Позитивные изменения. Образование. Школа будущего. Тематический выпуск, 2022 / Positive changes. Education. The school of the future. Special issue, 2022

• various kinds of differentiation of students by their abilities, including our domestic invention of recent years – remedial classes and special classes for gifted children (the "fools' classes" and the "nerds' classes", as children themselves refer to them);

• the real power structure in the school (totalitarian or hierarchical, democratic or liberal);

• the language of a class or school (not formally, of course, but by the actual semantics, tone, style, and volume of vocabulary in use);

• the established practice of telling the teacher what he or she expects vs. what the student actually thinks;

• ability to act in the situation of a test or exam (not the cultural forms of behavior in a test situation, but the established rules of cheating, peeking, guessing, etc.);

• the actual distribution of study time (not by curriculum or schedule, but by the time actually used by the student – some students really have 12 hours of study time a day, while others don't have even half an hour)."

    Tubelsky, A. N. The way of school life – the hidden content of education // Voprosy obrazovaniya. – 2007. – Issue 4, pp. 177–181.

Alexey Semyonychev commented on the connection between the hidden content of education and soft skills development as follows: "Without even noticing, a child is taught other skills besides knowledge. When the teacher enters the classroom, everyone must stand up. Students talk to their teachers exclusively on formal terms and by their full names, while teachers talk to the kids informally, addressing them by first name only. Students must obey the teacher, no matter what he or she says. Students in class have no right to express their opinions. This results in a child raised into obedience, into "my opinion can wait" attitude. There is no need to learn to negotiate, because the teacher has the last word; you are not allowed to get creative during the class as you may get an «F» for that. Do the tests, nothing else, creativity is not required."

* These personality traits can related to two components of The Big Five

Source: John OP, Srivastava S. The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement and theoretical perspectives.

Chapter 4. In: Pervin LA, John OP, editors. Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research. New York: The Guilford Press; 1999. pp. 102–138.

Quoted from: Heckman J. J., Kautz T. (2012). Hard evidence on soft skills. Labour Econ. Aug 1; 19(4): 451–464

WILL SOFT SKILLS TRAINING BE UNNECESSARY AT THE SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE?

We can say that experts agree that if the school is properly configured with "hidden educational content”, then children will acquire soft skills naturally, as part of school life.

Svetlana Marzeyeva believes that it is not necessary to impose either "hard” or "soft” skills on children: "Any school that wants to meet the current trends must put aside control and evaluation and focus instead on helping students develop and master their personal educational goals; that is, children in today’s school must cease to be objects of educational activity. As soon they become subjects, the question of "hard” and "soft” skills will fade away by itself. It doesn’t matter what to teach, it matters who to teach. And that determines how they will be taught.”

Alexey Semyonychev explains that if the principles developed in alternative education are implemented in practice, this will effectively mean that separate, special training in school for flexible skills will no longer be necessary. "Soft skills, democratic education, free education are parts of a common democratic concept. If the schools change towards alternative, informal education, as we are planning it, "soft skills” training will no longer be necessary. The school system itself, each teacher’s mode of instruction, the system of school organization – all this will work to ensure that the child grows up as a free and independent person, right from the start. In turn, freedom and independence themselves will give birth to all the ’soft skills’ you can think of,” the expert says.

What can change and improve a school? The three slogans of the French Revolution – liberty, equality, fraternity – are as relevant here as never before.

What can change and improve a school? The three slogans of the French Revolution – liberty, equality, fraternity – are as relevant here as never before. "The school of the future should at least be a free school, which respects every student and is free from any form of violence. Violence is inability to negotiate. And the ability to negotiate is a soft skill. The school of the future should not be based on child abuse or classroom abuse”, Alexey Semyonychev summarized. Introducing twelve Russian schools that have integrated soft skills training into their curricula.

ABOUT THE SELECTION OF SCHOOLS AND PRESENTATION FORMAT

The types of schools selected for this review are based on the results of the School of the Future study conducted by the analytical department of the Positive Changes Factory in the first half of 2022. The study identified key models of school education in Russia and proposed criteria for their classification and evaluation. One of the criteria is “soft skills orientation."

When selecting specific cases for this review, we were guided by the recommendations of the experts interviewed in the School of the Future study.

The resulting sampling of schools is not intended to be representative but rather will serve as an illustration of the variety of approaches Russian schools take to soft skills instruction.

Most of the schools presented in the review are located in Moscow and St Petersburg, because such schools have appeared here sooner than in other parts of the country. Besides, schools in Moscow and St. Petersburg tend to publish more detailed and up-to-date information on their websites.

Information about the school opening year, types of instruction and the school's curriculum is based on information available on the school's Web site and from other public sources, quoted as close as possible to the source.

Information about the inclusion of soft skills in the curriculum is based on the information on the school's website. To prevent overloading the review, we only include specific excerpts and quotes showing the school's emphasis on soft skills. For complete information on missions, approaches, curricula, etc., go directly to the schools' websites.

Please note that in some cases it is impossible to understand from the information on the school website whether the school works in accordance with the FGOS or not. Alternative schools do not have to follow the Federal State Education Standards (FGOS). The school websites do not always make it clear what classes are available. Often there is no information on the opening date of the school. The authors of this review and the Journal are not responsible for any incomplete information on school websites.

THE NEW SCHOOL

https://home.n.school/about_us

OPENING YEAR 2017.

INSTRUCTION

Grades 1–11.

STUDY PROGRAM

General secondary education school. It strives to guarantee both achieving certain academic results (for example, successful examinations) and maintaining a humanistic vector of self-determination, personal development, attention to each child, his or her personal movement.

ABOUT SOFT SKILLS

The school’s mission is to give children from different social backgrounds an opportunity to develop and demonstrate their cognitive, creative and personal abilities through continuous growth, education and upbringing, and eventually find the best ways to achieving happiness and complete self-fulfillment in the modern society, thus contributing to its development. Our goal is to teach children to live independently, based on their authentic positions, to make informed decisions and independent choices.

School values are curiosity and development; openness and self-determination; responsibility and choice; non nobis solum ("not just for yourself"); comradeship.

KHOROSHKOLA (THE GOOD SCHOOL)

https://hi.horoshkola.ru/

OPENING YEAR 2013.

INSTRUCTION

Kindergarten, pro-gymnasium (grades 1–4), gymnasium (grades 5–11).

STUDY PROGRAM

The instruction includes both standard academic disciplines (FGOS NOO) and activities aimed at developing creative thinking, emotional intelligence, communicative competence, cooperation and teamwork, systemic thinking, and information literacy. The curriculum is focused not only on subject literacy, but also building soft skills. There is an option to study under the International Baccalaureate program.

ABOUT SOFT SKILLS

The values of Khoroshkola are reflected in the portrait of its student. It is based on four basic values: awareness, respect, responsibility, and caring.

It is the school of the 21st century competencies. "Learning to learn” throughout life is the key competency being developed at Khoroshkola.

By developing critical and systemic thinking, emotional intelligence, information literacy and design thinking, communication and cooperation, we enable our students to adapt quickly in a rapidly changing world.

THE SMART SCHOOL. A CHAIN OF SCHOOLS AND FRANCHISES

https://smartschool.group/

OPENING YEAR 2016.