Matveev is a teacher and principal from Yaroslavl, Russia, and he is schooled in a system that delivers education in the traditional manner. The teacher lectures, the students take notes.
“Here, things are much more informal,” Matveev said through interpreter Milena Oganesyan, a doctoral student at the University of Montana. “There's much more hands-on learning and more interaction.”
“The idea is to build a cross-cultural bridge of ways to think about education,” said Brian Lofink, international liaison for UM's international programs. “This is a way for them to take some of our best ideas home and integrate them into their own system of education.”
The teachers are here as part of a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and run through the American Councils for International Education.
They spent a week in Washington, D.C., after arriving in America, and will spend about three weeks in Missoula, visiting all three high schools before taking a trip to Helena for a visit at the state Office of Public Instruction.
While the program is a learning experience for the teachers, the simple act of travel has also yielded some lessons.
For one thing, Americans are not the insular individualists the Russians had been led to believe.
“People have been very welcoming to us, talking to us on the streets and offering to help us,” said Elena Kondrashova, an assistant principal and physics teacher from Kosimov. “We've found Americans to be very friendly.”
The teachers are learning on multiple fronts, Lofink said. Part of the experience here is professional development with UM faculty, and they're also doing workshops that will help them put on a conference of their own once they return to Russia.
The teachers have now spent full days at Hellgate and Sentinel, and they have another full day coming up at Big Sky High School next week.
In general, the Russian teachers described their school system as more regimented than Missoula's. It's not just the lecturing, either. Matveev and Kondrashova said the Russian government heavily regulates safety in schools, and wouldn't allow students to work with equipment usually seen in American shop and woodworking classes.
That's why the sight of Sentinel students using welding torches was a bit surprising for them. They also were drawn to the hands-on style of teachers like Sally Friou, whose students were working on ceramic pieces.
Kondrashova said there are times in the school day when teachers work more directly with students, but the setting is unlike the more free-flowing American classroom.
Russian schools also don't offer the same extent of extracurricular activities, like music and athletics. Those things are available, but again, it's not in the traditional school setting.
“They will have lots of things to talk about when they get back home,” said translator Oganesyan.
Reporter Michael moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com.
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Guliya Shaykhutdinova wrote on Nov 3, 2008 5:37 PM: