Competency approach at NUS: creativity, practical skills, lifelong learning
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The rapid development of information technologies has changed the approach to education: the accumulation of knowledge, which may become irrelevant in a few years, has lost its meaning. It is much more important to develop in students the ability to learn throughout life, effective team interaction, critical thinking and the ability to solve problems that do not have ready answers. A competent approach to learning according to the standard of NUSH basic school is focused on the formation of such skills in students. Development of student competencies The idea of competency education was formed in the USA in the middle of the last century. Nowadays, the competent approach is used at all levels of education, starting with preschool. In Ukraine, this educational approach is being implemented thanks to the reform of the National Academy of Sciences. Unlike other subject teachers of the basic school, the English teacher and class teacher of the 5th grade of the Globin Lyceum No. 1 Lyudmila Mishchenko had the opportunity to observe the dynamics of the development of students from the first year of the reform. “Whether 5th graders are ready to work as required by NUSH programs depends on the initial level of education. This school year, I teach in two 5th grades according to the NUSH program, and I see a different picture. In one class, children already know how to study, engage in research information, to prepare project works. The group of children has not changed since the 1st grade, students and parents are familiar with NUSH. In another class, students from different schools, who had different experiences in elementary school, therefore, organizing work and obtaining results require effort.” Competence training involves a harmonious combination of knowledge, abilities and skills. It is important to explain to students and parents: knowledge is not an end in itself for a good grade, but a tool for forming practical skills. Therefore, each lesson should be related to real-life situations and involve the practical application of acquired knowledge. “I use textbooks and printed notebooks, supplement the lessons with additional information, prepare handouts, cards with tasks and questions for them in accordance with the needs of the class. Studying the topic “Outdoor recreation” with fifth-graders, we were going on a trip, making a list of necessary things , organized the battle “Safety rules for travelers” (“Safety rules for travelers” – author). Students invented tips for travelers, based on their own life experience. They did not sit at desks – they interacted with others standing in a circle, worked in pairs and in team”, – Lyudmila Mishchenko shares the practical aspects of applying the competence approach. The teacher forms homework so that children do not look for ready-made answers on the Internet, but work independently. In addition, according to the NUS standard, each topic involves the protection of the project: this helps children to reveal their creative potential. “When we studied the past tense, we created the project “One day in the life”. It was necessary to describe our day or the day of a fictional character. The children used various creative methods of project presentation: some prepared presentations, others made mini-books, posters, and brought toys. Yes, for the project from the English language, one should be competent in IT, visual arts, design, and have acting skills,” the teacher summarizes. A competent approach forms character qualities in schoolchildren that will help them become successful. According to Lyudmila Mishchenko, this is best manifested in everyday situations. “The other day, we went on an excursion to a local volunteer who, in addition to the help of the Armed Forces, is engaged in growing flowers. After learning where we were going, the children not only independently prepared questions about plants, but also decided to prepare gifts, drawings, charms for the defenders. During the excursion a volunteer offered to record a video for the soldiers. The students immediately organized themselves, made a plan of who would say what, in what sequence. They shot it the first time.” Lifelong learning Modern career guidance trends are consistent with the competence of NUSH – lifelong learning, says psychologist Iryna Rostovikova, a specialist in career guidance at the BF “Pravo na sakhtsyt”. “Changes are happening very quickly nowadays, so the most important thing is to teach students to learn and relearn – then in adulthood they will be effective for longer. Sometimes the professional development of adults is hampered by the reluctance to discard a layer of mental habits and the attitude: “I know everything”, “We have done this all our life” . One must be able to abandon the ballast of knowledge that does not work in new conditions and learn new things. For modern employers, in addition to the candidate’s professional skills, developed communication skills, an active life position, the ability to analyze information, work in a team, and effectively resolve conflicts are very important ” In the conditions of a pandemic and war, when learning often takes place in distance or mixed formats, it is important to create conditions in which schoolchildren can develop social and communicative competences. “If there is an opportunity, it is worth gathering students at school together for a joint project, attend interest groups where children interact with each other, use available options for social activity,” advises Iryna Rostovikova. School education during the war: observations of parents Despite the challenges of implementing the NUS reform in the basic school during the war, teachers find ways to develop students’ competencies. So, according to the parents, in the capital school No. 8, children had equal conditions in elementary school: there were no selection or entrance exams until the first grade of NUS. But after the fourth grade, students were offered to choose a specialized class: mathematical, philological, with in-depth study of foreign languages or natural sciences. For children, this was the first step towards career guidance and choosing a life path. In the specialized school No. 14 in Kyiv, fifth-graders are involved in sports orientation outside the walls of the school during geography lessons. In the lessons of history and literature, they are taught to create a timeline based on historical events or biographies of writers. Parents are impressed by the fact that their eleven-year-olds write creative works: teachers encourage them to express any opinion and argue for it. Tips for teachers The success of the NUS reform in secondary school depends on the ability of teachers to conduct a problem dialogue with students, organize their interaction in the classroom, carry out formative assessment and understand the competence possibilities of their subject. How teachers can use the State Standard of Basic Secondary Education in order to realize the potential of their educational field, explains Iryna Staragina, an expert of the Reform Support Team. “It is desirable to pay special attention to skills that are correlated with a certain key competence and that can support the field. For example, within the linguistic and literary educational field, it is possible to support a mathematical key competence in such a skill as “transforming information from one form to another (text, graph , table, diagram) to solve communicative tasks”. Next, it is important to find the appropriate expected learning outcomes that correlate with this skill. This can be done by referring to a model curriculum or by reviewing a textbook.” To teach schoolchildren to notice the interrelationships of various events and phenomena, to possess a wide range of methods of solving educational tasks, to develop the habit of improving, to learn new things, to form in schoolchildren a holistic view of the world and to develop systemic thinking – important skills that will help schoolchildren to realize themselves professionally regardless of choosing a future profession. Author Natalka Shamanova This material was created as part of the “Learning Together” Project with the financial support of the European Union and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. The content of the publication is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.
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