The modern educational environment of the university is at the stage of active development of digital solutions to improve the learning process of students. The article discusses the possibilities of using virtual reality technology in the preparation of a future teacher. The approaches to the development of a project for the creation of a simulation simulator for the development of conflictological competence of students of pedagogical specialties, designed for training in immersive environments, are presented. The importance of using situational and constructivist learning in virtual reality is shown. The substantiation is given for the selected set of situational cases, the solution of which is possible in a virtual environment and will allow the future teacher to determine his behavior in pre-conflict and conflict situations with the aim of constructively resolving them or preventing them. The components of conflictological competence are described and an approach to assessing the effectiveness of its development is presented.
Keyword(s) : pedagogy
EMI for Universities: How to Benefit from Embodying It into Educational Process
The article considers the role of the English language in global tertiary education (ESP/EAP, Adjunct
ESP, EMI and ICLHE) and use a critical approach to analyze the current state of EMI integration into
the educational process and tensions that arise due to conceptual gap in its adaptation to existing
education policy. Applying a critical theory framework, the authors study the differences between
EMI and internationalization that both instructors and university management adopt to curriculum
design and pedagogy development. The research examines the ways internationalization and the
EMI strategy affect curriculum design in universities; the ways university management incorporates
global trends into curriculum design; the impediments that discourage the implementation of
these programs identified by both educators and students. The researchers examine the EMI
implementation under three dimensions: epistemology, teaching praxis, and ontological elements
of students’ development and use document analysis related to the administration, curriculum, and
course syllabi of EMI programs, followed by interviews with actors of the international classroom
to outline the most challenging issues tertiary teachers, students, and university management face
in EMI programs implementation. Moreover, the article examines evolving EMI perspectives as
a means to boost internationalization and to improve teaching quality via integrating the best
practices into the local context, including the expansion of teaching competence in both English
language and pedagogy, introduction of language prerequisites for applicants, a constant adaptation
of the curriculum to meet competence requirements.
Using technology to prepare graduates for careers in hospitality and tourism
The relevance of the problem at issue in the article is due to the need to develop multifunctional
competence of future managers of hotel and touristic system: these managers face tough competition
for jobs, have to know modern information and communication tools, hotel and tourism business,
that is, have multifunctional competences. However, universities still do not have a single integrative
(interdisciplinary) basis for training such specialists, there is no package of training information
and technical means, strategies and technologies of training, sound organizational and pedagogical
conditions.
The purpose of the study: basing on the analysis of organizational and pedagogical conditions for
training specialists for professional activities in the sphere of hotel service and tourism to determine
the content, structure, features for developing multifunctional competence of future specialists.
The research methodology is based on the concept of key competence. This methodology involves
systematization, classification of significant (key, resultant, autonomous, etc.) problems; developing
on this basis the matrix of significant problems and defining the overall strategy, technology
management process of professional development.
The novelty of the research is that the matrix of significant problems of master’s training of future
specialists for working in the sphere of hotel service and tourism has been developed; strategies and
technologies for developing their multifunctional competence have been defined.
The results of the study are implemented in the form of content, structure and organizational and
pedagogical conditions for the preparation of future specialists to work in the sphere of hotel and
tourism services.
Are Madrassa and Mainstream School Teachers Mutually Exclusive? British Muslims discuss the influence of teachers on their emerging identities
This paper presents the findings of a study exploring the attitudes, experiences and relationships of
Muslim youth with their madrassa (supplementary school) and mainstream school teachers in the
backdrop of British government’s intense scrutiny and regulatory practices of educational spaces
occupied by Muslim youth.
This study further explores the perceived pedagogy used in both educational contexts and its influence
on the growth and development of the learners. British Muslims discuss how they negotiate their
identities against a normalised societal narrative dictating diverse cultural, religious and secular
educational contexts as conflicting polemics culminating in Muslim youth leading segregated lives.
The research was conducted in a small inner city, through an independent measures design
involving two groups of 22 participants, current and ex-madrassa pupils, aged 11 – 19. Interpretative
Phenomenological Analysis of the data revealed that over the past ten years there has been a change
in the attitudes of British Muslims towards their madrassa and school teachers. Due to the repetitive,
impersonalised rote learning pedagogy inculcating little meaningful knowledge; the harshness and
punitive nature of teachers and limited teacher-student engagement the ex-madrassa pupils held a
stronger relationship with their mainstream school teachers. In contrast the current pupils preferred
their madrassa teachers describing them as ‘fun and kind’. School teachers are perceived to develop
them as wealth producing capital and madrassa teachers as inculcators of moral character, laying the
foundations for becoming a better human being.
British Muslims discuss the changing nature of their madrassa teachers from overseas, to homegrown
British educated imams, helping to contextualise their understanding of Islam to their lives
in Britain and now more recently to online tutors with British teaching qualifications. They compare
these with professionally trained school teachers.
This evidence-based small-scale study identifies, through the voices of British Muslim youth, that
school and madrassa education does not have to be mutually exclusive. Through mutual sharing
of teacher training, pedagogy and curriculum planning, schools and madrassas have the potential
to homogenise the learning experiences helping Muslim youth inscribe their religious identities
within a secular pluralistic British society. This paper provides British Muslim youth a platform to
voice their felt experiences and make recommendations for madrassa teachers and leaders; school
teachers and leaders and policy makers.
21st century learning, technology and the professional development of teachers
There are two imperatives for transforming K-12 teaching and learning.
The educational imperative. The World Economic Forum concludes that at a time of fast-paced
digital change, countries need innovative places of learning that can provide the next generation
with the skills of the future (Kruchoski, 2016).
The technology imperative. The information technology revolution presents technology-rich
innovative learning environments for improving and extending teaching and learning and the
affordance of customisation of learning to individual learner needs, a concept which is highly
supported by the learning sciences (Groff, 2013).
The first part of this paper examines the competencies learners need for tomorrow’s world and the
innovative technology-based methods of learning needed for the regeneration of education systems.
The later parts of the paper focus on the teachers’ pre-service and in-service training needs in regard
to information and communications technology (ICT) integration in the classroom and how ICT
can be used to provide professional development for teachers and principals.