How to teach mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography and information technologies to modern schoolchildren? These are the questions that puzzled the participants of the recent national conference “Modern methodology of teaching natural sciences. Problems and solutions.”
It is symbolic that the forum, which brought together the leading teachers of mathematics, physics, computer science, chemistry, biology and geography fr om all regions of the country, began with a visit to a solar furnace of the Institute of Material Sciences in Parkent district, Tashkent region, and the Bоtanical Garden of the Institute of the Gene Pool of Flora and Fauna. The scholarly meetings have once again demonstrated the important role played by the exact and natural disciplines in dealing with science-intensive tasks. Participants had a unique opportunity to enrich their teaching material with fresh facts fr om science and technology development in Uzbekistan.
“I had heard a lot about the uniqueness of the solar furnace and for the first time I saw it with my own eyes, along with new materials obtained with its help. It is one thing to explain the material based on the books, and it is quite another to do it inspired by what you saw,” says Anora Mahmudova, headmaster of the school №5 in Gurlan district of Khorezm region. “We also visited the Bоtanical Garden in Tashkent, wh ere we had an opportunity to be inspired by nature and enrich our knowledge by communicating with bоtanists and zoologists.”
“The entire school system to date is planning to move to competency-based opportunities wh ere the priority is given not to theoretical knowledge, but to developing practical skills of teaching the subject,” says the chief specialist of the Republican Education Center, Narzikul Turdiyev. “In order to put these regulations into practice, it is important that teachers be well-versed in theory as much as in practice. Our forum helps them to supplement their educational syllabi and content with specific examples of the application of theory into practice.”
On the second day the theme of the forum expanded considerably. Along with the issues of the competent approach the issues of introduction into the educational process of information and communication technologies will be discussed in detail.
The introduction of modern information-communication technologies into all spheres of life has radically changed our routine way of life: pedagogical technologies have not been left aside.
“Internet and such other net technologies have opened up access for children to a huge stream of modern educational resources, which enable them to get engaged in self-education,” says Lyudmila Ten, methodologist at the Republican Center of Education. “The schools too do not get behind modern tendencies. A large-scale work has been conducted in recent years on fitting them out with modern equipment, to be more specific, with overhead projectors, computers and electronic boards. The Republican Center of Development of general educational multi-media programs has been continuing to elaborate national multi-media resources, which, as soon as they become available, are distributed among schools. At the same time, there is an urgent task facing us today on the efficient application of all these novelties in the training process. We are considering the ways of their solution at this conference.”
The specialists, participants of the conference are united in their opinion that the solution of pressing issues requires the improvement of the teachers’ professional skills and competencies. Today the profession of a teacher demands a creative approach to this work.
The experts have paid special attention to introduction of advanced technologies for identifying the “gaps” in the knowledge of students and the ways for their elimination. According to the opinion of the majority, modern “video lessons”, lodged at the sites of the Ministry of Public Education, could really help in this. These include also educational video films, virtual laboratory works and all kinds of exercise machines and simulator equipment, which are aimed at the solutions of practical tasks. These technical aids are convenient in that the children could easily use them for independent work at home.
The experience of innovator teachers will be thoroughly studied within the framework of the conference. They pay great attention to creation of their own software programs in the process of preparation for their lessons and also make a wide use of the Internet materials. Representatives of the Ministry of Public Education note that the number of such teachers keeps growing up on a continuous basis and the current conference could become a good foundation for this process.
