THE VARIETY OF THE FORMS OF ORGANIZATION OF EDUCATION IN UKRAINIAN SMALL-SIZED SCHOOL

Abstract

The article uses Ukraine as a case study to demonstrate various forms of organization of studies at small-sized rural schools. It mentions factors that affect shrinking of number of pupils in rural schools: demographics, external and internal labour migration. It elaborates on the notion of a «small-sized school» and names its positive features and drawbacks. It characterises the major types of small sized junior schools in rural areas: a small-sized school of the 1st grade, an educational complex «junior school-kindergarten», educational establishment «family school». The article mentions and characterises forms of education that could be used in different types of small-sized junior schools: a lesson at a small-sized school, a lesson in a joint grade (grade set), an individual form of studying. The existence of possibilities for individualized studying is a peculiarity of a lesson in a small-sized junior school. The characteristic peculiarities of a lesson in a joint grade (grade set) are the individual work, limited opportunities for the use of illustrative material, multimedia tools of studying, separate methods in every grade. Types of work are mebtioned that are advisable to use in a grade set at the stage of «individual work» (practice exercises, fulfilling tasks according to a scheme, instruction, a memo, algorithmic prescription, test tasks, different kinds of language parsing, silent reading of a text, with different kinds of tasks etc.) and «work with a teacher» (using the explanation of new material, checking students’ knowledge, skills and abilities, different kinds of reading the text, doing oral exercises, calculations, repetition of educational material etc.). The peculiarities of organization of lessons with pupils of small rural schools with an individual form of studying are described. The teaching for such students is organized based on an individual curriculum, which is based on a typical curriculum. One to five students of one or different grades may be engaged under the individual form of studying with a teacher. Depending on the duration of lessons and the number of students the following forms of work are to be chosen: teacher’s explanation, doing practice exercises, different types of work on essays and so on. In such circumstances a teacher has an opportunity to create an individual approach to students. The forms of organization of studying process at a «family school» establishment depends on the number of grades and pupils in these grades. It may be a simple lesson with few pupils, a lesson in a grade set or an individual lesson.