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Файл:Integration of Natural Science and Maths in Scientific Thought and Education. The materials of Russian - German Seminar in Moscow - Cologne, 2014
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standards developed in this country in 2004 and 2009-2012, correspondingly referred
Adults
Children
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93
46
How often do you USE the Internet?
Every day Never
to as the first and second generation standards.
The main catalyst for inventing the latest, so-called “second (or new)
generation” standards (of 2009 for primary general school education, 2010 for basic
general education and 2012 for secondary general education) became today’s utterly
information-oriented nature of the whole world’s industrial and postindustrial society.
Extremely high speed application of achievements along with all the mentioned
technological and social changes, globalization, increasing amount of information
caused new social requests and hence, new educational aims and strategies.
A persistent “companion” of the modern life style in general and mass usage of
the Internet in particular became clip-thinking. Recent sociological studies (picture
2) regarding to the frequency of Russian people using the Internet shows that absolute
majority of children use it every time, comparing to adults, where only 37% use it
every day and 46% never use it. [7] The important thing is that regular usage of the
Internet influences a child’s way of thinking, makes it difficult to focus on a
complicated logical chain and impossible to analyze its statements, because all the
information is gained only partially, by fits or “clips”. (That is where the name “clip-
thinking” comes from.) The phenomenon affects perception, memory and attention.
Therefore, children are sure to have a lot of troubles in the process of studying itself.
This practice has reached epidemic proportions which results in the necessity of some
reforms of the very way of teaching children.
Pic. 2. Inquiry on frequency of using the Internet
Let us consider the latest educational (or academic) standards, their main
peculiarities and the theory and methodology at the heart of them. Academic
standards are a set of compulsory requirements to the definite level of studying which
defines the specific content of a curriculum. The basis for the new generation
standards became cultural-historical activity theory and system activity approach
associated with prominent Soviet psychologists Lev Vygotsky, Aleksei N. Leontiev,
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Pyotr Galperin, Dmitry Elconin etc. (whose works describe conditions and
Types of Universal Studying Activities
Personal
Regulative
Cognitive
Communicative
Self-determination
Moral and ethical
evaluation
Setting goal
Planning
Targeting
Control
Correction
Common for
studying
Logical
Setting and
solving the
problem
Planning
Setting the
questions
Conflict
resolution
Management
of partners` behavior
Expression of
ideas
mechanism of learning process, world view forming); theory on the structure and
dynamics of psychical age (Lev Vygotsky) and periodization of psychical
development of a child (Dmitry Elconin).
According to psychologist Alexander Asmolov, under whose direction new
academic standards are being developed, the main changes in education in general
could be followed in four main points:
- The aim is no longer just students’ knowledge and skills, but their skills (or
activities) of studying;
- The subject content implies solving tasks connected with life;
- The purposeful organization and gradual forming of academic activity
emphasizes the importance of collaboration.
- It is pointed out that personal development is considered to be the aim of
education and so-called universal studying activities make it possible to carry out
as a way to explore the world.
A universal studying activity is an ability to study, i.e. an ability for selfdevelopment and self-improvement by conscious and active acquirement of new
social experience. This is the most significant personal competence and the key word
of modern standards in general. There are four types of them: personal, regulative,
cognitive and communicative. (Table 1)
Personal activities provide values and self-determination. The latter means “to
be settled in life, to choose spiritual reference point and the way of life”. [8, p. 8] This
implies: 1) setting the coherence between the aim of studying and its motives; 2)
action according to the system of values.
Tab.1. Types of universal studying activities
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Regulative unit is the organization of studying activity by children themselves.
Academic results
Personal
Meta-learning
Subject
System of values to
yourself, others, educational
process and its result
Ability to self-
development
Developing of
activities methods
Universal Studying
Activities
Mastering definite
elements of social experience
within subject
It comprises setting the goal, planning, prediction, control and correction, evaluation.
Unit of cognitive activities conclude 3 types of them. The first one is skills,
common for studying (selecting and setting the goal independently; searching and
selecting necessary information, modeling, skills to structure knowledge, skills to
make deliberate statements and sayings orally and in a written form, choosing the
most effective ways of solving the puzzles, skills to retell different kinds of text in
various ways). Other activities are presented by logical actions. They include
analyzing with the purpose to select the features (essential and non-essential),
synthesis, comparing, classification, making cause-effect relation, reasoning,
argument, hypothesis and reasoning. The last part is setting and solving the problem.
Communicative activities provide social competence and ability to
communicate successfully, taking into consideration other people’s opinion referring
to the situation. It contains planning collaboration, setting the questions, initiative
within collaboration, conflict resolution, behavior management of partners, abilities
to express your ideas in monologue and dialogue forms.
As for educational results, they are presented as personal, learning (“subject”)
and meta-learning (“over subject”) ones (table 2). Thus it is emphasized that not only
knowledge is important, but whether children can apply the knowledge in different
situations.
Tab.2. Academic results
In conclusion it is necessary to present some information about the Russian
system of natural science education at school and give some examples of tasks and
problems satisfying both the activity approach and the condition of pupil’s clip
thinking in relation to the subject of Physics.
Table 3 describes the structure of school natural education system. As one can
see, a kind of a propaedeutic Natural Science course called the Surrounding World is
taught in primary school, then come Biology and Geography courses beginning in the
5th/6th forms, Physics and Chemistry beginning in the 7th form. Science can also be
taught in secondary school.
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General School Levels
Forms
(Classes)
Subjects
Primary General School
1-4
The Surrounding World
Basic General School
5-6
Biology, Geography / Natural Science
7-9
Biology, Geography, Physics, Chemistry
Secondary General School
10-11
Biology, Chemistry, Physics / Science
Tab. 3
The educational results regarding Physics are given below.
1. Learning Results
A pupil should possess:
The principal methods of scientific knowledge, skills to put forward
hypotheses and test them by experimental means;
Methods of independent planning and conducting physical experiments,
identifying and analyzing received information, determine the reliability of the
result;
Ability to forecast, analyze and evaluate the impact of human activities.
2. Personal Results
Possession of skills of cooperation with other students;
Research;
Projects.
3. Meta-learning Results
Cognitive skills, research and project activities;
Problem solving skills;
Ability and willingness to solve practical problems, putting knowledge into
practice.
When working with physical concepts it is recommended that pupils having clip
thinking work with such tables as given in the example (tables 4). Since their memory
can be not good enough, they are to fill in the table when listening to the teacher or
working with a text or video material. The number of things they are to pay their
attention to depends on the grade.
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Physics Value
Force
Symbol
Main Unit Multiples
Measuring Methods
Tab. 4
Common Characteristics
Differences
Physics Value
Force
What Characterizes
Symbol
The SI Unit
Vector or Scalar?
Relative or Invariant?
Link to Other Variables
Measuring Methods
To “fight the curse” of clip thinking among pupils studying Physics, tasks
involving comparison and analysis are very helpful. The examples of such tasks are
as follow:
1) What is common and what is different between the concepts “weight" and “force
of gravity"?
2) Analyse Hooke's law formula and define the unit of stiffness.
3) What is common between the interaction of particles (molecules and atoms) and
the interaction of space bodies? Are these interactions different?
4) What is the difference between the terms "power" and "work"?
5) What is the difference between the reflection of light and the phenomenon of total
internal reflection?
Work with graphs, apart from plotting them, is also of a great use to learning
teaching analysis and improving apprehension abilities and hence cannot be
neglected. The tasks are to vary in their level of complexity, e.g. from using a given
graph to determine some physical values (e.g. the average speed from the plot of
speed against time or the stiffness of a spring or rubber from the graph of its length
versus the force applied) to constructing a graph of another physical value in
connection with the given one.
The recent alterations undergone by the system of education in Russia aroused
much controversy within the society. [9] The new academic standards introduced
much novelty in the very terminology of teaching theory and methodology. Although
the Unified State Exams as the main tool of monitoring the general school education
system are no longer considered alien, their advantages are still being disputed from
time to time. However, the very nature of brand new children leaves no choice for
education but to transform and improve itself – the proper ways of transformation and
improvement simply need to be found.
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References
[1] (Updated 2015, February 10). The World Factbook/ Russia. [Online]. (URL
http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html#People). Central
Intelligence Agency. (Accessed 15 February 2015).
[2] Russian Education System. [Online]. (URL http://www.russianenic.ru/english/rus/index.html).
National Information Centre on Academic Recognition and Mobility. Ministry of Education and
Science of the Russian Federation. (Accessed 18 January 2015).
[3] Russian Federation. [Online]. (URL http://en.unesco.org/countries/russian-federation). United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (Accessed 18 January 2015).
[4] Federal Law on Education of 2012 (in Russian), [Закон об образовании]. [PDF e-book
version]. (URL http://www.russianenic.ru/english/rf/index.html). (Accessed 10 January 2015).
[5] Education for All: Russia’s National Framework for Action. [Online]. (URL
http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/Russian%20Federation/Russia%20NPA%20EFA.pdf ).
World Data on Education, 7th ed. 2010/11. [PDF e-book version]. (Accessed 18 January 2015).
[6] Diagram of the Russian Education System. [Online]. (URL
http://www.russianenic.ru/english/rus/scheme.html). National Information Centre on Academic
Recognition and Mobility. Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. (Accessed
10 November 2014).
[7] The Internet Generation Doesn’t Escape Reality (in Russian), [Интернет-поколение из
реальности не уходит]. [Online]. (URL http://childcult.rsuh.ru/article.html?id=2626514).
Культура детства: нормы, ценности, практики. (Accessed 16 November 2014).
[8] Asmolov, A. [Асмолов, А. Г.] Forming Universal Study Activities in General School: from
Activity to Thinking. The System of Knowledge: Teacher’s Manual (in Russian), [Формирование
универсальных учебных действий в основной школе: от действия к мысли. Система заданий:
пособие для учителя] 2nd ed. Moscow: Просвещение , 2001.
[9] Hutorskoy, A. [Хуторской, А.В.] The Over Subject (Meta-Learning) Content of Education
from the Position of Accord with Human Nature (in Russian), [Метапредметное содержание
образования с позиций человекосообразности]. [Online]. (URL http://eidosinstitute.ru/journal/2012/0302.htm). Вестник Института образования человека. (Accessed 13
February 2015).
INTEGRATED SCIENCE COURSE FOR THE MIDDLE LEVEL STUDENTS
Dmitry A. Isaev
Moscow State Pedagogical University
The great change of Russian System of Education has begun during the period of
“perestroika” in the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s. Of course this change took place
in the Science Education too. Before it, for many years secondary science teaching in
the USSR was carried out, as a rule, within a framework of specific courses: physics,
chemistry, biology, geography and astronomy. Only in elementary school and during
the first year of middle school students studied an integrated science course called
“Nature”. On the one hand, this plan made it possible to teach each branch of science
in detail. But on the other hand, it had some negative consequences. For example,
students did not understand the unity of different natural phenomena and processes
and the universality of the fundamental laws that explain these phenomena, and
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students didn’t have a clear view of the present ecological problems. These facts were
noted in a number of works by Soviet researchers, for example, in the works of L.V.
Tarasov [1] and V.R. Ilchenko [2].
In the mid-1980s, some integrated science courses sought to overcome these
problems. This type of course was not entirely new to Soviet schools. The first
integrated science courses appeared in Russian schools in the eighteenth century in
the times of Empress Catherine The Great. The content of these courses was
improved during the nineteenth century and further during the Soviet period. So,
developing the new science courses, the authors considered all of these previous
courses as well as similar courses taught in other countries.
The authors of the courses also considered the new plans of education that provide
for differentiation of education after elementary school and the base courses of
middle school. Depending on individual interests and abilities students can choose
the type of educational profile — humanitarian, physical, chemical, mathematical and
so on — they would like to pursue.
The different types of educational profiles presuppose the different types of science
courses. Several new versions of integrated science courses for middle and upper
grades were developed by a variety of authors.
There are three general approaches to these courses and each conserves to some
extent the practice of teaching specialized science courses. The first approach
includes an integrated science course taught in the fifth and sixth (and maybe in
seventh) grades only. The second approach uses a generalized science course for
tenth and eleventh grades only. The third approach is a combination of the first two,
with integrated science courses taught first in the fifth and sixth grades, then later on
in the tenth and eleventh grades (or eleventh only). But each of these approaches
requires new science courses for elementary school as well.
The new “Science” courses began to be tested in schools in the late 1980s. Five
versions of these courses were developed and practiced on a large scale in the USSR.
Three of them, written for the fifth through sixth (or seventh) grades, were designed
by a large body of authors from the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR.
Another course, called “Ecology and Dialectics,” was designed by a group directed
by professor L.V. Tarasov, and included integrated science courses for the first
though sixth grades and then for the upper grades. The fifth version, “Science:
Physics-Chemistry,” is written for the fifth and sixth grades and was developed by
A.E. Gurevich (a physics teacher), L.S. Pontak (a chemistry teacher), and me.
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The “Science: Physics-Chemistry” course is practiced on a fairly large scale because
it gave a simple solution to two main problems of general science teaching at Soviet
schools, and it still helps to overcome the same problems in modern Russian
Education. One, Soviet institutes train only specialized science teachers, such as
physics teachers and chemistry teachers, they don’t train general science teachers
specifically. And now we have a very few institutions, which specially train general
science teachers. Two, Soviet schools have special physics classrooms and chemistry
classrooms, but as a rule, there are no general science classrooms. And at the present
time there are only a few Russian schools having special general science classrooms.
“Science: Physics-Chemistry” can be taught by physics teachers or chemistry
teachers using special teacher’s guides, and the lessons of the course can take place in
a physics classroom or a chemistry classroom.
Physics and chemistry are the basis of the course, but physical and chemical
phenomena are shown through examples from biology, geography, medicine, and
other sciences. Thus, the course helps students form an integrated view of nature. In
class and at home, students engage in several different kinds of activities, such as
doing laboratory activities, analyzing the results of their observations, solving math
problems, and answering questions.
From the beginning of the course, student interest has been evident because of
students’ lively reactions to the lessons, and it still continues. Even optional
homework assignments are usually completed by almost all students. Part of the
reason students react so positively to the course, I think, is because the materials are
designed to appeal to the interests of ten-and eleven-year-old students. To capture and
maintain this interest, a number of nontypical materials are integral to the course—an
innovative textbook, a workbook, and some in-class games, for example.
Before writing the textbook, we surveyed fifth-grade students in the traditional
“Nature” course to find out their attitudes toward the textbook. The results showed
that 80 percent of the students didn’t read the “Nature” textbook, but most of them
could recall the content of a lesson by looking at the pictures in the book. Of the 20
percent that did read the textbook, some said they read it because they always study
diligently, while others were forced by their parents to read the textbook. Overall,
student responses showed that the effectiveness of the “Nature” textbook was very
low.
With this in mind, we set out to write a textbook that students would enjoy reading.
We made lively illustrations the focal point of the book, and the information is
conveyed through two funny characters — Physicon and Chemila. As they read the
textbook, students become involved in it by carrying on a mental dialogue with
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Physicon and Chemila, which considerably increases their understanding of the
material. The textbook includes explanations of new material, descriptions of handson activities, test questions, crossword puzzles, and quizzes.
This textbook was tested not only in “Science: Physics-Chemistry” classes, but also
during lessons covering similar material in other versions of general science courses
for the tenth and eleventh-years-old students. After the experimental materials were
tested in 1988-90, the textbook was published by the Soviet School of Mathematics
and Physics “Vanguard” with black-and-white illustrations [3, 4], in the 1994 the
Moscow publishing house “Prosveshtshenie” (“Education”) published another
version of the textbook including color illustrations. And about twenty last years the
Moscow publishing house “Drofa” published several editions of the textbook [5].
It is obvious that the methods of science teaching of ten- and eleven-year-old students
differ from the science education methods for the high-level students. Games and
learning, in the opinion of many researchers, are the two main activities that ten- and
eleven-year-old children participate in. Because of this, we often use games in the
“Science: Physics-Chemistry” course, which helps to improve student motivation and
personal interest in learning. Our experience has shown that using games in class
makes lessons more effective.
For example, the laboratory activity on how to calculate the density of a substance is
conducted at Moscow school #315 as a game called “Geological Expedition”. The
class works in groups of five to six students, and each group receives an example of a
rock hut are not told what kind of rock it is. The object of the game is to calculate the
density of the rock, then find out what rock it is by using tables of densities. The
students do all of the work themselves, with a group leader directing each group’s
work. The teacher observes the students and provides help only if needed.
This type of activity is very interesting for most students because they all have a
chance to find a kind of work they like: one may like working with instruments,
another may enjoy doing mathematical calculations, and another may prefer
analyzing the results, drawing graphs, or writing the report.
The authors of the "Science: Physics-Chemistry" course regularly conduct seminars
with teachers to discuss criticisms and suggestions for improving the curriculum,
school supplies, and forms and methods of teaching. Since the course began to be
taught in schools, its curriculum and textbook have been considerably changed in
response to these criticisms and suggestions. We still continue to revise and improve
"Science: Physics-Chemistry" at the present time.
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References
1. Tarasov, L.V. (1988). Humanitarization as One of the Main Directions of the Reorganisation of
Physics Teaching at School. Physics at School, (2), 29-31.
2. Ilchenko, V.R. (1986). Crossroads of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Moscow:
Prosveshtshenie.
3. Gurevich, A.E., Isaev, D.A., and Pontak, L.S. (1991). Science: Physics-Chemistry: The Textbook
for Fifth-grade Students. Moscow: Soviet School of Mathematics and Physics "Vanguard."
4. Gurevich, A.E., Isaev, D.A., and Pontak, L.S. (1991). Science: Physics-Chemistry: The Textbook
for Sixth-grade Students. Moscow: Soviet School of Mathematics and Physics "Vanguard."
5. Gurevich, A.E., Isaev, D.A., and Pontak, L.S. (2014). Science: Physics-Chemistry: The Textbook
for Fifth and Sixth-grades. Moscow: “Drofa”.
THE SIMULTANEOUS USE OF NATURAL SUBJECTS IN SCHOOL
EDUCATION
Ekaterina Andrianova
Moscow State Pedagogical University
The process of education means getting knowledge about the world. It means we
study nature. Science has many branches. Physics, biology, chemistry, geography,
astronomy are among them. All these branches help to explore nature from the
different perspectives, that explains differences between them. During the process of
education in school complexity of the studied material rises. The language that
describes the laws of nature is mathematic. It is no wander that it is getting more and
more profound from the grade to grade. The studied processes are getting more and
more complicated, but one should remember that it is still nature we explore, and no
matter how dissimilar they look like the majority of these processes still have
common root. So it seems to be rather important to show this connection to students.
The geography lesson which item is trail orienteering may be a good example of
such intersubject communication within the limits of one lesson. Knowledge in
geography, physics, biology, astronomy may help to find the way in case of one got
lost in the forest for instance. The easiest way to spy out the land is to use a compass.
If one wants to use the compass right it is important to know its principle of
operation. So one should recall physics lessons about magnetic field, Earth magnetic
field and the way how magnetic stick acts in the magnetic field. The fact of physical
proximity of geographical pole and magnetic pole of the Earth let us use compass as a
navigator. In the absence of a compass one can find cardinal direction by the help of
heavenly bodies. That is an opportunity for students to use their awareness of sun's
way of motion and disposition of some navigation constellation of stars. Here we can
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