Lots of practice and necessary theory– that is the key formula of this book. From it you will learn: how to introduce a system of experience exchange at school step by step, what is important to observe in the classroom, how to overcome resistance to changes within the team, how to increase the social capital of the school and thereby make education more quality and affordable. The publication is addressed to school principals and their deputies, heads of methodological associations and teachers who are not indifferent to the quality of their lessons.

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The following excerpt from the book Mission Possible: How to improve the quality of education at school (E. N. Kukso) provided by our book partner - the company LitRes.

Seven Ways to Improve Teaching Quality

This section will help the reader:

– learn about the seven main ways to organize peer education of teachers in the school;

– get acquainted with step-by-step algorithms for the implementation of experience exchange systems;

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

- using the proposed exercises to understand who in your school is suitable for the role of leader, which teachers are easier to unite for teamwork, 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 bring teachers together.

The pedagogical skill of a teacher is not formed 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 pedagogical university taught progressive technologies, then in practice, when he gets to school, he will teach children the way he was once taught (probably not particularly progressive).

Unfortunately, the teacher can repeatedly repeat the same mistakes until he sees another - more effective - experience or learns to analyze his flaws. Especially strong "copying mistakes" is expressed in those schools where teachers are professionally isolated and little observe each other's experience. This section will focus on how to overcome the effects of isolation and build strong professional networks between teachers.

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

Method 1. Curatorial methodology

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

We found that stable groups of teachers are formed in those schools in which there are many mutual connections between pairs of teachers. In other words, at first two begin to exchange experiences, then one way or another, numerous professional groups can grow out of pairs. Therefore, the first task of the 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 couple and start learning from each other is perhaps the most inefficient thing you can think of. Most likely, this will lead to disastrous results: disgust and imitation. There are a few other key elements needed for the couple to work effectively.

"Smart third" (we call him the curator)- this is the person who organizes the discussion of two teachers, ensures their psychological safety. When two people observe each other's practice and point out flaws, it can be taken as a personal insult. The third person is called upon to return the dialogue to a constructive course and remove the threat.

Specific target for improving learning. You can have a long and lively discussion of each other's lessons, but if teachers do not have specific tasks, measurable goals, there is a high probability of simply wasting time. One of the priorities of the curator is to set tasks for the participants in the 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 teachers with approximately equal authority. It will be better if these are teachers of different subjects: in this way they will look not at the method of conveying specific topics in mathematics or literature, but at the “teacher-student” interaction. In the curatorial methodology, it is important that teachers in pairs do not play the role of a mentor or a 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 role of the "third smart" is best suited for reputable teachers, members of the administration, school psychologist, tutor. The rules for choosing a curator and the main requirements for it are described in more detail below.

Step 3. Formulation of the task for teachers. The teacher present at the lesson is tasked with monitoring a certain aspect of the lesson. For example, one teacher comes to a lesson with another with a specific observation sheet and records what is happening according to a given template. Then their roles change: the second teacher leads the lesson, and the first one takes 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 from the moment of the first lesson, that is, "in hot pursuit". Understand the pros and cons of the lesson. 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 is constructive so that the participants are aware of what they have learned and what difficulties they have encountered.

Successful questions of the 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. Setting a new task by the curator. It would be more accurate to say that the facilitator decides whether teachers need to work on the same task (for example, if there is a feeling that simply discussing the shortcomings will not be enough) or move on to a new item (when teachers understood everything and learned how to implement it).

By setting new tasks, tracking different aspects of practice, the professional awareness of the teacher 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, as teachers can abruptly stop sharing experiences without curatorial prompts. Much more stable and productive for the school are groups of three (triads) or more teachers. 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, subject to equal statuses.

Curatorial tasks for novice 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 class and is designed more for novice teachers. The section "Assessing the quality of teaching" contains tasks of varying complexity. For teachers with little teaching experience, these can be tasks to keep attention, maintain discipline, for venerable teachers - something from the category of aerobatics. In a word, you can choose a task for any teacher.

Exercise for beginner teachers "Vision of the class"

It is known that a novice teacher does not see the whole class, but its short diagonal. He rarely leaves his desk (after all, there is an open textbook). In doing so, it will claim to see the entire class.

Invite one of the microgroups to sit in the lessons of the other and check off all the verbal (possibly non-verbal) interactions between the teacher and the student. To do this, give the observer a blank chart with a class plan, and let him mark all the teacher's appeals to students.

When the observation sheet is completed after the lesson, it will most likely turn out that the checkmarks 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, mark all verbal interactions with students using a schematic representation of the class (observation protocol).

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

Exercise. Formation of teacher pairs

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

Take a list of teachers in your school and try to pair all the staff. There is one key requirement for couples: 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 desirable that these are teachers of different subjects (although this is not a mandatory rule).

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

The group of young teachers is the easiest to define: these are those who joined 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 whom colleagues do not consider professionally authoritative, who are not turned to for advice in the field of teaching. Professional "stars" are also easy to calculate. These are the ones that are considered in your school the best teachers. The rest of the teachers, most likely, belong to the group of middle peasants. Since this is usually the most numerous 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 in each group by answering the following questions:

Who are the personal connections?

Who might have similar pedagogical difficulties?

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

Try to form as many potential pairs of teachers as possible to share experiences. You can use other pairing principles as well: came together from a different school, are addicted to similar ideas, etc.

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

If you plan to introduce curatorial methodology in your school, then start small. Form 2-3 pairs among young teachers and select a "third smart" for them. These people can be your backbone in organizational change.

Exercise. “Before you rush into battle…”

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

Consider how to convince teachers to do something. There are three types of argumentation in communication theory: rational, emotional and combined argumentation. In other words, some people are better affected by logical arguments (which will increase the Unified State Examination and is associated with incentive payments), it is easier to get to the minds of others through emotions (children will have higher chances for a decent future, this is part of our largely difficult profession). Most people aren't purely rational or emotional types, though, so it's best to combine arguments.

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

Also consider what typical objections and counter-arguments educators may have (eg high employment, not good enough students, family difficulties, etc.). Decide how you will respond to them.

Putting yourself in the position of a teacher will make it a little easier to convince your colleagues that your ideas are correct.

Method 2. Pedagogical tours

Agree, it sounds quite romantic. For me, the name of this technique is associated with outdoor activities and adventures (in the original, the technique is called instructional rounds). The technology of pedagogical tours is indeed one of the most dynamic and, in my opinion, simple to implement.

Its essence lies in the fact that small group visits teachers a short time a large number of lessons. At the same time, the main goal is not to evaluate the teacher who teaches the lesson, or to give him advice, but to compare his practice with the experience of colleagues. This technology allows 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. The choice of fellow travelers. The educational tour takes place within one day. Such events are recommended to be held at least once every quarter.

First, a group of 3-5 observers plus a moderator is formed. Observers can be both beginners and experienced teachers. The role of a moderator is best suited for a respected teacher in the team who could skillfully build a discussion. This role can be played by someone from the administration, but it is important to warn the teachers teaching the lesson that the purpose of observation is not to evaluate (and punish in case of error), but to observe and enable teachers to compare themselves with colleagues.

Among the experienced and skilled teachers, several are selected who are ready to let the participants of the tour into their lesson. It will not be superfluous 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 correct object to observe, 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, it is something observable, and not just opinions;

the observable aspect of pedagogical reality can potentially be improved;

what is observed corresponds to the broad pedagogical goals of the school;

improving the skill of conducting pedagogical tours can indeed be important for 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. Organization of the tour. A group of teachers, together with the moderator, knocks on the door and settles down in the classroom as quietly 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). Usually the group should visit 5-6 teachers per day.

The moderator keeps track of time, after the observation is over, the group thanks the teacher and students and moves on to the next class. Such an organization allows you to observe many colleagues. In doing so, the focus is on one very specific aspect (whether it be the questions the teacher asks or how the teacher uses the classroom space), which makes it possible to get general idea in a very short time.

But it is important to remember that when visiting, the group is observing, not evaluating, the teacher. Nobody should give a teacher feedback unless he directly asks for it.

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

First, the 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 explanation, three looked only 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 was doing and what the students were doing.

The group then analyzes the data (Are there any repetitive behaviors? How can 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 is expected of you, what would you learn, how would you react to this type of action? »

Let's bring specific example such a discussion. We are talking about a history lesson in the 6th grade on the topic "Ancient Greece". The 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, educators use Bloom's taxonomy of questions11, on the basis of which they made observations. It turns out that most of the questions are aimed at the reproduction of information (in other words, were reproductive).

An experienced teacher at the prediction stage says that if he were a student in this lesson, this would give him significant skills in deep understanding of the text. But other teachers disagree with him. They believe that based on observations, it can be said that children learned to find specific, not necessarily related facts in the textbook. This objection made teachers think about what they mean by in-depth understanding of the text and what types of work could develop this. Teachers in the community came to the conclusion that deep understanding is achieved through interpretation, analysis of the text, search for the main thing. At the same time, it is difficult to say whether children will learn to understand the text only with the help of questions for the reproduction of information.

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

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

For example, teachers can engage in group discussion (“brainstorming”) about ways and models of behavior that will improve the lessons. The participants in the discussion could prepare short leaflets or presentations, a small internal or external course on a particular 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 plus of pedagogical tours is that they allow experienced teachers who open the doors of their classes not to be in a situation of criticism. This technology is aimed at observation, not "advice". To avoid unrest and discontent in the team, it is important to follow the key rules:

teachers should not discuss what they have seen in class with those who are not part of the group;

it is impossible to take out outside the group what was said in the general discussion;

it is not necessary 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 good or bad, but on what happened in the class;

teachers who come to classes should not make the lesson exemplary, but conduct a regular work session;

the teacher must know what aspect of the lesson will be observed.

The technology of pedagogical tours, according to the participants, brings energy and inspiration to the work of teachers13. It allows you to observe the work of colleagues, discuss the practice of work with other teachers and think about your own teaching. Such an event does not require systemic changes in the schedule. One or two days in a quarter, perhaps, any school teacher can highlight.

Exercise. "Four quarters - four improvements"

Target: If you want to make pedagogical tours a permanent feature of your school, it is a good idea to plan ahead for dates and topics.

Suppose you have the opportunity to organize pedagogical tours every quarter. Please think about what four areas of teaching skills you would like to improve in the first place.

Write them out.

You can compare your four priorities with the topics in the next section of this book. Are there any matches? If so, the observation sheets already compiled will probably help you.

Exercise. How would you interpret such data?

Target: class discussion is not simple task as it may seem. This simple exercise will give you some practice in building a constructive discussion of data.

Suppose you happen to be the moderator of a lesson discussion group. Teachers who observed one of the lessons present approximately the same data.

“During the lesson, the teacher called 12 students out of 25. Of these, 5 are strong, 6 are medium and one is 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 according to the level of knowledge.

What can such data say? Try to answer the question: “If you were a (strong, average, weak) student in a lesson with this teacher and did everything that is 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, in what form it would be appropriate to present the recommendations.

Exercise. Distribution of roles

Target: form teams for pedagogical tours at school

There are three types of roles in pedagogical tours: lesson facilitators, class attendees, and moderator. Who do you think could play each of the roles in your school?

Lesson facilitators, 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.

A 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, among young people there is one fashionable entertainment - "speed dating" (from the English speed dating - speed dating). The bottom line is that it's going to equal amount unfamiliar guys and girls. 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. During the evening, all the girls get to know all the guys. After a short conversation, both people put a plus or minus to the partner, and if the pluses match, then the organizers give the participants each other's contacts. Tell me, is it fun?

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

You can take on board such an approach as interdisciplinarity. Interdisciplinarity is often talked about, but not very often something is actually done. If there are a couple of teachers in the 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 take only a couple of months to implement the first steps.

Step 1: Create a Study Wall

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

After that, teachers should take a few weeks (2-4) and ask them to think about what connections can be seen between the topics. All teachers can be included in this work, even those who did not create these specific leaflets. It’s worth agreeing in advance how to mark possible connections: draw arrows, mark with color, or somehow circle 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. A session of quick meetings

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

The teachers of the Scottish school, which carried out this way of exchanging ideas, found more than 40 intersections in 40 minutes (for example, essays and atomic energy from English and physics programs, general topics in mathematics and chemistry, etc.).

Although everything sounds easy, it is important to pay attention to some nuances and answer such 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 on the same day? Should the pairs be formed by teachers who teach the same children, or is it not necessary? Should everyone participate or only the most active?

Step 3. Official or civil marriage?

The next stage is the actual embodiment of ideas in general educational projects. On the part of the administration, it is important to decide: is it necessary to formalize these found projects? 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 introduce something else: say, a brief methodological description of projects so that other colleagues can repeat; observations of integrated lessons by peers 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 those couples where teachers are likable to each other have more possible connections.

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 sympathies for each other. Try to look at their calendar-thematic plans, 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. This is the word "kaizen", meaning the idea of ​​continuous improvement in what we do. The idea spread in Japan in the post-war period, and in the 1980s became popular in other countries (largely due to the example of the Toyota auto concern).

The basic principles of "kaizen":

– continuous changes;

– open acknowledgment of problems;

– creation of working groups and horizontal links;

- developing supportive relationships;

– development of self-discipline;

– improving processes with 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, junye kenkyu (授業研究, jugyou kenkyuu). This is the original name of the lesson research 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 also means "study of the lesson" in translation.

The ideology of lesson learning is that teachers find problems together and, through constant group efforts, step by step improve the quality of school lessons. Perhaps our culture is very different from that of Japan, and the desire for constant improvement is not in the blood of all school workers. However, the school is also a special culture that is being created and changed, even if this process is not fast.

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

step by step plan

The lesson learning model in the Japanese version 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 classical, 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, a school leader forms a team of teachers. More about the problem of forming professional groups will be discussed later.

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

Step 2: Pre-schedule appointments

It may seem strange, but the group members do not chase after the number of lessons. As a rule, only one lesson is received per month of group work. The main increase in knowledge occurs due to the fact that teachers plan and discuss together the pedagogical nuances of the lesson, observe the children and analyze the results. Such a seemingly slow progress leads to tangible results rather quickly. (Remember the principles of "kaizen"?)

Work on one goal lasts 3-5 weeks, while teachers hold 10-15 general meetings during this time. It is important that there are no long gaps 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 held. For example, a group of teachers chooses the topic "Publicistic style" in Russian 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 one lesson, but a series of lessons on one topic (for example, a block of lessons on the topic “Gernal participle”).

It is important that at each meeting a record of what is discussed is kept. It's best 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 for Learning Objectives

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

The objectives of the lesson can be of different levels:

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

- metasubject related to the development of self-control, ways of thinking, intellect, etc.;

- personal, for example, the ability to work in a team, listen to the opinions of others, be tolerant of different points of view.

Of course, in one lesson it is impossible to develop complex skills (for example, to instill critical thinking). However, it is possible to plan small steps that could develop such skills in students. Moreover, incorporating broad, complex objectives into the context of the lesson is more conducive to learning. professional growth teachers in the group. A little more about setting goals will be discussed later.

Another important nuance: although a specific lesson of a specific teacher is planned, it should be taken into account when planning that the same lesson can 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 conduct a similar lesson or how they have already solved similar problems. Thus, teachers share their pedagogical experience, exchange ideas. To keep the focus on children's learning, teachers recall how children have coped or had difficulty 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: the learning outcomes must be potentially measurable, visible. The results of observations, written work of students, interviews after the lesson can be visible as visible. This is very important for teachers to trace the relationship between the actions of the teacher and the reactions of the children.

During planning, teachers try to “put themselves in the shoes of students” and think about how they would perceive what is happening in the lesson, how they would act, what they could 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, medium, strong - they are representatives of focus groups. Therefore, during the lesson, teachers observe not so much the whole class, but these specific children. The selection of different groups of students is important for lesson planning: goals are prescribed for each group of students according to their strength, which makes the lesson more suitable for all children.

Step 5. Drawing up a lesson protocol by the teacher

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

Activity in the lesson and / or actions of the teacher - learning objectives - results of observation 14

Step 6. Conducting a lesson with one of the teachers

All members of the group are present at the lesson and make notes on the sheets for observation. The teachers present may have as a common task the supervision of 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 at the lesson. Their goal is to watch what is happening in the lesson, and not to evaluate the performance of everyone.

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

Step 7. Discussing and finalizing the lesson

After the observation, the group meets again to discuss which goals have been achieved and which have not. In accordance with this, teachers suggest how the lesson scheme can be improved.

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

When using the 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, it is discussed what teachers saw in teaching children, then suggestions are made on how to improve those aspects of the lesson that were difficult.

Step 8 (optional). Re-doing the lesson

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

Step 9. Synthesis and dissemination of the results of the work

Agree, it's a shame to work for 1-2 months and not get confirmation 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 system of studying lessons 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, government-sponsored refresher courses may take the form of lesson learning. There are often interscholastic groups. In addition, schools that practice this approach periodically organize seminars in which each of the schools describes their experience.

In the post-Soviet space, a project to introduce a methodology for the exchange of experience in the technology of studying lessons was carried out by the Institute of Education of the National Research University Higher School of Economics in 2013-2016 in three regions of Russia: the Moscow and Yaroslavl regions, the Republic of Karelia. Several dozen schools that 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 non-native language) have adapted this methodology to the needs of their organizations. The majority of principals noted an increase in educational outcomes and changes in the school climate after three years of work.15

In Kazakhstan, at the Center for Teaching Excellence, this technique 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 have?

Teacher Resistance

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

Of course, there can be no punitive measures against teachers in a school if they fail to do everything at once. Watching lessons should not be seen as a threat to one's career, but rather as a chance to develop one.

Scheduling

Meetings should be held regularly and at the same time quite often - preferably twice a week or more often. Therefore, the implementation of the lesson research program should be included in the schedule every quarter, taking into account which teachers are in which groups. In addition, it is necessary to allocate time for attending lessons by at least part of the teachers of the group.

The difference between subjects and levels of study

Perhaps, at the beginning of the introduction of this technology, the groups will be quite heterogeneous, since a large group of initiative teachers is not always recruited. For example, if a math lesson for high school students requires a fairly broad knowledge, it may be difficult for teachers of other subjects to understand the features inherent in this 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 observing lessons

Suppose teachers put the following in this exercise goals for the upcoming English lesson. Which of them seem measurable to you and which do not? How can you get visible objective results for 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? Can this goal be potentially achieved in one lesson?17

1. Contribute to the development of a culture of speech.

2. Update students' knowledge about the future tense of the English verb.

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

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

5. Use in a dialogue with a partner at least 5 new words on the topic "National holidays". These are weak students.

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

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

8. Do exercise X on page Y.

9. Create conditions for practicing the ability to talk about the national holidays of Great Britain and the USA.

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

For convenience, enter the answers in the table:

Exercise. Formation of subject triads for lesson research

Target: this task will help find teachers to form the first study groups

For this form of interaction, at least three teachers are needed. I suggest looking inside subject associations first (this exercise is possible if your school has more than three teachers of the same subject). If you have completed the Social Capital of an Educational Organization study, 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 schemes a triad of teachers who teach the same subject (or are included in one methodological association)? If so, just write down the names of these people.

Then pay attention to incomplete triads, that is, those in which one interconnection is missing to form a triple. For example, see the figure 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, then a complete triad could form. Such constructions with one weak, that is, incomplete, connection can also be quite productive.

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

If you have not taken the study, try on your own on a piece of paper to depict groups and pairs of teachers between which there are mutual connections. In your opinion, are there other teachers in the team who are “stretched” to these microgroups? Once you have a group or groups of three or more, you can start planning the start of the lesson study with them.

Method 5: Research in action

Surely in your school there is a teacher (hopefully not the only one) whom you are proud of, who is doing 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 general phrases (about love for children, devotion to the profession ...). This is understandable, but such commonplace phrases usually do little to help 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 (whose pedagogical intuition is not so strongly developed) cannot learn the same. The challenge is to explore the lessons of teachers (not just successful ones), find what works (and doesn't work) in them, and replicate successful experiences.

This section focuses on action research. The work of a teacher is very dynamic: some words, techniques, exercises can motivate students, influence their lives. Some quite safely pass by or even kill the interest of students. Now in the school there are many different techniques and pedagogical technologies that improve teaching. Moreover, many of them, as studies show, are effective, but only for a particular 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 plus of this approach is that within the research approach to school lessons even one teacher can work. Action research can start with one specific question. For example, Can praise motivate weak learners? In what forms of group work are students most involved in the process? How can involving parents in the learning process affect academic performance?

Research can be a question that is of interest to the teacher himself (1), is related to the education of schoolchildren (2) and potentially involves the possibility of obtaining measurable results (3).

Let's explain the above points.

1) Personal interest is not in vain in the first place. One scientist friend often repeated: "There is no torture more sophisticated than writing a dissertation on a topic that is not interesting to you." While a teacher's research paper is usually easier than a dissertation, it's not good to be discouraged. The question stems from a personal professional interest or from the shared goals of the whole school (praise those schools that have them).

2) All methods of improving the quality of the lesson fundamentally focus on how children learn, what is changing in their world. Action research is no exception in this respect. There are many interesting unanswered questions in the world research questions, but only those that are related to the learning process can really improve the practice.

3) Measurability may seem to someone not the most obvious point, but it is one of the most important. It happens that the teacher can “play too much” with some technique. For example, to get carried away using an interactive whiteboard (which in itself is not bad): the children have fun, the teacher is easier. But not necessarily this technique will increase academic performance or arouse the interest of children outside the lesson. Therefore, only such areas are suitable for school research in which measurements can be made before and after. It doesn't have to be grades or grades. It is possible to measure, for example, involvement, the formation of specific skills (now it is customary to say “competencies”).

Alone in the field - who?

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

I will try to consider different ways of research in action.

One teacher. It may not be the easiest way to move the 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, the research methodology in action. Then he reflectively relates to his practice, he studies his experience, his influence on students - and draws conclusions based on this. On occasion (at the teachers' council, for example), the teacher can present the results of the research in the hope that others will like his experience.

In the course of the study, the teacher begins to be more attentive, more critical of what he does, looks closely at the children. The results won't be long in coming!

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

The advantage of this way of working is that you can be more objective this way. First, if a teacher introduces some new approach alone, he may be so involved in the process that he will not notice that nothing has changed in the lesson. Secondly, the second person helps to collect data (observes the lesson, interviews students). In addition, 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 whole team analyzes the features of group work or the effectiveness of a system-activity approach. In this case, each participant takes on a separate "clearing". The results of the observation are discussed at the general meetings of the group. This is how teachers draw inspiration from each other. This group usually 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 techniques and not even pedagogical 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 exploratory approach to teaching and focuses on how children learn, he begins to grow professionally, and constantly. Not once every three years for 72 hours in external courses, but about 800 hours a year (or what is the average load per year at your school?). Can you imagine how the organization will improve if the approach of continuous improvement becomes a school-wide trend?

School as a whole. If the school has a certain concept of pedagogical development, this opens up a new path for it - the training of 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 study groups, and systematically exchange experiences between groups.

How to build a research methodology?

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

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

Step 2. Finding the best way. They often like to say that in many areas there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Indeed, there are many directions and approaches in pedagogy (although sometimes I am very sorry that so little of the beautiful 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 out by someone. Look in the scientific, professional literature, you can not even disdain teacher forums.

At this stage, you need to understand what actions can be taken, how it is customary to cope.

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

Suppose you have some wording. 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? Such a study can cause an internal drive?

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

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

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

Do you have enough resources to conduct such a study?

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, your students. There is no need to ask 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!

Does it have to do with how children learn?

Research in action, in fact, then starts - to teach children to study better. Otherwise, there is no point in starting quasi-scientific games.

More good advice- turn to one of the colleagues and show them this research question. From the side, the flaws are more visible.

Step 4. Don't trust anyone or anything other than your own experience. At this stage, the teacher directly conducts research. Step #2 is looking for what should work, the right theories. But until the teacher checks how this or that 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. (Data collection is covered in the Appendix chapter)

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

And another small warning: perhaps not a single pedagogical technology works on the principle of a magic wand: you 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 will be needed, firstly, so that the teacher learns to use this technique, and secondly, so that it affects children. How much time is needed for this? Unfortunately, no one can give an exact answer.

Step 5. Summarizing with an Observation Sheet. So, most of the way passed. Suppose you have chosen a problem, posed a question, and conducted research. What does the data say? What has changed, by how much? How would you interpret the results? Is there any way to improve the action?

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

But a little advice: as a rule, you should not start new theme from scratch. Perhaps, in the process of the first study, some related questions arose, the problem points of the teacher were revealed? Succession is a good idea for action research.

Pitfalls and reefs

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

1. Be prepared for "unscientific" questions and methods at first.

Imagine a typical scientist. He studied for 4-5 years in a bachelor's or a specialist's degree, and there, of course, they talked about research methods (this compulsory subject for almost all specialties). Perhaps then there was a master's degree of 1-3 years and 3-4 years of postgraduate studies, during which he continued to be taught research methods. And, despite all this preparation, many scientists make gross mistakes in research methodology. Therefore, one should not expect impeccability from teacher's works (especially the first ones). The topic may be too broad, the means of measurement not necessarily adequate. Therefore, if your colleague makes such mistakes, try to be more loyal. Offer ways to improve instead of criticizing.

2. Make sure your research questions are phrased positively.

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

3. Get over the possessiveness

This is far from happening in all schools, but often directors or teachers complain that in a team it's every man for himself. For example, a teacher has found some kind of pedagogical gold mine and is very zealous about his knowledge. What if others start preparing Olympiads better than I do according to my patterns? If you are a school administrator, try to make sure that there is no negative "social competition" in the 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 is not translated into Russian in one word. It means that some question lends itself to research. Below is a list of questions. What do you think, on the basis of which of them can research be built, and which ones make mistakes?

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

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

- Will different levels of homework increase the percentage of their 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 does group work not allow underachieving children to improve their grades?

– Does the technique of self-raising questions to the text increase the understanding of complex texts?

– How will the introduction of daily 5-minute tasks help children learn English?

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

- as a task homework, which needs to be done with parents, will affect the success of 3rd grade students in the Russian language?

Look again at those questions that seem to be 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 activity will allow you to practice planning school research.

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

How to measure the current state (that is, which data collection methods to choose: survey, checklist 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. Maybe you can find specific measuring materials in this book or elsewhere.

Exercise. Leadership Research

Target: plan your own management research

Action research is applied not only in pedagogy, but also in almost all other humanities. Management is no exception. What question would you, as a leader in your organization (whether formal or not), choose to explore in action?

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

Method 6. Teacher coaching

More experienced teachers teach less experienced teachers, a familiar and understandable construct. But classical mentoring is not always effective. Often the mentor is fond of abstract teachings - from the height of his age and experience. So the communication is pretty one-sided. In this case, a beginner usually comes to a 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 by trial and error? And then learn from it?

I remember a story about this from my student life. Once in my last years I had a brilliant professor of communication theory. Often, entering the audience, she addressed us as “children”. From the height of her age and status, it rather made the situation less formal and conducive to discussion. But somehow the professor was replaced by her graduate student. She called us “guys” several times. But this caused only mute indignation and rejection. In other words, what is allowed to Jupiter is not allowed to the bull: both 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 coaching teachers. His key phrase: "Become more effective as a teacher, I will support you in this." This approach in the Russian context can be seen as an alternative to mentoring. But it's only good when it's really different from mentoring. The main advantage of coaching is focusing 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 "coach". 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 wide circulation by the British tennis coach Timothy Golwey (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 mentee, set specific, achievable goals. The role of a coach lies in the fact that with the help of leading deep questions, he clarifies the true goals of a person, motivates him to win and helps to overcome difficulties.

What is the difference between a coach and a mentor? As a rule, the mentor knows from his experience how to do it, and gives the ward ready-made recipes. The coach, on the other hand, helps to set specific goals, and the trained teacher is completely free to choose the means. The coach supports, 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 the statistics, looks at the technique of hitting, and discusses the situation with the athlete. So is the 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, closely monitors the learning teacher, records his actions and the reactions of the students, then they discuss together what happened and how to improve what doesn’t work out very well.

A coach is also different from a leader. Because the leader is the one who sets the system of values ​​and leads. The coach, on the other hand, helps the teacher clarify his own values ​​and follows him.

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

End of introductory segment.

The new Minister of Education, Olga Vasilyeva, took the intensity of the discussion about the Soviet school to a new level:

• one pole praises the Soviet school and dreams of canceling all reforms in order to return to its fruitful roots,
• another calls the achievements of the Soviet school myths and cites alternative arguments to prove it.

It turns out a conversation between the blind and the deaf with the gradual strengthening of each in his own opinion. Of course, in strict accordance with scientific data on the ability of people to listen to logical arguments.

In fact, this is the same discussion that is being held about the results of education, monitoring education, and assessing the quality of education. With full respect for her scientific component I would like to draw attention to the managerial aspect, because any scientific model has conditions for implementation and application.

It is the applicability of criteria and assessments that unites two discussions of scientometricians and everyday metricians striving towards each other. The two words are pronounced the same, but the meanings are completely different. If scientists sometimes designate somewhere in the corner of their work what exactly they mean by the words they use (although the definitions are lost in subsequent discussions), then in everyday disputes they don’t even think about it. Everyday discussions are characterized by a comparison of different criteria (rather than measurement results) and a dispute about their significance. Strictly speaking, this means an underlying discussion about values, not indicators.

Where without an exam?

The exam, like any measuring tool, evaluates itself: it is the ability of the subject to solve the problems that are presented in this particular examination sheet. The exam can be focused on personality measurements or on rating - it depends on the selection of tasks.

The system of relations during the examination is important, because it affects the motivation of all its participants.

In the classical model of education, when training resembles the processing of parts on an assembly line, the exam resembles the military acceptance of serial electronics: what is for marriage, what is for consumer goods, what is for the military, what is in space. .

• The student on the exam is in stress and hope for a higher status. Since he is not concerned with the truth, but with "size", you can "go all out".
• The examiner finds himself in a dual position: he is both the demiurge for each subject and responsible for excesses. If he is also the teacher of the subjects, which is typical for exams according to the traditional Soviet scheme, then he is also indirectly attested. So, no matter how proudly he dissects in front of his students, he is also interested in the maximum "size", but collectively, and not personally (which does not exclude private interest as such).
• The administrator of the organization conducting the exam wants to get rid of it as soon as possible with minimal trouble. The honesty of the exam and the reliability of the results for him are not an independent value. If "his" students are being examined, he is also interested in the highest possible "sizes". If students from another school are being examined, and their own are somewhere else, then both administrators are well aware of the likely interdependence of relations.

Thus, all participants in the traditional final exam are interested in the maximum value of the mark, and not in its objectivity.

The share of honesty of the exam result strongly depends on the personal qualities of responsible persons, which in the conditions of cynical consumer relations is a dubious barrier. That is why, if there is an external order for honesty, one has to put up with increasingly significant costs that work only until the moment when they find the key to them.

It is not very interesting to discuss the entrance versions of the exams: even the most intoxicated lovers of the traditional exam scheme remember corruption scandals well and understand their inevitability. As an antithesis, they cite a change in the scheme of corruption from a university to points passing the exam or buying answers. Some universities and in the new conditions find loopholes for manipulation in admissions campaigns. I personally have not seen reliable confirmation of the advantages of some forms of exams over others. In addition to creative universities, where the lack of informal competencies is an obvious obstacle to learning.

What does the USE evaluate?

The USE is a subject exam, therefore, it evaluates only the subject competence of the student, the ability to solve problems in this subject. No sentimental stories about "he doesn't take into account" matter, because USE task not even so much to evaluate, but to rank students according to their ability to solve. The exam has two tasks:

• confirm the mastery of the subject at a level sufficient for graduation from school,
• pass the barrier of competition to the university.

Neither for the first, nor for the second, it is necessary to fully assess the mastery of program requirements - these are banal barrier tasks. And there is no reason to blame the USE for the incompleteness of solving the problem. Is there any reason to believe the past scheme of local examinations is more fully assessing? Even if so, why set such a task? And who should be doing it?

The previous scheme was built for a specific program or even for a specific teacher. This could create the illusion of a "comprehensive assessment".

In reality, the local assessment of the local examination measured the opinion of the local examination board about the examinee. From the student's point of view, this only made the process of passing the exam more difficult, forcing them to adapt to unique local requirements. As in any non-standardized process, this gave advantages to some, and vice versa to others. In the rest - the complete incomparability of the results and the opacity of the examination process with all the consequences. What a useful student learned from learning is determined not by the exam, which he will forget the next day, but by the learning process and the needs of the student himself.

• The first level is the identification of threshold values ​​for crediting education at school. Judging by the repeated facts of lowering thresholds, the task of graduating from school today is a formality. And this is right: no one needs to return a failed student who has reached a certain age to the class - this is an extra headache both for the student and for the school. Neither side is interested in this.
• The second level is the identification of threshold values ​​in each university for enrolling applicants.
• Monitoring level - generalized ratings for teachers, schools, municipalities, and so on.

Fortunately, in the past, when generalized ratings were used to “assess the quality of education”: the USE has nothing to do with the quality of education in the understanding of even the USE developers themselves. But the presence of numbers could not leave officials indifferent until they were reined in amid loud scandals from the very top.

What do international ratings evaluate?

Various international ratings rank countries according to the generalized results of solving certain problems based on national samples of subjects. We try to make the sample representative and valid. How successful this is, the question is for diagnostic specialists - I have not seen any complaints about incorrect sampling in the press.

But only primitive managers can set goals to "climb up in international rankings" without defining the goals of the national education system. There is a well-known principle of Goodhart (Lucas, Campbell) since the 70s of the last century, which makes you be more careful about managed indicators so as not to turn management into a profanation:

Ratings are good for analysis as long as they are not the subject of reporting, as long as they are pure unmanaged indicators. However, even observation affects the results, as it draws attention to features that, without ratings, may be left out of the spotlight. Once I paid attention, I inevitably began to work with the identified aspect.

The result of education

It would seem that there is a definition of the concept of "quality of education" in the thesaurus of the law "On Education in the Russian Federation" (paragraph 29 of part 1 of article 2):

…complex characteristic educational activities and training of the student, expressing the degree of their compliance

federal state educational standards, educational standards, federal state requirements

and (or) the needs of an individual or legal entity in whose interests educational activities are carried out,

including the degree of achievement of the planned results of the educational program…

However, numerous studies and publications offer other interpretations of this phrase. For example, in one of the first articles issued by searching the web, Stankevich E. Yu. “On the issue of assessing the quality of education” (2013), on the very first page a whole range of options from different authors is offered.

The definition in the law is rather flawed, since the first part of it is determined by the function of the state educational organization. Failure to perform this function entails administrative consequences. The second part is organic for the sphere additional education, which satisfies the needs of legal entities and individuals. In addition, the definition in the law limits the assessment to the learner.

The definition is useful in the proposed context except for use in the body of the law itself, where it occurs eight times.

• The first problem for me is the interpretation of the word “education”, since there are many meanings in it, up to mutually exclusive ones - all of them are presented by me in a separate selection. The most conflicting meanings of “assessment of the quality of education” can be the contexts “assessment of the quality of the education system” and “assessment of the education of a student”. Moreover, in the first option there are many sub-options, since the system can be understood as different levels: from the whole system to a specific teacher. In addition, in practice the word "education" is often used as a synonym for the word "learning". Without clarification, it is impossible to understand the meanings of both phrases.
• The second problem I see is the angle of control: whose result and for whom? We are used to assessing quality from an administrative position, and today the controlling position of the trainee himself becomes relevant. Once educational service already declared in the law and frankly demanded by the new subjectivity of the modern student, it is worth taking into account his controlling functions, even if not everyone wants and is ready to use them. The point of interest can also be a parent or employer.
• The third problem seems to me to be the unequal nature of all possible combinations of the subject of assessment, so that it is so easy to manipulate polysemantic phrases for all occasions.

It is more useful to eliminate ambiguous language, despite its popularity, in favor of more precise and specific descriptions of the subject matter. Or use them exclusively in the context of the law in order to exclude other options as inadequate.

For me, education and training are not only not the same thing, but also fundamentally different concepts from the point of view of the subject of assessment:

• learning - the process of external influence (teacher to student) to form the promised competencies
• education - a personal process of mastering competencies, which can take place in the form of external training (by a teacher)

In teaching, the acting subject is the teacher, and in education, the student. At the same time, training is concrete, and education is abstract (it is not limited or measurable by anything and in no way).

Thus, in my terminology, it is impossible to evaluate the quality of education in principle - it is possible to evaluate some specific competencies acquired in the process of education.

And how they are acquired - by training, self-study, reflection or discovery - it does not matter.

What can be assessed?

"The results of the development of the main educational programs”, according to clause 3 of part 3 of article 11 of the law “On education in the Russian Federation”, must meet the requirements of modern Federal State Educational Standards. Of the requirements of personal, meta-subject and subject results described in the standard, only subject results are subject to evaluation. At the same time, specific “learning outcomes” for subjects are determined on the basis of the educational program of the organization, and not according to the Federal State Educational Standard. The fact of mentioning personal and meta-subject results in the standard forms the well-known discourse of building educational programs. And this is very good. But he states, in fact, the complexity and ambiguity of the task of evaluating these results, thus deducing them from our discussion of the problems of formal evaluation of results.

An important contemporary discourse is competency assessment. But even here everything is not simple. Many experts are skeptical about the diagnosis of competencies and argue about the definition of the concept. The close concept of competence causes confusion. By competence, I understand some professional qualities that allow a person to confidently perform tasks of a certain type. Possession of competencies means for me a full-fledged skill in the traditional Russian sense of the word. I don't see any possibility to test it without the risk of screwing up the trial task.

The ability to solve problems in terms of strength of materials is also a competence, but competence in calculating a bridge, for example, does not follow from it.

The competence-based approach promotes the field of education in setting goals for the system, but it also has drawbacks. In the article by Vladimir Nikitin, an important passage was voiced, which helped me understand what has always oppressed me in the competence-based approach: "The idea of ​​competencies is the idea of ​​fragmentation". Without the integrity of the system, fragments live on their own, without forming a holistically meaningful entity. Their beauty lies in the flexibility of identifying and adding new mosaic elements to the whole picture of education. Fashionable talk about “21st century skills” suffers from this fragmentation: they can be planned, cultivated, and even evaluated, but they do not add up by themselves. Only everyone will integrate them to the best of their ability. As it happened before: the teacher conducted and reported something within the framework of various campaigns, and the student built something of his own from these campaigns. And his real skill relies on his integrating abilities. How do we rate them? Can we? Is it necessary?

Since analysis is needed, I propose the following terminological base:

• Specific aspects of the process(according to specified criteria): conditions, organizational and methodological support, instrumental saturation and others.
• Quality of education as a reflection of the learning process can only be assessed on the basis of criteria that are formulated by the customer of the training. If they are not present, the assessment can be exclusively subjective and informal, based on satisfaction. Various members educational process will have different scores, depending on their conscious or unconscious learning goals and role in the learning process. With high probability, intuitively generalizing different stages from expectations and goals at the beginning to emotions at the end, based on the memory of changes in the process.
• Learning Outcomes as changes after graduation- acquired competencies, costs of organizing training, training effectiveness, new knowledge or aspects identified in the training process and worthy of consideration in the organization of the next training. Process satisfaction can be included as emotional result process. At different participants there may be different evaluation priorities.
• The result of education for a particular person- his picture of the world on this moment with self-positioning in it: connections, dependencies, ways of interaction, expectations, opportunities, desires, goals, plans for change.
• Results of the education system- state of science, culture, technology, labor market; values ​​and expectations of citizens, ways and nature of their interaction, attitude towards other people and countries of the world.
• The quality of education of a particular person (education)- the correspondence of his ideas about the world to the tasks that he solves or is going to solve.
• The quality of the education system- compliance of the education system with the needs of citizens, satisfaction of citizens with the conditions for obtaining education. For each level of the system, its own level of compliance should be assessed: from the tasks of teaching specific competencies to the needs of the whole society and the state, in particular science, culture, technology, and the labor market.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that these terminological clarifications go beyond the scope of formal terminology - this is a value-based different picture of evaluation, initially separating objects and subjects of evaluation, taking into account different interests. The traditional integrally unintelligible "assessment of the quality of education" subconsciously leads all assessments to the administrative field.

You can try to evaluate all of the listed parameters, but the most relevant, in my opinion, should be standardized competencies, or skills. They are the ones that are in demand. They are the ones that are verifiable. They can serve as a guide for everything else. For example, if they are obtained in the process of learning, then they are its result. Competence in solving a certain type of problem is traditionally determined by an exam. Whether an examination should be used to assess competencies is determined by the assessment requirements. This is just one of the options.

How to replace the final exam?

The current situation is characterized by a shift in emphasis from learning as a traditional production line to interested learning at the initiative of an active motivated student. Unfortunately, not all students are ready to play such a role, but it is these students who are the most passionate and effective for educational outcome countries. Therefore, such a model of learning should be considered as desirable and targeted. This means that the model of the old exam as an instrument of administrative control over a negligent student should be replaced by another, organic for an independent active student. But without prejudice to the negligent, of which there are still quite a few.

Since the learning outcomes are of interest to different participants in the educational process from different angles, they collectively form a public interest in an honest result - in contrast to the traditional exam. If we use the experience of organizing the USE to create a network of independent permanent assessment centers that could guarantee and honestly assess the level of standardized competencies in all existing areas of knowledge, then this will simultaneously remove all claims to the USE as a final exam (it will not be) and build a flexible contour of state control over the education system.

Competence assessment centers are interested in honesty - this is their main value in terms of business. Such centers make it unnecessary and meaningless to mark as an administrative tool in the school and in any other educational organization: only a certified center evaluates the level of knowledge in all areas and at all levels at any time at will. Such centers provide the right declared in the law to any form of organization of education, because everyone studies where and how he wants, and only the center confirms the results at any time: study at any rhythm, pace and direction.

The transfer of the assessment procedure to independent structures and the abolition of its binding to time leads to a radical change in the system of relations - it makes the student and the educational organization equal independent players.

Each person begins to build an assessment of his own competence and be responsible for it.

Educational organizations lose control over the planning of the training of a particular person and must interest him in interesting programs and quality education. Only the authority and benefit of an educational organization can attract and retain a student with such a scheme for evaluating results. The active learner will seek more effective ways learning. The passive student will choose the minimum expenditure of physical and mental effort. But any student himself is the initiator of testing, because he needs to present his results during all educational and personnel transitions. This result is its confirmed competence and at the same time it indirectly forms the generalized characteristics of the effectiveness of the education system.

To make such a scheme more productive, it is worth changing the traditional educational qualifications in the form of certificates and diplomas to flexible ones that develop as needed "", defining the learning space. Moving along them can form flexible personality profiles. Comparing them with competence profiles, people will be hired and studied, and development zones will be identified when designing a career. Naturally, in digital form - paper confirmations of the educational qualification are already outdated and are an amazing vestige of the paper era.

Conclusion

When discussing quality in education, it is necessary to move away from unproductive terms, to use clearer names for each of the aspects that are really being assessed. This will force a deeper understanding of the multiple roles of participants in the educational process and their goals.

First of all, it is necessary to limit the use of the word "education", which too broadly generalizes the variety of meanings it covers and prevents the discussion from focusing on its specific aspect.

It is important to realize the difference between the concepts of "education" and "training", which is much deeper than we used to think.

In the vast majority of modern references, "education" refers to "learning", which could have been acceptable once upon a time, but not now. In a professional environment, it would be worthwhile to consider it bad manners to use the word “education” in a broad sense, without clarification or in the presence of a more precise unambiguous term.

As much as we discuss the multiple meanings of learning outcomes, the real and most needed monitoring can only be done on the basis of specific criteria and reliable tests. They are needed by all participants in the educational process as a regulator of educational and labor relations. But not as a check of the part at the exit from the assembly line, but as a voluntary certification of a free person interested in learning or working. The old educational qualifications based on certificates and diplomas have exhausted themselves. The methods of their confirmation have also exhausted themselves. Reliable independent system of verification of acquired competencies, providing transparent access on the network to all legal and individuals, interested in building educational or labor relations, would become the core modern system education. Some participants in the process would fill it with subjects and assessment criteria, others would build training programs for them, others would build educational trajectories based on the map of educational opportunities.

You can talk about the quality of anything only when there are multiple goals, choices, criteria for achieving the goal and a reliable system for monitoring achievements. A wide choice and transparent control will remove the lion's share of the problems that we have been discussing for so long and rather unsuccessfully in the field of education.

The Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Olga Vasilyeva, in an interview with Izvestia correspondent Alexandra Krasnogorodskaya, spoke about the basic foundations of education, the transfer of schools to the regions and human values. The material was published on August 2 on the website of the Izvestia newspaper.

Passing the exam even under cameras is easier than 6-7 exams the old fashioned way, astronomy is returning to the course of the school curriculum, in the near future 55 thousand new ones will appear in Russia study places, and schools from municipal subordination are transferred to the regional. The Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Olga Vasilyeva spoke about this in an interview with Izvestia.

Olga Yuryevna, August 19 marks one year since your appointment as Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. What could you mark as achievements and, conversely, what could not be solved yet?

The year was very difficult and interesting. I managed to figure out what happened and understand where to move on. For example, the Federal State Educational Standards (FSES) of 2004 were very vague, they lacked the most important thing - the content of education. Therefore, the key task was to fill the standards with the basic foundations of education.

They differ from the previous ones in that they contain content. I want to note that on July 24, the ministry completed a two-week public discussion of draft new standards. We saw great interest from the expert community and an understanding of the need for change. Users could look for each subject, what basic content the child should know in each grade from the first to the ninth. More than 7 thousand people joined the discussion, almost all the feedback was positive, and we received almost 200 specific proposals. Now these proposals are being worked out in detail, after which the projects will be submitted for anti-corruption expertise. This is important for teachers, and for parents, and for the child himself.

If we create a unified educational space, then we must create a conceptual vision, standards, on the basis of which we write textbooks. 1423 textbooks on the federal list is an unthinkable number. There were many discussions about the historical and cultural standard, nevertheless, this year our children are going to study using textbooks written on the basis of the historical and cultural standard. I emphasize that we are talking about two or three lines of textbooks, among which there must be basic and advanced textbooks.

Here are the main tasks in school education who stood before me in the first year.

- Are there any tasks that you would like to solve, but have not yet succeeded?

Being an emotional person, I still try to soberly evaluate what I do. Of course, not everything works out. I have enough opponents, I always invite them to dialogue. If you think that something is bad, come and prove it, explain, together we will do better.

My main concern is Teacher Education, teacher training, otherwise we will not be able to solve all the problems. There will be no revolutions - I'm only for the evolutionary path. Everything new is well-forgotten old, but in new technological realities.

These are the issues of preparation of subject certification of teachers. We have a great idea that will be implemented very soon - a national teacher development system. First of all, we are talking about building a system for improving the quality of teaching and training the teaching staff.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the instruction to develop a system of teacher growth following a meeting of the State Council on improving the system of general education, held on December 23, 2015.

In particular, it is necessary to form a national system of teacher growth, which will determine the levels of professional competencies of teaching staff, confirmed by the results of certification. It is also expected to take into account the opinions of graduates educational organizations but not earlier than four years after their graduation from such organizations.

There are more tasks ahead than we managed to do.

Critical remarks have been addressed to you regarding the resubordination of schools to regions. Opponents say that in this case municipalities will not be motivated to raise additional funds for institutions.

We already have two regions that work according to this scheme - Moscow and the Samara Region. In this matter, the numbers speak for themselves.

For example, in Samara region The changes made it possible to reduce the share of expenses for the maintenance of educational authorities. From 8.2% to 3.1% of the industry budget. And such a remarkable indicator: over the past six years in the competition "Teacher of the Year of Russia" three winners and one absolute winner are representatives of the Samara region.

Moscow ranked sixth in the international ranking in 2016 educational systems PISA, which is considered the largest international study of the quality of education. This system assesses the literacy of schoolchildren at the age of 15 in reading, mathematics and science.

The advantage of regional subordination is that the content part is built more rigidly and clearly, and financial side becomes more transparent. I see many advantages of transferring schools to regions. When my opponents say that it will be bad, I invite to discussion.

- Can the program of consolidation of educational institutions be called successful?

Everything is individual. In Moscow, for example, consolidation in the overwhelming majority of cases is absolutely justified. This is the optimization of management, the number of managers from education has decreased by 3%, the salaries of teachers have risen, the quality of education has become higher. But we cannot do this in every region. In the Pskov region, for example, there is a school on an island with three students. There can be no talk of any enlargement there. The nearest school is too far away, we can't take the kids that far.

- Can I sum up the results of the exam this year? And what changes are planned to be introduced in the near future?

The results of the exam this year are better than last year. And this is the merit of Rosobrnadzor. For four years, the perception of the exam has changed, the realization has come that this is a state final certification, and not coaching for passing the test.

In that USE year 703 thousand people handed over, of which 617 thousand are graduates of 2017. Violations recorded one and a half times less than last year. It is especially gratifying for me that this year, almost twice as many children as compared to last year in all subjects have overcome the lower score. In the Russian language, the number of students who did not overcome minimum threshold, decreased - 2 times, in history - 2 times, in physics - 1.6 times, in literature - 1.5 times, in basic mathematics and geography - almost 1.5 times, in social science, computer science and English language- a quarter.

The tests remained only in the oral part of the foreign language exam. We are currently discussing in which regions next year we will introduce the oral part in the ninth grade in Russian as a pilot project. In two years, we plan to distribute this throughout the country, and the necessary recommendations have already been prepared.

Experts are sounding the alarm because, according to various estimates, 25-45% of our children have lost functional reading. The child reads the text and cannot retell the content. I fully agree that this is a big problem that needs to be addressed.

- What would you say to the opponents of the Unified State Examination, who note the incredible nervous tension in children during the exam?

People either forgot how many exams they took or they are younger than those who took 6-7 exams. I am sure that asking a country to pass six exams will be even more difficult.

- They say that it's hard to pass under the cameras ...

In order to stop throwing cigarette butts past the trash can in Singapore, there were cameras on the streets for ten years. We have had four years of a new format for passing the exam. I believe that we have made great strides.

Most importantly, the content is changing. The main thing is to change the attitude to the exam as to coaching. We teach children, they are not afraid, because they come to take exams on the studied material. This is how we were once taught. There was no wild fear. We returned the essay as admission to the exam. Russian oral will be a pass to the GIA in the ninth grade.

Many refer to the experience of past years, preparing for three exams causes fear, but how are we going to pass six exams? It is necessary not to engage in coaching, but to teach in such a way that the student can pass the exam. It's the same exam, just in a different form. But when we were in school, we didn't have that fear of exams.

- What is the difference between Soviet and Russian graduates of the school?

It is hard to imagine a Soviet graduate with such informational potential, surrounded by such a huge base of omnipotent gadgets.

Of course, the possibilities modern children graduate twenty years ago were not available. But those children were, in my opinion, more inquisitive, more interested, because they had to make more efforts to get an answer to their question. It was necessary to find a book, look, analyze. There was no such volume of ready-made essays and all kinds of answers.

I am completely for the "figure" in education, but I stand up primarily for the head. Everything has accelerated, but the head has remained and should remain with any instrumentation. The most important task of a teacher is to develop and instill a desire to learn.

Do local teachers understand this?

If a person believes in what he is doing, then he will definitely get a result, even if he does not have materials at hand, but there is a charge that he will convey to the child. If you are indifferent, you are not interested, you are a bad subject teacher, nothing will work out.

This year, teachers in 15 regions are ready to undergo subject certification - for knowledge of the subject. It will be the Russian language and mathematics. This is not "USE for teachers", by no means. The goal is to analyze the situation together with the regions and build a system of advanced training for those who need it. I believe that every teacher must improve their qualifications: subject or in another area, but every three years, in order to grow constantly. Then there will be a result.

Today, the regions are actively working on the creation of large educational centers, and their creation and work are reflected in the level of education of the entire subject. These are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm, Kirov, Tyumen, Leningrad and Moscow regions, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg. There results appraisal works, including international ones, are very high.

In addition, our students show high results and at the international level. We are talking about international Olympiads: in physics - five gold, in chemistry - 3 gold and 2 silver, in mathematics - gold, silver and bronze. This suggests that a lot has been done to support talented children. And I want to give more. It is necessary to remember about optional and circle work.

- What subjects are missing in the school curriculum?

Many experts state the redundancy of items. Talk about increasing or decreasing the burden on a child naturally evokes a reaction in society. But there is a subject that, in my opinion, should not cause much controversy and doubt - this is astronomy. From September 1, 2017, she triumphantly returns to the school curriculum with a course of 35 hours. It's a paradox: the country that was the first to fly into space does not have astronomy in its schools, but our young men have been taking first places in international astronomy Olympiads for several years in a row.

In addition, I am convinced that chess should be played at school. It's hard to argue with statistics. In our country and abroad, the performance of children who play chess at school is 35–40% higher. This intellectual game develops the child. The important thing is that the techniques are so good that a primary school teacher can quite easily learn to play chess himself and teach children. Children should play chess at school outside school hours for free. And also must be free sports sections, literary circles, music. It turns out a classic set of five directions. You can also talk about entrepreneurial skills.

Eat extracurricular activities- obligatory 10 hours to be used. The point is small - you need to want. Recommendations will be sent to the regions. By the way, 42 schools play chess in the Samara region. Tyumen region plays, the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug plays. Huge regions in which they play everywhere. Interest in chess in society is returning.

You are listing what formed the basis of Soviet education, which was lost in the 1990s along with the educational basis.

That's right, education is education and training. You can educate in the lessons of literature, history, extracurricular music classes. Valuable things are still carried by the humanitarian block, although the teacher of chemistry and physics will always bring them into the lesson - that's why he is a teacher. It is very important with what the child goes into life.

- To what extent does this correspond to the challenges of today - the new technological revolution?

I wholeheartedly support new technologies. But how does digital change human values? Love, mercy, compassion, pity, the ability to rejoice, laugh, love of work rarely directly correlate with the "figure", but are directly related to the school. It is there that one can talk about human values ​​if the family does not talk about them. The deep foundations are laid in the family, but the school has always helped and will help her in this. I am proud to say that in Russia there are more than 9.5 thousand free psychological and pedagogical centers for parents, where you can get advice from a psychologist, a teacher-psychologist. The number of such centers is growing and will continue to grow.

- Any teacher always has a stick and a carrot. What can be a whip at school?

My deepest conviction is that a whip is not needed with babies. A small person should not have chaos. There should be a change of activity and a clear idea of ​​what he is doing now, he will do in 10 minutes, in 15. To explain what is good and what is bad, we start from birth, so I don’t see hard whips here. And most importantly, love.

In adolescence, you need to explain, talk about situations that may be. This is a very difficult period in life. A teenager is like a crystal vessel.

- And in a corner to put on peas?

As a parent, I can say that peas are probably not our method. But there should be restrictions. What is possible and what is not, a small person should know from the very beginning. You have to constantly explain. Understanding doesn't come from nowhere.

Let's return from educational issues to urgent ones. Where is the problem of building schools particularly acute?

Problems in those regions where there is a third shift. This is Dagestan, Chechen Republic. This problem needs to be solved this very second - there should not be a third shift. The government allocates 25 billion rubles for the construction of new schools. And this year we will have 55,000 new places. 57 regions are participating in the program this year. We hope that this year will end as well as the last.

We were additionally allocated 3.8 billion from the reserve fund for schools in the regions North Caucasus. We hope that we will build additional schools under the program for the development of the North Caucasus. It is very important that schools have modern equipment and excellent laboratories. It will not be just buildings, not just chairs and tables. They build huge schools for 1.2-2.2 thousand people and very small rural schools.

How do you assess the level of education of modern university graduates? According to many experts, it is not so easy for them to find a job. Employers think they don't know anything.

Even 20 years ago young people were told that they did not know anything, it was just that the times were different. The level of preparation is not as bad as one would like to imagine. Of course, we will do our best to make it better. You need to change the legal framework so that the company or enterprise does not say that you need work experience to get hired. There are already developments that will enable the guys to start working. This includes support for the most talented, student innovative enterprises, and laboratories that already exist. Innovative enterprises that are created at universities can continue to work after students graduate. There are many forms of work within the NTI. We have a good experience that can be repeated in the new realities.

Why Russian schools are the best in the world, how final exams will change, and why it is necessary to raise the prestige of teachers - the Russian Minister of Education spoke about all this at a meeting with entrepreneurs in. wrote down the main points of her speech.

On the quality of education and conservatism

We are approaching to raise our education to a worthy level at which it has always been, is and will be. Russian, imperial, Soviet education has always been renowned for its quality. I cannot be convinced of this. Opponents say that today in Europe one of the the best formations provided by Finland. But few people know that in 1809, having joined the Russian Empire, the Finns have completely adopted the content and methodology of our education. After 1917, the technique remained with them, but was filled with new content.

I am accused of being conservative. But education should be based on all available experience. For the formation of engineers, bankers, industrialists, a foundation is needed - it will be provided by literature, history, languages. And then everything else builds on it. It is impossible to raise a good engineer without a humanitarian component. It is difficult for a person who does not know his roots, his foundations to work.

About education and personal example

If we talk about the history of pedagogy, in addition to teaching, the educational function has always been in the first place in our schools. As a small person meets adulthood, what he will be ready for, what he will have in his heart, in his head - this is how he will go through life. This is the fundamental point.

Our anti-corruption education begins from an early age. There is not a single teacher in kindergarten or school who would tell a child: "Take someone else's." Samples of our literature also speak of morality. But it is important for a small person that if we said “black”, it should actually be black. And if a child sees something else in real life, there will be no sense. You need to set an example. If they said "no" - then they themselves should not do so.

On the prestige of teachers

Our main task is to return the highest social role teacher, its importance. If we change the content of education, then we must first of all help the teacher vocational training, should free him from a huge number of papers that duplicate all kinds of sites. As for the latter, there has already been a discussion about this, instructions have been given to the regions. The point is small: check how they are performed.

The prestige of the profession has fallen not only school teacher but also university professors. I have experienced this personally. I was at a meeting of historians who are in their early 30s. They asked questions. One candidate of sciences asked: “Olga Yuryevna, why does a professor, even a famous one, who enters the audience of students twice a month, receive as a teacher who works every day?” “But this is a professor who the whole world knows,” I answer. "He devoted his life to the service of science." The young scientist continues: “Why do we need to spend extra money? It could be saved. There is material in books, students can find everything on the Internet.” Recently, one can often hear talk about old teachers: “Their lectures are outdated long ago. I can read everything." Maybe you will read it. But after all, the school of generations that this scientist carries in himself, what he gives along with his life experience, can't be found anywhere else. I then answered a young colleague: “This will never happen, because everything depends on the individual.”

About what to teach

The first problem of schools is our Federal State Educational Standards (Federal State Educational Standards - approx. "Tapes.ru"). Today they affect students from the first to the sixth grade, but are weak in content. That is, we do not know what the child should know and be able to do in each of the subjects at the end of each class. Therefore, the first task that faces today and is being implemented now is to fill the standards.

There is another problem - textbooks. There are 1276 of them on the federal list today. You can go from school to school, sit at a desk in the seventh grade and not understand anything, because school programs often do not resemble each other. Therefore, lists of textbooks should be based on the concept of the subject. They must be prepared in all school disciplines by the end of 2017.

About the ability to speak

Today in the exam for ninth graders in the Russian language (GIA - approx. "Tapes.ru") the only innovation we introduce is oral part. I believe that the fears that because of this the child or the teacher will have an increased workload are completely unfounded. Today we state that our children speak very little. Most often, the lesson takes place in the form of a teacher's monologue. Our children are wonderful, but we need to develop functional reading through understanding. The child reads the paragraph and then briefly retells what it is about. Now they cannot do this, because this skill must be instilled from kindergarten. Remember how you used to deal with the kids literary work: they read it, listened to it, retold it. And now they do not speak in schools, and in institutes. They justify it by the fact that dialogues and monologues are irrelevant for a modern person - now, after all, the Internet. But it's not. Reading is the development of the intellect and further activities. Nothing is impossible if you don't work on yourself.

About coaching for the exam

This year, we have the test part of the exam only in foreign language. Of the innovations - however, it can rather be called a return to the old - verification work at graduates. They will go during the week on those subjects in which the exam is not given up. It is important for me to go back to the time when everyone school subject was loved, everyone was important. Coaching for the exam should be excluded. If we devote the last three years of school to training children for the Unified State Examination to the detriment of everything else, we will get a rather curtailed result. The President set the task: in our country, every child should have basic course knowledge in all subjects. And only then deepen this knowledge in those areas where he achieves results, whether it be engineering, the humanities or natural sciences.

In system higher education today there are three key issues: accessibility, practicality and quality. In terms of availability, there will be an unprecedented number of budget places this year. For every 100 graduates of grade 11, there are 57 places. Of these, 46 percent were given engineering specialties. We have increased enrollment in teacher training universities by nine percent and in medical schools by eight percent. We need doctors in countryside. And here is an important point on which I really want to be heard: interaction with business. From this year we are launching target reception students in all universities under a tripartite agreement between the student, the university and the enterprise, or municipal institution. The institution that sends the student must support him socially: pay increased scholarship solve problems with housing. And then the graduate must work at this enterprise for at least three years. It's not a direct return of the mandatory allocation - it's the target set that was also in Soviet time. We'll just use it more actively now.