The Learning and Neuro-Development Research Center
is very happy because we have an international interview today, we will share
some ideas from Russia, since we have the honor to talk with Irina Pechonkina.
LNDRC: Irina is an English teacher and
philologist by education, whom believes in humanism as ideology, and she
explains with her own words her passions:
Irina Pechonkina: To Alvin Toffer "The
illiterate of the 21-st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but
those, who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn"
Lifelong learning is my credo. I was born in a family of the all-round,
universal personalities- thus; my self-made dad had 3 MDs in medicine,
aviation, and history. I learned myself reading when I was 5 years old.
My first poetic work was published when I was 10 years old, and my first
scenario was realized when I was 20 years old.
I had changed from schools during my childhood, so I studied in Tukums
(Latvia), Chernyakhovsk, Step (Transbaikalia), Torzhok region, Irkutsk
(Siberia). This makes me happy, because I have been experiencing 4 types of
education systems. They are 1. Soviet System of education, 2. Dneprov's reform,
3."Our new school" with "money coming after a student" and
USE, 4. National (Federal) Education Standards (on the humanistic foundation)!!.
So I can tell Soviet system was linear and almost Spartan. It was
extremely boring. We couldn't use another sources besides of textbooks at school.
- LNDRC: How did this impact in your life?
Irina Pechonkina: This
is very helpful in my life, because I have the ability to use genetically
earning information of archetypes in a trice. The dual strategy and tactics,
being either "artist" or
"logic" helps in our
changing world. My two higher educations in two universities were free and
extremely productive. My professors were enthusiastic, creative, highly
intelligent and universal (salt of our earth). Thus, my favorite professor
Rubanovich was an enthusiastic professor, humanistic teacher and children's writer.
So learning languages and cultures, writing scenarios,
performing, singing with a guitar, winning the 3rd grade in sport gymnastics,
participating in scientific society of students, in dialectological, folklore
experience programs, construction team, festivals and what not - were happy
pages of my academic life.
-LNDRC: How did this systems influence your life?
Irina Pechonkina: All my school life -morally pure and with strong discipline- was
politicized and highly ideology-driven. Nevertheless, I think, I got a good
education through the method of repetition, memorization of texts, hacking of
the articles and poems from the textbooks, learning from simple to complex.
All these methods were structural and led to quality
of knowledge. It resulted in my phenomenal memory. Knowledge like idioms was
automatically retrieved out from memory in ready forms. Teachers' activity was
hypertrophied with hard taming of left hemisphere. It was characteristic of
algorithmic logical manipulation of bare information in humanities, discrete
step-by-step teaching and repetition without any possibilities for development
of creativity.
Surely, my brain was revolted by the system and found
an appropriate outcome. My thirst for reading, writing, traveling, communicating
as well as love of nature, art, theatre, music, religion, and also diverse
cultures led to harmonization of my hemispheres. Theoretical constructs plus
experience, adaptation, imagination and the highest moral values of my family-
compliance, mutual understanding, moral synergy, empathy, compassion- resulted
in forming asymmetric "cyclotomic"
type (left-bright).
During this period I'd read, published and learned a lot. Our Regional
Teachers' Training Institute, Yaroslavl SU, Novosibirsk SU, state initiative
"Our new school", Russian-American program "Teachers to
Teachers", "The First of September", VATE, NATE (National
Association of teachers of English) (MSU, VSU) with their famous scientific
leaders, helped me in my self-actualization. To me, personal-oriented approach
is very important in education both to a student and to a teacher. According to
my theory of major I-conception, it
consists of 3 items: I-conception of administration (creating of appropriate
environment for personal realization), I-conception of teachers
(objectification of subjective I), students (the situation of success). Success
includes intellectual-creative abilities, will qualities, initiative,
understanding of culture, social, civil competences, health. Besides, content
(fundamental kernel), ways, methods, technologies, reflecto practices, organization
of social lift working are required. From 2003 till 2011 I had realized my
conception on reflective culture forming through a long-term cross-cultural
project. The 8-steps are presupposition, anticipation, problematization,
immersion, visualization, interpretation, creation, and integration. The basic
elements are eternal moral values- from Aristotle- beauty, truth, good. The
content is classics. I prefer stylization, arts integration, a polylogue of
cultures, aesthetic symbols, IT, masks del'arte,
social roles so that we can be nearer to the natural situation. Unfortunately
we obliged to learn English in the artificial situation of communication. Every
detail must be "natural" and beautiful.
I adore method of thinking in depth, outside the box, discursive
approach, active learning strategies. The main intrigue is seeking to unravel
the mystery. Aims- enhancing the communicative competences on
semantic-cognitive- pragmatic-motivational level through classics,
national-regional component, polylogue of cultures and arts, synergy.
Reflective culture forming, development of critical thinking, creativity, synesthesia.
Shaping of socio-cultural, value-meaning, compensatory competences, personal
culturedigm, culture of peace, love for native homeland. Rendering the
atmosphere of tuning the students on a cultural-historical wave. Their names
are lessons of moral linguistics in the school of discursive reflection.
-
LNDRC: What did all these give you?
Irina Pechonkina: Then I
received some invitations for working in the newspaper and then on TV, but
after graduating from my university we moved to Voronezh. I began working in
school and felt drag. My brain appeared to be hungry, that's why I entered the
Linguistic University and I felt very much at home there. In addition, Soviet
system is considered one of the best in the world. It was free of charge and
free to all. Those days there were no terrorism, drugs, violence, ethnic hatred
and conflicts, mass depression, aggression in our country.
Every human was
sure in his/her future and guaranteed loaf of bread, roof over his/her head and
job. We went for a walk at nights and were not afraid of anybody. There was a
very good system for entering the university. Thus, we passed exams to our
teachers, and then we passed the exams on the same questions in the
universities. There were rabfak
(worker's school for guaranteed entering the universities), full-time course, or
part-time. Every student could have part-time work and get a scholarship. An
interesting fact from my school life: my school was the best in our city and
Ministry of Education offered me as a gifted child- a place in MSU "hors concourse".
-
LNDRC: How were those days to Higher Education? How
was to students?
Irina Pechonkina: There
were a lot of students entering our universities from all over the world. I'd
like to stress some cons in Soviet Union- only "steadfast Iskraists", or "nomenklatura" could make success in career. Government interfered
in religion. I think, the most terrible things were "cold war", or “iron curtain". It was ugly and
ridiculous to forbid English rock bands and BBC. You see, I was "a girl vice versa", that's why it
motivated me to learn English and to listen to "Jesus Christ is a
superstar" and to sing, "Smoke on the water" to the guitar.
- LNDRC: How is
Educational System in Russia?
Irina Pechonkina: School
system had been rapidly changing; we turned out to be free from traditional
classical teaching in sociogenic, didactic-centric, information, authoritarian,
mass school in the reckless 90-s. It was modified in "authoritarian-democratic" system of education. To me,
Dneprov's reform (1992) was a greatest event in new Russia after the collapse
of the Soviet Union. I returned from Germany to Voronezh and began working as a
vice-director in the college (it had been a school before, but it became to an
innovative institution- college, then it was named "lyceum").
A few words about Russian Education System: Secondary education (in the chain of -
pre-school- secondary- higher-postgraduate one) takes 11 years to complete.
There are specialized schools- teaching and educational complexes, gymnasiums,
lyceums, cadet schools, military schools, boarding schools, Sunday schools,
religious gymnasiums, and schools, schools with profiles, schools with major
subjects. Educational institutions may be state, municipal, private. After 9-th
grade (compulsory) a pupil obtains a Certificate of Incomplete Secondary
education and can go to a Community College or to the 10-11-th class.
Nowadays the country has more than 600 governmental
higher education institutions and more than 400 nongovernmental Higher Education
establishments and more than 1400 branches, and there are 3 degrees, that are
conferred by universities- Bachelor's Degree - 4 years, Specialist's Degree -
5, 6 years, Master's degree- 6 years.
-
LNDRC what have been your goal
working in Education?
Irina Pechonkina: Well, our college was one of the best schools in our city and we had a
greatest opportunity to create. I wrote a conception "City of
Masters"- a humanistic conception of the pedagogized environment, created
by school. Our aim was "to look for "Mozart" in every child.
It consisted of a lot of collective, creative,
research activities and relations. There were a lot of free hobby groups, study
groups, societies on interests. I had worked out this conception for 8 years,
had a lot of publications and reports on it in our region, and used universal
scientific methods- observation, experiment, assessment, comparison etc. during
qualitative and quantitative research. The results were rather good. I
participated in the competition "The best vice-director of the year"
and won the first place in our city. I was like a fountain and created near 100
scenarios, and poems. Ministry of Education, American guests, administration
from other institutions visited us on the seminars, festivals, and conferences.
I think, the system of college was rather comfortable
and effective. Our students passed exams every year, and we could rotate them
according to their success in learning. Our students had advanced knowledge in
Biology, Physics, Maths, History, and English. The 11-th form considered the
first grade of one or another university. Exams were mainly oral with 1- 2
problems in writing. We introduced defense of a scientific project for our
senior students. We had a right to choose textbooks and programs, we had 38
free hobby centers on interests in our college. There were a lot of professors
from other universities among our pedagogical staff. Thanks to our conceptions
and achievements of teachers and students, our institution had become a school
of year twice, but this period was over and our college was named as "lyceum", the first grade of the
higher education in our lyceum was eliminated. There were formed two
alternative types of schools- "yard"
(marginal) and "elite" in
the result of reforms.
Irina Pechonkina: The period of 2000-2009-2012 had
been famous for the experiment and introducing USE (Unified State Exam). On the one hand, the aim of imposing the test
system was humanistic- "We shouldn’t loose Lomonosov" in the
situation of high payment for higher education. USE was imposed as a form of
combination of school finals and entrance exams. They supposed the equal
opportunities for poor and rich students; however, this was not with standing
of corruption.
As we know, the main areas of the
reformers are orientation on development of a personality, major "I-conception", forming competences
and situation of success for every person in social integration, standardization
of education for continuity of programs and unity of educational environment.
In essence, USE causes destruction of the whole process of forming
creativity and critical thinking. To some teachers, training on the tests is
not productive. It's immoral, ineffective. It leads to degradation. It causes
wild fear, weird forms of physical and moral control and humiliation,
formalization of knowledge.
Relatives of the students are afraid of CCTV (TV Channel that broadcast
entirely in Russian), jammers, searches and other "measures" in fighting with using mobiles during USE. The main
task of a student is to guess the right answer, that's why a teacher must train
student's skills to automatism. It's rather boring, isn't it? Among minuses
there are a lot of not very good textbooks with poor content, tests in
textbooks have answers in the Internet, too. To pass USE a lot of students have
recourse to private tutors. I think, USE is not very convenient. We hope on new
forms of exams.
-LNDRC In your
opinion, which is element than a teacher should develop?, what is the most
important to you as a teacher?
Irina Pechonkina: "A teacher, like
an artist, must heed only the call that arises within him from three strong
voices- the voice of death with all its foreboding, the voice of love and the
voice of art" G.Lorka.
My friend Alma Dzib
Goodin says: "Talent is a door that we must open to students".
Teachers must set challenging tasks for their students so that they can gain
better knowledge and skills, increase their ability to solve different
problems. Hard tasks give a possibility to find out something new, to increase
skills and to be proud of yourself.
Good teachers should provide such problems to
their students. It's the only way to study. They say, if you sow a thought-
you'll reap an act, if you sow an act- you'll reap a habit, if you sow a habit-
you'll reap a character, if you sow a character- you'll reap a fate. To
Sukhomlinsky: "It's intolerable, disgusting, when a teen feels adults wave
their hands at him and consider him incapable. In school- a sacred place, where
must be humanism and sensitivity- such sort of relationship we must consider
monstrous. In school a child must only enjoy and take pride. He mustn't suffer,
feel humiliation so that after leaving school he can live with a stiffen
heart."
To Prof. V.Vasilyev, "Belief of a teen in
himself depends on satisfaction of results of his own activity", while to
Bubler, "a human being finds his own being only through absorbing the
universal". I adore Lamarti, when he explains: "If a human being
loses at least one of the moral truth, the keeper of that there is humanitarian
education, the human being as well as all mankind will perish.I'm sure- if our
children don't read- read with them. If they can't appreciate beauty- unravel
the mystery of beauty with them.You must teach them to find beauty in nature,
arts, cultures, human relations.
There are two types
of creative thinking- convergent-vertical and divergent-lateral, creative lack
of implementation is one of the reasons of children's deadaptation. Creative
human beings have got empathy, originality, plasticity of mind. They can enjoy
their work, work efficiency. They are self-confident and experienced. They have
an inner sense of "the banal". There are a lot of technologies-
Osborn's table, the method of 636, the method of collective writing,
brainstorming, mapping, synectics, Socratic method, creative workshop etc, etc.
What is inadmissible as to creative persons?
-Criticism, captivity, fear, time trouble, routine, rivalry, general bad
conditions, the situation where neither regalia, nor privileges, disinterest...
But I think, that even under pressure and humiliation a creative person is able
to create for the sake of surviving. Nowadays I have got 4 jobs- in lyceum,
Sunday school, Teachers' Training Institute, commercial courses. I have written
more than 50 publications, have attended a lot of conferences and seminars all
over the world, have won a lot of awards, and you know what? I'm still
searching…
- LNDRC
which has been your hardest experience as a teacher?
Irina Pechonkina: I think, that the most important thing is to
enable individuals to have equal rights and possibilities to education. That's
why in this connection USE (in a new format) should be aimed at solving this
social problem. You see, I have been fighting against stereotypes for the sake
of human and humane. Well, the period of 2001-2009 was one of the hardest in
education and schooling.
Besides, my family moved to another region in
the city. I'm proud, the products of my creativity and logical thinking were
used in the right way by the entrepreneurial, resourceful leaders (may be,
dealers) with right connections and I turned out to be... in the
"yard" school domiciliary.
In the
"yard" school there were a lot of children from poor families. There
were children from dormitories, single-parent families, even children of
homeless bums, addicts and alcoholics. I admire the teachers, who could
experience this period, who managed to remain humanistic and highly
professional. The innovative schools were far from our location and the
classroom was rather heterogeneous. My main aim was leveling my new students.
My family helped me to equip my poverty-stricken, very cold cabinet with
curtains, a tape-recorder, tables.
My elder son painted the door and bought
discs with English films in Moscow. From time to time I took a TV-set, which
was one in school. Students could drink tea and listen to good music in my
cabinet during breaks. I chose the textbooks "Hotline" and
"Matrix" for my students. The program was approximate and I had a
right to modify material of the textbooks. My ability to be absorbed by my work
with children and the most valuable ability which is "to grasp at the
straw" of creativity in a desperate attempt to save in the situation of
despair -were very helpful. I felt benevolence for my students. I decided to
harmonize their life. For their acculturation I saturated their life with
sharpest emotions.
- LNDRC If
you would have all the money of the world, and no restriction to take decision
to design a school, what would you include in it?
Irina Pechonkina: "If you skimp on schools, you'll go bankrupt on
prisons"(Yamburg). If I would have all the money of the world, and no
restriction to take decision to design a school, I would include it in my fairy
tale 'City of Masters'. It would be a real city, consisting of 3 buildings for
every age category in the Gothic style. There would be few conference halls,
transformation library, hair salon, game room, labs for research, teachers'
room with cafe, recreation (relaxation) room, Planetarium, halls with soft
furniture, cabinets with individual computers, room with musical instruments,
room-studio, museum, rooms for home economics, wood shop, auto shop, metal
work, interior garden, park, Zoo, "London eye".
It would be
three tasteful and healthy meals in a big modern canteen, shooting gallery, and
bowling. Surely, it would be Western-style renovation. My long-life dream is to
build a health-improving complex with 2 swimming pools, with extended
therapeutic infrastructure, inhalatorium, halo chamber, massage, diets,
solarium, herbal therapy, gymnasium, aerobics studio, out-of-room sanatorium.
There would be some buses and cars. In other words, club, medical, research,
relax infrastructure. I would raise teachers' pay; give scholarships to every
senior student on successful professional socialization. It would be possible
to pay for programs and textbooks, which could be worked out by our local
scientists and teachers. Besides, it would be the greatest opportunity to pay
for Ph.D defense of our scientifically oriented teachers. There would be a fund
for traveling, visiting and organizing scientific conferences, competitions and
mutual celebrations with our guests from all over the world.
LNDRC:
Thank you so much Irina, you have given us an amazing perspective from Russian
Education but mainly from your passion about teaching, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
If you want to read her ideas, you can visit: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Irina_Pechonkina/?ev=hdr_xprf and if you speaks Russian, maybe you want to try http://festival.1september.ru/authors/101-247-856
If you want to read her ideas, you can visit: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Irina_Pechonkina/?ev=hdr_xprf and if you speaks Russian, maybe you want to try http://festival.1september.ru/authors/101-247-856
