European Journal of Contemporary Education

4-24

Authors: Natalia M. Mezhennaya, Oleg V. Pugachev

Typical difficulties in learning probabilistic subjects are concerned with big data, complicated formulas and inconvenient figures in statistical analyses. The present research considers the usage of innovative teaching methods (e.g. electronic summary of lectures, presentations of lecture courses, task solution templates, electronic training materials for seminar studies) supported by the CAS (computer algebra system) Mathematica, as suggested by the authors for several topics of the course ‘Supplementary Chapters of Probability Theory’. These methods help to solve tasks requiring routine calculation and simplify the ability to find analytical and graphical dependencies in the tasks under consideration. Visualisation possibilities built in the CAS contribute to students’ comprehension of new theoretical material and complicated probabilistic notions. The article contains examples of CAS-performed tasks including the calculation and visualisation of the notions of the conditional probability density function, conditional expectation, order statistics and running maximum. The purpose of the suggested CAS-based materials is to solve a whole class of tasks of similar types; it is possible to obtain new results by varying the input data without spending much time elaborating the solution method. The methods using innovative teaching materials yield advantages to both students and teachers. These methods simplify and individualise the process of education, shorten the time necessary for students’ independent work and motivate students to achieve the results. Moreover, the preparation and renovation of the bank of tasks of varying levels of difficulty require much less time. Consequently, teachers and students have more time to devote toward discussing and analysing the results obtained. Another possible effect of using the novel teaching means is reducing the differentiation in students’ training levels. In the present research, examples of teaching materials and scenarios of their usage are presented. In order to clarify possible scenarios of using the suggested methods, the authors explored the necessity of their modifications, and assessed students’ attitudes toward the aforementioned education methods as well as toward traditional methods, the advantages and difficulties of their usage are also explored. For this purpose, students were asked questions, and their answers have been analysed statistically. The research demonstrates that students regard interactive templates as complicated and difficult to understand; however, they do not conclude that they are unnecessary. The most remarkable aspect for students is the convenience of work with mobile devices and the possibility of a full-text search. However, the students did not make a connection between the interactive templates and the presentations prepared with their use. One can conclude that students should begin learning CAS in the first term of their university education. Additional adaptation of the teaching materials for mobile devices is necessary as well.

43-51

Authors: Alena A. Zakharova, Evgeniya V. Vekhter, Aleksey V. Shklyar

At the stage of designing an educational environment, one of the most significant problems is the creation of effective visualization tools for collecting, organizing and analysing educational information. Existing approaches to visual information analysis have a number of disadvantages, which include a significant resource intensity and high requirements for preparation for those who are involved in the analysis. This article demonstrates the feasibility of using visualization tools for the design assessment of educational environments, which enables the development of necessary tools for tasks with a large amount of educational information, as well as in the event of their change or accumulation. The purposeful use of visual perception features and the proposed approach to the organization of educational activities create perspectives for visualization tools, while working with a large amount of information. A number of features of a student and educational environment interaction have been identified, which are designed according to the principle of meta-design.

69-91

Authors: Ján Gunčaga, Wacek Zawadowski, Theodosia Prodromou

Visual imagery has been an effective tool to communicate ideas connected with basic mathematics concepts since the dawn of mankind. The development of educational visualisation technology allows these ideas to be demonstrated with the help of some educational software. In this paper, we specifically consider the use of GeoGebra, a free, open-source educational application developed by an international consortium of mathematics and statistics educators, but other educational software could also be used for the same visualisation tasks. In this study, we present Torricelli’s method for measuring the area under arc of cycloid as an example of using GeoGebra to visualise he area of planar figures. This kind of introduction is suitable for secondary schools and for training pre-service teachers. We will also show how GeoGebra can be used to develop students’ understanding of representing data (i.e. the topic from statistics education). While students explore the visualisation of data, GeoGebra allows them to create and explore representations while building the understanding that is required for analysing data and drawing figural conclusions from graphical representations.

103-117

Authors: Zafer Güney

The purpose of this study is to discuss the effects of visuals, visual literacy, visualization and multimedia design strategies using instructional design (ID) models for developing projects in education and science education, as well as engineering education. This study discusses and presents ways to evaluate visuals, visualization, and virtual technologies (as VR/AR and 2D-3D) in science education and engineering education based on research and foundations of visual learning, visual thinking, and visual communication. This study is a literature review work concerning visual effects, visual literacy, learner perceptions and technological variables for designing multimedia instruction and learning projects in visualization. In addition, this paper discusses similarities and constraints in using ID models for designing multimedia projects from the perspective of the use of visuals and ID models for developing visual materials in education. These procedures include the perceptual and theoretical foundations of visual learning, cognitive factors of visual images, visual design and program of systematic evaluation steps, as well as multimedia projects design and development materials with ID models, such as the decide, design, develop, and evaluate (DDD-E) model (Ivers, Barron, 2010) and a human information processing model (Mayer, 2001). With these models, all considerations for visual typology will be indicated in the implementation of visuals, learning design, visualization using virtual reality technologies and evaluation of visuals in multimedia development. Concluding the paper, meaningful connections between visuals and technological variables for developing multimedia project design will be considered. Indicators for learners and designers and teachers will be shown in learning imagery for visualization activity and educational technology. This will be followed by a discussion of the use of visuals and evaluation of visual materials based on the program of systematic evaluation developed by Dwyer (1972, 1978, 1987, 1994).

128-135

Authors: Milka E. Escalera-Chávez, Carlos A. Rojas-Kramer

The purpose of the research was to identify the existence of anxiety towards mathematics in high-school students. A quantitative, non-experimental and descriptive study was carried out. The sample was made up by 353 high school students from the city of Rioverde S.L.P. of which 164 were men and 189 were women. A non-probabilistic sampling was used. The Auzmendi test was applied and using only the data corresponding to anxiety. The results indicate that 15.3 % of students present a low level of anxiety, 68.6 % a medium level and 16.1 % a high level, which means that a large number of students feel anguish towards this discipline.

144-156

Authors: Roman S. Nagovitsyn, Dana K. Bartosh, Aleksandr Y. Ratsimor, Nataliya V. Neverova

The development of a strategy for continuous pedagogical education in the aspect of professional training of students in the direction of “Pedagogical education” contributes to solving the problem of lack of teaching staff in the region, including young graduates. The implementation of this technology involves a wide synergistic interaction of higher education institutions, pedagogical colleges and secondary educational institutions. In this regard, the goal of the research is to develop a structural model for the modernization of regional continuing pedagogical education in the school-college-university system and experimentally prove its effectiveness in the implementation of teacher education in the region. The structural model developed in the study includes synergistically interconnected blocks: regulatory and legislative, targeted, theoretical, methodological, technological, and resulting. The study involved various budget organizations (n = 50) and the pedagogical institute (n = 1) of the Udmurt Republic. The implementation in practice of the model showed its effectiveness at each link in the holistic system of the educational route of the region: from schoolchild to young specialist. The increase in the number of applicants for pedagogical training profiles, the increase in students' motivation from the first to the fifth year to the future professional activity, as well as the directly proportional reduction in the lack of young specialists in this area in the region consistently proves the effectiveness of the study and the need to continue it.

167-186

Authors: Maya N. Tatarinova, Marina G. Shvetsova

The purpose of this article is to develop and test an invariant of the basic model of the emotionally-valuable component (EVC) of the content of foreign-language education, allowing the implementation of this component at a primary stage in a secondary school (grades 2–4) . The leading approach to the study is emotionally-valuable, the methods are systemic-structural, comparative, organizational-functional; designing, modelling; experimental teaching; mathematical statistics; tabular and graphical representation of information. The use of the presented complex of complementary methods allowed us to solve all the problems of the study, namely: to present the concept of a foreign-language text of emotionally-valuable content; to select a specific type of such texts for inclusion in the model of the EVC in the conditions of primary foreign-language education; to describe the techniques of working with texts of emotionally-valuable contents at a primary stage in a secondary school and, finally, to design and test the model of the EVC, adapted to the conditions of teaching a foreign language in a primary school. The results of the study prove the expediency of including the EVC in the component structure of the content of foreign-language education and the construction of its models not only for a primary level, but, in in perspective, for all stages of school foreign-language education. The novelty of the work consists in the substantiation of the author’s concept of the EVC as the basis for the introduction of the emotionally-valuable approach in the practice of school-foreign language education.

201-207

Authors: Sergei I. Belentsov, Anastasia V. Fahrutdinova, Gulsina Y. Grevtseva, Ekaterina A. Batrachenko

The problem of free education as the direction in reformatory pedagogics of Germany of the second half of XIX – the beginnings of the XX centuries is staticized in this article. The child is the center of pedagogical process according to free education. Historical, system, culturological approaches are main in a research of this problem. They allowed to reveal intrinsic characteristics, features of process of education in Germany of the considered period. The leading ideas of free education it is a pedocentrizm as the organization of pedagogical process. The interests of children, refusal of systematic training and education of children by in advance developed curricula and programs, orientation to free works of the teacher and pupils enter here. The german teachers reformers F. Gansberg, L. Gurlitt, G. Sharrelman, figures of the Bremen school of sciences, founders of the concept of new «free education» (the theory of the personality), considered education the leading means of formation of the humane personality. They considered the personality as the highest value of society. Materials of article can be useful to pedagogical workers, organizers of educational work with the studying youth to acquaintance to life and activity of the famous German teachers and public figures of the second half of XIX – the beginning of the XX centuries.

215-221

Authors: Timur A. Magsumov

In his study of the formation of apprenticeship system and analyzing its content, methods and forms in the Russian secondary vocational school described in the materials of the Kazan school district of the late XIX – early XX century, the author relies on the theory of Western modernization and positive bureaucracy, attracting regulatory and educational documentation, scientifically and publicly pedagogical journalism as well as ego documents. Practical methods of knowledge application were planned in the pre-revolutionary schools in the logical-pedagogical relationship, but their implementation left much to be desired. In the organization of production practice, this was due to the lack of permanent bases and practical managers from the educational institutions, a certain attitude towards the trainee at enterprises as auxiliary personnel engaged in versatile non-system work, as it was openly declared by the advanced pedagogical press and even by the administrative and training personnel in schools. The article also reveals positive aspects in the organization of practical training, which are still relevant today. These include the introduction of active learning methods, improved reporting documentation, payment for the students, preparing them for the future profession and management. The rapid development of practical training was due to the need of a qualified young specialist who was prepared for independent production activity in the new conditions of accelerated modernization of the country's economy.

229-239

Authors: Artyom Yu. Peretyatko, Teymur E. Zulfugarzade

Ataman Nikolai Ivanovich Svyatopolk-Mirsky came under harsh criticism, targeted by his contemporaries from the liberal camp, as a persecutor of enlightenment who “has failed to completely abolish science, but not thanks to the lack of enthusiasm.” On the other hand, today's historians urge the academic community to re-assess the figure of the ataman who contributed to opening several new educational institutions on the Don. In our paper, we tried to throw light on the situation by deliberately focusing on the policy of N.I. Svyatopolk-Mirsky in education. As a result, we found out that numerous close-downs of gymnasiums, initiated by the ataman, and reduced number of students can be explained not so much by political considerations but by criminal and educational reasons, and the process began after 1885, when a gymnasium principal fled Novocherkassk following an attack by his students. At the same time, instead of closed gymnasiums, N.I. Svyatopolk-Mirsky established technical and vocational schools that were long urgently needed. Our primary conclusion is that although N.I. Svyatopolk-Mirsky pursued a logical and reasonable educational policy in general, he made a number of mistakes – he excessively cut enrolment in gymnasiums and failed to provide the region with graduates from the network of vocational schools he created.

254-262

Authors: Аlexander Р. Abramov, Oleg Е. Chuikov, Elena N. Pyaseckaya, Vladimir A. Svechnikov

The article presents the teaching techniques of Victor N. Soroka-Rosinsky. Those techniques are aimed at the pupils of closed-typed educational institutions to form voluntariness. In general, they represent a phased educational system evolving from coercion to conscious self-initiated activities. At the final stage, voluntariness is the result of teachers’ actions, when it is transformed into self-activity and self-organization of the students themselves on the basis of collective creativity and competition. Achieving such a state is the ultimate goal of educational influence, when a self-active, creative, voluntary initiative is set as the main life strategy by each student and the team as a whole. At present, the system developed by Victor N. Soroka-Rosinsky can become the initial basic matrix in the implementation of educational and morale building strategies in working with “troubled” teenagers to form their voluntariness as a necessary and socially significant trait of their personalities. It is volunteerism that currently meets the interests of the society and social basis of the Russian people.