Six bold private projects that are changing the approach to education around the world

The question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is asked very often in lessons. Moreover, they try to entice a child into one profession or another even during preschool preparation. This idea should not be underestimated. A baby who absorbs everything that surrounds him like a sponge begins to be interested not only in objects, but also in the actions of adults. This is how his idea of ​​himself and his future role in society is gradually formed.

Recently, an incomprehensible but interesting area of ​​business has occupied a special place in the imagination of children.

The guys, who already understand that money is a kind of “language” of people, plan to earn good money in the future. And at the same time work exclusively for yourself. This desire for financial and psychological independence is quite understandable.

How to prepare students for the future?

However, teenagers, as a rule, have a vague idea of ​​how a business project is developed and implemented. In this case, it is important for both the teacher and the parent to explain to the student that entrepreneurship requires serious emotional and material investments from a person. The key to future success is organization, the ability to correctly allocate resources and, of course, knowledge.

Each child initially has unique potential. The fundamental goal of the school and the education system as a whole is to provide opportunities for self-realization of the little person. The correct approach to identifying a student’s abilities will produce not only an intelligent member of society, but also a talented specialist who is sincerely involved in his or her professional field. Design and research activities will help achieve this noble goal.

Educational complex "Point of the Future"

Opened in September 2021 in Irkutsk.
Goal: to socialize orphans, to teach all students to manage their lives responsibly.

Social adaptation of orphans is a problem that has been discussed for many years. As a rule, orphans leave traditional schools without independent living skills. This is not surprising: over the years of education, children do not gain experience making their own decisions; they are required to do something completely different - to obey and follow instructions. It is this approach that the founders of the Future Point project want to change.

The uniqueness of the center is not only in its unusual infrastructure, although one complex combines a state-of-the-art school, a kindergarten, sports facilities, a Center for Social and Psychological Support, as well as a cottage community for foster families - 27 buildings in total. The main feature is in relation to students: in “Future Point” the emphasis is placed on the subjectivity of each student.

Unlike a passive “object” of learning, as in regular schools, children in ]learn to make their own decisions[/anchor] and take responsibility for them. Starting from the elementary grades, and the further - the more, students are given a choice: what subjects and extracurricular activities they will fill their individual curriculum with, what projects they will implement, how they will manage their time for self-preparation. It is important that children are not left alone with this choice. They are supported by curators and tutors: the former are a kind of managers, the latter are mentors who guide, help to live through difficult situations, analyze and comprehend experience. But this is precisely help and support; the final decisions are still up to the child.

Another difference between Point of the Future is the composition of the students. Research shows that the socialization of orphans is most successful when 15% of adopted children and 85% of children from originally intact families study together. This is exactly the proportion that is observed when recruiting students to the Future Point. To date, 19 foster families are participating in the project, each of which was provided with a house with furniture and appliances in close proximity to the educational complex.

One of the conditions for foster families to get into the Future Point is a willingness to become professional foster parents who regularly take children from orphanages. As for children from originally intact families, they get to the “Future Point” in order of priority: those who first submitted an application on the site are accepted, regardless of the child’s abilities or academic performance. Training is free.

Starting next year, priority for enrollment will be given to children from the same family - this decision was made by the founder of Points of the Future, the New Home Foundation. This is fully consistent with the values ​​of the project: family is at the center of the concept.

“Moscow through the eyes of an engineer” (winner of KIVO-2015)

Excursions, lectures and children's master classes about architectural monuments, how the city works from an engineer's point of view. Children learn design work skills and an engineering way of thinking. Since 2014, the project has been at the top of the TripAdvisor rating among entertainment companies in Moscow. Project author Airat Bagautdinov advises future KIvo participants not to focus on trying to win, but to make the most of the competition environment to find a partner or investor.

International School "Letovo"

Opened in 2021 in the Moscow region.

Goal: to provide gifted children from all over Russia with a world-class education and unlock their potential.

A boarding school for capable and motivated children opened two years ago in New Moscow. The creators studied the experience of twenty of the best schools in the world and took all the good things from there: for example, from the British experience - the boarding system (this makes it easier to form a team spirit, and there is no need to waste time on the road), and from the American experience - a huge selection of clubs, sections, student clubs and other non-academic activities.

The school campus is a complex of educational and residential buildings on an area of ​​60 hectares: a campus for students, houses for teachers and their families, gyms and laboratories, a library and a swimming pool, a pine grove and even its own orchard. Teachers are selected no less carefully than students: children here are taught by the authors of books, programs, courses, and mentors of winners of subject Olympiads.

The school does not have a uniform schedule and classes: students create their own curriculum depending on their educational goals and where they plan to go after school. The first half of the day is occupied by compulsory subjects (their composition depends on the profile chosen by the child), the second by non-academic courses, which the student completely chooses himself.

Education at the school is bilingual, and each graduate can receive not only a Russian certificate, but also an international diploma.

Tuition is paid, but most of it is covered by funds that the school raises itself - scholarships are formed from charitable donations. The school also has an endowment - an endowment fund. The money from there goes to the development of the entire project.

MAGAZINE Preschooler.RF

(Experimental activities)

• preparatory
• basic

1. Monitoring.
2. Working with parents.
3. Applications.

“Tell me and I’ll forget,

show me - and I will remember,

let me try and I’ll understand.”

(Chinese folk wisdom.)

Brief summary

This work is devoted to the experimental activities of preschool children. Today in Russia, preschool institutions play a critical role in ensuring the development of the cognitive development of preschool children, while simultaneously being educational centers for parents.

The project proposes a solution to the problems of cognitive development of preschool children through the organization of a number of activities in kindergarten aimed at studying the nature around us through experimental activities.

The practical use of this development will allow preschoolers to develop knowledge about the world around them through practical skills.

Relevance

A preschool child by nature is characterized by an orientation towards understanding the world around him and experimenting with objects and phenomena of reality.

Experimentation as a specially organized activity contributes to the formation of a holistic picture of the world of a preschool child and the foundations of his cultural knowledge of the world around him.

Federal State Educational Standard for Education: ...Cognitive development involves the development of children's interests, curiosity and cognitive motivation; formation of cognitive actions, formation of consciousness; development of imagination and creative activity; the formation of primary ideas about oneself, other people, objects of the surrounding world, about the properties and relationships of objects of the surrounding world (shape, color, size, material, sound, rhythm, tempo, quantity, number, part and whole, space and time, movement and rest , causes and consequences, etc.)

The development of children's ability to experiment is a specific system that includes demonstration experiments carried out by the teacher in specially organized activities, observations, and laboratory work performed by children independently in the spatial-subject environment of the group.

As practice shows, the knowledge gained during experiments is remembered for a long time. A Chinese proverb says: “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I will remember, let me try and I will understand . It is important that each child conducts his own experiments.

Experimentation has a positive effect on the emotional sphere of the child, on the development of creative abilities, on the formation of work skills and on improving health (by increasing the overall level of motor activity).

The project will allow:

Develop a series of classes and activities for experimental activities using presentations. Enrich the subject environment in the group.

Project participants:

Children, teachers, parents of the older group.

Goal and objectives of the project:

Expand children's knowledge about the world around them through experimental activities, cultivate curiosity, activity, and develop knowledge about science and professions.

Project objectives:

• Expand children's understanding of the physical properties of the world around them
• Introduce the various properties of substances (hardness, softness, flowability, viscosity, buoyancy, solubility.)
• Develop ideas about basic physical phenomena (reflection, refraction of light, magnetic attraction)
• Develop children's ideas about certain environmental factors (light, air temperature and its variability; water - transition to various states: liquid, solid, gaseous, their differences from each other; Air - its pressure and strength; Soil - composition, humidity, dryness
• Expand the understanding of how humans use natural environmental factors: sun, earth, air, water, plants and animals to meet their needs. Expand children's understanding of the importance of water and air in human life
• Introduce children to the properties of soil and its constituent sand and clay
• To develop experience in following safety rules when conducting physical experiments
• Develop an emotional and value-based attitude towards the world around you
• To develop the intellectual emotions of children: to create conditions for the emergence of surprise in relation to the observed phenomena, for awakening interest in solving assigned problems, for the opportunity to rejoice at the discovery made.
• To form in children different ways of knowing, which are necessary for solving cognitive problems;
• Teach children to purposefully search for answers to questions - to make assumptions, means and methods for checking them, carry out this verification and draw adequate conclusions.

Expected results:

Formation of prerequisites for search activity and intellectual initiative in children. The ability to identify possible methods of solving a problem with the help of an adult, and then independently. Ability to apply methods that contribute to solving a given problem using various options. The desire to use special terminology, conduct a constructive conversation in the process of joint and then independent research activities. Increased level of curiosity and observation. Activation of children's speech, replenishing vocabulary with many concepts. The desire to independently draw conclusions and put forward hypotheses.

Implementation deadlines:

from September to March of the academic year.

Materials and equipment:

Experimentation corner, individual sets: straws, funnels, magnifying glasses, test tubes, disposable glasses, microscope, caps, masks, aprons (according to the number of children), equipment for classes.

Albums with experiment diagrams, experiment card index, projector, screen, laptop, Power Point presentations.

Bibliography:

1. “The unknown is nearby: entertaining experiences and experiences for preschoolers” O.V. Dybina, N.P. Rakhmanova, V.V. Shchetinina. –M.: Sphere shopping , 2005.
2. "Natural science observations and experiments in kindergarten" . Plants. children's encyclopedia by A. I. Ivanov – M.: Sphere , 2004.
3. Poddyakov A.I. “Combinatorial experimentation of preschool children with a multiply connected object - a “black box”” Questions of Psychology, 1990 No. 5.
4. Poddyakov N.N. “Creativity and self-development of preschool children. Conceptual aspect" - Volgograd: Peremena, 1995.
5. Prokhorova L.N., BalakshinaTA. “Children's experimentation is the way to understand the world around us” , “Formation of the principles of ecological culture of preschool children” (from the experience of kindergarten No. 15 “Podsolnushki” in Vladimir) Ed. L.N. Prokhorova. — Vladimir, VOIUU, 2001.
6. Ryzhova N. A. “Water Sorceress” N. A. Ryzhova. – M.: Linka-Press, 1997.
7. 7. Ryzhova N. A. “Games with water and sand” , Hoop, No. 2.
8. 8. Ryzhova NA. “Experiments with sand and clay” Hoop, - No. 2.
9. Tugusheva G.P., Chistyakova A.V. “Game-experimentation for children of senior preschool age” , Preschool pedagogy, 2001. - No. 1.
10. Tsyplyakova O. “Where is the fifth ocean?” Preschool education. – 2006. – No. 8.
11. Internet resources.

Project implementation stages

1. Selection of methodological literature, Internet resources.
2. Development of a long-term plan for working with children.
3. Development of lesson notes for children on experimental activities.
4. Organizing a developmental environment in a group - setting up an experimentation corner.
5. Parent survey.
6. Development of a long-term plan for working with parents.
7. Preparation of advisory material for parents.

Brief summary:

The content of experimental activities is structured:

• specially organized training in the form of classes;
• joint activities between adults and children;
• free independent activity of children

Forms of work:

1. Classes;
2. Experiments;
3. Conversations;
4. Observation and labor;
5. Work in the laboratory.

The form of organization of children can be: individual, group (with a subgroup), frontal (with the whole group).

Preference is given to the subgroup form of organizing experimental work. Observations and experiments can be random, they do not require special preparation and depend on the situation that has arisen or the question asked, they are carried out on the site or in the “Nature Corner”, planned observations and experiments are carried out on a specific subject or object.

There are experiments that are carried out as an answer to a child’s question: the child, after simple observation, establishes the truth himself.

In each experiment, the following structure can be distinguished:

• Awareness of what you want to know;
• Forming a research problem, thinking through the experimental methodology, listening to instructions, predicting results;
• Performing work, observing safety rules, observing results;
• recording the results, analyzing the data obtained;
• A thorough report of what was seen, formulation of conclusions.

Joint activity between an adult and children is fundamental to experimental activities.

Various experiments and observations are planned here, and educational conversations are held. Heuristic conversations can be used if children have rich and accurate ideas about the phenomena whose causes need to be found. Children are invited to play environmental games and read fiction and educational literature.

Classes are held every week. Once a month – final.

Experimental classes are based on the joint creativity of the teacher and children. They stimulate the cognitive and creative activity of children and fully meet the requirements of cooperation pedagogy.

Everyone knows how important it is to arouse and maintain children’s interest in the topic being studied in order to solve all the assigned tasks. And the experiments remind children of “tricks” , they are unusual, and, most importantly, the children do everything themselves and experience a feeling of joy from their small and large “discoveries” .

After classes, children have many questions based on a cognitive motive. The course of classes may vary. It depends on what exactly interests the children. For example: children really like experiments with water, so instead of two classes, three were held. Or, for example, after a lesson about volcanoes, the children asked to talk about a tsunami, a sea storm and a tornado. The classes were shown with viewing of a presentation, a video, and an experiment was conducted using a hairdryer (imitation of wind).

There are a total of twenty-seven lessons in the project, six of which are aimed at developing ideas about one’s own body, the human body.

The structure of conducting classes on research learning and experimentation is mainly as follows:

• Creating a problematic situation.
• Search for possible solutions.
• Prediction of the result of the experiment.
• Testing possible solutions based on data.
• Formulation of the conclusion in accordance with the test results.
• Generalization

Planning the work of free independent activity involves, first of all, the creation by the teacher of conditions for the emergence of independent activity of children. The subject-development environment surrounding children has a huge impact on the cognitive activity of a preschooler. Children conduct experiments in the “laboratory”, using manuals and research materials.

Children consolidate their knowledge in didactic games, and the results of experiments - in artistic activities.

Communication with children during experimental activities is confidential, friendly, encouraging children to independently explore and actively learn.

So, for example, you can invite parents to do a series of experiments with water and air at home, conduct research, answer questions, for example, where can you find water at home? What is water for and do you save it? Parents help and guide their children to complete tasks.

To educate parents, consultations can be held on the following topics: “Organizing children’s experimentation at home” , “Experimenting with water” .

Quantitative data will allow you to track the effectiveness of your work, track children’s results and plan your future work.

Cooperation with children's families and jointly organized events not only help to ensure the unity and continuity of the pedagogical process, but also introduce into this process the special positive emotional coloring necessary for the child. When working with parents to raise children, it is necessary to use both traditional and non-traditional forms, but all these forms must be based on the pedagogy of cooperation.

• Questioning.
• Long-term plan for working with parents
• Conversations, discussions at parent meetings.
• Consultations for the parent corner.
• Joint leisure activities, holidays, KVNs, quizzes, etc.
• Participation in exhibitions, competitions, etc.
• Involving parents in joint activities with their children.

Conclusion

When implementing any project, first of all, you need to set the right goal and find the right and safe way to implement it. It is important to plan the educational process based on the theme of the project, to create a developing, educational, safe subject environment. It is equally important to determine the direction of search and practical activities, and organize joint activities (with teachers, parents and children). After all, it is necessary to remember that the project is a product of cooperation and co-creation of teachers, children, parents, and sometimes the entire kindergarten staff.

SignLab Project

Launched in 2021 in Norway. Today, more than 10,000 Norwegians use the platform, including more than 2,000 friends and family members of deaf children.

Goal: to make sign language training accessible from anywhere in the world.

There are approximately 64 million parents worldwide today who are raising children who are deaf or hard of hearing. And only one in ten such parents speaks sign language. The lack of accessible courses to teach sign language prevents children from fully communicating with their families.

To solve this problem, the SignLab project has developed a digital platform for teaching sign language - currently it is only available in Norwegian on iOS and Android, but the team plans to expand and by 2021 cover many languages, for example English, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese and others. Using the platform, you can learn sign language from anywhere in the world: online or offline, at home or in the classroom - you just need access to a computer or smartphone.

Users learn gestures and movements through video tutorials (pre-adapted to the specific language). Gamification and reward systems motivate and make the process fun, and artificial intelligence analyzes the student’s progress and creates an individual curriculum for him, taking into account his achievements and gaps. In each new country, the curriculum is developed in collaboration with that country's sign language teachers.

Olympics “Museums. Parks. Estates"

On September 1, the next season of the “Museums” Olympiad will begin. Parks. Estates." Schoolchildren in grades 1–11 will be able to expand their horizons by learning a lot about the history and culture of the city and country. Participants of the Olympiad will visit museums, parks and estates and complete tasks, for which they need to carefully study the corresponding exhibition. Pre-registration is required on the official project website.

Floating schools project

Appeared in 2002 in Bangladesh.

Goal: To ensure continuous education for children during floods during the rainy season, when it is impossible to reach permanent schools.

Every year during the monsoon season, Bangladesh experiences floods, preventing thousands of children, especially from poor families, from getting to school and forcing schools to close. To solve this problem, the non-profit organization Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha came up with floating schools: now, if a student cannot go to school, the school itself comes to the student.

It works like this: at first, the boat plays the role of a school bus - it goes along the route, periodically stopping to pick up the children. When everyone is assembled, the boat docks and the lesson begins. In this way, the boat works all day: training is carried out in three shifts - the latest lessons for working students take place in the evening after sunset, and electricity for this is provided by solar panels.

Each floating school is equipped with a classroom for 30 people, at least one laptop, books and gadgets. Some schools have full-fledged libraries with 1,500 or more books, several laptops with Internet access, printers and mobile phones. Education for now is only primary, up to the fifth grade.

These schools educate not only children, but also teenagers, older people and adult women: one of the main goals of the project’s creators is to combat gender discrimination and provide women with equal opportunities. In addition to floating schools for children, the creators of the program organize floating training centers for adults, where they are taught about modern methods of agriculture, climate change, government structure, human rights, and employment opportunities.

In addition, the work of floating clinics is organized according to the same principle: they moor to villages, conduct medical examinations on board, give patients the necessary medications free of charge, and organize educational events for village residents.

Innovation Competition in Education

KIvo is also on the Map of Leaders of Innovation in Education, since it itself is an innovation, a startup. “We developed it according to a scheme familiar to all beginning entrepreneurs,” says KIvo director Diana Koroleva. “But very soon the competition also became a testing ground for research, and we managed to collect a solid database.” Thanks to KIvo, the Center for the Study of Innovation in Education was created at the Higher School of Economics, which explores topics such as the landscape of the educational innovation market, the characteristics of teams of innovative projects and the characteristics of innovators themselves.

United World Schools Organization

It appeared in 2008 in Cambodia, and now also operates in Myanmar and Nepal.

Goal: to provide basic education to children from remote and poor regions not covered by public education systems.

United World Schools is a UK-based charity that opens schools in the world's poorest countries, where children do not have access to even a primary education. UWS organizes schools in the most remote and inaccessible regions of each country, where the national education system has not yet reached.

Founder Chris Howarth opened UWS in 2008 after working as a volunteer teacher in Cambodia. Today, UWS schools operate in Cambodia (115 schools and 13,500 students), Myanmar (68 schools and 4,000 students) and Nepal (37 schools and 4,500 students).

In parallel with the opening of schools, the organization is actively recruiting and training teachers from the local population, which, among other things, helps maintain local culture and language. A separate task is women's education: in many villages, school founders have to convince parents to send all their children to study, and not just boys. And while education is the main goal of the UWS, they also have to deal with more utilitarian issues, including providing residents with safe drinking water and training them in basic sanitation and hygiene standards.

Digital solutions

Several online resources will be of great help to teachers: the School Projects Laboratory being developed by Enlightenment (will be available in the fall of 2021) and Proobskills.

Work in the School Projects Laboratory includes 3 stages:

• The simplest level: a novice designer needs to fill in the empty fields of the template with a theme and bring the work to its logical conclusion;
• The second stage is a little more difficult. Here the child will have to adjust the structure of the project or research himself;
• The third level, where the student creates his own project independently, and the teacher acts as a curator.

The uniqueness of “Proobskills” lies in the provision of checklists to all participants. This methodical and meticulous approach has undeniable advantages:

• The relevance of the research will be justified at the initial stage of work;
• A clear and understandable formulation of the technical specifications, which will simplify the process of its implementation;
• Selection of required literature. During preparation, the child will learn to independently cut off unreliable sources of information;
• Tracking all the nuances of the research process. Using the designer’s checklist, the teacher will see how the work is progressing, what mistakes have been made, where the knowledge base or perseverance was lacking;
• A step-by-step analysis of the progress of work, its adjustment and final protection will enhance the quality of the result obtained.

"Big City Tournament"

On September 6, the Big City Tournament, the first large-scale eSports event of the new academic year, starts in Moscow. All residents of the capital can take part in it. Players will compete in 11 eSports disciplines of different genres. The tournament will be held online and will provide an opportunity for Muscovites of different generations to find new topics for communication, better understand each other, and expand the range of common interests. And young eSports players will be able to demonstrate their skills and establish themselves in a professional environment. Registration for the tournament ends on September 5 at 21:00.