Mountain Area Schools

Mountain Area Schools. Conditions, Problems,
Prospects of Development

Project acronym: Mountain Area Schools

Project web-site: http://mountainschool.pu.if.ua/

Project executor: Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University

Project duration: June 2006 – June 2022

Project goals: On the basis of the analysis of the social, economic and geoethnological conditions as well as the organizational and pedagogical peculiarities of the functioning of mountain area schools:

– to ascertain the specific character of teaching, bringing up and development of pupils in the highlands;
– to provide a scientific substantiation of the principles, content, forms and methods of work of mountain area schools;
– to work out a system of recommendations and measures to make their work more effective.

Specific project objectives are:

  1. Тo improve the educational standards of schools in mountain areas, to provide teachers with opportunities for professional development by using new information technologies such as the Internet, on-line education;
  2. To study the geopsychic and geoethnological peculiarities of highlanders, their customs, traditions, rites and their impact on pupils’ development and education;
  3. To orient pupils towards natural sciences, foreign languages; to engage them in acquiring skills in applied folk arts and crafts;
  4. To investigate the peculiarities of the content, the forms and methods of training teachers, educators, psychologists, social workers at universities for working in mountain area schools;
  5. To work out proposals for improving the work of mountain area schools especially in terms of revealing talents, orienting pupils towards taking natural sciences, foreign languages at an advanced level, acquiring skills in applied folk arts and crafts and to present these proposals for consideration by central and local education authorities, heads of educational institutions;
  6. To conduct a comparative analysis of the scientific conceptions, approaches, findings and practical experience concerning the work of mountain area schools in Ukraine, in Europe and in the world; to join the efforts of European scientists and scientists all over the world to investigate the problems of mountain area schools. Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University could become such a unifying scientific centre.

Expected results:

  1. Publication of the monograph “Mountain Area Schools in Ukraine (Their Condition, Problems, Development Prospects)”;
  2. Preparing scientific recommendations and suggestions for the state administration of education and institutions of local governing concerning the problem of further development of mountain area schools, including recommendations on introduction of modern information technologies into the process of education;
  3. Professional guidance to the teachers of mountain area schools (publication of textbooks, conducting workshops, “Round Tables”, organization of creative teamwork groups of teachers, etc.);
  4. Looking for gifted and talented children in mountain areas and creating a programme of their further development;
  5. Organization of local and international exchange programmes, symposia, seminars and workshops on the problems of mountain area school development, improvement of educational process, pupils’ education and development;
  6. Creation of “International Association of Mountain Area Schools” involving countries of Carpathian, Alpine, Balkan and other mountain regions of Europe;
  7. Launching the periodical “The Mountain Area School” as the organ of this association.

Partnership:

  • Association of Appalachia Researchers (USA);
  • Appalachian State University. Appalachian Center for the Study of Bun (USA);
  • Berea College. Appalachian Research Center, Berea, Kentucky (USA);
  • European Mountain Research Center, University of Bern (Switzerland);
  • Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University (Ukraine)

Contact person and project manager at Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University:Mariia OLIIAR, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of the department of pedagogics of elementary education, e-mail: oliyar27@gmail.com