Review: The subject of this research is the level of grasp of character and symbol means by the elementary school students. Such ability is viewed in the context of diagnostics of metadisciplinary results. One of the requirements to metadisciplinary results is the skill to use character and symbol means of presenting information for creating the patterns of studied objects and processes, schemes of solving academic and practical tasks. The article reviews children’s mastering of the following operations that correspond with the key stages of formation of character and symbolic activity: replacement, coding (decoding), schematization and modeling. The authors develop a complex diagnostics in accordance with the analysis of skills of the elementary school students to apply character and symbolic means. The tasks were selected considering age and existing projects for elementary school. The authors were able to determine the inconsistency of grasping the various stages of character and symbol activity by the elementary school students. Schematization was identified as the weakest stage of such activity. It is concluded that the elementary education curriculum is structured in such way that by the end of third grade the children grasp the basics of character and symbol activity.  

Keywords: character and symbol activity, Metadisciplinary results, Metadisciplinary results, Replacement , Coding, Schematization, Modeling, Diagnostics of metadisciplinary results, Semiotics, System of developmental teaching

Review: This article examines the questions of ensuring sustainable development of socioeconomic systems through combining such factors of sustainable development as science, education and culture. The maintenance of sustainable development of socioeconomic systems alongside creation of conditions for wellbeing of the population is inseparably associated with establishment of the development pattern oriented towards the growth of financial and economic indicators, as well as the achievement of high living standards of citizens. The authors demonstrate a chain of elements ensuring sustainable development of noosphere, examines the evolution of accumulation of knowledge that leads to human capital gains. The article substantiates the key role of the modern education system in maintenance of innovation development, and suggests the mechanism for creation and distribution of structural and educational innovations. The conclusion is made that in order to ensure correspondence of the Russian education system to the requirements of the sixths technological paradigm, it is necessary to conduct significant changes in approaches towards the educational process. The authors determine the following key directions of reforms in the modern Russian education system, which are capable of creating a new vector of the development of education systems in Russia: 1) establishment of the system of continuous education that substantially rather than formally ensures the concepts of “education throughout lifetime”; 2) revival and advancement of the system of integrative learning to ensure partnership of universities with businesses and society; 3) formation of the system of global access to the top educational resources, incorporation of formal and informal education.

Keywords: education, knowledge, human capital, technological order, sustainable development, socio-economic development, noosphere, understanding, competences, technology

Review: The subject of this research is the theoretical-methodological specificity and peculiarities of practical implementation of quest games technology in the school educational process. The author discusses separate aspects of classification and implementation of quest games in school; determines significant differences of educational quest from other game technologies; as well as gives definition to the concept of “educational quest game”. The article also considers various approaches and bases of the classification of quests, and demonstrates a number of original versions of classification. The proposed milestone plan of the development of educational quest is illustrated by a specific example of designing a quest game “Interstellar Journey” (educational fields of “mathematics and informatics”, “physics”, and “economics”). The tasks faced by a modern comprehensive school stirred interest of pedagogical community towards interactive and active teaching methods. Game educational technologies, developed on the basis of activity, competence, and contextual approaches allow to not only increase students’ motivation and cognitive interest to a specific discipline, but also ensure the achievement of interdisciplinary results in accordance with the requirements of the Federal Educational Standard. Quest games may be efficiently applied in educational process of a comprehensive school; however, it demands significant efforts of a pedagogue on their development and delivery.

Keywords: Quest, Educational quest, Quest game, Active teaching methods, Game technologies, Classification of quest games, Development stages of quest game, Teaching method, Research activity, Games in class

Review: The object of this research is education in the consumer society, while the subject is education as a consumer service. The author explores the peculiarities of ideology and psychology of consumerism, as well as their correspondence to the spirit of market relations. Attention is focused on the process of turning commodities into symbols, establishment of consumer culture, and formation of the phenomenon of consumerism. The trends of infiltration of consumerist orientations to the educational sphere and the negative aspects of such processes are examined. The author describes the significance of education as a social elevator, paramount instrument that ensures social mobility processes. The use of dialectic and comparative methods allowed demonstrating the problem at hand in its unity, integrity and controversy. The article contains the following elements of scientific novelty: 1) consumerization and commercialization are the attributes of the modern education system; 2) education attains the features of a consumer service; 3) education transforms into symbolic system, becoming the object of consumption in form of a sign that contains the values of success and prestige.

Keywords: prestige, social mobility, social lift, social stratum, service, consumerism, consumer society, symbol, trend, success

Review: This article examines the question of cooperation between professional educational institutions and profile enterprises and companies. The author reveals the essence of educational and industrial cooperation in the modern conditions of modernization of professional, as well as substantiates the relevance of interaction between university and an enterprise. The article describes different approaches towards the organization of educational and industrial cooperation in other countries, such as Germany, Sweden, and France. In Russia, the development of cooperation between higher education institutions and enterprises has become even more relevant due to introduction of applied Bachelor's programs and flagship universities system. The method of theoretical analysis and empirical observation is applied in the course of this work. The author analyzes the educational programs of a technical university; as well as demonstrates the possible development trends in the regional educational-industrial cooperation on the example of the Novosibirsk State Technical University. The conclusion is made on the need for specification of employer’s requirements to the competencies of specialists in technical fields for various types of activity; analysis of satisfaction of particular employers with the quality of education; attraction of employers into the educational process of a university, as well as the university professors into the work process of an enterprise. The scientific novelty consists in generalization of experience of a particular university with regards to development of educational-industrial cooperation in the region. The author suggests the algorithm and forms of the development of cooperation. Particular attention is paid to collaborative development of educational programs.

Keywords: competence, professional training, flagship university, higher education, professional partnership, educational-industrial cooperation, applied baccalaureate, quality of education, technical university, education system

Review: Currently, there has established a consistent trend in development of cooperation between the employers and universities for the purpose of meeting the demands of country’s economy in the effective human capital. Such trend substantiated the choice of the subject of this research aimed at analyzing the potential interaction and correlation between the sphere of professional education, job market and social behavior of young specialists of economic disciplines based on the complex approach that considers the interests and need of all interested parties. Leaning on the research results on the problems, expectations and offers of job market for young specialists, the goal of this study consists in presenting a roadmap of interaction between the employees and university students. The following research methods were applied: verbal and online survey, content analysis of the documents and official publications on the subject, mathematical methods of information processing; 497 graduate students from the Ural State University of Economics and other universities of Yekaterinburg, as well as 26 experts – representatives of employers and employers of organizations of various fields of activity took part in the survey. The conclusion is made that the existing system of interaction between the government, university, employer and students with regards to training highly qualified personnel is yet not fully adjusted to the changing demands of economics, which is the reason that a certain number of graduates do not obtain employment in their field. Therefore, the article suggests the key vectors and measures within the framework of implementation of the roadmap of cooperation between a university and employers.

Keywords: demands of the economy, pracitce-oriented education, interaction, expectations of employers, expectations of graduates, temployment of graduates, job market, university graduate, roadmap, human capital

Review: This article describes the concept of STREAM education in Russia and abroad (S stands for science; T – for technology; R – for reading; E – for engineering; A – for art; M – for mathematics). STREAM technology is designed for introducing classic literature to modern schoolers based on the development of innovative thinking and skills of the XXI century. The object of this research is the peculiarities of STREAM education within educational process of modern school. The subject of this research is the resources of STREAM education of acquainting modern schoolers with classic literature. The main research methods include: studying and analysis of pedagogical and special literature; conceptual analysis of the previously conducted research on the problems of implementation of STREAM in education; generalization of theoretical insights and their comparison with the current sociocultural situation; experimental data measurement acquired in the course of research, as well as their systemic and qualitative analysis. The scientific novelty consists in designing an original technology “ExSTREAMal Reading of Russian Classics” that acquaints modern schoolers with classic literature based on the development of innovative thinking and skills of the XXI century. The main conclusions lie in substantiation of the efficiency of application of such technology for developing educational motivation and encouraging modern schoolers to read.

Keywords: Russian classics, intersubject reading, research project, educational process, modern schoolchildren, pedagogical technology, STREAM-education, 21st century skills, information society, introduction to reading

Review: The subject of this research is the method and system of control and development of visual-algorithmic thinking of university students. The author introduces the concepts of visual analysis and visual synthesis; active, passive and mental visualization of the exercises in geometry, analysis and mechanics. Visual and algorithmic thinking is integrated into the concept of visual-algorithmic thinking. The article describes an experiment and test results, which goals consisted in determining the level of visual and algorithmic thinking of the university students. Correspondence between the conceivable images of fuzzy space of the visual-algorithmic thinking and the sharp geometric images of the actual geometric space underlie the method of development and control of the visual-algorithmic thinking. For realization of this method, the author builds the geometric patterns of fuzzy shapes, transformations, relations and circumstances. The article presents the classification of visual algorithms and assessment of their complexity, as well as the control-flow chart of such algorithm. The main conclusion consists in the statement that the experience of using the method of visual-algorithmic thinking for problem solving and the developed system demonstrates the positive moments in the forming of visual-algorithmic thinking, but its implementation into the educational process is yet challenging, as it requires restructuring of the process and additional time input.

Keywords: fuzzy sets, fuzzy condition, algorithm, passive visualization, active visualization, algorithmic ability, visual ability, fuzzy transformation, experiment, scenario method

Review: The object of this research is the assessment methods of the formation of students’ competencies. The subject of this research is the correlation between the results of intermediate and final certification of students. The author examines the existing assessment techniques of the level of students’ competences in the process of mastering the curriculum. Based on the example of 200 students in the field “Law Enforcement Activity”, the author meticulously analyzes the correlation between the certification results in certain disciplines and final grades received by the students for state examinations and graduation thesis. The research method is the application of systemic and comparative statistical analysis of the results of intermediate and final certification of students throughout the entire period in the educational facility. The conclusion is made on strong correlation between the majority of assessments of the level of students’ competencies, acquired based on the results of intermediate certification using the traditional competency matrices, which decreases the information value comparing to the results of terminal examinations. It is suggested assessing the level of students’ competencies based on the term papers and state final examination.

Keywords: competency matrix, competency assessment methodology, final certification, intermediate certification, correlation analysis, level of competence formation, rating system, competence approach, competence, professional standards