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- Everyone according to their abilities: tasks for weak students are offered to simplify
Everyone according to their abilities: tasks for weak students are offered to simplify
Teachers propose to abandon the same homework for the entire class and select exercises based on the preparation of students, Izvestia found out. In their opinion, this will help strong students not to waste time on the material they have already mastered, and those who find it more difficult to study will be better able to cope with the program and fill in the gaps in knowledge. However, parents fear that this approach will lead to the division of children into "strong" and "weak." In addition, the burden on teachers will increase. How to organize individual work and whether digital services can help in this is in the Izvestia material.
Why do I need different tasks?
More than a third of teachers believe that the same homework increases the gap between successful and lagging students, analysts told Izvestia. According to teachers, this approach does not always take into account the level of education of children. According to the <url> educational platform, 60% of teachers note a decrease in interest in learning among strong students, and 55% — difficulties among those who need more time to master the material. At the same time, more than half of the teachers regularly offer children exercises of varying complexity, focusing on their level of training.
"An individual approach to homework poses an important question: how to take into account the capabilities of each child while maintaining uniform educational goals for the entire class," said Oleg Makarov, head of the Teacher section of the educational platform. — At the same time, 8% of teachers, according to our research, are afraid of the ambiguous reaction of parents to tasks of varying complexity. Therefore, it is important that an individual approach is based on the real needs of students, and its results are understandable to both the teacher and the family.
As the primary school teacher Anna (name changed) told Izvestia, the preparation of multi-level tasks requires more time.
— Homework should serve only one purpose — to consolidate the material learned in the lesson, — she emphasized. — Exercises should be selected taking into account the preparation of children. If one child is still adding syllables, he needs to practice the technique, and his fluent classmate can learn the text by heart at this time.
Anna uses a similar approach in the Russian language lesson. Some students write down vocabulary words and insert the missing letters, while others compose sentences or small text with them.
Computer science teacher Maria (name changed) usually offers the whole class a mandatory part of homework and several additional exercises to choose from, among which there are both simple and more complex ones. This allows students to independently assess their abilities. In addition, solving advanced level assignments provides an opportunity to correct grades and prepare for exams.
Natalia Komarova, Associate Professor of the Department of Psychological Anthropology at the Institute of Childhood at Moscow State University, Candidate of Psychological Sciences and expert at the Ministry of Education of Russia, believes that effective learning is impossible without an individual approach. It is important for the teacher to understand what the child is coping with on his own, what he needs help with, how well he knows how to plan work and keep attention.
— Assignments should be selected based on how well the student has mastered the material. If he is just getting to know the basic algorithm, he needs to practice applying it according to the pattern. If he is already confidently coping with such exercises, you can offer him a task to analyze or apply the rule in an unusual situation. The topic remains common to the whole class, only the depth and nature of cognitive actions change — from simple to complex," the expert added.
What do parents think
Not everyone supports the idea of different homework assignments. Many parents worry about how this will affect their children's self-esteem and classroom relationships. According to one of Izvestia's interlocutors, a child who finds out that he got a simpler exercise may not feel as smart as his classmates. In addition, there is a risk that strong but insufficiently motivated students will deliberately hide their abilities in order to avoid more difficult tasks.
— My daughter is a talented lazy girl, she would definitely pretend to be stupid, — joked the schoolgirl's mother.
Parents are also concerned about how objectively the teacher evaluates the children's abilities. They believe that a lot depends on the human factor. If a teacher misidentifies a child's level of education — overestimates or understates the requirements due to personal bias - the student will find himself in a vulnerable position. An unfair approach can lead to lower academic performance and stress.
— The first question I have is: who, how and by what criteria determines my child's capabilities? The teacher is just a person, and the student may simply not like him," the interlocutor argues.
At the same time, the division into honors and twos has always existed in school. Multi-level assignments are unlikely to change the relationship between classmates if the criteria for their allocation are transparent and understandable.
Lack of time
The main problem for teachers remains the lack of time. As teacher Olga (name changed) notes, it is not easy to prepare at least three assignment options for a class of 35 people, especially when you need to check stacks of notebooks daily, make lesson plans and keep reports.
The scale of the problem is confirmed by research data from the <url> platform: 28% of teachers note a shortage of ready-made materials of various levels of complexity, 26% do not have time to develop them due to the current workload, and for 19% it is most difficult to check non-standard exercises. At the same time, 43% of respondents spend from 5 to 10 hours a week on methodical work, checking notebooks and reports, and almost a third (30%) spend more than 10 hours.
Honored Teacher of Russia, historian Alexander Snegurov recalled that an individual approach has been discussed for decades. Back in Soviet schools, they used additional questions and tasks with an asterisk. Some elements of this practice are still available today, but it is extremely difficult to prepare a personal task for each child.
— Teachers and children are already overloaded. In addition, focusing on the standard tasks of the OGE and the Unified State Exam leaves fewer opportunities for creative work," he said.
Natalia Komarova agreed with him. She noted that it is not easy to prepare separate exercises for each student, although there is already a lot of theory about an individual approach to learning.
"In practice, a differentiated approach to homework is often based on the teacher's observations of students: their cognitive characteristics, organization, interest in complex and creative tasks, and preferences in choosing exercises," the expert added. — It is also important to be able to analyze mistakes in independent work, take into account the pace of mastering the material, and be able to notice the individual characteristics of schoolchildren. And here the variability of tasks can vary greatly depending on the class.
Individual route
Olga Letkova, Chairman of the Association of Parent Committees and Communities, believes that in order to introduce tasks at different levels, it is necessary to review the framework of the school curriculum. In her opinion, teachers should be given more independence in organizing lessons.
"Today, teachers are squeezed by strict deadlines and the need to prepare classes for endless tests, which simply does not leave time for spot work with children," she said.
As a system solution, the expert suggests reducing the burden on teachers by reducing the number of classes, and shaping the curricula themselves based on the real age characteristics of schoolchildren.
Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Education, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences Irina Osmolovskaya believes that it is realistic to introduce a system of individual homework assignments.
"This requires special digital tools, additional teacher training, and the ability to build their own educational trajectory for each student," the expert noted. — And it's not just about homework, but about all the training. Moreover, we note that there are already interesting developments in this area in Russian pedagogy.
To prevent children from considering different levels of tasks unfair, Natalia Komarova advises explaining to them why the teacher suggests certain exercises.
— It can be compared to training in the gym: there are basic simulators for all muscle groups that are suitable for everyone, — she said. — And then a person can choose additional projectiles and the number of approaches by himself or with the help of a trainer in order to work out weaknesses or enhance the effect of the main workout. The main thing is that he can handle the load.
The expert emphasizes that the complexity of tasks should never become a label or a final assessment of a child's abilities. It's just a question of how well he has mastered the topic at the moment. With this attitude, homework ceases to be a source of stress and turns into a feasible practice that ensures real progress for every student.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Education. No response had been received at the time of writing.
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