Self-education projects are tools for effective organization of educational activities

Margaret Sargsyan

Education should serve the individual. The basis of education is the individual, the learner-beneficiary, and the teacher is the organizer-consultant. The human factor and its importance are primary. they should be talked about and distinguished. In the 21st century, the organization of education and its content should be directed to the individual and his educational needs.

The individualization of education is an important problem facing the educational system: individualization to the end, with the manifestation of the interests and preferences of the individual student, bringing them to the disciplinary and interdisciplinary content area, the field of clearly mastered skills, solving specific problems. It is indisputable that the true education of an individual is self-education, and the driving force behind self-education is undoubtedly the preferences of the learner.

Both the content and the organization of faceless education not aimed at an individual are incomparably easy, because they fit into a faceless educational template and are served to everyone, ignoring the human factor. In this case, both the presented teaching material and its assimilation and transformation of experience into skill become general, abstract and elusive. The same volume offered to everyone, the same approaches and imposed stereotypes deprive the learner of the ability to develop as an individual, have his own opinion and acquire his own research abilities.

It is clear that the educational service provided to an individual is complex in terms of content and organization. For its full and effective organization, there should be no more than 15 students in the group, so that it is physically possible to work with each student, guide them individually, and make observations. In terms of content, the teacher will need a great amount of time to prepare. This is completely different work with a different scope. It is clear that today's reality creates neither financial nor organizational conditions for such work.  

The statement of this question is present in the new standards of teaching, it is at the basis of the child's right for education, but it isn’t mentioned how to organize such work, how to assist the teacher and how to take up such activities.

Education aimed at everyone is simple in its organization, fits into one model, meanwhile, it increases the teacher's workload by 80 percent, but the result of such work is concrete, ensuring the individual development of a person.

We all understand that this is the way. Today's student demands an individual approach and personalized work with him, emphasizing his preferences and other educational needs.

I am trying to emphasize individual projects in educational work. In the projects intended for the whole class, I take into account the wishes of the individual. While discussing the working plan of a project with the class, I give the learner the opportunity to choose (I include such a component in the projects). The learner is given the opportunity to make a proposal within the framework of a specific project and work on that proposal. By preserving these three components, I highlight the educational order of the individual.

In the educational work, we also include project components proposed by the student or, so to speak, self-education projects. This work makes students encouraged, independent and responsible.

Project Description, Content Emphasis  

The basis of the author educational program is the education of the individual, the development of the skills, abilities, and opportunities of the individual.

The learner reads what he is interested in, writes, talks about what he is inspired by, and by narrating his own thoughts he begins to write competently, freeing himself from the texts dictated by others, from the patterns of thought and speech. He acquires the necessary language skills with the formulation of real live speech and his own experience.

A wide range of activities carried out by preferences opens up when working on individual projects. This work is offered to students in parallel with the compulsory one. Individual and sometimes group work directions are discussed with learners individually or in small groups. Then the students have time to think, if necessary, we discuss again, outline the development of the work, and specific problems. The directions of project work are very different. The learners can constantly change the direction and content of the activity or work as long as they are interested in the given field.

We present the main directions of work, which are included in the Armenian Language and Literature program as mandatory components of activity.

Creative Direction: promotes the development of the learner’s written speech, imagination, the use of figurative speech means, the development of the ability to freely express one's thoughts. Students at different stages of creative work do not even imagine what they are capable of, but during concrete work they see that they find the topic of what to say more easily, write more extensively, express themselves more boldly, and strive for philosophical conclusions.

Translational-research direction: stimulates the learner's specific language and research skills, develops analytical thinking, logic, the ability to find reliable sources in the information field, to compare facts, to independently select the material to be translated, to separate and translate important accents, and to draw conclusions. Research works are first developed around the most popular topics of the century (car, telephone, and computer). However, in the course of time, they change imperceptibly and become real “scientific courses" understandable to the public. The important principle of this direction is that all the sources used by the learner must be mentioned. The work must be presented orally in the class, and at the end the learner explicates his conclusion as the result of the work.

Reading Direction: promotes the student's reading skills, teaches to follow the rules of using the library, to choose books, to have favorite authors, to recognize Armenian and foreign writers and their works, which are not included in either general education or author educational programmes. The learner selects what to read independently. The learner publishes his analysis of the on his blog, where it must be stated whether he would recommend his friends to read it and why.

Conducting radio and video programs, round tables, discussions: promotes the development of a number of important skills, which, regardless of the learner’s chosen profession, form a conscious, responsible citizen. These skills are: to be able to notice and distinguish problems from their life that need to be solved, to make their solution a goal, to distinguish questions aimed at it, to find people, specialists who can help them with the solution to that problem, to turn to them, to ask questions, if necessary, demand answers, to show multifaceted approaches to problem solving, listen to all sides related to the problem, follow up, organize conversations with adults, professionals or peers on the topics they are interested in. This project direction also implies the reading and presentation of poetry, fragments of Grabar (old Armenian), pieces from Western Armenian literature in the format of video poetry, and radio reading.

Project objectives:

• impart search skills

• refer to relevant authors, specialists

• help determine what the learner wants

• bring out the learner's preferences

• teach the learner to approach the issue in a multifaceted way

• use time effectively

• self-assess one’s own work.

Learners’ feedback about these projects is positive. They work enthusiastically. As a development, the continuation of the project arises, various meetings are organized, which are coordinated by the learners themselves. Such work also becomes the basis for students to orientate themselves in the matter of giving priority to the activity by choice, or when deciding the topic of the research work.