Age heterogeneity of STEM educators

One of the ways to improve the quality of math and natural science education is to develop the pedagogical community of STEM education. On the one hand, according to the forecasts, an increase in the number of students and teachers is expected by an average of 20 % in both Russia and worldwide. On the other hand, there is definitely some specificity in the pedagogical community as compared with any other labor collective, since the pedagogical community develops alongside with the student one. In this perspective, the age heterogeneity of the teaching staff is of particular relevance. Consequently, the key point in the management of math and natural science education is the analysis of the age structure of STEM educators. The following subjects are taken to conduct a further analysis of STEM education: mathematics, handicraft, physics, biology, and chemistry. Accordingly, the purpose of the article is to analyze and forecast the heterogeneous development of the age structure of STEM teachers. The authors of the article justify the necessity for changes in the personnel policy on the basis of the assessment of the capacity of the teaching staff of STEM education in schools of the European part of Russia. The leading research approach is the method of the normal and natural distribution of age groups in the structure of the STEM education pedagogical community. As a result of a study conducted in 569 schools of the European part of Russia in 2016-2018, the authors of the article have found out the following: the average age of STEM school teachers in the European part of Russia is 6.8 years higher than the average age of teachers in Russia; there is a significant shortage of STEM teachers aged under 35; the average rate of the teaching load of a STEM school teacher in an academic subject is 0.72, but the load is distributed very unevenly, math teachers having the highest teaching load. The theoretical significance of the research lies in its contribution to the development of scientific ideas concerning the age heterogeneity of STEM school teachers. The research results can be used in building development trajectories of STEM education teaching staff by implementing a series of managerial and organizational measures to achieve the normal state of the age structure of teachers. © 2019 by the authors; licensee Modestum Ltd., UK

Full packaged learning solutions for studying mathematics at school

The speed of modern changes in the system of teaching reflects an unprecedented accelerated renewal of means, forms and methods of teaching. Today, it is very important to test new learning solutions that reduce teachers' time on organization of students' educational activities. The idea of solving this problem is to combine the theory and practice of taking managerial actions and pedagogy in order to identify the type of learning solutions that reduce teachers' time, in particular teachers of mathematics, to prepare for classes. Thus, the purpose of the article is to justify full packaged learning solutions as an effective means of reducing the time spent on organizing the educational activities of schoolchildren. The authors of the article have determined the full packaged product as a package of program-methodical and subject-developing support that can be used by consumers of educational services (children, parents, teachers, administrators, employers) for independent use (a turn-key project). The leading methods of research are monitoring the organizational activities of teachers during math lessons, talking to teachers, analyzing methodical work and teachers' profiles, modeling and statistical processing of research results. As a result of the 2016-2017 experiment, where 21 teachers of mathematics took part, the authors of the article have defined types of learning solutions for mathematics teachers (adjustable, integrated and packaged); have described the stages of development and phases of creating a full packaged learning solution. Evaluation of the effectiveness of using full packaged product allowed to make a conclusion about an average decrease of time costs by 22% while preparing for classes. The theoretical significance of the article is due to the contribution to the development of scientific ideas about the means of methodical support for teachers of mathematics. The practical use of the proposed methods allows to organize a step-by-step transition from the development of adjustable solutions to full packaged learning solutions for studying school mathematics that contribute to reducing teachers' time spent on the organization of educational activities of students. The value of the full packaged product is justified with the help of a "project triangle", which connects key parameters for assessing the effectiveness of providing methodical support to mathematics teachers: the amount of work, time and costs. Changing the value of one parameter leads to changes of the values of others. Full packaged product allows to balance these parameters and achieve the planned educational result. © 2018 by the authors

Pedagogical readiness of mathematics teachers to implement innovative forms of educational activities

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate the evaluation indicators of teaching. The relevance of the present study is due to the problem of improving the quality of school education in the Russian Federation by means of renewal of the content of general education, provided by the RF State program "Development of Education for 2013-2020". The vectors of updating are determined by the tasks of transition to the democratic and constitutional state, the market economy, the need to overcome the dangers of the country lagging behind global trends of economic and social development and, what is the most important, by the growing influence of the human capital on the economy of the country. The aim of this study is to identify the level of readiness of teachers to implement innovative forms of educational activities into the educational process with the help of the analysis of the responses of mathematics teachers to reflexive questions. The presentation of lessons with innovative forms during the methodical workshop and the systematic analysis of the experimental data are the main technologies. As a result of the experimental study, conducted in 2015-2017 in the Kirov region with a group of 71 mathematics teachers we can present the experience of the implementation of innovative organization forms of educational process and summarize the results in the form of the subjective reflective assessment. The article justifies the high level of pedagogical readiness of mathematics teachers to introduce innovative forms of organization of educational activities such as: event-based learning, adaptive teaching, 'bring your own devices', computational thinking, and stealth assessment. © Authors

Pedagogical readiness of mathematics teachers to implement innovative forms of educational activities

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate the evaluation indicators of teaching. The relevance of the present study is due to the problem of improving the quality of school education in the Russian Federation by means of renewal of the content of general education, provided by the RF State program "Development of Education for 2013-2020". The vectors of updating are determined by the tasks of transition to the democratic and constitutional state, the market economy, the need to overcome the dangers of the country lagging behind global trends of economic and social development and, what is the most important, by the growing influence of the human capital on the economy of the country. The aim of this study is to identify the level of readiness of teachers to implement innovative forms of educational activities into the educational process with the help of the analysis of the responses of mathematics teachers to reflexive questions. The presentation of lessons with innovative forms during the methodical workshop and the systematic analysis of the experimental data are the main technologies. As a result of the experimental study, conducted in 2015-2017 in the Kirov region with a group of 71 mathematics teachers we can present the experience of the implementation of innovative organization forms of educational process and summarize the results in the form of the subjective reflective assessment. The article justifies the high level of pedagogical readiness of mathematics teachers to introduce innovative forms of organization of educational activities such as: event-based learning, adaptive teaching, 'bring your own devices', computational thinking, and stealth assessment. © Authors

Solving math problems through the principles of scientific creativity

© 2020 by the authors. Ongoing changes in mental and personal characteristics of the modern child initiate the updating of means and forms of education. And they, in their turn, update methodological techniques and approaches to the use of methods during the math class. The source of updating methodological techniques may be the principles used when solving scientific problems. Scientific creativity traditionally systematizes knowledge and skills for their use to a wide range of sciences. Therefore, the principles of scientific creativity have a lot in common with different subjects, showing the student the unity of approaches in working with knowledge. In this regard, the article is aimed at substantiating the principles of scientific creativity as effective methodological techniques for finding solutions to math problems and, on their basis, developing recommendations for conducting classes that prepare for final certification at school in mathematics. The leading research methods in this case are: observation of the methodological work of teachers of mathematics, conversations with teachers, analysis of guidance papers and questionnaires of teachers, statistical processing of research results. In 2018-2019 the experiment in which 19 mathematics teachers took part was conducted. Based on its results the authors of the article succeeded in: highlighting the principles of finding solutions to math problems based on the approaches used in scientific creativity; developing and implementing on the basis of these principles recommendations for conducting classes that prepare for final certification at school in mathematics. The effectiveness of using the principles of finding solutions to math problems was assessed. It allowed the authors to conclude that students have an increase in the speed of finding solutions to math problems by an average of 11%. Practical use of the proposed principles makes it possible to organize training for schoolchildren in solving math problems in traditional forms of teaching, but taking into account the particularities of the development of the modern schoolchild. Methodological recommendations developed by the authors can be used to teach students how to find solutions to math problems during classes that prepare for final certification at school in mathematics