10 Ukrainian universities of pedagogy are already training and 6 more will train English language teachers according to the new program "Methodology of teaching English" - classes are conducted exclusively in English, and the training time is balanced between theory and practice.
The program was developed within the framework of the joint project of the Ministry of Education and Culture and the British Council in Ukraine "School teacher of the new generation", the first results of the piloting of the program were discussed today, October 12, 2017, at the Ministry of Education and Culture.
"In just one year of piloting the program, we were able to increase the share of students who were really interested in teaching - according to our monitoring, the number of those willing to work as teachers among our students increased from 37% to almost 47%. As part of the feedback, students wrote to us that the program destroyed their stereotypes about "difficult and uninteresting theory", that for the first time they got "full opportunities to see how the methods and techniques being studied work in real life", - said Olena Zmievska , teacher of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the VDPU named after Mykhailo Kotsyubinsky.
The Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine noted at the meeting that this project should become a system-forming one for the further development of both the education of English language teachers and pedagogical education in general.
"We are grateful to our partners and friends of Ukraine - the British Council - for the systematic support of education in our country. Indeed, there will be no New Ukrainian School without a new teacher. And it is extremely unfortunate for me that, despite the European experience, where it was pedagogical universities that became the driver of education reform, our universities often remain closed to the new and are not ready to change. And these universities that have entered into the project, that have enough capacity to carry out the implementation of its complex conditions, know that you are the leaders of change today. I believe that you should definitely join the finalization of the concept of new pedagogical education, and the approach "teaching methodology is no less important than knowledge of theory" should become the cornerstone of modern teacher training. It is impossible to train a future teacher if the university allocates only 4% of time to training methods, and this is exactly the situation in most Ukrainian universities today," Liliya Hrynevych emphasized.
Pedagogical practice until now was conducted only in the eighth semester and lasted six weeks.
According to the developed program, 510 hours of study time are allocated for the practical training of teachers. At the bachelor's degree, starting from the 3rd-4th semester, future teachers attend the so-called practice of guided observation, where they observe the use of methods by the teacher once every 2 weeks and have the opportunity to receive advice from practicing teachers within the framework of the real educational process. During the 5th-7th semester, students undergo practice as "Teacher's Assistants" - they help in the development of a lesson, participate in its management, and advise students one day a week. The so-called production teaching practice will take place in the 8th semester and will last 6 weeks - during this time, students will have the opportunity to work as teachers, while receiving support and advice from teachers if they need it.
"Students of pedagogical universities today mostly concentrate on memorizing, for example, words from the Old English language, and practical classes do not exceed 5 % even at the master's level. It is not surprising that when they come to school, they actually have to master the profession themselves. Another problem is language practice in communication. According to our program, students study entirely in English - this gives a live practice of communication, which is very important for learning a foreign language," added Nataliya Tuchyna, professor of the Department of English Philology, who participated in the development of the program.
For reference: The project "School teacher of the new generation" started in March 2013. The working group of the project conducted a pre-project study and developed a Program on English language teaching methods. In September 2016, an experiment on the implementation of a new methodology program began in 10 pedagogical universities of Ukraine, which was approved by the order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine No. 871 dated August 12, 2015. 51 university teachers, 470 students, 46 schools and 188 teachers-mentors took part in it. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, the British Council in Ukraine held special summer and winter schools for university teachers who participated in the project, as well as mentor teachers - so that they could also improve their professional skills. It is planned that 6 more universities will join the experiment in the new academic year.
We remind you that trainers from the British Council and "Cambridge English" trained 200 English teachers participating in the "New Ukrainian School" pilot project.
