What is "NEW UKRAINIAN SCHOOL"?

 

The New Ukrainian School (NUSH) is a school that students enjoy going to. Here, their opinions are listened to, they are taught to think critically, not to be afraid to express their own opinion and to be responsible citizens. At the same time, parents also like to visit this school, because cooperation and mutual understanding reign here.

The reform of NUSH is designed for years, because it is impossible to quickly change the educational tradition that has been nurtured in Ukraine for dozens of years. However, the changes have already begun, and the Ministry of Education and Science is doing everything to make them inevitable. In particular, in September 2017, a new law "On Education" was adopted, which regulates the main principles of the new education system. Next up is the adoption of the new law "On General Secondary Education", which will reveal the changes in more detail, and the approval of the new State Standard of Primary Education.

 

        WHAT IS CHANGING FOR STUDENTS?

A key change for students concerns learning approaches and educational content. After all, the goal of NUS is to educate an innovator and a citizen who knows how to make responsible decisions and respects human rights.

Instead of memorizing facts and definitions of concepts, students will acquire competencies. This is a dynamic combination of knowledge, abilities, skills, ways of thinking, views, values, and other personal qualities that determine a person's ability to successfully socialize, conduct professional and/or further educational activities. That is, a core of knowledge is being formed, on which will be superimposed the ability to use this knowledge, the values and skills that Ukrainian school graduates will need in their professional and private lives.

The list of competencies that students will acquire is already established by the Law "On Education":

Fluency in the state language;

• Ability to communicate in native (if different from the state) and foreign languages;

• Mathematical competence;

• competence in the field of natural sciences, engineering and technology;

• innovativeness;

• environmental competence;

• information and communication competence;

• lifelong learning;

• civic and social competences related to the ideas of democracy, justice, equality, human rights, well-being and a healthy lifestyle, with awareness of equal rights and opportunities;

• cultural competence;

• entrepreneurship and financial literacy.

• Common to all competencies are the so-called transversal skills: reading comprehension, the ability to express one's own opinion orally and in writing, critical and systematic thinking, the ability to logically substantiate a position, creativity, initiative, the ability to constructively manage emotions, assess risks, make decisions, solve problems, the ability to cooperate with other people.

• In order to acquire competences, schoolchildren will study with a hands-on approach - that is, they will do something more often, instead of sitting at desks and listening to the teacher. The NUS Concept also proposes to implement integrated and project-based learning. This method contributes to the fact that students get a holistic view of the world - because they study phenomena from the point of view of different sciences and learn to solve real problems with the help of knowledge from different disciplines.

• And the reform is about the educational environment. And this, first of all, is not equipment or furniture. Although school funding has increased thanks to decentralization, and the material and technical base is gradually being updated in many educational institutions.

• A change in the educational environment is a change in attitude towards the child: respect, attention to him and the desire to find the best way for his effective learning. This is what the New Ukrainian School will be like.

WHAT IS CHANGING FOR PARENTS?

One of the principles of the New Ukrainian School is partnership, including between the school and parents. Parents can create their own bodies of public self-government, and therefore influence the educational and educational processes.

From now on, it is easier for parents to control the finances of the school. All educational institutions that receive public funds (for example, budget funds and charitable contributions) are required to publish their estimates and information about expenses. And parents can now transfer charitable contributions aimed at the school, instead of collecting cash, which is very difficult to account for.

Cooperation between all participants in the educational process - teachers, students, administrators and parents - is the cornerstone that will help to achieve all other results. After all, this is the only way to realize the main goal: to change the educational environment, to implement education for life. And finally - to make the Ukrainian school open, interesting and modern.

 

Learning in a new way is a phrase often used when talking about NUS. But how can parents understand what is hidden under these words and assess whether their first- or second-graders are studying at NUS?

We have collected several signs of new learning to make it easier to understand. This, of course, is not an exhaustive list, but without them, the school is hardly NUS.

 

1. MORNING CIRCLES

Morning circle or meeting – one of the main features of NUS. This is the introductory part of the school day. Children, together with the teacher, sit on the mat to discuss the plan for the day, recall the past or talk about any other topic. It is important that the teacher sits down with the children, because his eyes should be at the same level as the children's.

Such meetings bring children together and remove the fear of expressing themselves.

2. INTEGRATION OF SUBJECTS

Integration is the unification of different educational fields into one subject. In the primary classes of the National University of Higher Education there is the subject "I explore the world", which includes the following fields of knowledge: natural sciences, language and literature, mathematics (both partially), social and health care, civics and history, informatics.

Integration is necessary because young children do not divide the world separately, for example, into physics or chemistry. They perceive him as a whole, and therefore it is worth talking about him at school in this way. In addition, humanity is now faced with many global problems that cannot be solved with the help of a single field of knowledge. From an early age, children are taught to see connections between objects.

3. CHILDREN DO A LOT OF PRACTICAL THINGS

NUSH is not about sitting at a desk with your hand on your hand. These are movement, educational games, experiments and creativity. Freezing ice, learning to pay for travel in public transport and shopping in a supermarket in order to be able to count money and be thrifty - this is how students learn at NUS.

4. CHILDREN ARE NOT GRADED. INSTEAD, THERE IS FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

There are no grades in first or second grades. That is, students are not given the usual points or emoticons for correctly or incorrectly completed tasks (yes, an emoticon is also a grade). Instead, there is formative assessment - when students are not compared with each other or with a certain standard. The only thing that matters is how the student's results have changed compared to his/her results in the past.

The absence of a score does not mean the absence of an assessment. The teacher monitors whether the students succeed in everything and what they need help with. For encouragement, the teacher does not use the word "wrong", but says: "Well done, let's think about how we can improve your work", "What would you change here?" etc. That is, the student must try to find and correct the error himself and feel like a winner.

5. FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS WITH PARENTS WHICH ARE ISSUED WITH A CERTIFICATE OF ACHIEVEMENT

Despite the absence of grades, parents should understand what is happening with their child's education. To do this, the teacher regularly meets with them to emphasize the student's strengths and advise how to improve what is not working. It is ideal if such meetings take place with the participation of the child - after all, there is nothing about him without him.

Also, the NUS provides certificates of achievement. They are issued twice - after the first quarter (to fix the starting point) and at the end of the school year. It determines to what extent the child has mastered this or that competence or skill. Moreover, they take into account not only the academic side (whether the child can read and write), but also soft skills (for example, whether he does not conflict, whether he knows how to cooperate in a team and whether he shows initiative during the lesson).

6. CHILDREN'S THINGS ARE HANGING ON THE WALLS

This is about changing the educational environment. We deliberately do not emphasize the new desks, because one may get the impression that, when talking about NUS, they mean only them. Although they are not the main thing.

Changing the educational environment is also about whether, instead of the usual classroom corner, children's works, interesting facts about the world or about the students themselves hang on the walls. This is what motivates the most - the pride of having my picture hanging on the wall next to the pictures of my classmates.