Contest in Naryn, 27th of March

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth learning can be taught.” 

   — Oscar Wilde 

When teachers have adequate subject and pedagogic content knowledge and effectively trained, it makes a huge difference on the education of students. Today as never before, meeting our society’s challenges demands educational excellence. To make changes in teachers’ education and to develop their skills and knowledge, Professional Development trainings are organized in LSP for teachers of Naryn Oblast, and opportunity to work with students where teachers implement their new knowledge and skills into the practice. To realize this goal, we organized a Contest between students-representatives from 16 schools of Naryn Oblast at 27^th of March, 2018. 72 students and teachers from Kochkor, At-Baashi, Ak-Taala, and Naryn regions met in Naryn. The Contest was organized at the Naryn State University and an educational tour and a lunch at UCA.  At this activity, participants could compare the facilities of both Universities, to experience the atmosphere of studying and learning at UCA, to meet and talk with students-guides at the UCA, and to ask about opportunities to study there.

In order to educate in the 21st century, teachers need to maintain the student's interest in the material by showing how this knowledge applies in the real world. There are many skills that children will need in order to be successful in the 21st century. Here are a few of the most important 21st century skills that we are working on to improve and develop in LSP, such as ability to collaborate, work in teams; critical thinking skills and problem solving; effectively analyze and evaluate evidence, arguments, solve different kinds of non-familiar problems in innovative ways; communication, using oral and written communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts; collaboration to demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams;  creativity and innovation; ability to conduct research to learn about issues and concepts. “ In a survey of 433 institutions of higher learning 95% of the chief academic officers identified critical thinking as one of the most important skills for students and noted that 81% of employers wanted universities to place a stronger emphasis on developing critical thinking skills” (AAC&U, 2011).( Using Critical Thinking Teaching Methods to Increase Student Success: An Action Research Project, 2017, Volume 29, Number 1) Consequently, we want our groups to develop critical thinking skills and other skills. At the last training in Naryn (in February, 2018), we presented and discussed the strategies to teach students to develop such skills. In the educational process through the Learning Support Program, students should be offered a wide variety of ways to learn, among which they could choose to learn and practice or with which they could experiment.  Teachers and students have learned through their research and community work projects, and textbooks are provided as one of many possible resources. All teachers play a significant role in shaping the lives and careers of their students. We observe in LSP the important role of the program play in developing effective, engaged teachers and students that, in turn, can improve outcomes for all students. All of us will benefit from it because our students are the results of our educational processes and inputs. We recognize that this is extraordinarily difficult work and the actual result will not be always visible at the end of academic year but later.  Going from knowing about something to really growing and developing requires a time. Teachers need to give the product of training or development activities the space to be developed. All of us need to sit with new ideas and knowledge. We need to take time to step back, reflect, and consciously decide how one will put new insights, skills, and abilities to work. New ideas, new approaches, new skills all need some practice at school and between schools for the better collaboration and understanding of the process. However, many students develop their potential and demonstrate it at our school and interschool activities. We support our teachers to be flexible with how they teach and give learners the resources to continue learning outside of school.  At the meeting in Naryn (in March, 2018), teachers and students of 16 schools of Naryn Oblast demonstrated their new knowledge, attitudes, and skills through essay writing, speech contest for students of English language course, and Math Olympiad and Contest to solve Math tasks for students of Math course. Students have “room” in the program for group projects and individual assignments. They work with teachers to propose and to implement their Community projects and Research projects. At the same time, independently they write their ideas for speeches, their essays and present them to teachers and students in the groups. They are becoming independent autonomous learners who can find solutions and solve problems, who can act autonomously, but with support of our teachers.  In these projects our teachers and students develop skills that are so valuable in our modern life. Teachers and students learn together and this is amazing that this is not a process of teaching only, but learning collaboratively and shaping new concepts. Teachers also present their speeches and write essays, practice Olympiads with students and learn in this process too. Educator preparation programs for research project work, for Community Project work, essay writing, speech presentations, play an important role not only in modeling effective curriculum and instruction that addresses both content and skills so that their own students will learn well; they offer important, structured opportunities for teachers of LSP to learn how to plan curriculum, set learning goals for their students, organize daily practice; plan and organize lessons,  and evaluate their own and their students’ successes along the way. In short, Learning Support Program play a role in helping all teachers and students in the program to learn, develop, practice, improve; and assess curriculum, planning; and instruction as extra- educational component to the school curriculum.