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CONTINUITY IN THE SYSTEM OF LIFELONG CHEMISTRY EDUCATION:
PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS
E. I. Vasilevskaya
The principles of continuity in education become particularly relevant in the context of the concept of lifelong learning as a key problem in the 21st century as put forward by UNESCO. Building a system of lifelong education is designed to solve two main groups of problems: socio-educational problems aimed at building a system of lifelong education as part of social practice; and psycho-educational problems of individuals covering the processes of mastering new life-related, social and professional experience.
Let us discuss in more detail the structure of lifelong chemistry education in the Republic of Belarus. Traditionally, lifelong education is seen as the integration of different levels (preschool, primary, secondary, vocational, higher professional and post-graduate education), where mastering of each of the previous levels leads to the next. At a basic level, professional chemistry education begins in secondary school and is aimed at completing critical tasks for the training of staff in order for them to be included in social production. The basics of chemistry are learned in secondary school in several steps, each of which expands and deepens previous knowledge. For instance, at the initial stage, training involves courses such as Man and the World, Natural Study, etc., which pay much attention to the theme of non-living nature. At the main stage of chemistry education in school (grades 7-9), knowledge is created by studying a systemic course of chemistry which is compulsory for all educational institutions. This knowledge forms the basis for further chemistry education in senior grades (10-11). The compulsory study of chemistry in secondary school is systematic, relatively complete and provides students with a level of competence required for living in the modern society and for selecting methods of continuing education and professional self-determination in the future. Chemistry education in higher educational institutions is provided at a level of the major discipline (at chemistry faculties), natural sciences, engineering and technology, and humanities (as part of the course Basics of Modern Natural Science). Post-graduate chemistry education is carried out by training scientific, industrial research and scientific-pedagogical staff on Master's, postgraduate and doctoral programs. Additional chemistry education is represented by a professional development system which is traditionally focused on the professional development of teachers.
It is necessary to emphasize the high importance of horizontal integration for the continuity of chemistry education — in other words, the correlation between education received outside the formal system and education provided by educational institutions and specially organized programs. Worth noting is a recent enhancement of the role of media education and self-education, since, on the one hand, working with information is increasingly becoming the leading activity of modern society and, on the other hand, self-education has changed its social status and more and more serves as a tool to enable social mobility. Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of negative examples where publications in the media distort
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many chemistry facts and phenomena contributing to the development of “chemophobia”.
A critical analysis of the current system of lifelong chemistry education can identify a number of issues typical of the system of lifelong education in general. These, in particular, include the issues relating to: (a) the continuity of educational content at the stages of "school - university - post-graduate training"; (b) correlations between subject-specific, professional and trans-professional knowledge; (c) the continuity of basic and additional chemistry education based on differences between them and their functional characteristics; (d) the development of open learning taking into account the specifics of chemistry education; (e) the relationship between organized education and self-education; (f) the individualization of the learning process, including differences between gender groups; and (g) requirements for the forward-looking nature of the content of chemistry education relative to practical needs. Taking into account the available international and domestic experience, many of these problems can be solved by combining existing educational entities into single multifunctional educational institutions which can provide classes at various levels of education: from general secondary and vocational to higher education, including adult education. The continuity of education within these systems cannot be regarded as merely a progressive movement from the initial to subsequent stages of the education system. An inverse relationship between individual links in the education system are very important and also fundamental. These are, in particular, implemented by involving university professors in work done in school, and in the preparation of curricula and textbooks in school disciplines. At the same time it is necessary to translate the outcomes of scientific and educational research at the level of higher and secondary education so that the contents of relevant training courses reflect the current state of development of science. In fact, this deals with creating a unified educational information environment for higher and secondary educational institutions that ensures the effective functioning of a system of lifelong professional education.
The next step in the implementation of the notion of lifelong education relates to building a single system encompassing "science - production -education". This is driven by the high knowledge-intensity of industrial entities and the merger of fundamental and applied research with public production. An example of the successful operation of the association between education, science and production is the program known as "Chemistry Faculty - Institute of Physical and Chemical Problems - unitary scientific and production enterprises" at the Belarusian State University. Involving students in production not only leads to shorter periods of adaptation for young professionals, but can also be regarded as a kind of professional fitness test, with students' term and graduate theses being used in production processes. On the other hand, enterprises can generate orders for specific research, provide sites for pilot testing and assist the university in the technical support of the learning process. The considerable creative potential of knowledge-intensive production, which enables practitioners to be directly involved in the learning process, should not be disregarded.
Another aspect of the implementation of continuity of education is, in our opinion, its integration in general and cooperation in particular. One form of this
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cooperation is that between teaching and research work at different departments of the same faculty, at different faculties of the same educational institution, and finally, in different educational institutions, research centers and institutes of the Academy of Sciences. An example of effective implementation of such cooperation is that between the Department of General Chemistry at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and the Chemistry Faculty of the Belarus State University. An important area in the development of lifelong education is associated with teacher education and self-education focused on anticipatory staffing of all education systems. It is only through the proper training of teachers who can absorb, translate and generate new knowledge that the entire system of lifelong education can be fully implemented.
Thus, the process of lifelong education should encompass the entire scope of formal and non-formal education by performing the following functions: compensation (filling in the gaps in basic education), adaptation (responsible for operational training and retraining in changing production and social environments) and development (the satisfaction of spiritual needs and the creative growth of individuals). This continuity involves the development and adoption of a single system of goals and educational content throughout the period of study, the relationship and consistency of each component of said education (goals, objectives, content, methods, aids and forms of organization) to ensure effective progressive advancement and successful upbringing and training. Building a single education system based on common goal-setting and filling in the process of training and upbringing with content and procedures at various levels will help overcome the existing gap between its different stages and contribute to the creative development of students.
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