Open Society Education Update

Do not confine your children to your own learning

For they were born in another time.

Hebrew Proverb, quoted in Step by Step: A Teaching Methodology for Primary School

SPRING FLOWERING OF FOUNDATION TEXTBOOKS

TRANSFORMATION OF HUMANITIES PROGRAMS SHOW RESULTS IN THE CLASSROOM: 1995 was an important year of preparation for textbook publishing in the Transformation of the Humanities programs in NIS countries. The hard work of establishing expert commissions, open textbook competitions, monitoring and evaluating, and following through the process is paying off this year as over 100 titles go to print. Since its inception, the Transformation of Humanities of the International Cultural Initiative Foundation has yielded over 200 titles for Russian schools and higher education. The Transformation Program in Russia was followed by the Books in Schools programs of the Open Society Institute - Moscow in which twenty-four of the best Transformation titles were re-published and sold at cost to the Russian regions in order to address an emergency shortage of textbooks in schools. This active program has also provided some valuable texts for other NIS countries. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Foundations have used books produced by the Russian Foundation in their own Transformation of Humanities programs. This cross-fertilization of programs benefits all parties by increasing circulation of successful texts to Russian speaking populations beyond Russia's borders and by maximizing resources already invested into commissioning and approbation of textbooks.

The Belarusian Soros Foundation's Transformation of the Humanities Program has completed its cycle of competitions for textbooks and teaching materials, yielding fifty-six textbook titles and twenty-six research projects. The main subject areas are Belarusian language, history and culture for all levels (primary, secondary and higher), as well as economics, management, sociology and philosophy.

The Soros Foundation Kyrgyzstan's Transformation Program has already published eighteen titles in print runs between 1000 and 5000 in both Kyrgyz and Russian languages. The Foundation is piloting its approbation process in 50 pilot schools, and is offering training to teachers to assist them in evaluating and choosing textbooks independently. "We hope this positive experience will be a model for the school system of the whole republic," said Akhmat Madeuyev, Program Director. The Foundation also has another twenty-two titles which are in the process of being published. These titles include works generated both from the Foundation's textbook competitions, as well as special orders and translations from Russian into Kyrgyz.

Seminar Planned in Kazakhstan: The Soros Foundation Kazakhstan's competition for ready manuscripts yielded eighteen titles which are on their way to the publishers. The list of textbooks includes manuscripts in both Kazakh and Russian. The next stage of the program will sponsor a seminar on the writing of Kazakh language textbooks and teaching materials at the end of April.

Ministry Approval for Textbooks in Ukraine: The International Renaissance Foundation in Ukraine has published thirty-six titles beginning in November of 1995, and has sixty more textbooks on order with the publishers. All titles are in Ukrainian language. Initial print runs range from 1,000 to 5,000 copies, and the distribution of textbooks is roughly even between higher and secondary education levels. In this program, the foudation used both private and state publishers. However, "If we had to do the program again," said Natalia Yevastratova, Deputy Director of the Transformation Program, "I would concentrate mainly on private publishers."

All textbooks published will have the "grif" from the Ministry, and be categorized in one of three ways: "admitted", "recommended," or "confirmed". Eight core textbooks sponsored by the Foundation have been adopted by the MOE and are being published in massive print runs of 500,000 by the Ministry; about 50% in Russian and 50% in Ukrainian. One of these core textbooks is a seventh form Geography textbook which has been published in both Ukrainian and Russian by the Ministry.

The IRF will sponsor four seminars in different regions in Ukraine which will focus on curriculum adaptation and training methods for the usage of textbooks in four groups of academic disciplines as part of the Approbation process. Each seminar will be for sixty participants in the regions. The goals of the seminar will be to explain how teachers can use these books in the teaching process. The workshops will be conducted by authors, methodologists, and teachers.

If you are interested in more information or lists and publishing schedules for these Foundations, please contact Anna Muravieva, Open Society Institute - Moscow; Ludmila Dementeva, Belarusian Soros Foundation; Akhmat Madeuyev, SF-Kyrgyzstan; and Saule Kalikova, Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan; Natalia Viatkina or Natalia Yevstratova, IRF-Ukraine

ROMANIA: BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS IN TEXTBOOK REFORM

The Soros Foundation in Romania has joined a national effort to develop and provide modern quality textbooks for Romanian schools. The World Bank has provided a loan of $50 million to the Government of Romania for its Education Reform Project. Of that amount, $22 million is dedicated to textbook provision. The first phase of the program will provide Grade II textbooks in the subjects of Romanian Language, Science and Mathematics. The British Know How Fund financed a specialist from International Book Development (IBD) to develop the Operating Mechanism for Textbook Selection and Procurement. The Soros Foundation has supported the training effort for those involved in the Education Reform Project - Textbook Component, including specialists from Evaluation Panels, members of the National Textbook Approval Board, publishers, senior staff and executive officers from the regional school inspectorates. IBD provided the consultants for the training which was jointly funded by the Know How Fund and the Soros Foundation. Since the Romanian Education Law stipulates that budget authority for education will devolve to the level of counties and schools, the textbook program must be sufficiently decentralized. Therefore, promotion exhibitions have been organized in each county with small print runs (1,500 copies) for teachers and schools to make selections and orders. From March 16 - April 15, these orders are being consolidated and sent to the publishers. For more information on this program, contact Marina Ghitoc at Soros Foundation Romania, marina@buc.soros.ro, tel: 40 1 659 7427, fax: 40 1 312 0284.

HUNGARY: STIMULATING PRIVATE PUBLISHING

The Soros Foundation Hungary created four new projects with the aim of modernizing Hungarian textbook writing and publishing. Under the first project, the Foundation invited textbook publishers to apply for long-term or short-term loans on favorable conditions. To qualify, publishers must submit a business plan with the manuscript. The loans are targeted to specific parts of the publishing process, such as the purchase of copyrights, the financing of printing costs or distribution. Loans are repaid after the sale of textbooks, at the beginning of the new academic year. Interest on the loan is not only low (half of what banks usually charge), but as an additional incentive, the Foundation requests repayment in-kind, i.e. in the form of textbooks. Increasing the number of purchased copies is an extra support to publishers. This special loan project is available only for those textbooks that are related to the topics of the Public Education Project of the Foundation, such as social science, education for democracy, tolerance, environmental education and pupil-centered approaches or alternatives in early childhood.

The second project is the "Other-Wise" Book Award. The Soros Foundation created this award jointly with two other foundations, the Foundation for a European Hungary and the European Youth Tolerance Campaign. It was the founders' intention to call attention to, and facilitate, conscious design and planning of elementary school textbooks and various educational aids that demonstrate diversity and tolerance. The messages transmitted by visual images are crucial for the students in creating and widening their understanding of social reality. Design, carefully selected images, pictures and layout are as essential as a transparent structure and high-quality production. "Although the first prize was not awarded this year, there were encouraging signs indicating that textbook publishers are ready to abandon the old, one sided and false practice of depicting only middle-class white families living in perfect harmony," said Program Director, Judit Szira.

The third project concerns the launching, and continuous support to, a quarterly paper, "TanDem" in Hungarian. This is the first and only publication in Hungary containing serious reviews on textbooks and educational aids.

Within the context of the fourth project, the Foundation provides assistance to environmental education, and also to less developed areas in Hungary. Based on Western examples, the Foundation will supply textbooks, free of charge, to children. The idea is that children in needy areas would borrow textbooks from the school library, and parents, as a significant saving, would have to purchase workbooks only. For more information, contact Judit Szira; email: szira@soros.hu, tel: 36 1 315 0303, fax 361 315 0201.

MOLDOVA: MEETING EMERGENCY NEEDS

The Soros Foundation Moldova has initiated an emergency program to provide mother-tongue learning materials for 1st grade. Cooperating with the Ministry of Education, a set of materials for teaching Romanian to the 1^st form (including a Workbook (part I, part II), a set of exercises and tests, a reading set, the Teacher's Guide and a set of Demo charts) was selected and proposed for publishing.through an open competition for publishing houses. These materials were developed in cooperation with the Romanian Institute of Educational Sciences and have been tested in pilot schools. They are based on a more creative, learner-centered approach. All the materials are in the editing-publishing process now at three publishing houses. The Ministry is responsible for publishing the Workbooks (parts I & II) at a state publishing house, "Lumina", and for paying authors' honoraria. The Foundation is responsible for the other 4 parts of the set that are being produced by two independent publishing houses, "ARC" and "Cartier". The process is challenging, due to the fact that the 6 elements are parts of one overall concept, so the different publishers must cooperate to link the elements (pages or exercises) that refer to other parts of the set. "This process will hopefully contribute to better communication between the Foundation and MOE, state and independent publishers, and of course between authors and all of the above. A very positive element of this project is the fact that the independent publishing houses that did not participate in publishing of school manuals before are actually retraining there editorial staff for working with teaching materials," said Liliana Ivanovici, Education Program Coordinator. For more information, contact Liliana Ivanovici, email: mkiryakov@soros.md. tel: 373 2 260 031, fax: 373 2 260 507

DATABASE OF PUBLISHED TEXTBOOKS: If you are interested in the lists of published textbooks of the Transformation of Humanities programs, contact Beth Breger at OSI New York. (Telephone: 212 887 0680; Fax: 212 397 7720; email: bbreger@sorosny.org) Beth would like to expand the database to include textbooks published by all foundations. If your Foundation has published textbooks that are not included in the database, please forward a list including title, print run, language, and author, to Beth Breger at the above contact information.

KYRGYZ SCHOOL DIRECTORS VISIT HUNGARY

Seven Kyrgyz school directors and three foundation staff visited Hungary to see several successful pilot and alternative schools, March 18-21. With the assistance of the Soros Foundation Hungary, the delegation visited schools in Budapest and Eger that demonstrate alternative teaching methods and innovative management structures. School directors were impressed by the warmth between students and teachers, and the fact that students had choices of classes during the regular school day. "Communication between students and teachers is a two-way street," observed one director. One aim of the Education for an Open Society Program in Kyrgyzstan is to integrate into the educational systems of Europe and North America. As one director pointed out, "It is better to see than to be told 100 times!" The foundation and the pilot school directors came away with several concrete ideas to implement in Kyrgyzstan, including the establishment of Parents, Student and Teacher Associations, and to strive to create an atmosphere of pedagogical cooperation giving pupils more rights and the possibility of choice.

SEMINAR ON 'TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN EDUCATION'

The Belarusian National Education Program ran a seminar on Telecommunications in Education in April, 1996. The purpose of the seminar was to give people working in education some practical advice on how telecommunications may be used in education. Two local businesses were the partners in the seminar: the Foundation provided funds for room rental and lunch while the two firms provided the equipment for presentations and lecturers. "The interesting fact about the seminar is that it gathered together people working with different education programs in the Foundation," said Olga Klimanovich, Education Coordinator. There were representatives from schools which received computers and modems from the International Soros Science Education Program, directors of the Humanities Program, and other people working in the sphere of education who had applied for grants with the Foundation in the past. The seminar consisted of two major parts. The first part included a lecture from the Network Systems (e-mail provider in Belarus) who gave a short outline of the possibilities of e-mail that can be used in education. In the second part of the seminar, representatives of the Silicon Graphics presented their equipment and showed how different Web sites are created and how they may be used. Participants were pleased with the seminar, and 79.2% responded that they "wanted to forget about faxes and phone calls and start using e-mail." For more information, contact Ludmila Dementeva, email: smedley%sfbel.minsk@relay.ussr.eu.net; tel: 375 172 39 9346, fax: 375 172 32 8092.

STEP BY STEP PRIMARY SCHOOL METHODOLOGY PUBLISHED

Step by Step has been a successful regional program for pre-school education, introducing new teaching methods to encourage children to make choices in their own learning, to involve parents in the education process, and to promote a more active and democratic methods of teaching. Children who go on from this pre-school environment are prepared for an active learning environment in primary school, but teaching methodologies in many places in the region are still rigid, teacher directed, and information based. To continue the preschool philosophy and methods for children in the primary grades, the Soros Step by Step program in cooperation with Children's Resources International has developed Step by Step: A Teaching Methodology for Primary School. This volume, available to all foundations, provides methods and examples for teachers to develop a student-centered learning environment in primary school. The main goals of the program are 1) to develop life-long learners, 2) to create a learning environment based on mutual respect and democratic principles, 3) To provide continuity between preschool and primary school, and 4) to ensure that all children acquire academic, artistic, ethical and practical skills to successfully participate in a democratic society.

Those foundations that choose to implement the Methodology for Primary School will select a Master Teacher Trainer for Primary School. The Master Teacher Trainer accompanied by the Country Director will travel to Washington for an orientation and observation of exemplary schools that use similar teaching methods. In the summer, trainers from the United States will provide training on the methodology in each country. The Master Teacher Trainer will give on-going assistance throughout the year to the schools that operate the Step by Step methodology. Additionally, each of the first grade classrooms will receive some educational materials that promote learning through exploration. For more information contact Pam Caughlin, CRIInc@aol.com, tel: 1 202 625 2508 or 1 202 625 2509 or Sarah Klaus at OSI NY: sklaus@sorosny.org. To receive a copy of the publication, contact Eva Badar at OSI Budapest, EPSU: badare@osi.hu.

ASK THE OSI EDUCATION PROGRAM SUPPORT UNIT (EPSU)

EPSU welcomes your questions on educational issues, Network resources, outside resources, or any other area. We may not be able to answer everything, but promise to try! This section of the newsletter will contain questions that we receive that may be useful for other Foundations. Direct questions to Heather Iliff, iliffh@osi.hu.

HOW MUCH DOES THE NETWORK SPEND IN EDUCATION? According to the aggregated budgets for 1996 Education and Children & Youth programs, Soros Foundations plan to spend about 50 million USD in education this year.

CAN YOU RECOMMEND AN EXAMPLE OF STUDENT-CENTERED CURRICULUM FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS? Actually, the Step by Step: A Teaching Methodology for Primary School is an excellent example of a pupil-centered curriculum.

WHERE CAN I FIND INFORMATION ON USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOLS? The best place to look for technology in education is on the Internet. There are constantly expanding sources of information on use of computers and Internet in schools, especially from the US. The Internet search engine http://www.yahoo.com has an menu for Education, K-12, and a search for 'technology in education' yields quite a lot. There is a free service "Ask ERIC" which can be reached on email: AskERIC@ericir.syr.edu. ERIC will search its research and provide an annotated bibliography of resources to address your question. For those that do not have Internet access, you can write to The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) at 1787 Agate Street, Eugene, OR 97403-1923 (email: ISTE@UOREGON.EDU). Also the Technical Education Research Center (TERC) specializes in curriculum projects involving telecomputing and provides services in technical assistance, curriculum guides, and information dissemination. For a free newsletter write to Hands On, 2067 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA; tel: (617) 547 0430 (email: KEN_MAYER@TERC.EDU).

BULLETIN BOARD

UPCOMING EVENT...

SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS AND SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT SEMINAR, May 12-15: Twenty Foundations have already registered for the School Effectiveness and School Improvement Seminar in Budapest, May 12-15. If your foundation has not registered or returned the questionnaires, please contact Eva Badar at EPSU as soon as possible. The seminar aims to work with all foundations - those that have established school leadership training programs, as well as those interested in establishing one. Presenters will be available for "roadside consulting" throughout the seminar for any foundations interested in their assistance on program development in school leadership training. On May 16, there will be an optional "managers day" for education program managers that oversee large national education initiatives and supervise teams of education program coordinators. The purpose of the day will be to provide an opportunity for discussion and exchange on program management issues. If any program managers or directors are not attending the School Effectiveness Seminar but would like to join the Manager's Day, please contact Terrice Bassler, EPSU Director: basslert@osi.hu.

RESOURCES:

OECD SURVEY PUBLISHED: The OECD has completed Secondary Education Systems in PHARE Countries; Survey and Project Proposals. The publication includes surveys of secondary education systems from Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. It includes basic data about education systems structure, funding, status of education reform, and issues related to the education change process. It also includes several proposals for regional education programs in curriculum improvement, teacher education, upgrading the quality of education for the disadvantaged, and others. The publication will be included in resource packages for foundations that responded to the questionnaire.

RESOURCE PACKAGES: The Education Program Support Unit is preparing packages of resources for foundations in the following areas: School Effectiveness/School Improvement; Textbooks, Human Rights Education, and Comparative Systems and Curriculum. In order to be eligible to receive the packages, foundations must return the completed questionnaire. We have received responses from only 12 foundations. If your foundation is interested in these materials, or if you did not receive the questionnaire, please contact Heather Iliff: iliffh@osi.hu at OSI Budapest.

This newsletter, which focuses on national Soros Foundation initiatives in education for school aged populations, is issued periodically by the Education Program Support Unit (EPSU) at OSI Budapest. Contributions to the newsletter are welcome. Please send any contributions, comments or questions to Heather Iliff, email: iliffh@osi.hu; tel: (361) 327 3100, fax: (361) 327 3101.