The event became a platform for exchanging experiences, analyzing professional steps and discussing modern challenges in the work of a geography teacher. This year, the practice bases were general secondary education institutions of three regions of Ukraine: Poltava, Sumy, and Cherkasy.

During the conference, master’s students presented detailed reports on the implementation of the practice program. Students shared not only quantitative indicators of the lessons and educational activities conducted, but also presented their own methodological developments: the use of modern pedagogical technologies; conducting educational excursions with students, introducing modern tools in the study of complex topics in physical and economic geography. The exchange of information about the peculiarities of organizing the educational process in various institutions and equipping geography classrooms was useful.

Special attention during the conference was paid to discussing the difficulties faced by young teachers. Master’s students frankly shared their experience of overcoming typical “student” barriers: maintaining attention, discipline issues, “fighting” with gadgets in the lessons by turning the phone into a student’s “assistant”. The students concluded that the best way to maintain order is not a remark, but a dynamic change in types of activities. The importance of establishing emotional contact with the class and the ability to defuse the situation with an appropriate joke in time was emphasized.

The head of the practice – Associate Professor Iryna Melnyk – noted the high level of training of the master’s students, their ability to quickly adapt to different learning formats, as well as their sincere interest in the results of their work. Almost all students received positive feedback from school administrations and, in turn, thanked their mentors from the practice bases.

We congratulate our master’s students on the successful completion of an important stage of their studies and wish them inspiration on their further pedagogical path!

Department of Chemistry, Geography and Earth Sciences