterprise or region. The training will be free, but in this case the graduate will have to undergo three years of compulsory service.

In any case, future employers, the state, and the students themselves began to understand that it is too late to think about future work in the fifth year of university. University graduates often complain that finding a specialty does not always go smoothly: employers either require work experience or assign a low salary to a beginning specialist, because at first he will still have to complete his training on the spot. The Ministry of Education and Science plans to, firstly, change the legal framework to make it easier for specialists without experience to get a job. Secondly, students will be able to start working in their specialty during their studies. This will be done through the creation of basic departments, internships at enterprises, and the creation of student innovative enterprises or laboratories. New forms of work for students will also be created within the framework of the National Technology Initiative. In addition, universities will soon become centers not only of applied knowledge, but also of science. One of the priority projects of the Ministry of Education and Science is called “Universities as centers of space for creating innovation.” In each region, a university will be selected where university research will be concentrated. It is expected that it will become a socio-economic, scientific and cultural center for the development of its region.

It is worth noting the successes in the development of secondary vocational education. Lately, many kids after school go not to university, but to college. And even if this is only a step towards a further path to university ( bypassing the Unified State Exam - profiok.com), the general level of students of vocational education institutions, the level of teaching, equipment of these educational institutions are constantly growing. To improve learning conditions, interregional competence centers are being created. By 2020, there will be twenty such centers in our country. It is already known that in 2018, to support regional programs for the development of vocational education from federal budget More than a billion rubles will be allocated. By the way, the line between graduates of colleges that train specialists for high-tech industries and universities is gradually blurring: a modern worker is often no different from an engineer or a highly qualified programmer. Therefore, as part of the WorldSkills movement, which Russia joined several years ago, championships are also held for university students. Perhaps some of the participating students will choose a modern profession related to real production.

Evolution as a style

Despite the fact that a lot has changed in the education system recently, Olga Vasilyeva does not make any sudden movements. “The education system is conservative and does not tolerate revolutions,” the minister often says. All changes should only be evolutionary, gradual, deliberate. At the same time, it is definitely worth rethinking and using existing experience. “Everything new is well-forgotten old, but in modern technological realities,” said the head of the Ministry of Education and Science in a recent interview.

The minister treats new technological realities with understanding: where would we be without them? NTI projects are being discussed, online education platforms are being launched, and official accounts of the ministry have appeared on social networks. Olga Vasilyeva understands that modern children and teenagers are surrounded by so much information that it is difficult to compare them with Soviet schoolchildren - the reality around them is different. But this understanding does not at all lead the minister off her chosen course: in her opinion, new times have not at all affected fundamental, basic things.

“I am completely for digital in education, but I advocate first of all for the head. Everything sped up, but the head remained and should remain with any instrument. The most the main task teacher - to develop and instill a desire to learn,” says Olga Vasilyeva. And since the principles underlying the education system do not change, it means that we can use past experience and take all the best, say, from the Soviet education system. And the human values ​​that school forms have nothing to do with either the times or technology. “Shouldn’t any school of the 21st century educate a person who respects his people and values ​​work? And shouldn’t a young man be taught that he must work for the good of himself and his country?” - the minister asks.

Many consider Olga Vasilyeva a conservative. In fact, she herself admits that in everything related to school and pedagogy, she adheres to conservative positions. With this approach, changes occur more slowly, but possible destruction or errors are minimized.

Summing up the results of the year that she spent as Minister of Education, Olga Vasilyeva noted that the year was interesting and difficult, and as one of her achievements she noted that she managed to understand what is there and understand where to move next. There is no need to be ironic here - not much has been done for a one-year period, and having a clear strategy is half the success of any serious event. However, as the minister said, “there are more tasks ahead than have been accomplished.”

— On behalf of the country’s President Vladimir Putin, a unified educational space is being formed. Could you tell us more about what this idea is?

— Thank you very much for such an important question. Education has always, in all periods of our history, worried both the leadership and the citizens, because there is not a single person who is not associated with education. Of course, the issue of a unified educational space is directly connected - and has always been connected - with a very important problem: national security. The question facing the country here is who we are preparing, who we are teaching, who we are educating, to whom we can hand over the country tomorrow. That is, today a student, today a child, and tomorrow a citizen on whose shoulders responsibility for the country will fall.

The concept of a unified educational space includes several directions. But the most important thing is what we put into our training, what we put into our upbringing. Because education is training and upbringing, this is a dualism that is difficult to break, no matter what anyone says. At the most basic level, what is this initiative for? To know for sure that a child, having left one school and moved to another, sat down at his desk, opened a textbook, say, mathematics, and began from the place where he finished reading in the previous school.

At the same time, a single educational space requires several steps. The first step, of course, is creating the content—what and how we teach. There were standards that we all knew about and lived by that were good for their time. But each time requires certain adjustments. When we talk about educational content, we must know the core of what we will teach.

A lot of practice and the most necessary theory - this is the key formula of this book. From it you will learn: how to step-by-step implement a system of sharing experience at school, what is important to observe in the classroom, how to overcome resistance to change within the team, how to increase the social capital of the school and thereby make education better and more accessible. The publication is addressed to school principals and their deputies, heads of methodological associations and teachers who care about the quality of their lessons.

* * *

The given introductory fragment of the book Mission is possible: how to improve the quality of education at school (E. N. Kukso) provided by our book partner - the company liters.

Seven Ways to Improve Teaching Quality

This section will help the reader:

– learn about seven main ways to organize mutual training of teachers at school;

– get acquainted with step-by-step algorithms for implementing experience exchange systems;

– understand the possibilities and risks of using each of them in your school;

– using the proposed exercises, understand who in your school is suitable for the role of leader, which teachers are easier to unite to work together, and how to motivate changes.

In addition, in the section you will find worksheets for effective improvement planning and get an idea of ​​pedagogical ideas that could unite teachers.

A teacher's pedagogical skill is not developed when he or she studies voluminous books on didactics (although this is probably important). Mostly teachers learn by copying other people's experience7: both positive and negative. For example, even if a student is pedagogical university taught progressive technologies, then in practice, when he gets to school, he will teach children the way he was once taught (most likely, not particularly progressive).

Unfortunately, a teacher can repeat the same mistakes over and over again until he sees another – more effective – experience or learns to analyze his own mistakes. “Copying mistakes” is especially pronounced in those schools where teachers are professionally isolated and have little observation of each other’s experience. This section will focus on how to overcome the effects of isolation and build strong professional networks among teachers.

Collective learning allows everyone to improve their skills and thereby improve the overall educational results of the school.

Method 1. Curatorial technique

This methodology arose as a result of the “Social Capital” study conducted in several hundred Russian schools. educational organization"8 . It was found that, in general, there are few high-quality reciprocal professional connections among educators in schools. That is, teachers for the most part are professionally lonely and rarely learn from each other. Therefore, the question arose: how to solve this problem, how to build the missing professional connections? How can teachers create the habit of purposefully sharing experiences?

We found that stable teacher groups are created in those schools in which there are many mutual connections between pairs of teachers. In other words, first two people begin to exchange experiences, then, one way or another, numerous professional groups can grow out of the pairs. Therefore, the first task of a school leader is to form pairs of teachers who can learn from each other, and then increase the groups.

At the same time, simply approaching two teachers, directively forcing them to create a professional pair and start learning from each other is perhaps the most ineffective thing you can come up with. Most likely, this will lead to disastrous results: disgust and imitation. For a couple to work effectively, a few more key elements are needed.

“Smart third” (we call him curator)- this is the person who organizes the discussion between two teachers, provides them psychological safety. When two people observe each other's practice and point out shortcomings, it can be taken as a personal insult. The third person is called upon to return the dialogue to a constructive direction and remove the threat.

Specific task to improve learning. You can discuss each other’s lessons for a long time and lively, but if teachers don’t have specific tasks, measurable goals, there is a high probability of simply wasting time. One of the curator’s priorities is to set tasks for the participants in interactions.

The curatorial methodology is implemented in several steps.

Step 1. Selecting teachers. Among the teachers, pairs of equal status are selected. For example, two young teachers or two older ones with approximately equal authority. It will be better if these are teachers of different subjects: this way they will look not at the methodology for conveying specific topics in mathematics or literature, but at the “teacher-student” interaction. In the supervisory methodology, it is important that teachers in pairs do not play the role of mentor or student. In this case, a more experienced teacher may perceive such discussions as undermining his authority.

Step 2. Selection of a curator for a couple. The best candidates for the role of the “third smart one” are reputable teachers, members of the administration, a school psychologist, and a tutor. The rules for selecting a curator and the basic requirements for him are described in more detail below.

Step 3. Formulation of the task for teachers. The teacher present in the lesson is tasked with monitoring a specific aspect of the lesson. For example, one teacher comes to another’s lesson with a specific observation sheet and records what is happening according to a given pattern. Then their roles change: the second teacher conducts the lesson, and the first one makes notes in the same protocol.

Step 4. Discussion of the results in the presence of the curator. The general meeting must take place within 48 hours of the first lesson, that is, “hot on the heels”. The pros and cons of the lesson are discussed. But the session does not take place in the format of abstract reflections (like it or not), but only those aspects that were observed are analyzed. The facilitator ensures that the discussion remains constructive and that participants are aware of what they have learned and the difficulties they have encountered.

Good questions for a curator in such a situation:

If you were a (strong, average, weak) student in this lesson, what would you learn?

What difficulties would you face?

Step 5. The curator sets a new task. It would be more accurate to say that the supervisor decides whether teachers need to work on the same task (for example, if there is a feeling that simply discussing shortcomings will not be enough) or move on to a new point (when teachers understand everything and learn how to implement it).

By setting new tasks and monitoring different aspects of practice, the teacher’s professional awareness increases, he pays more attention to his practice and the student’s reactions to his actions.

Step 6. Gradual complication of interaction between participants. A pair (or dyad) is often an unstable structure, since teachers can abruptly stop sharing experiences without supervisory prompts. Groups of three (triads) or more teachers are much more stable and productive for a school. In this case, they establish certain cultural norms (for example, the desire for continuous improvement). Therefore, the curator can change the participants of the pairs, add new teachers, provided that equal statuses are maintained.

Supervisory tasks for beginning teachers

To begin with, I propose to consider one of the options for the task, developed by K. M. Ushakov9. It is dedicated to the vision of the classroom and is intended more for beginning teachers. The section “Assessing the quality of teaching” contains tasks of varying complexity. For teachers with little teaching experience, these may be tasks of maintaining attention and maintaining discipline, for experienced teachers - something from the category of aerobatics. In a word, you can choose a task for any teacher.

Exercise for beginning teachers “Classroom Vision”

It is known that a novice teacher does not see the entire class, but a short diagonal of it. He rarely leaves his desk (after all, there is an open textbook there). At the same time, he will claim that he sees the whole class.

Invite one of the microgroups to sit in on the other’s lessons and use ticks to record all verbal (non-verbal) interactions between teacher and student. To do this, give the observer a blank paper with a class plan, and have him mark all the teacher’s calls to the students.

When the observation sheet is completed after the lesson, it will most likely turn out that the check marks are next to several students who are sitting at the first desks and who are in the immediate field of view of the teacher.

Assignment to the Observer

During the lesson, note all verbal interactions with students using a diagrammatic representation of the class (observation protocol).

This is an example of a simple task that can quite easily increase a teacher’s awareness, that is, a clear understanding of what actions he is performing and why. When discussing such an assignment, the supervisor will need to decide what level of difficulty assignment should be given to the teachers during the next mutual lesson visit.

Exercise. Formation of teacher pairs

Target: this activity can be the first step in developing interactions between teachers. Before you start improving your team, it is important to plan the composition of its participants.

Take a list of teachers at your school and try to distribute all the employees into pairs. There is one key requirement for pairs: they must be people of approximately the same status in the organization. It is important that there are no significant personal conflicts between these people at the moment, otherwise it will be very difficult for the curator to cope with such a dyad. It is advisable that these be teachers of different subjects (although this is not a mandatory rule).

To make it easier, first distribute all employees into the proposed groups10. If you think that some teachers do not fit into any of the proposed categories, write them in the right column.

The group of young teachers is easiest to define: these are those who came to the organization relatively recently. It is easiest to organize interactions with them, since they have not yet acquired a status and a corresponding protective mechanism.

Isolated employees are those who are not considered professionally authoritative by their colleagues and who are not approached for advice in the field of teaching. Professional “stars” are also easy to identify. These are the ones your school considers to be the best teachers. The rest of the teachers most likely belong to the group of middle peasants. Since this usually turns out to be the largest part of the organization, it is better to divide it into two, and in large schools - into three subgroups.

Now look at each of the columns. Think about the teachers from each group by answering the following questions:

Who are the personal connections?

Who might have similar teaching difficulties?

Do they have a similar not only professional, but also personal status?

Try to form as many potential teacher pairs as possible to share experiences. You can also use other principles of pairing: you came together from a different school, are passionate about similar ideas, etc.

For each couple you still need to select a curator, but this will be discussed a little later.

If you are planning to implement curatorial methods in your school, then start small. Form 2-3 pairs among young teachers and select a “third smart one” for them. These people can become your support in organizational change.

Exercise. "Before you rush into battle..."

Target: The exercise will allow you to better prepare for the start of changes in the team. Sometimes it is difficult to overcome teachers' resistance to new rules and responsibilities. Planning management arguments is one step to overcome difficulties.

Think about how to convince teachers that something is worth doing. In communication theory, there are three types of argumentation: rational, emotional and combined argumentation. In other words, logical arguments work better for some people (which will improve the Unified State Examination and is associated with incentive payments), while it is easier to approach the consciousness of others through emotions (children will have a higher chance of a decent future, this is part of our largely difficult profession). Most people are not purely rational or emotional types, so it is most effective to combine arguments.

For each teacher you plan to involve in sharing your experience, come up with 2-3 rational and emotional arguments that would correspond to their personal interests.

Also think about what typical objections and counterarguments teachers might have (for example, being too busy, students not being good enough, family difficulties, etc.). Decide how you will respond to them.

By imagining yourself in the teacher's place, you will be able to convince your colleagues of the correctness of your ideas a little easier.

Method 2. Pedagogical tours

Agree, it sounds quite romantic. I associate the name of this technique with active recreation and adventure (in the original the technique is called instructional rounds). The technology of pedagogical tours is truly one of the most dynamic and, in my opinion, easy to implement.

Its essence lies in the fact that a small group of teachers attends a large number of lessons in a short time. Wherein the main objective- do not evaluate the teacher who is teaching the lesson or give him advice, but compare your practice with the experience of your colleagues. This technology makes it possible not to offend experienced teachers, but to maintain their reputation in the team. This will help reduce teachers' resistance to leaving their comfort zone.

Step by step plan

Step 1. Selecting travel companions. The pedagogical tour takes place over one day. It is recommended that such events be held at least once every quarter.

First, a group of 3-5 observers plus a moderator is formed. Observers can be both novice and experienced teachers. The role of moderator is best suited to a teacher respected in the team, who could skillfully structure the discussion. Someone from the administration can play this role, but it is important to warn the teachers leading the lesson that the observation is carried out not with the purpose of evaluating (and punishing in case of an error), but to observe and give teachers the opportunity to compare themselves with their colleagues.

Among the experienced and skilled teachers, several are selected who are ready to let the tour participants take their lesson. It would not be amiss for the teacher to tell the students that other teachers will come during the lesson. The teacher can explain that teachers also learn.

Step 2. Route planning. Observation of lessons should be purposeful. In this case, all members of the group look at the same thing. To select the right object for observation, you need to make sure that the following conditions are met:

the group observes a specific pedagogical aspect;

the results can be accurately recorded, that is, they are something observable and not just opinions;

the observed aspect of pedagogical reality can potentially be improved;

what is observed is consistent with the school’s broad pedagogical goals;

Improving the skill of teaching tours can actually be important to student success.

As objects for observation, you can use a variety of situations and relationships from the sphere of pedagogical reality (for more details, see the section “Assessing the quality of teaching”).

Step 3. Organizing the tour. A group of teachers, together with a moderator, knocks on the door and sits in the classroom as silently as possible, without interfering with the course of the lesson. Observation is carried out for 15-20 minutes (that is, during one academic hour, a group of teachers attends 2-3 classes). Typically a group should visit 5-6 teachers per day.

The moderator monitors the time; after observation, the group thanks the teacher and students and moves on to the next class. This organization allows you to observe many colleagues. This places the emphasis on one very specific aspect (be it the questions the teacher asks or how he uses the classroom space) so that he can get an overview in a very short time.

But it is important to remember that when visiting, the group is observing, not evaluating the teacher. No one should give the teacher feedback unless he directly asks for it.

Step 4. Discussion of impressions. At the end of the observation, the moderator organizes the discussion according to a strictly defined structure.

First, teachers describe what they saw (for example, the teacher asked a reproductive question 6 times and a productive question 15 times; 10 students listened to the teacher’s explanations, three only looked at their phones or tablets). The facilitator is advised to ensure that there are no value judgments in the discussion. It is important to discuss what the teacher did and what the students did.

The group then analyzes the data (Are there any repeating patterns? How might the data be grouped?).

Teachers predict possible reactions and ways of developing the lesson and answer the question: “ If you were a student in this lesson with this teacher and did everything that was expected of you, what would you learn, how would you react to this type of action? »

Let's give specific example such a discussion. We are talking about a history lesson in the 6th grade on the topic “Ancient Greece”. Teachers first discuss what questions the teacher asked (What are the three main social classes in Ancient Greece? What were the main resources? What branches was the government divided into?).

Then, in the analysis phase, teachers use Bloom's taxonomy of questions11 on which they made observations. It turns out that most questions are aimed at reproducing information (in other words, they were reproductive).

An experienced teacher at the prediction stage says that if he were a student in this lesson, it would give him significant skills in in-depth understanding of the text. But other teachers disagree with him. They believe that based on observation, children learned to identify specific, not necessarily related, facts in the textbook. This objection led teachers to consider what they meant by deep understanding of a text and what types of work might develop this. Teachers in the community came to the conclusion that deep understanding is achieved through interpretation, analysis of the text, and search for the main thing. However, it is difficult to say whether children will learn to understand the text only with the help of questions to reproduce information12.

At the end of the discussion, teachers are invited to comment on how they could improve their practices based on the evidence they have received.

Step 5. Conquering new heights. The next stage of work can take place as a continuation of the first discussion, but it can also be organized several days later. It is important to move from the level of discussion of data to the level of concrete improvements.

For example, teachers can engage in group discussion (“brainstorming”) of ways and behaviors that will improve lessons. Discussants could prepare short leaflets or presentations, a short internal or external course on a specific aspect. If the school has several groups, then it would be a good idea to arrange an exchange of recommendations.

A few words about the rules

A huge advantage of teaching tours is that they allow experienced teachers who open the doors of their classrooms not to find themselves in a situation of criticism. This technology is aimed at surveillance, not at “giving advice.” To avoid unrest and discontent in the team, it is important to follow the key rules:

teachers should not discuss what they saw in class with those not participating in the group;

what was said during the general discussion cannot be taken outside the group;

there is no need to give feedback to the teacher who taught the lesson unless he directly asks for it;

During a group discussion, it is important to focus not on which teacher is bad or good, but on what happened in the class;

teachers to whom they come for classes should not make the lesson exemplary, but conduct a regular working lesson;

The teacher must know which aspect of the lesson will be observed.

The technology of pedagogical tours, according to feedback from participants, brings energy and inspiration to the work of teachers13. It allows you to observe colleagues at work, discuss work practices with other teachers and reflect on your own teaching. Such an event does not require systemic changes to the schedule. Perhaps any school teacher can allocate one or two days per quarter.

Exercise. "Four quarters - four improvements"

Target: If you want to make teacher tours permanent in your school, it is recommended to think about dates and topics in advance.

Let's say you have the opportunity to organize teaching tours every quarter. Please think about which four areas of teaching skills you would like to improve first.

Write them out.

You can compare your four priorities to the topics listed in the next section of this book. Are there any similarities? If so, the observation sheets you've already created will probably help.

Exercise. How would you interpret such data?

Target: lesson discussion is not like that simple task, as it may seem. This simple exercise will give you some practice in constructing a constructive discussion about data.

Let's say you happen to be the moderator of a lesson discussion group. Teachers who observed one of the lessons present approximately the following data.

“During the lesson, the teacher called 12 students out of 25. Of them, 5 were strong, 6 were average and one was weak. The average time for a student to think before answering a question was 3 seconds; it practically did not differ for children from different groups by level of knowledge.”

What can such data indicate? Try answering the question: “If you were a (strong, average, weak) student in this teacher’s lesson and did everything that was expected of you, what would you learn, how would you react to this type of action?”

Go back to step 4 in this section: the diagram described there will help you complete this task. Think about how you would improve the analyzed lesson, and in what form it would be appropriate to present the recommendations.

Exercise. Distribution of roles

Target: form teams for teaching tours at school

There are three types of roles in teaching tours: lesson leaders, lesson attendants and moderator. Who do you think could play each role in your school?

Lesson leaders, as a rule, are teachers whom colleagues consider the most successful in the profession. Those attending the lesson are a relatively similar group of school teachers.

Moderator is a person who organizes a constructive discussion.

What qualities do you think are needed for a moderator? Who in your team has them?

Method 3. Speed ​​dating for teachers

In big cities, there is one fashionable entertainment among young people - “speed dating” (from English speed dating). The point is that an equal number of unfamiliar guys and girls gather. At the beginning of the evening, the boys approach the girls, and the couple has 2 to 5 minutes to talk. Then a signal sounds and the pairs change. Over the course of the evening, all the girls meet all the guys. After a short conversation, both people give a plus or minus to their partner, and if the pluses match, then the organizers give the participants each other’s contact information. Tell me, is it fun?

But, as it turned out, it was also effective. This model of interaction quickly moved from the sphere of romance into business: meetings of aspiring businessmen and investors often began to be held in speed dating mode. The question arises: how can speed dating be used to improve teaching?

You can take an approach such as interdisciplinarity. Interdisciplinarity is often talked about, but not very often actually done. If there are a couple of teachers at school who communicate and are interested in everything new, then some kind of project may appear. Usually no more than that. However, there is a way to make interdisciplinary connections more systemic and school-wide. It will only take a couple of months to implement the first steps.

Step 1: Create a Study Wall

In the teachers' room (or some other common office), you need to create a stand or separate part of the wall where teachers of different subjects indicate the topics they cover in each class. For example, all teachers who teach classes in 6th grade write on A4 sheet in large, clear font what children should learn during the school year. This is easily done based on calendar plans. Thus, for each parallel a common syllabus. Important detail: for some subjects, such as Russian or foreign languages, it is appropriate to note not so much specific topics like “not with participles”, but general competencies (for example, writing business letters, making presentations, etc.).

After this, teachers should set aside a few weeks (2-4) and ask them to think about what connections can be seen between the topics. All teachers can get involved in this work, even those who did not create these specific sheets. It’s worth agreeing in advance on how to mark possible connections: draw arrows, mark them with color, or somehow circle the pairs. You can attach stickers with brief explanations of how best to do it.

You can make such stands not for one parallel, but for several. That is, to combine V – VI, VII – VIII, IX – XI classes in order to expand the possibilities of intersections.

Step 2: Quick Meeting Session

On the agreed day, when the teachers have already seen enough of the wall, a quick meeting session is organized. Teachers are divided into pairs. Each pair has 5 minutes to find at least one intersection (more is better!). Then the pairs change. It is optimal to make 8-10 dates for each teacher at a time.

Teachers at a Scottish school that used this method of exchanging ideas found more than 40 intersections in 40 minutes (for example, essays and atomic energy from the English and physics programs, common topics in mathematics and chemistry, etc.).

Although everything sounds easy, it is important to pay attention to some nuances and answer the following questions for yourself: is it necessary to do speed dating for each parallel separately, or can teachers think through the work in all their classes in one day? Should pairs be formed by teachers who teach the same children, or is this not necessary? Should everyone participate or only the most active?

Step 3. Official or civil marriage?

The next stage is the actual implementation of ideas in general educational projects. It is important for the administration to decide: do these found projects need to be formalized? On the one hand, there is a risk that after all this general fun, teachers will forget about the plans after a quarter if they are not clearly spelled out. On the other hand, with excessive pressure there is a risk of imitation of cooperation.

Perhaps you want to implement something else: say, a brief methodological description of projects so that other colleagues can repeat; observations of integrated lessons by colleagues to assess impact; mini-survey of students about their experience, etc.

Exercise. Interdisciplinary connections

Target: find teachers in the team who would be interested in jointly implementing interdisciplinary projects.

Often interdisciplinary connections are based on human connections. It is even possible that when discussing intersections, you will find that more possible connections were found in those pairs where the teachers liked each other.

Try to find pairs of teachers in your school (this can be done even before the introduction of technology as a “bait”) who teach different subjects in the same classes, in the same parallels and have personal liking for each other. Try to look at their calendar and thematic plans and come up with at least one intersection. Tell us about your idea and offer to find more options.

Method 4. Japanese model, or No lesson without improvements

There is one Japanese term that I would like to explain before getting into the essence of lesson improvement techniques. The word is kaizen, which refers to the idea of ​​continually improving what we do. The idea spread to Japan in the post-war period, and in the 1980s it became popular in other countries (largely due to the example of the Toyota automaker).

Basic principles of "kaizen":

– continuous changes;

– open recognition of problems;

– creation of working groups and horizontal connections;

– development of supportive relationships;

– development of self-discipline;

– improving processes using small steps.

These principles have become very popular in the last 20 years in the field of business management. I think following them would not hurt any school.

Very similar principles underlie the Japanese method of school improvement - jugyou kenkyuu (授業研究). This is the original name of the lesson study methodology, where “junye” means “lesson” and “kenkyu” means study, research, science. Now in the literature it is customary to use the English term for this approach - lesson study, which in translation also means “lesson study”.

The ideology of lesson study is that teachers work together to find problems and, through continuous group effort, step by step improve the quality of school lessons. Perhaps our culture is significantly different from Japan, and the desire for continuous improvement is not in the blood of all school employees. However, school is also a special culture that is created and changed, even if this process is slow.

Such a technique, in my opinion, could revive subject methodological associations. When implementing it, teachers jointly draw up a lesson plan (or a series of lessons), so often teachers of mathematics, philology, primary classes feel more involved when it comes directly to their subject “patrimony”. Although groups may be interdisciplinary, the interest is still primary.

Step by step plan

The Japanese version of the lesson study model consists of very specific steps and action algorithms. This approach has now become so popular that different countries have their own versions and modifications. Lesson Study in Yaroslavl, Chicago or Karaganda is different in many ways. Here is a version that seems classic, but with certain notes.

Step 1. Formation of a team of teachers (3-6 people)

Although a team of teachers by itself is hardly formed... More precisely: the school leader forms a team of teachers. The problem of forming professional groups will be discussed in more detail below.

If seven or more teachers are involved, it will likely be difficult to create a schedule that suits everyone. In this case, it would be reasonable to split the group into two parts. Each group has a leader (moderator) who ensures that the discussion is constructive and that there is no criticism of the teacher. As a rule, this is an experienced teacher or member of the administration.

Step 2. Preliminary meeting schedule

It may seem strange, but group members are not chasing the number of lessons taught. As a rule, during a month of group work, only one lesson is completed. The main increase in knowledge occurs due to the fact that teachers plan and discuss together the pedagogical nuances of the lesson, observe children and analyze the results. This seemingly slow progress leads to tangible results quite quickly. (Remember the principles of kaizen?)

Work on one goal lasts 3-5 weeks, with teachers holding 10-15 general meetings during this time. It is important that there are no long periods of time between meetings. It is optimal to schedule 1-2 meetings per week.

4-6 teacher meetings are planned in advance before the lesson is to be taught. For example, a group of teachers chooses the topic “Publicistic style” in the Russian language for the 7th grade as a lesson for planning. If the topic is to be covered in the last week of October, then lesson planning should begin in late September or early October, that is, 2-4 weeks before the lesson. When teachers get involved in the process, you can plan not just one lesson, but a series of lessons on one topic (for example, a block of lessons on the topic “Communications”).

It is important that at each meeting a record is kept of what is discussed. The best option is to have someone take detailed notes on what is being offered and why. In some schools, all meetings are recorded on video.

Step 3: Planning Learning Goals

In English, two terms are separated on opposite sides: teaching goals and learning goals. Teaching goals focus on what the teacher does (explains material, monitors learning, etc.). Learning goals are aimed at students: this is what they will learn, how children should learn, how they will think, act. To study the lesson, the primary learning goals, that is, what will happen during the lesson with the children.

Lesson objectives can be different levels:

– specific subject related to the topic of the lesson (for example, be able to determine the journalistic style of the text);

– meta-subject related to the development of self-control, ways of thinking, intelligence, etc.;

– personal, for example, the ability to work in a team, listen to the opinions of others, be tolerant of various points vision.

Of course, it is impossible to develop complex skills (for example, to instill critical thinking) in one lesson. However, small steps can be planned to help students develop these skills. Moreover, introducing broad, complex goals into the lesson context is more conducive to the professional growth of teachers in the group. Some more details about goal setting will be discussed below.

Another important nuance: although a specific lesson is planned for a specific teacher, when planning it is worth considering that the same lesson could potentially be taught by each of the teachers with minor modifications.

Step 4. Working out the structure of the lesson

As a rule, teachers begin the discussion by telling each other how they would teach a similar lesson or how they have already solved similar problems. Thus, teachers share their teaching experience and exchange ideas. To maintain focus on children's learning, teachers recall how children have coped or struggled with similar materials in the past.

The structure of the lesson should be consistent with the lesson objectives discussed earlier. One more nuance must be taken into account: learning results must be potentially measurable and visible. The results of observations, written work of students, interviews after the lesson can be visible. This is very important for teachers to trace the relationship between the teacher’s actions and the children’s reactions.

During planning, teachers try to “put themselves in the shoes of the students” and think about how they would perceive what is happening in the lesson, how they would act, and what they would be able to comprehend.

There is one modification of the lesson study technology (lesson study), which seems to me very useful: among the students of the class in which the observation will take place, three specific students are selected: weak, average, strong - they are representatives of focus groups. Therefore, during the lesson, teachers observe not so much the entire class, but rather these specific children. Identifying different groups of students is important for lesson planning: goals are written for each group of schoolchildren according to their strength, which makes the lesson more suitable for all children.

Step 5. Drawing up a lesson report by the teacher

To do this, all stages of work in the lesson and the expected results according to a certain scheme are prescribed.

Lesson activity and/or teacher actions – learning objectives – observation results 14

Step 6. Conducting a lesson by one of the teachers

All group members attend the lesson and take notes on observation sheets. The teachers present may have the common task of observing each of the selected students. Each teacher may have a more specific, specific task.

Before the lesson, it is important for the teacher to explain to the students that other teachers will be present during the lesson. Their goal is to observe what is happening in the lesson, and not to evaluate the performance of each person.

After the lesson, observing teachers can ask additional questions of the three students they observed. The questions should directly relate to the goals that were set for each of them before the start of the lesson.

Step 7. Discussion and revision of the lesson

After the observation, the group meets again to discuss which goals were met and which were not. Accordingly, teachers suggest how the lesson design can be improved.

There is one key rule for discussion: discuss what happened to the students, how certain types of work affected them, but do not touch the teacher in any way.

When using lesson research technology, the focus is on the children, and the responsibility lies not with the teacher who conducted the lesson, but with the whole group.

Lesson analysis can take place in two stages (within one or two meetings): first, what teachers saw in children’s learning is discussed, then suggestions are made on how to improve those aspects of the lesson with which difficulties arose.

Step 8 (optional). Re-teaching a lesson

If possible, another teacher teaches the modified version of the lesson in his class, or the same teacher teaches the lesson in a new class. But this is not always possible: for example, if there is only one parallel at school, you will have to wait until next year to teach the lesson again.

Step 9. Synthesis and dissemination of work results

Agree, it’s a shame to work for 1-2 months and not receive evidence of success. As a rule, for each lesson developed, a document is drawn up in which the lesson, its results, and methodological recommendations are presented.

Lesson study in modern schools

For example, in Japan, the lesson study system arose on a voluntary basis - while some references to the methodology are found in the literature of the beginning of the last century. This system of school improvement is still voluntary, although it is supported by law. Schools that have lesson study groups have a special status (“research schools”).

The technique itself is used quite widely. For example, state-funded advanced training courses may take the form of lesson studies. Inter-school groups often exist. In addition, schools practicing this approach periodically organize seminars in which each school describes its acquired experience.

In the post-Soviet space, a project to introduce a methodology for exchanging experience in lesson study technology was carried out by the Institute Education National Research University HSE in 2013-2016 in three regions of Russia: Moscow and Yaroslavl regions, the Republic of Karelia. Several dozen schools are in difficult social conditions (for example, a large proportion of children are registered with the KDN, a low percentage of parents with higher education, a high proportion of children with Russian as a second language), adapted this technique to the needs of their organizations. Based on the results of three years of work, the majority of directors noted an increase educational results and changes in school climate.15

In Kazakhstan, at the Center for Pedagogical Excellence, this methodology is used for the professional training of teachers throughout the country. A whole collection of successful cases of its implementation has been collected16.

In other words, this technology works and can be adapted in Russia: even with a heavy workload of teachers, even in the absence of a tradition of joint lesson planning, etc.

What difficulties might you encounter?

Teacher resistance

It’s terribly uncomfortable to teach a lesson in front of a group of colleagues who evaluate the teacher’s performance step by step. You can soften the situation a little by making it clear that all teachers are on an equal footing and that everyone goes through the test of publicity. Another possible consolation: during observation, it is not the actions of the teacher that are assessed, but the reactions of the students. The goal is to understand how children learn and what influences them.

Of course, at school there cannot be any punitive measures against teachers if they do not succeed in everything at once. Observing lessons should not be seen as a threat to your career, but rather as a chance to develop it.

Scheduling

Meetings should be held regularly and quite often - preferably twice a week or more often. Therefore, the implementation of the lesson study program must be included in the schedule every quarter, taking into account which teachers are in which groups. In addition, you need to set aside time for at least some of the teachers in the group to attend lessons.

Differences in subjects and levels of study

It is possible that at the beginning of the introduction of this technology, the groups will be quite heterogeneous, since a large group of proactive teachers is not always recruited. For example, if a high school math class requires fairly broad knowledge, it may be difficult for teachers of other subjects to understand the specific features of that subject. In any case, it is important to focus on the pedagogical side of improvement.

Exercise. Measurable or not?

Target: practice setting measurable goals for lesson observation

Suppose teachers set the goals described below in this exercise for an upcoming English lesson. Which ones seem measurable to you and which ones don't? How can you get visible, objective results on these goals, if possible? How would you reformulate some of the goals to make them observable? What type (subject, meta-subject, personal) does each of the goals belong to? Is it possible to potentially achieve this goal in one lesson?17

1. Contribute to the development of speech culture.

2. To update students’ knowledge about the future tense of an English verb.

3. As a result of the lesson, students will be able to find in the proposed text all the verbs in English times Future I and Future II.

4. Create conditions for developing the ability to summarize information from the text.

5. Use at least 5 new words on the topic “National holidays” in a dialogue with a partner. We are talking about weak students.

6. Check your ability to correctly use verbs in the future tense.

7. Highlight the main idea of ​​the authentic text you listened to.

8. Do exercise X on page Y.

9. Create conditions for practicing the ability to talk about national holidays UK and USA.

10. Promote the development of tolerance and interest in other nationalities.

For convenience, enter your answers into the table:

Exercise. Formation of subject triads for lesson research

Target: this task will allow us to find teachers to form the first research groups

For this form of interaction, at least three teachers are needed. I suggest looking first within subject associations (this exercise is possible if your school has more than three teachers of the same subject). If you have completed the study “Social capital of an educational organization”, then pay attention to all three patterns of connections within the organization (personal, current and potential professional connections). Are there at least one of the diagrams a triad of teachers who teach one subject (or are included in one methodological association)? If yes, then just write down the names of these people.

Then pay attention to incomplete triads, that is, those in which one mutual connection is missing to form a three. For example, see the picture below.

If there were a mutual connection between teachers numbered 31 and 98, or 2 and 84, or 16 and 79, or 80 and 84, a complete triad could be formed. Such designs with one weak, that is, incomplete, connection can also be quite productive.

Think about who might be the leader of this group. What other teachers in the subject can be connected to this trio?

If you haven't taken the study, try to draw on a piece of paper yourself groups and pairs of teachers between whom there are mutual connections. Do you think there are other teachers in the team who “reach out” to these microgroups? Once you have a group or several groups of three or more people, you can start planning the start of a lesson study with them.

Method 5: Action Research

Surely there is a teacher in your school (hopefully more than one) whom you are proud of, who does everything well. At the same time, if you ask him (or her) what exactly this teacher does to achieve high results, most likely, the teacher will begin to speak in general phrases (about love for children, dedication to the profession...). This is understandable, but such common phrases are usually of little help to those who want to learn teaching skills.

Often good teachers do good things in the classroom without thinking about their actions, intuitively. But this does not mean that others (who have less developed pedagogical intuition) cannot learn the same thing. The goal is to study the lessons of teachers (not just successful ones), find what works (and doesn’t work) in them, and replicate successful experiences.

This section is about action research. The work of a teacher is very dynamic: some words, techniques, exercises can motivate students and influence their lives. Some pass by quite safely or even kill the students’ interest. Now in school there are many different techniques and pedagogical technologies that improve teaching. Moreover, many of them, as research shows, are effective, but only for a certain school or class. Is it possible to understand what works and how, what changes students? To do this you need to study the lesson. The action research methodology offers rules and methodological developments on how best to do this.

A huge advantage of this approach is that even one teacher can work within the framework of a research approach to school lessons. Action research can start with one specific question. For example, Can praise motivate weak students? In what forms of group work are students most involved in the process? How can including parents in the learning process affect academic performance?

A research question can be one that is of interest to the teacher himself (1), is related to student learning (2) and potentially involves the opportunity to obtain measurable results (3).

Let us explain the above points.

1) Personal interest comes first for a reason. One scientist I know often repeated: “There is no torture more sophisticated than writing a dissertation on a topic that is not interesting to you.” Although the teacher's room research usually easier than a dissertation, despondency will not do you any good. The question stems from a personal professional interest or from shared school-wide goals (kudos to those schools that have them).

2) All methods for improving the quality of a lesson fundamentally focus on how children learn, what is changing in their world. In this regard, action research is no exception. There are many interesting unanswered research questions out there, but the only ones that can really improve practice are those that relate to the learning process.

3) Measurability may not seem like the most obvious point to some, but it is one of the most important. It happens that a teacher can get carried away with some technique. Let's say, get carried away with using interactive whiteboard(which in itself is not bad): the children have fun, it’s easier for the teacher. But this technique will not necessarily improve academic performance or arouse children’s interest outside the lesson. Therefore, only areas in which before and after measurements can be taken are suitable for school research. It doesn't have to be academic performance or grades. You can measure, for example, involvement and the development of specific skills (nowadays it is customary to say “competencies”).

Alone in the field - who?

Although we said above that the study can be started by one teacher, this does not mean that this configuration is optimal. Of course, it is much better when such a research approach is adopted by the entire school.

I'll try to look at different ways of research in action.

One teacher. This may not be the easiest way to move a school forward, but if it's the only way to start making changes, it's worth a try. The teacher gets acquainted with the general idea and research methodology in action. Then he is reflective about his practice, studies his own experience, its impact on students - and draws conclusions based on this. On occasion (at a teachers' meeting, for example), a teacher can present the results of research in the hope that others will like his experience.

During the course of the study, the teacher begins to be more attentive and critical of what he is doing and takes a closer look at the children. The results won't take long to arrive!

A couple of teachers. Such a dyad, most likely, should be based on mutual interest or personal sympathies, special requirements for status in the organization. During the work, one teacher poses a research question and begins to introduce new actions, and the second (observer) seeks to monitor how this affects the students’ learning. In the same way, then the second teacher tries to find the answer to his question, and the first helps with observations and sound advice. The research of both teachers can be devoted to both general issue, and separate, personal.

The advantage of this way of working is that you can be more objective. First, if a teacher is introducing a new approach alone, he may be so engrossed in the process that he will not notice that nothing has changed in the lesson. Secondly, a second person helps collect data (observes the lesson, interviews students). Plus, a pair of teachers are more likely to draw inspiration from each other and not get fed up after a month or two.

Group of three or more teachers. As a rule, the group works on one common problem, although the research questions may differ somewhat. For example, the entire team analyzes the features of group work or the effectiveness of the system-activity approach. In this case, each participant takes on a separate “clearing”. The observation results are discussed at general group meetings. This is how teachers draw inspiration from each other. This group typically operates as a professional learning community.

Although, it seems to me, the most important thing is not the individual discoveries of the group members, not useful tricks and not even teaching skills, not improvements in individual classes and individual students. The most important thing is that the teacher begins to think differently. If he adopts an inquiry-based approach to teaching and focuses on how children learn, he begins to grow professionally, and continually. Not once every three years for 72 hours on external courses, but about 800 hours per year (or what is the average workload per year at your school?). Can you imagine how the organization will improve if the continuous improvement approach becomes a school-wide trend?

School as a whole. If a school has a specific concept of pedagogical development, this opens up a new path for it - training the entire organization. I believe that only management gurus and motivational geniuses can achieve this. But why not strive for the ideal? For example, a school may have several areas of development: teachers are assigned to priority areas, form research groups and systematically exchange experience between groups.

How to build a research methodology?

By tradition, we will describe the process of constructing a study step by step.

Step 1: Identify the problem. School research begins with a practical problem. Analyze what you are not doing well and what you want to improve. Maybe the school has some special population (difficult or gifted children, children with special needs, etc.) and it is not always clear how to work with them?

Step 2: Finding a better way. People often like to say that in many areas there is no need to reinvent the wheel. There really are many directions and approaches in pedagogy (however, sometimes I am very sorry that so little beautiful stuff has been translated into Russian). The task of the teacher-researcher is to find the best bicycle ever invented. For example, you have identified a problem. Most likely (99% probability) that to one degree or another this problem has already been worked on by someone. Look in scientific and professional literature, you may not even disdain teacher forums.

At this stage, you need to understand what actions you can take and how to cope.

Step 3: Formulation of the research question. This is a basic, key action. The research question should subsequently guide your actions: your steps and aspects to observe.

Let's say you have some formulation. Now you need to answer all the questions from the list. If there is at least one answer “no”, then you need to look for your question further.

Are you personally interested in this? Can such research generate inner drive?

Research takes time and effort, let's face it. This is a relatively long-term project. If the teacher is not interested in him, then the chances of success are reduced by an order of magnitude.

Can this question be answered through research? Can results be measured?

For example, the question: “Can mnemonics help students more effectively (compared to standard memorization) remember vocabulary on a new topic in English?” – potentially has a clear “yes” or “no” answer. Let's say a teacher measures how many words about a topic, on average, students can recall two weeks after completing the topic. Then the teacher introduces mnemonic techniques and takes another measurement two weeks later.

Do you have enough resources to conduct such research?

The topic of school research, as a rule, should be narrow. All domestic and world pedagogy cannot be improved by the results of one study. Your task is to understand what is best for you, your school, and your students. There is no need to pose global questions. But to understand whether the use of group work techniques can increase the involvement of weak students in the learning process is quite possible!

Does this have anything to do with how children learn?

Action research is essentially what it sets out to do - to teach children to become better learners. Otherwise, there is no point in starting quasi-scientific games.

More good advice– contact one of your colleagues and show them this research question. From the outside, flaws are more visible.

Step 4. Do not trust anyone or anything except your own experience. At this stage, the teacher directly conducts the research. At step No. 2, there is a search for what should work, the right theories. But until a teacher tests how a particular theory works in his class, it is not alive.

At this step you need to answer such questions.

How to collect data and what kind? Who will help collect them? It is important for the teacher to trace the dynamics of what has changed. (A chapter in the Appendix is ​​devoted to data collection)

What action to take? The approach is called “Action Research”. For example, there is situation “A”, then the teacher takes a certain action - the result is situation “B”. What is this action?

And one more small warning: perhaps not one educational technology does not work like a magic wand: I purred some kind of spell and immediately everything changed. At the stage of introducing a new pedagogical action, you need to roughly imagine how many lessons it will take, firstly, for the teacher to learn how to use this technique, and secondly, for it to have an effect on the children. How long does this take? Unfortunately, no one will give an exact answer.

Step 5: Summarize using an observation sheet. So, most of the journey has been completed. Let's say you've chosen a problem, asked a question, and done your research. What does the data say? What has changed and by how much? How would you interpret the results? Is it possible to somehow improve the action?

Step 7. Continue working. School research in action is not a dissertation that many defend, hang their diploma on the wall and conveniently forget. Study teaching practice is a continuous process. As soon as you finish one study, after a short break (if necessary), you take step #1 again.

But here's a little advice: as a rule, you shouldn't start a new topic from scratch. Maybe during the first study some related questions arose, the teacher’s problem areas were discovered? Continuity is a good idea for action research.

Pitfalls and reefs

Action research is honestly not the easiest way to improve lessons. It is dynamic, effective, attractive, but not simple... Maybe the following few tips will help you avoid common pitfalls.

1. Be prepared for “non-scientific” questions and methods at first.

Imagine a typical scientist. He studied for 4-5 years at a bachelor’s or specialist’s degree, and there, of course, there was talk about research methods (this is a compulsory subject for almost all specialties). Perhaps then there was a master's degree of 1-3 years and 3-4 years of graduate school, during which he continued to be taught research methods. And despite all this preparation, many scientists make serious mistakes in research methodology. Therefore, you should not expect perfection from teaching works (especially the first ones). The topic may be too broad, the measurement methods may not necessarily be adequate. Therefore, if your colleague makes such mistakes, try to be more loyal. Suggest ways to improve rather than criticize.

2. Make sure your research questions are worded positively.

For example, you need to prove that some good technique works, and not that some bad one doesn’t work. Often a research question turns out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy: if a teacher believes something helps, it is actually more likely to work. And vice versa.

3. Overcome possessiveness

This does not happen in all schools, but often directors or teachers complain that in the team it’s every man for himself. For example, a teacher has found some kind of pedagogical gold mine and is very jealous of his knowledge. What if others start preparing better Olympiad athletes according to my patterns than I do? If you are a school administrator, try to ensure that there is no negative “social competition” in school: whoever scores higher on an exam gets more money.

Exercise. “Researchable” or not?

Target: practice writing good research questions.

In English there is a good adjective, researchable, which cannot be translated into Russian in one word. It means that a question can be researched. Below is a list of questions. In your opinion, on the basis of which of them can a study be based, and which ones are prone to errors?

– Why are some children in my class so noisy and inattentive?

– Does the use of formative assessment in the classroom allow low-performing students to improve their achievement in mathematics?

– Will multilevel homework increase the percentage of completion?

– How does the introduction of health-saving technologies affect first-graders?

– How will the free choice of topics for writing essays affect the attitude of 9th grade students to essays and their grades?

– Why doesn’t group work allow low-performing children to improve their grades?

– Does the technique of independently asking questions to the text allow you to increase your understanding of complex texts?

– How introducing daily 5-minute tasks will help children learn English language?

– Why is the flipped lesson technology not suitable for 5th grade students?

– How will assigning homework that needs to be done with parents affect the success of 3rd grade students in the Russian language?

Look again at those questions that seem wrong. How would you reformulate them? Do you think answering these questions would help improve the quality of teaching in your school?18

Exercise. Selection of research methods

Target: This assignment will give you practice in planning school research.

For adjusted research questions, try to think through teacher measurement methods and activities in the classroom. In other words, answer three questions.

How to measure current status (i.e., which data collection methods to choose: survey, test, or observation sheets)?

What action (and for how long) should the teacher take to increase the planned indicators?

How and when to measure the final state (will the set of monitoring tools change)?

The more specific you can plan, the better. You may find specific measuring materials in this book or other sources.

Exercise. Leadership Research

Target: plan your own management research

Action research is used not only in pedagogy, but also in almost all other fields of the humanities. Management is no exception. What issue would you, as a leader in your organization (whether formal or not), choose for action research?

Try to go all the way from start to finish: problem formulation – literature research – research planning – measuring results – analysis. Are you, as a leader, ready to take on your own research project?

Method 6. Coaching teachers

More experienced teachers teach less experienced ones - this is a familiar and understandable structure. But classic mentoring is not always effective. Often the mentor is carried away by abstract teachings - from the height of his age and experience. Therefore, communication turns out to be quite one-way. In this case, a beginner usually comes to the mentor and watches the lessons. And much less often the other way around. Key phrase describing mentoring: “Do as I do and you will be a good teacher.”

But is it always possible to copy someone else's experience? And is it productive? Maybe it's more efficient to get it yourself mine experience – usually through trial and error? And then learn from it?

I remember one story about this from my student life. Once in my last year I had a brilliant professor on communication theory. Often, when entering the audience, she addressed us as “children.” Considering her age and status, this rather made the atmosphere less formal and more conducive to discussion. But somehow the professor was replaced by her graduate student. She addressed us as “guys” several times. But this only caused silent indignation and rejection. In other words, what is allowed to Jupiter is not allowed to the bull: the methods and “tricks” of an experienced teacher will not necessarily work for someone else.

To avoid top-down communication and direct copying, you can try teacher coaching. His key phrase: “Become more effective as a teacher, I will support you in this.” This approach in the Russian context can be considered as an alternative to mentoring. But it is only good if it is truly different from mentoring. The main advantage of coaching is its focus on the practice of the student teacher and the effect of his actions in the classroom.

What is “coaching” and who is a “coach”?

“Coaching” comes from the English word “coach,” which translates as “trainer.” Initially, only sports specialists were called coaches, but then the concept of “coaching” spilled over into other areas.

It is generally accepted that this idea was introduced into widespread circulation by the British tennis coach Timothy Gallwey (sometimes you can find the Russian translation of the surname - Gallway). His book “The Inner Game of Tennis” laid down the principles of coaching: a specialist, together with his coachee, sets specific, achievable goals. The role of the coach is that, with the help of deep, leading questions, he clarifies true goals motivates a person to win and helps overcome difficulties.

How does a coach differ from, for example, a mentor? As a rule, the mentor knows from his experience how to do it and gives the mentee ready-made recipes. The coach helps set specific goals, and the trained teacher is completely free to choose the means. The coach supports and selects a “training program.” For example, a sports coach and a football player set a goal - to score at least 4 penalties out of 5. At the same time, the coach carefully records statistics, looks closely at the hitting technique, and discusses the situation with the athlete. It’s the same with a coach at school: first, they set a specific goal together (for example, create a situation of success for at least three students per lesson). The specialist, as in sports, carefully monitors the student teacher, records his actions and the reactions of the students, then together they discuss what worked and how to improve what is not going well.

A coach is also different from a leader. Because a leader is someone who sets a value system and leads. Rather, a coach helps the teacher clarify his own values ​​and follows him.

This technology can work well if you build interactions between teachers of different statuses. For example, if you have several experienced teachers who could positively influence other colleagues. The peculiarity of coaching is that it involves a set of applied tools, sharply tuned for effectiveness and tested by practice.

End of introductory fragment.

A year ago, the President of the Russian Federation appointed Olga Vasilyeva as Minister of Education. The historian-theologian, certified choirmaster and former employee of the presidential administration replaced theoretical physicist Dmitry Livanov in this post. “Current Comments” highlighted the most important areas in which Olga Vasilyeva managed to make changes.

Beginning of transfer of schools from municipalities to regions

The minister complained that “44 thousand schools are in no way subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Science (...) and are not subordinate to the region.” According to her, the current system is ineffective and needs to change. As a solution to the problem, she decided to carry out a large-scale reform of school education. It is proposed to transfer schools from municipal authorities to regional ones.

The reform will be tested in 16 regions. It has already begun in the Samara, Astrakhan regions and St. Petersburg.

Study of Religion and Theology

Vasilyeva proposed increasing the number of hours for studying the basics of religious culture and secular ethics in schools. She stated that fundamentals of religion is a subject that strengthens the foundations of morality. The fact that in central Russia schoolchildren most often choose Orthodoxy and secular ethics, and in Muslim regions - Islam, does not bother her. She believes that this discipline is not aimed at religious education.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education and Science has already increased the number of budget places in the specialty “theology”. This year, 475 state employees are studying the science of religion; next year, 632 students are planned.

Astronomy lessons

Until recently, astronomy had the status of the main outsider among all school subjects. The science of stars was, at best, left as a short section in a physics textbook and taught on a residual basis; at worst, it was pretended that it did not exist. Vasilyeva decided to make astronomy “great again” - the subject will appear in the program of the 2017/18 academic year.

Oral interview for ninth graders

The minister considered that the GIA was not enough for ninth-graders and decided to create an additional filter for admission to certification exams.

Vasilyeva proposed introducing an oral interview in Russian. The innovation will work next year. It is also planned to introduce the oral part of the Unified State Exam in Russian in 2019.

Reducing the number of textbooks in all subjects

The minister has already become concerned that history and geography textbooks tend to be hopelessly behind the times. She proposed “bringing geography and history textbooks into line with the times.” “Now we can do in electronic format. Because it’s unlikely that paper carriers will be able to come to school in September,” Vasilyeva said.

Our immediate plans include reducing the range of textbooks in all subjects. She considers 400 textbooks for primary school unacceptable and suggests leaving 2-3 lines for each subject.

Support for banning hijabs in schools

After the scandal with the ban on wearing hijabs in one of the Mordovian schools, Vasilyeva spoke out sharply in favor of the ban. She stated that true believers do not try to emphasize their faith with their attributes. “Several years ago, the Constitutional Court decided that hijabs, as emphasizing national identity, have no place in school. Therefore, I believe that this issue was resolved by the constitutional court several years ago,” Vasilyeva said.

Labor education in schools

Following astronomy, Vasilyeva dusted off another educational artifact of the Soviet era - labor education. She “with both hands” supported the State Duma’s legislative initiative to introduce labor education in schools. “Without hard work, without skills, which we owe primarily to family and school, without the skills to work hourly, every second, to gain success from work, we cannot live,” the minister believes.

The law on labor education was submitted to the State Duma, but parliamentarians still did not dare to adopt it immediately: the draft was sent for revision.

Reduction of budget places in graduate school

Vasilyeva considered that the departments “should have two or three graduate students.” This is how, in her opinion, graduate school “really develops researchers.” The minister is unhappy that only a third of graduate students defend their dissertations.

Vasilyeva proposed canceling accreditation for educational programs graduate studies, make it a priority to conduct graduate studies scientific research and make the defense of a dissertation mandatory upon completion of training. However, this year there was no reduction in budget postgraduate places.

The appearance of speech therapists, psychologists and chess clubs in schools

Concerned about the “death groups,” Vasilyeva intended to return psychologists to schools. “Now my main task (I talk about this all the time) is to return psychologists to school. Today we have one psychologist for every 700 children. It's nothing. Concerning kindergarten, one speech therapist or psychologist for 400 people,” she said.

The head of the Ministry of Education also said that the chess club should be returned to schools. She noted that “every school should have a chess club. Nothing develops a population like chess. It doesn't cost anything." True, there has not yet been a massive influx of chess coaches, psychologists and speech therapists into schools.

School TV

The Ministry of Education is going to launch a unified school TV.

“This school television will be the following: news of the country and the world... news in all areas that can be done, of course, taking into account age. And the second part is school television, their local television, which they are developing. This is what ideally should be,” Vasilyeva said.

Vasilyeva again made reference to the Soviet past, considering school TV a logical continuation of school radio. She believes that this will not involve large costs and is generally feasible, because many schools already have their own TV.

So far, the minister’s actions have not greatly influenced perceptions educational system among Russians. Over the year, the FOM recorded a decrease in the assessment of the quality of domestic education: 36% of Russians (+4% per year) assess it as bad, and 40% (-4% per year) as average.

The number of those who disapprove of the Unified State Exam also increased sharply (from 49% to 66%). The areas in which Vasilyeva is taking active steps suggest a long-term effect, but so far there has been no visible success in improving the quality of education and its perception.

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