How school education has changed in recent decades. Analysis

In recent years, educational standards have changed several times: from rigid fixation of topics and the amount of knowledge, the system has come to clearer and more detailed requirements. At the same time, the school curriculum itself has been updated — new subjects have appeared, the format of old courses has changed, and digital technologies are being actively introduced, which have become part of everyday school life. What exactly are the main differences between the school education of zoomers and millennials — in the material of Izvestia.

System development

• Federal State Educational Standards (FGOS) are the rules by which the entire system of general education in Russia operates. They set what is taught in schools and how: programs are compiled according to them, textbooks are written, school hours are allocated and students' results are evaluated.

• The main idea of the standards is to ensure that education is uniform across the country, and a child can easily change schools, cities, or educational formats. In addition, the Federal State Educational Standard provides a logical link between the levels of education. Knowledge from elementary school should be enough to move on to primary school and then to high school.

• Standards have changed several times in recent decades. Early versions for millennials focused on specific topics and the amount of knowledge in the subjects. Later, starting in the late 2000s, the focus in the training of zoomers shifted to the development of universal skills - the ability to search for information, work in a group, work on projects. Schools were given more freedom, but because of this, the programs began to vary greatly, and the level of graduate training turned out to be heterogeneous.

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• Updated standards have been in effect since 2022, making the requirements clearer. Now it is specified in detail what exactly and in which class students should study, what results they are required to show and what kind of workload is acceptable. The issues of upbringing, psychological characteristics of children and education of schoolchildren with special needs are spelled out separately. It is assumed that this approach will simplify the quality control of education and make the school system more understandable and predictable.

Key changes

• The school curriculum for zoomers is noticeably different. There are new subjects and updated versions of old courses. Elements of astronomy are now being studied within the framework of physics, and in some schools children are taught to play chess. The work was renamed "technology", and the content of these lessons has greatly expanded: in addition to the usual practical skills, students get to know and work on creative projects, as well as try themselves in different types of activities. Instead of natural science, the course "The World around us" has appeared, which combines knowledge about nature, society and man, as well as addresses issues of ethics and education.

• At the same time, the school is increasingly using digital technologies. Multimedia whiteboards, laptops, online conferences and interactive platforms have made the learning process more convenient and allowed us to simulate practical tasks. Digitalization has not made education either better or worse — it has simply changed the environment. Online formats have simplified the organization of the process and expanded the tools, but they do not guarantee an increase in the quality of education.

• The process of textbook unification was largely inevitable. Freedom of choice previously allowed teachers to work with strong authors, but at the same time led to serious distortions, especially in the humanities. Unified textbooks have become a way to bring back common standards for teaching history, language, and culture, where a multiplicity of radically divergent interpretations is unacceptable.

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• Many schools have electronic passes, and parents receive notifications about their children's movements. Although smartphones are still limited in the classroom, interest in technology is supported through clubs and additional classes, from robotics to developing applications that help students think about their future profession.

• In addition, the modern school lives by new rules. Instead of the "knowledge-skills-skills" model, a transition to competencies was made, and this radically changed the expectations of the student. Now he is required not so much to remember facts, but to be able to find information and act in new conditions, which naturally affects the content of programs and learning methods.

• The modern graduate zoomer generally differs from the students of previous generations in living conditions. He exists in a world of constant change and multitasking. The main requirement for a school today is to teach a person to adapt and accept instability as the norm.

When writing the material, Izvestia interviewed:

• honored Teacher Alexander Snegurov;

• Alexander Savenkov, Director of the Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology of Education at Moscow City Pedagogical University.