Functional Literacy and Writing: Some Cautions about Interpretation

Author(s):  
Roy H. Forbes
Author(s):  
Olga M. Khlytina ◽  

The article summarizes the results of an Internet survey of history teachers, in which 216 teachers from 31 regions of Russia took part. The author considers the development of the subject-oriented ability to work with historical sources in the context of the development of schoolchildren's functional literacy as a priority task of the modern Russian school. The aim of the study is to characterize the methodological ways of teaching schoolchildren the methods of analyzing historical sources dominant in teachers' work based on expert teachers' assessments of how well graduates of the 9th and 11th grades mastered the ability to critically analyze historical sources, identify their effectiveness, suggest options for improving mass teaching practice. The analysis of literature has shown that the ability to analyze historical sources is interpreted as the basis for the development of historical and critical thinking, a person's ability to independently cognize the past. Methodological science has substantiated various models of student analysis of historical sources based on the methodology of modern historical science and focused on the development of schoolchildren' subject and metasubject skills, functional literacy. At the same time, the results of the survey indicate that the vast majority of the teachers organize work with sources outside any system and sequence, and no more than once or twice during the term. Explaining the reasons for this, the teachers point to work overload, lack of high-quality didactic support of courses, and a low level of student learning. They also say they need advanced training in teaching schoolchildren to work with historical sources. The teachers note the low level of their students' mastery of the basic procedures for analyzing historical sources: according to the teachers' assessments, in 60-80% of classes in Russian schools, less than half of the students mastered the basic ability to “read” sources (extract explicit and implicit information). According to a third of the teachers, no more than 20% of their students are able to complete tasks on commenting on a historical source when a student, relying on knowledge of the context, begins to understand the past, think as historians think. Another quarter of the teachers indicated an interval of 30-40%. When working with sources, the dominant feature is the formation of historical knowledge, and the tasks of the students' learning the activity- and value-based components of educational historical knowledge are not solved effectively enough, which ultimately makes it difficult for students to achieve results in the subject and complicates the solution of the complex tasks of improving the quality of education that Russian education is faced with today.


Author(s):  
Atirkul E. Agmanova ◽  
Alyona A. Rubas

We discuss the problems of measuring the results of reading literacy in the context of the Kazakh academic discourse. Possible formulations of test items are analyzed, aimed at checking the implementation of the strategy for the development of functional literacy. The problem under consideration is very relevant in the context of the modernization of the school education system in Kazakhstan.


2021 ◽  
pp. 3-6
Author(s):  
Natalya Vinogradova

The article discusses the problem of the formation of functional literacy of primary schoolchildren as the main learning outcome that meets the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard of Primary General Education. The article reveals the characteristics of the concept of “functional literacy”, which includes two groups of achievements of a younger student - subject and metasubject. The reader gets acquainted with the widespread pedagogical “mistakes” of the teacher, as well as the difficulties that children face in the learning process. The main types of educational activity are determined, which to the greatest extent contribute to the formation of functional literacy of primary schoolchildren, which primarily include search and research activities.


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