Lilia Zaitseva, PhD in pedagogical sciences, the Deputy Director for educational work of Institute of Continuing Education and Retraining, took part in the international internship program “Educational innovations in Estonia, Finland and Sweden”.
In the framework of the international internship the study visits to the Finnish-Russian school (Helsinki), a private free school SYK (Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu), founded in 1886, took place. On the basis of the SYK School, an active discussion of the problem lessons of labour training and career guidance in the digital age were held. Here, in Helsinki, a meeting was organized with representatives of LUMO Education, the creators of the Finnish concept of the International Kindergarten LUMO and the International School LUMO. The participants of the program were given a lecture “How is the Finnish education system built and what is the secret of its success?”. The round table “School of the future in the Finnish education system based on phenomena with the included elements of “STEM-STEAM-STREAM-learning” was organized.
In Stockholm the participants of the internship made an educational visit to “Futuraskolan International” (a company that manages 9 pre-school institutions and 7 schools in Stockholm).
All institutions follow the Swedish national curriculum, which is complemented by the International primary curriculum (IPC) and the International secondary curriculum (IMYC). In addition, it was possible to visit kindergartens “Nasby Park”, “Skarpang”, high school “BERGTORP”. On the basis of one of the kindergartens, a round table “The Role of the Boards of Trustees of Preschool Institutions in the Formation of a Healthy Lifestyle of Preschool Children in Sweden” was held.
A special interest for all participants of the internship program was aroused by an educational visit to school No. 21 in Tallinn (“School of the XXI century”), a school with a century of experience in the field of education and rich traditions of its own. This interest was also due to the fact that on the eve of the planned internship, the results of the international study PISA – 2018 were published, where Estonia took the first place in Europe. The round tables on the issues: “Digital technologies as the innovative potential of educational process in the school of the XXI century”, “Children and parents of the XXI century: towards each other / the Role of boards of Trustees (councils of friends) of the school in supporting the creation of conditions for psychological comfort of the educational environment necessary for a healthy, successful and happy development of children” were organized in the school.
According to Lilia Zaitseva, the heads of all educational institutions provided maximum opportunities to get acquainted with the material and technical base, to attend classes and lessons, to organize conversations with students and teachers. Educational visits were supplemented with rich excursion programs in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Tallinn.