Intellectual Freedom and Its Practical Application

Dynasty Foundation founder Dmitry Zimin: The teaching profession is one of the most important for developing the society.

The fifth annual conference of winners of the All-Russian Competition for Physics and Mathematics Teachers of the Dmitry Zimin Dynasty Foundation was held in Moskovski (Moscow Oblast) from June 28 to July 2, 2009.

For four days, 200 of the best teachers from all over Russia listened to lectures of world-famous scientists and pedagogues, participated in master classes and active training sessions, and exchanged experience.

The physicists and mathematicians showed their creative ability on the very first day: having split into groups, the teachers prepared and gave bright and dynamic presentations of their regions—interesting facts, stories, and songs were heard.

The conference was opened with a series of popular science lectures on physics and mathematics. The outstanding Russian scientist Anatoly Vladimirovich Zasov in his lecture “Infrared universe” spoke about how astrophysicists study near and far, hot and cold galaxies, planets, stars, and even interstellar dust and also try to answer the question of which processes happen with cosmic bodies. “Everything that can be seen in the heavens with a naked eye or through a telescope was studied by mankind already 150 years ago. What astrophysics studies now can only be seen on a monitor,” explained the scientist.

For the first time, a winner of another Dynasty grant competition in the program for supporting young scientists Igor Pierovich Ivanov spoke before the winning teachers. The brilliant theoretical physicist spoke about ultrashort times and the methods of researching them. Most of the questions to the lecturer, who specializes in elementary particle physics, were connected with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). According to the teachers, this experiment arouses great interest from school students, in part because of the suggestion that starting the collider might cause a global catastrophe. Igor Ivanov assured the teachers that those rumors are absolutely baseless and suggested that they become familiar with the details of the project in the special section of the popular science site elementy.ru.

A scientist and pedagogue, MSU Professor Vladimir Mikhailovich Tikhomirov told the audience about the plans of his teacher, the outstanding Soviet mathematician Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, to reform the school geometry course. Tikhomirov posed serious questions before the audience: What is the goal of education? Should everybody be taught identically? Should everybody be taught mathematics? Tikhomirov thinks that it is impossible to answer these questions unequivocally. But, the miracle of mathematical knowledge is that a person learns to perceive the truth, thus gaining intellectual freedom. Undoubtedly, it is necessary to teach every schoolchild the simplest mathematical skills required in everyday life. But further development of the child will largely depend on the teacher—whether the teacher can attract and interest the child with his subject.

“While mathematics forms the ability to construct proofs, studying physics allows combining rigorous reasoning and model thinking,” says the pedagogue and textbook author Alexander Rafailovich Zilberman. That is why school physics should not be divorced from practical application. As A. R. Zilberman sadly joked, “They speak of transistors at school today as if they grew on bushes, and students should catch them and study their behavior.”

Nikolay Nikolaevich Andreev, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and member of the Steklov Mathematical Institute (RAS), spoke about the role of demonstration in involving school students in science. He presented the project “Interesting mathematics”—a series of cartoons in which essential mathematical principles and their applications in technology, architecture, and everyday life are illustrated with 3D graphics.

A world-class specialist in school geometry and Distinguished Teacher of Ukraine, Isaak Arkadievich Kushnir assured the teachers in his master class “My love, the triangle” that geometry, in his opinion, can be a much more emotional subject than literature. “I have never deviated from the school program. The question is how you improvise. Do you know “knock-out” problems, real “tear-jerkers”? The erudition of a teacher is in knowing the “emotional” problems,” stressed the legendary teacher. Answering the question of how to deal with F-students who do not want to learn, Isaak Arkadievich categorically declared, “The idea is to find children who want to learn. Being distracted with F-students, you may lose a strong student who would grow up and become a great scientist, invent a cure for cancer.”

During training in the “Open Space” method and in the framework of the experience exchange section, the teachers themselves proposed topics for reports and then voted for the ones they wanted to hear. Such relevant topics were discussed as the role and place of a teacher in the contemporary school, the peculiarities of teaching in different regions of the country, organizing scientific research work in class and after class, tracked education, and using multimedia materials in the lessons. One of the important topics in Russian education today, the Unified State Examination, was also discussed at the conference.

The report “Unified State Examination in mathematics: Model 2010” delivered by Dmitry Dmitrievich Gushchin, a winner of the competition “Teacher of the Year 2007,” provoked many arguments. Answering critical comments from the gathered teachers, the speaker emphasized that the purpose of his report was precisely to receive feedback from the teachers, and he called on the audience to participate actively in discussing the new model of the Unified State Examination.

MSU professors Alexander Vadimovich Bulinski and Eduard Iohannesovich Kebin gave interesting lectures at the conference. Master classes were given by Candidates of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Sergey Petrovich Konovalov and Alexey Valentinovich Seliverstov, a famous author of textbooks and mathematical problem books Viktor Vasilievich Prasolov, and also by the repeat teacher competition winners Boris Petrovich Shokin (Severodvinsk) and Svetlana Nikolaevna Kolyakina (Novocheboksarsk).

A lecture on the psychophysiology of teaching school students by Yury Iosifovich Alexandrov, a neurophyisiologist, Doctor of Psychological Sciences, head of the laboratory of the neurophyisiological basis of the psyche of the Institute of Psychology (RAS), served as a special conclusion of the scientific program. According to him, modern science has established that any learning process begins with a dissonance between the necessity of applying a certain knowledge or a skill and its absence. It is impossible to learn something for the future. So, if the education does not have an obvious connection with practical results for the children, then in the best case, the children only learn how to get good grades, which, in Alexandrov's opinion, is also not a bad skill but is weakly related to studying concrete subjects. Thus, the thesis expressed by many of the conference speakers that school physics and mathematics education must be connected with real life is confirmed on a psychophysiological level.

Opening the solemn awards ceremony that concluded the conference, Dynasty Foundation founder Dmitry Borisovich Zimin stressed that the teaching profession is one of the most important for developing the society. That is why the Dynasty Foundation every year widens and perfects its activity in finding and rewarding the best pedagogues.

This year 497 teachers became Dynasty laureates: 70 teachers in the “Young Teacher” category, 30 teachers in the “Successful Teacher” category, 394 in the “Mentor of Future Scientists” category. All of them received grants of 35,000 rubles. Three teachers were awarded the “Achievements in Mathematics and Physics Teaching” prize in the amount of 150,000 rubles.