Characteristics of the Finnish education system: impact on social life

In this article, the authors highlight the achievements of the Finnish education system, the most successful at the moment, in all countries of the world. The practical significance of the research for the institutions responsible for education in the Republic of Moldova and Israel, about the activity the authors are informed, is significant. In both states we have fundamental problems with reforming the education system, developing and implementing new curricula. The authors emerge from the thesis about applying the principle of learning continuity, complete assimilation of information about the researched fields. Initially, this principle was realized in Finland. In conclusion, the authors mention: the country with a high level of economic development, with an economy open to inclusion, is distinguished by a level of education, a higher technological level. In such a country, the population benefits from advanced infrastructures, a diversity of quality services, long life, and a low birth rate.

History curricula in high schools, after reform in 1932, published in „Wiadomości Historyczno-Dydaktyczne”(1933-1939)

History curricula in high schools, after reform in 1932, published in „Wiadomości Historyczno-Dydaktyczne”(1933-1939) In interwar period Polish government concentrate first of all on organizing again state structures, what impacted situation of common education. New acts and ministerial decrees that regulated each level of education were published. It was also a time of preparation and deployment of new curricula. This article focuses on analysis of texts concernig introduction of new program of teaching history in high schools from journal „Wiadomości Historyczno-Dydaktyczne” published by Polish Historical Society (Polskie Towarzystwa Historyczne) for history teaching. The number of articles is not large due to late introduction of the program in schools - it’s in 1937. Article concludes, that authors of given texts concentrated mainly on three issues, concerning: schedule of the program, provided content and also changes, that should be made within curricula for middle, as well as, for high schools. Keywords: curricula, history, high school, interwar period

Collaborative Online Learning: Plurilingual and Pluricultural Development

Background. The growing importance of international cooperation among universities have increased the number of joint training projects. Common Bologna principles followed by Russian and Spanish tertiary institutions helped perform a pilot study focused on telecollaboration and plurilingual and pluricultural competence implementation. The project aimed at forming plurilingual and pluricultural competence and communicative competence among students studying either English or Spanish or both through the integration of digital technologies into the learning process.Methods. This 7-month study took place in Moscow (Russian Federation) and Valencia (Spain) from November 2019 to June 2020. Participants were university students aged 20–23 from Teaching Training Faculties from Lomonosov Moscow State University and CEU Cardenal Herrera University. The undergraduates who volunteered to participate in the focus group took part in five telecollaboration sessions (March-May 2020). The participants were divided into two mixed (50% Russian and 50% Spanish learners) subgroups and discussed suggested topics during online studentled bilingual sessions. After each online interaction, researchers collected their opinions through questionnaires and discussion with a lecturer.Outcomes. All participants announced that the study gave them a chance to improve their language abilities, update their vocabulary and enhance their intercultural experience. None of the partakers reported having experienced any difficulty doing the project and only regretted that interaction time was too short. Additionally, lecturers were able to test new curricula implementation and assessment procedures.Conclusions. The pilot study was feasible to deliver and there was a clear, satisfactory result with the focus groups participants and teaching staff.

Toward a Relevant De-colonized Curriculum in South Africa: Suggestions for a Way Forward

The debate on the de-colonization of universities in South African gained momentum after protests by students through the #FeesMustFall (FMF) and #RhodesMustFall (RMF) movements. At the center of these protests were issues like free access to education, accommodation, removal of apartheid and colonial statues, and the Africanization of the curriculum. Thus, revisiting and reimagining curricula offerings is an important aspect of the current debate on the de-colonization of education at South Africa’s educational sites. To add to the de-colonization debate, this article discusses the concept of relevance in (re)curriculation. The article will discuss the concepts of de-colonization and relevance, readiness in the implementation of new curricula offerings, challenges, and hurdles in curriculum change and important points of reference in achieving a de-colonized curriculum. Literature review and document analysis will be used to shed more light on this topic.

Psychological and Pedagogical Components of the Readiness of Children with Hearing Impairments to Learn in the Context of Updated Content of Education

Introduction. А new model of education introduced in general education schools of the Republic of Kazakhstan, is characterized by a criterion system for assessing the student’s knowledge (involving the student, his self-esteem), stimulating the student’s activity in obtaining knowledge and communication skills. These processes can be challenging for children with hearing impairment. The issue of the psychological and pedagogical readiness of students with hearing impairments to switch to new curricula is examined in this study using the example of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Materials and Methods. Pursuant to the objectives of the study, the sample of children with hearing impairments, was formed without exclusion of children with concomitant impairments similar to the structure of this group present in overall population. In the general sample, which includes 138 children and adolescents 10–15 years old who were divided into four experimental and four control groups in accordance with their educational level, the emotional-volitional, intellectual and cognitive characteristics of deaf and hard-of-hearing children and their success in performing tasks in classic and updated programs were studied. Results.In the children with hearing impairments, visual attention, hearing and speech memory, and conceptual thinking were reduced. The volitional regulation of complex actions and visual memory corresponded to the age norm. Children with hearing impairments performed the educational tasks less well, whereby they performed the tasks of the updated programs significantly more efficiently in comparison to classical tasks. Conclusions are drawn about the effectiveness of the updated educational programs for teaching this group of children. Discussion and Conclusion. Our psychological and pedagogical study of this problem reveals that children with hearing impairments perform better at some tasks compiled in accordance with updated educational programs, indicating their effectiveness for this category of students. At the same time, a decrease in the number of cognitive processes of students in correctional schools with hearing impairments compared to their peers is also shown, namely in visual attention, auditory-speech memory, and thinking with the development of volitional processes corresponding to age. It is necessary to take into account the level of development of these processes in the formation and implementation of training programs.

Not wanted on the voyage: highlighting intrinsic CanMEDS gaps in Competence by Design curricula

Background: As governing bodies design new curricula that seek to further incorporate principles of competency-based medical education within time-based models of training, questions have been raised regarding the continued centrality of existing CanMEDS competencies. Although efforts have been made to align these new curricula with CanMEDS, we don’t yet know to what extent these competencies are meaningfully integrated. Methods: A content analysis approach was used to systematically evaluate national Canadian curricula for 18 residency-training programs and determine the number of times each enabling CanMEDS competency was represented. Results: Clear trends persisted across all programs. Medical Expert and Collaborator competencies were well integrated into curriculum (81% and 86% mapped to assessment) while competencies related to the Leader, Professional, and Health Advocate roles were less frequently mapped to assessment (41%, 36%, and 40%) and were often absent from the new curricula altogether (59%, 64%, and 60%). Conclusion: Deliberate planning in curriculum development affords the early identification of gaps. These gaps can inform current assessment practice and future curricular development by providing direction for innovation. If we are to ensure that any new curricula meaningfully address all CanMEDS roles, we need to think carefully about how to best teach and assess underrepresented competencies.

INTEGRATION AND CLUSTER RELATIONS IN LITERARY EDUCATION

This article analyzes the integration and cluster relations in literary education. In particular, the concept, forms and functions of the non-traditional course in literary education, the features of the integrated course of non-traditional literature, the integration of the course of literature with the sciences and such areas as the native language, history, and art are studied. The article defines the concept of "cluster of literary education" and lists the integrated forms of literary education. Literary education is now going through a difficult period. The content and form of education are changing, and new approaches are being introduced that reflect the content of literary education in new curricula. New approaches to learning have a tradition of putting the student at the center of the learning process and creating all the conditions for him or her to receive a quality education. This is directly related to the process of literary education as a person-centered approach to education. More and more attention is paid to the humanistic principle of literary education, the revival of national values in the context of universal culture. The purpose of literature lessons is to teach the student to pay attention to the content of the training, to instill in him a love for the literary word. This helps the student to feel the unity of the world and the person. An integrated approach to literary education and its cluster coordination can greatly help in solving these problems.

The Revolutionary Media Education Decade: From the UNESCO to the ALFAMED Curriculum for Teacher Training

Nations across the globe are immersed in a technological revolution—intensified by the need to respond to COVID-19 issues. In order to be critical and responsible citizens in the current media ecosystem, it is important that students acquire and develop certain skills when consuming and producing information for and when communicating through the media. This is a major challenge that educational systems worldwide have to face. Hence, new curricula in media education to guide future teachers towards the successful acquisition of new media skills have been proposed. The aims of this work are to conduct a theoretical approach to this worldwide technological and media evolution in the past decade, to make an in-depth comparison between the Curriculum for teachers on media and information literacy published by the UNESCO (2011) and the publication of the new AlfaMed Curriculum for the training of teachers in media education (2021). This framework starts by providing an extensive analysis of the key elements of both curricula and of their corresponding modules, establishing, thus, a constructive comparison while updating them, according to the needs, changes, and realities that have taken place regarding digital literacy in the past decade. Finally, the chapter concludes with the detailing of the challenges and with proposals for teacher training in media and information literacy.

CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF POSITIVESELF AND NEGATIVE-OTHER REPRESENTATIONS THROUGH ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

The present research is a critical discourse analysis of the contents related to positive-self representation and negative-other representation projected through Punjab Textbook Board’s (PTB) School English textbooks which are taught in government and non-elite English medium schools at the secondary level (Grades 9 & 10). The present research aims at finding out the ideologies of positive-self representation and negative-other representation in the discourses of PTB School English textbooks. It employs Van Dijk’s (2005) analytical framework of critical discourse analysis to explore the ideologies of positive-self representation and negative-other representation in the discourses of School English textbooks. The findings show that PTB School English Textbooks are replete with the ideologies of positive-self representation and negative-other representation. The said textbooks are more religious, nationalistic, anti-Israel, anti-Hindus, and anti-Christians. The findings of the study can be useful in a number of ways. They can be useful in developing new curricula and teaching materials including textbooks with less nationalistic, religious and cultural biases. They can be helpful for policy makers and textbook authors to realize the politics of language textbooks to establish a symmetrical educational system.