With the start of the school year, BELTA its director Olga Dragun, in cooperation with the University of Pskov, the first “Kikoinsky class” will be opened in the Vitebsk region. And the educational institution got its name from the memory of prominent Russian academician, nuclear physicist Isaak Kikoin, who spent his childhood in Pskov.
The initiators of the project stressed that the new teaching method will be based on interdisciplinary programs, mainly in natural sciences and mathematics. During the presentation of the project in the Polotsk gymnasium, it was explained that children can do scientific research earlier, acquire skills in programming, 3D modeling, which will be useful for them in the future, regardless of the chosen direction, be it mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology or geography. And in the time remaining before the academic year, Russian colleagues, together with Belarusian gymnasium staff, will prepare programs designed for students in grades 6-7.
Commenting on the idea behind the pedagogical concept, Dragoon pointed out that it fits well into the local education model. “It will be a kind of pre-training, which will allow students to determine earlier the disciplines that appeal to them the most and, in the eighth year of studies, to choose subjects to study at an advanced level.”
Classes will take place twice a week outside of the main classes and will be taught by both gymnasium professors and Pskov State University professors, mostly remotely.
There will be no particular restrictions for those who wish to study in a specialized class, the gymnasium specifies. The parents of the future sixth-graders have already been informed of the opportunities the children will have to participate in this project and, according to a preliminary survey, they have all accepted such an educational experience.
As for the choice of the gymnasium, which was made by the teachers of the Russian university, it, the agency notes, is due not only to the geographical proximity of the partners, but also to the basis of cooperation formed in the “school – university system”.
The gymnasium already has experience of cooperation with the local university, which will also participate in this project. It is committed, in particular, to providing a base for the classes and qualified teachers to lead the courses. And another ally of the educational institution will be the district center for children and young people.
Colleagues from Pskov State University have made it clear that if the Polotsk gymnasium experiment gives good results, they are ready to apply it to other Belarusian schools.
By the way, the prominent Russian experimental scientist Kikoin, during the celebration of the 80th anniversary of his school in Pskov, argued that “the stars of the country’s heroes, the diplomas of academicians, doctors, the ranks of highly qualified specialists in any profession – all this is stored in a school bag, in manuals, in the light spirit and good heart of mentors.”
Read the Latest Science and Technology News Today on The Eastern Herald.
