According to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University was approved as a basic higher education institution according to the results of the II part of the nationwide student academic competition in technology. The last week competition participants were over a hundred students learning "Technology". Those were the winners of I part of the nationwide student competition, the students from over 20 Ukrainian higher educational institutions of III and IV accreditation level from all the regions of Ukraine.
Technological education of the younger generation at the beginning of the third millennium has become an integral part of secondary education, irreplaceable for a harmonious development of an individual. Olena Yaroshinska, the Vice-Rector for Research, Associate Professor, Oleksandr Kobernyk, the Chairman of the Nationwide Association of scientific and technological education practitioners, Professor, and Andriy Tsyna, the Jury Chairman, Professor, were speaking about the importance of technology implementation, the high standards in education, especially in the study of mathematics, science, engineering, applied sciences and foreign languages.
Stanislav Tkachuk, the Dean of Technology and Pedagogics Department, Professor, familiarized the students with the rules and regulations of the competition. He said that the task of the competition was to identify the gifted students, promote the development of creative thinking, activate the scientific research in solving the problems of technological education, and promote the deep understanding and creative usage of the achievements of modern theory and methods of teaching technology. The competition is an opportunity of individual championship in the mass event of future teachers; it is a chance for the gifted students to shine.
During the competition there was a meeting of all Department Deans which was attended by the Deans and Directors of educational institutions of I-II and III-IV accreditation levels. The meeting discussed various issues of training highly qualified specialists on the basis of the new standards of education.
The competition participants (the students studying the relevant courses at the time of the competition or having studied those disciplines in the past academic year) were offered the tasks based on advances in the theory and methods of teaching technology today. To solve those problems one should have had not only sufficient knowledge of the educational material, but also the professional culture of the future specialists.
In order to determine the level of theoretical and practical competence of future teachers of technology the competition program included the following stages: presentation (team championship); making a lesson plan (in accordance with the new program of study); experimental teaching (a fragment of a lesson), development of a creative project; practical tasks of project creation performed in the educational workshops; profession-based training tests.
The creative work included designing one’s own project in service industry or technical work. In assessing the creative development of a lesson plan (homework) the following aspects were taken into consideration: completeness and logical consistency of presentation, originality and novelty of the method, ability to use modern educational technology, ability to generalize, utilize the theory in practice, and literacy of course.
The practical work which included the project implementation stage was performed in the educational workshops during 4 hours. The jury was evaluating the students’ observing the safety regulations and cultural norms, handling the training tools and equipment, accuracy of manufacturing process and work technology, time compliance, visual esthetics of the manufactured items and more.
The tests included the specialty-related questions. The total number of points (maximum 100) included all completed tasks (creative development of lesson plans, experimental teaching, development of creative projects, practical work in educational workshops, and the specialty-related tests).
The winners were awarded with Diplomas of "The winner of the nationwide competition" (I, II and III Degrees) and cash bonuses established by the Ukrainian Association of Scientific and Technological Education Practitioners. It is pleasant to note that this year's first place is won by Andriy Shavarin, the graduate student of Pavlo Tychyna USPU. He has demonstrated brilliant results. The first prize was shared with Gabriela Halambol (Poltava V.G Korolenko State Pedagogical University). The second place was shared between Tetyana Shkliaruk (Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University) and Bogdan Tropak (Oleksandr Dovzhenko Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University). The third place was shared among Tetyana Papernyuk (Vinnitsa State Pedagogical University), Maria Keliy (Donbas State Pedagogical University), Vitaliy Yavir (Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University), Vladislav Hymchenko (National Pedagogical Dragomanov University), Volodymyr Levytskiy (Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi State Pedagogical University named after Grygoriy Skovoroda), Natalia Hurnyeyeva (Chernihiv State Pedagogical University named Taras Shevchenko). The Ceremony of awarding the Diplomas and the cash prizes was held by Oleksandr Bezliudniy, the first Vice-Chancellor of USPU.
During the competition held by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Ukrainian Association of Scientific and Technological Education Practitioners, Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University in USPU, the Ukrainian decorative art competition was organized to integrate the Ukrainian national culture into the world, emphasize aesthetic education of young people, identify and support the talented and outstanding students in the field of decorative art, shape aesthetic feelings, develop creative abilities, bring up the national identity. The competition presented the works of arts and crafts in certain categories: material processing; mosaic and stained glass; decorations and accessories; dolls and toys; decorative panels; decorative painting.
There are the students of our University among the winners. Oleksiy Bondarenko received the I Degree Diploma in the "Material processing" category for wood carving and Oksana Popil received the same Diploma for embroidery. The II Degree Diploma was awarded to Olga Kostyuk for Easter egg painting and Anastasia Moshkovska for decorative painting.
The nationwide competition held in USPU was carefully planned and perfectly organized. Everything was clearly coordinated (the arrival of participants, registration, placing the guests in the dormitories of the University, generating competitive tests etc). The leisure of the guests was also taken a good care of. The USPU students initiated a great concert and evening party. Besides, everyone enjoyed the University tour, the stroll in the “Sofiyivka” park and seeing the Shevchenko memorials.
Overall, the competition has proved that technological education brings up a technically and technologically savvy and computer literate person prepared for life and active work in the modern high-tech information society.
