Appeal to the Ideas of A.S. Makarenko in Building the Educational Process in a Modern Primary School

The article discusses the problem of using the didactic ideas of the outstanding domestic teacher Anton Semyonovich Makarenko for the successful teaching and comprehensive development of Russian junior schoolchildren, improving modern educational systems, and implementing socially active pedagogy in practice. Particular attention is paid to the role of the teacher’s personality in the formation of a positive attitude of students to cognitive activity. The methodological techniques that were developed and tested in the pedagogical experience of A.S. Makarenko so that the process of acquiring knowledge and mastering skills becomes interesting, useful and personally significant for each student.

Motivation as a necessary factor in the organization of non-linguistic students’ scientific work

Students’ scientific work is an integral element of the training of creative specialists, so the motivation for the implementation of this type of work is a necessary task at the modern stage of the development of education. The article presents approaches to students’ scientific work (an instructional technique with the help of which the teacher supports and manages educational activities to deepen and expand their knowledge and skills; active pedagogy, which contributes to the development of students’ research; active learning of students with an emphasis on the development of their intellectual and research skills; one of the most important means of improving the quality of training and education of future specialists, etc.). The main driving motivational factors of scientific work are identified (desire to obtain subjectively new knowledge, development of cognitive and creative abilities, desire to understand the essence of certain phenomena and reveal them to other participants of the educational process, desire for self-realization, etc.). Main types of scientific work when teaching the English language to students of the non-linguistic specialties are presented (summary and annotation in English, preparation and defence of abstracts on relevant topics, preparation of theses or articles with their subsequent publication, encouraging students to participate in scientific conferences in English). Our own experience in organizing the scientific work of students is described (defining the topic of the abstract according to the working programs of the faculties, holding conferences at the faculties and the All-Ukrainian scientific students’ conference). Scientific work of this format contributes to the formation of students' positive motivation for self-education and self-development; regular participation in scientific work develops the need for self-education, creative growth, and ability to solve problems independently.

School Makerspace Manifesto

This contribution describes a sustainable model for makerspaces in primary and lower secondary schools. Based on Indire research on innovative school spaces, it discusses the theoretical background that schools should adopt and create before starting a makerspace lab. It also looks at which aspects of the maker culture can successfully be combined with active pedagogy. In this way, educational institutions and makers can come together to build makerspaces within schools that will be useful to both.

Remote Teaching of Building Information Modeling During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study

This article reports on a Building information modeling (BIM) distance learning experience in a pandemic context. Based on a description of the experience and a survey completed by the learners at the end of the course, the article presents and discusses various aspects of the training, including the overall satisfaction of the learners, their evaluation of the technical aspects and the practical work, as well as the proposals made to improve the course. The analysis shows that some elements of the teaching functioned well, while others were rated as being less satisfactory by the students. More specifically, the learners highlighted the need to find ways and means to improve the level of interaction, which is reduced by online education. The use of video clips as a support for practical work was recognized as being effective, but it seems useful also to resort to the use of collaborative platforms dedicated to the construction industry. A critical aspect is the remote access to computer labs with computers where the taught software is installed, as not all of the learners will always have the option of having it on their personal computers. Although the results of the experiment are difficult to generalize due to its particular context, they identify interesting avenues for improvement while paving the way to unique opportunities for the use of active pedagogy principles in BIM education.

Pedagogía activa y su impacto en las competencias emocionales de los estudiantes

The objective of the research was based on analyzing active pedagogy and its impact on the emotional competencies of high school students in the province of Manabí. It was of a cross-sectional correlational descriptive type with a non-experimental design; the population consisted of 84 high school students. The active pedagogy (PA) is positively correlated in 0.058 with the emotional competences (CE), being necessary to deepen by the teachers. When the research variables are positively related, a favorable perception is conceived by the students about the performance of the teachers in order to promote a comprehensive education where the emotional and academic are combined, promoting a person capable of addressing the different challenges to which he faces due to an assertive management of his behavior.

Assessing non-technical employability skills in public relations pedagogy: reflections of an educator and students

Higher education faces the pressure of training students with non-technical employability skills, as well as meeting academic rigour and curriculum outcomes with limited resources. Vocational disciplines such as Public Relations (PR) grapple with the challenge of preparing students for the profession by developing the necessary skills. In an attempt to develop these skills, third-year South African university students were given a class assessment that required reading a number of set readings and working in groups. I present how, in the design of the module assessment, I included, through active pedagogy and participatory learning, the development of non-technical employability skills in PR, in addition to curriculum outcomes. I share an outline of the assessment, as well as the feedback from students from their responses to a questionnaire administered at the end of the semester. I discuss my own reflections on how the use of this assessment targeted curriculum outcomes and multiple non-technical employability skills as required within a third-year PR module. I highlight how this design was achieved without onerously increasing the number of assessments or resources needed. Through this article, I present practical student engagement in the classroom through effective incorporation of a flipped learning approach in an effort to develop non-technical employability skills.Key words: participatory learning, non-technica employability skills, public relations, flipped classroom, assessments, graduate attributesHow to cite this article:Sitto, K.M. 2020. Assessing non-technical employability skills in public relations pedagogy: reflections of an educator and students. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 4, n. 1, p. 51-68. April 2020. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=136This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/