Russian and Norwegian Education: Areas of Common Interest
How do Norwegian schoolchildren study mathematics? How do students-future teachers of science live? What studies are of interest to colleagues from the Arctic University of Norway? — These and other equally interesting and important issues were discussed by representatives of Murmansk Arctic State University and the Arctic University of Norway (UiT) at the seminar «Cooperation in teacher education» which took place in Alta (Norway) on the 7th — 8th of November. MASU delegation included teachers from the Department of Mathematics, Physics and IT (Irina Lazareva, Vera Levites, Asia Lyash, Oleg Lyash) and International Office (Inna Ryzhkova, Yulia Shestova).
MASU teachers presented the main areas in which the department works, both in the field of training future teachers of mathematics, physics and computer science, and in the field of training IT specialists to their Norwegian colleagues from the Department of Education. The Norwegian colleagues spoke about their research which addressed issues such as the nature of preschool education, the effective use of teaching materials in the classroom, and the possibility of mathematical education for students with low academic performance. The seminar also discussed the organization of student teaching practice, the use of distance learning technologies and the features of the Russian and Norwegian higher education systems.
The practical part of the seminar included attending mathematics lessons in upper secondary school (grades 8–10) and a geology lecture for future science teachers.
At the end of the seminar, a round table was held during which the Russian and Norwegian colleagues discussed the issues of further interaction and cooperation in the field of training teachers of natural sciences.