ВНЕДРЕНИЕ   КУЛЬТУРЫ В ПРОЦЕСС ОБУЧЕНИЯ И УЛУЧШЕНИЕ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОЙ  ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЙ СИСТЕМЫ

INTEGRATING  THE CULTURE  INTO THE  CLASSROOM   AND  IMPROVING  THE NATIONAL  EDUCATION DATA  SYSTEM

М. И. Азаренкова

M. I. Azarenkova

 

       В  статье обосновывается настоятельная необходимость  внедрения  культуры как содержательного, воспитательного, психологического и личностного аспекта в современный образовательный процесс. Некоторые конкретные методические приемы, эффективность   которых  проявилась в процессе проведения разноплановых педагогических экспериментов  с контингентом школ  и вузов, представляется  актуальной и целесообразной  в современном образовательном процессе.

      The article explains the urgent need for the introduction of culture as a meaningful, educational, psychological and personal aspects in the modern educational process. Some specific methodological approaches, and the effectiveness of which is manifested in the process of organizing different educational experiments with a contingent of schools and universities, it seems relevant and appropriate in the modern educational process

Ключевые слова: интеграция культуры, система образования,  образовательная и воспитательная среда, мировая цивилизация, межкультурное сотрудничество, методы решения проблемы, аспекты сосуществования,  ролевая игра

Keywords: integration of culture, education system, educational environment, world civilization, intercultural cooperation, methods of solution, aspects of coexistence, roleplay

                                                                            Look at the stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without  as much  as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

                                                                          Jacob A.Riis

      Experience real Culture in this cool, homely educational and up-bringing sphere of a family, school, college  and University opportunities, with great  mental, intellectual, scychological and artistic possibilities , and friendly Teachers-stuff will quarantee to make  personal  developing, raising and establishing memorable. For a personality him(her)self.  For a family.  For a nation.  For a  world  civilization, finally.

    It is known, good data help to make good results, that is why it seems to be important to think over The Culture In a Classroom guide.

    The Culture-Guide for teachers and students in the process of their professional communication  examines  the strengths and weaknesses of the current  elementary, secondary and higher education data system and presents recommendations for improving the system’s usefulness due to involving Culture in the process, as an object, subject and value.

     A useful and responsive international education Culture-data system must accommodate the high-priority data needs of its various cultural educational standards  and national approaches.

   Thinking about Culture in a classroom we may  define some  important Key-Principles and Precepts of Culture involved and estimated as a real value of teaching and learning.  The Culture data should:

—         provide valid measures of the underlying cultural  phenomena of interest;

—         provide reliable measures of the underlying phenomena of culture as interest and object of science;

—         be reported in a timely fashion  on a schedule that is consistent with decision-making calendars (Executive Summary . Pascal d.Forgion, Jr., Martin E.Orland, p.3, WashingtonD.C., 1990).

In the real practice the teachers  develop the core precepts to improve the Culture-Guide in indoor and outdoor activity with students of different nationalities, different levels of personal development and in different countries.

Saying about Culture as a main component of an educational program and daily practice we mean to  create some professional items of the effective process as:

—         to focus on the high-priority cultural information needs of personal and professional  developing future leaders;

—         to focus on cultural guestions of what  and why rather  than how;

—         to focus, initially, on cultural discriptors and indicators;

—         to focus on four specific data culture domains-

—         background( national cultural history, traditions, habits,etc., cultural resources (poems, prose, paintings, pictures, sculptors, drama, tragedy, etc.,cultural school-university process, and cultural students outcomes;

—         to focus on issues of cultural data validity, reliability, level of integration and consolidation in unity of people against the war, for the sake of peace and progressive development.

        We think there is a better -than-ever chance that the communication of people of the next  ten- twenty years  is in  their peaceful  cultural multinational cooperation .  It   may be expected to be made with early teaching-learning training  involving  international cultural  blocks of information in the professional process of teaching. The whole idea is not new, but it is rather difficult for fulfillment. The simple and effective way appeared to hold some role-plays with students under the headline ».

    Educators in many countries have already worked out the possible extensions to lessons, including culture as a core.  As far as we  mean  learning culture in class not only for personal development , but for  preventing nationalism and create a friendly cooperation of common-sense leaders , we  mention here the most interesting  educators’ findings ( SPELTA Newsletter) , we have already approbated successfully.

     They are: 1.Ask students to respond, either orally or in writing, to any of those follow-up guestions:

a) How important is a person’s physical appearance in determining his or her ability to do a job?

b) What is the ideal psysical appearance for a man and a woman in your country and culture? In foreign countries and culture?

c) Think  of foreign films that you have seen or foreign books that you have read. Are standards of physical beauty the same in the other parts of the world? How do they differ?

d )Which groups are most valued in our country and why?Why do you think other groups are viewed as less valuable? Do you think these ideas can or should be changed?

e) How frequently do you interact with members of other cultures? Groups?

f) Think of all the different cultures, sub-cultures, and groups that exist within our country. How many of these do you belong to?

g) How would society be different, if the contributions, skills and ideas of all cultures  were valued equally? Is this possible& Why, or why not?

2. Have groups create a story about an imaginary country where every citizen is from the same ethnic and religious background, where everyone has the same eye and hair color, where everyone’s skills and contributions are identical. Could such a country exist? How would it function? Would it be successful? What problems would it have?  Would everyone get along? Would you want  to visit such a country?  Why? Why not?

3. In groups, have students draft a “ Bill of Cultural Pluralism”, denoting  10 rules, which, if followed, would greatly enhance attitudes  towards cultural pluralism.

4. Ask students to consider this guestion : What are the advantages of cultural pluralism? Then ask students to develop a list of strategies that will encourage cultural pluralism and tolerance within  their community, and the world, as a whole.

What  will they do to help  their children  appreciate other cultures and sub-cultures?

    The motto of the role-plays -seminars we have chosen was like the phrase of  Dante »Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars and keep your feet on the ground». A series of our role-plays is not intended to be a curriculum. It identifies key topics or concepts about nationalism that all students should learn over the course of the school-University years.

       Overcoming nationalism  with the help of  culture studying and practise in people’s relations  may be called   basic and common to all progressive societies , no matter what level of economic development they have reached. The methods of solving this problem may be different from one society to another, but having much  in common at the same time.

      The students were rather independent and productive in the approach to the solving of the problem itself. They had to encounter concepts, principles, and laws  of

Culture  in communication. The definition of the notion as »aspect of coexistence» belongs to them. Students had to experience the cultural world  through different  items of foreign cultures before they learn the terms and symbols of tolerance used to explain it.

      Coordination among History, Languages, Literature, Earth Science and Religions would help students understand  the  great meaning of Culture at  all stages of  societies’  development.

       In the course of the series role-play’ concept working out, there are new problems and new complexities to be disentangled every time that we extend the range of our observation nationalism .Knowledge in Psychology influenced greatly upon emphases of the Evaluation Standards of studying nationalism with pointing out items of  the so called »Increased attention  through cultural studying and Understanding” .The main among them are : 1.  Assessing what students know and how they think about nationalism; 2. Having assessment be an integral part of behavior, studying and teaching; 3.Developing problem situation that require the application of number of  Actuality of Life Ideas. 4. While working using multiple assessment techniques, including written, oral, and demonstration formats, systematically collecting information on nationalism.

         This is the scientific approach to the role-plays. The practical part of it consisted in working out of the concept  by the students independently. Having  realized that the core of nationalism in behavior of individuals and groups is a conflict, the students compared the  the nature of conflicts in a Family and in a world as in a large Family. The students  defined the first task  as  surviving and arising  the family traditions. Whose descendants are we? Whose descendants are our opponents we dream to consider then as our friends? Some of the Russians are not able to answer this simple questions.  The family tradition is lost for them. And it is one of the reasons why most people have no sense of family honor and pride .Such situation of

primitive communication forced people to solve problems through conflicts rather than through  calm  dialog  in other countries. So , the revival of the World Family should start with the restoration of it’s traditions, culture, moral values  in common efforts. From family to family ,from heart to heart – against global conflict, nationalism.

          The students have contributed to many communicative forms. Among the others they have chosen rather effective one named as »Don’t stop talking… Some Dos’  and  Don’t’s of communicating». These are some items to have been discussed:

—        Do you have your whole family practice good communication skills from the most trivial conflicts like who is the leader to lead and who is a person to obey?

—        Do you best to understand what’s really on your close and far ones mind. Practice listening for the meaning, not just the words your surrounding speaks.

—        Don’t belittle, attack, or destructively criticize. Respect your opponent’s feelings, even you disapprove of his or her action from the first glance

—        Don’t give a standard lecture when your opponent has a problem. Don’t use statements like: »After all we have done for you…», »I am really concerned about your health …», etc.

—        Do use praise. Everyone loves to be appreciated .But  Don’t use it manipulative or you could lose your people trust.

—        Don’t let angry words be your last words on an issue. If itr comes to a shouting match, call time out and allow for a cooling-off period. Your goal is to finf a solution, not win a war.

—        Don’t give in, and Don’t give up if at first you  do not succeed. Try different approaches. It may take time for your point of view to sink in.

—             The students discussed the manner and ethics of communication of the sides against nationalism. Among more than one hundred terms of  positive and negative communication they have chosen  such positive as :confidence, sympathy, objectivity, compromise, trust, kindness, wisdom, charity   ,- and such negative as aggression, collision, chantage, conflict, discrimination, confrontation,discredit, opposition, escalation.

There were several ways to select topics for discussion to overcome nationalism theoretically and then use Knowledge in practice. It would be  impossible without  a special attention and respect to  culture s’ involving  in teaching and learning. Selecting an outside source for discussion as Internet and mass-media news, for example, had advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage was that the information  was urgent and spread widely. The disadvantage was in a lack of true knowledge about countries and people involved in the conflict-events. Special training seminars as role play with students help to raise their education level and enrich their intellectual possibilities. It is well-known that to be armed with information means to be defended or protected from negative and wrong activity of individual as well as a society as a whole. The more we know the more effective we are in our improving the world on the base of human values against nationalism.

—                 The series of the Role-plays resulted  of students answers concerning the concept, structure and real  effect of common teacher’s- student’s work . These are some questions:

—          Was the role-play useful and interesting for you in your penetrating through nationalism as a notion?

—        Do you think that Plays-seminars is your promotional, personal and social ?

—        Did you get practical skills and ideas  how to opposite nationalism in relations ?

—        Would you try to get an activity at this plan of study?

—        Were you given special instructions about safety and positive communication?

     To great satisfaction of the independent observers the answers of the students appreciated  itself  highly  the  positive meaning of Role-plays not only against nationalism., but all negative influence. It may be overcome due to culture in mind, behavior, tasks of development, methods of communication? Living values of the human beings. Their forms may be different, but the principles remain common for all  people.What is Culture for teachers and teaching, students and learning, parents and raising-uprbinging?  It is multicolored world, as balance for intellect, soul and spirit.   As Albert Schweitzer said : “ An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist  sees only  the red stoplight… The truly wise person is  colorblind .”

… A truly wise person sees Culture as  Source of Beauty,  Power  and Knowledge of the World for the sake of  maintenance life, as a Culture itself.

Азаренкова Марина Ивановна — кандидат исторических  наук, доцент кафедры иностранных языков Академии транспорта Военного института железнодорожных сообщений, г. Санкт-Петербург.

 

 

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