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The Perm-based Tochka ‘Point’ School has launched a set of workshops and tours for foreigners, titled “The World is One. The Access Point”. The project helps to study the Russian language through design.

“Experts have long proved that creative process helps to actively speak a foreign language,” state the Tochka ‘Point’ School staff, who have been developing a new teaching approach themselves. Last December, their methods were used to teach those schoolchildren and students from abroad.

The Project participants learnt design while restoring furniture and working with textiles, made Christmas tree decorations from wood, created New Year’s sachets and drew watercolor sketches. The art lab has been assisted by linguists, who had developed a special vocabulary for the Russian language learners, containing words studied in the classroom.

“Hence psychology, language and action are closely related, the program for teaching foreigners Russian language had been offered in integrity with practicing designers,” shares Yulia Kournikova, teacher of Russian language and literature. “This way, we find immersion into the living language as most effective. For instance, not only did a workshop on making New Year sachets help learn new vocabulary (simple and practical terms like needle, thread, fabric), but also master the system of tenses in Russian. In addition, we are developing a vocabulary which comprises everyday lexis with design-related concepts.”

With a support by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Perm-based project involved students from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, China, Tajikistan and Iran with different levels of Russian language proficiency.

The Tochka ‘Point’ School uses inventory approach to studying language, when students are involved in the process of creating graphic images. Being inspired by semantics of the word and or a graphic shape of the letter, allows students to remember the correct spelling. Such approach provides opportunity for growing visual creative thinking among students, so they could look at familiar things from an unusual side.

The Tochka ‘Point’ is a magnet for unique people who are keen on how to create and lead schoolchildren. While design serves a tool of exploring the world around, the pivot point of the learning system is the student and his/her interests. The school does not have a goal to raise designers, rather it provides a broader perspective, acquiring to a sense of style, providing multiple techniques at fulfilling one’s potential” says Daria Pavlova, Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs, Faculty of Philology, PSU.

Kirill Tsiberkin, Associate Professor, Department of Theoretical Physics, Perm State University, joined by postgraduate and graduate colleagues, have presented research results on the Web of Science and Scopus. Kirill Tsiberkin, Yana Strunina and Ekaterina Kovycheva research wave phenomena in paramagnets diluted with ferromagnetic impurities under the a grant support by the President of the Russian Federation.

The research by PSU physicists involves theoretical analysis of magnetization waves in a diluted magnetic semiconductor. The project aims at simulation of wave phenomena in rarefied materials, which serves the task of transmission of information in electronics. The results can be used to create high-speed electronic switches and memory cells. The article describing the approach was accepted for publication in the European Physics Journal B.

“The small amount of interaction between atoms considerably limits the possibility of waves. So, we were looking for conditions under which the waves become stable. It turned out, not only does the direct interaction of magnetic atoms have a serious impact on this, but also their connection with the main non-magnetic material,”

says Kirill Tsiberkin.

The research paper with the primary description of the developed model has been accepted for publication in the journal Physics of Metals and Metal Science. A detailed article has been published in the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.

The research results have been also presented at the International Winter School of Theoretical Physicists “Kourovka – XXXVIII”, and Perm Hydrodynamic Scientific Readings – 2020.

Perm State University will provide a unique educational program for teachers. The BA Course in Pedagogical education is going to include two profiles at once: Russian as a Foreign Language (RFL) and Chinese Language. This is a rare combination of profiles for Russian universities. Since 2021, the program will take five years – the measure believed to improve the quality of the program.

On behalf Perm State University, Elena Erofeeva, Head of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, and Daria Pavlova, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Philology, presented the educational program at the International Educational Salon last December.

“Our experience of training teachers of Russian as a foreign language shows that they are more successful when they speak a supplementary foreign language. Since our faculty has strong and long-term ties with Chinese universities, we decided such language would be Chinese,”

says Elena Erofeeva

The knowledge of the Chinese language provides program graduates a competitive advantage in the modern labor market. Notably, the demand for Russian language teachers among Chinese people is quite high both in China and Russia.

“In 2021, we decided to open an admission for this program in the form of a two-profile five-year bachelor’s degree, finding it necessary for better mastery of the Chinese language. The new curriculum includes two profiles: “Russian as a Foreign Language” and “Chinese Language”,” comments the Faculty of Philology, PSU.

The first profile includes such disciplines as Basic Linguistics, the Methods of RFL Teaching, the Study of Russian Oral Speech, Basic Psycholinguistics, Ontolinguistics, and others. The program does not propose studying the structure of the Russian language separately, as a Modern Russian language course; rather it is done within such disciplines as General Phonetics, General Semantics, and General Grammar.

The second profile is comprised of the Chinese Language, the Workshop on Translation from Chinese, the Workshop on the Culture of Speech Communication, and Oriental Literature and Culture. In addition, the educational program provides students with teaching practice, both in teaching Russian as a Foreign Language Course (popular among junior migrants), and teaching Chinese language.

Thanks to the existing agreements between Perm State University and Chinese universities, PSU students will enjoy the opportunity of exchange courses in China (1 to 6 months), upon a favorable epidemiological situation.

Perm State University has formed a long tradition of training teachers of Russian as a foreign language. Initially, the specialists had been prepared on individual basis, since 1990s at the PSU Faculty of Philology. Russian as a Foreign Language course had been certified since 2005 as a part of the 5-years specialty program in Philology. In 2018, the training resumed to a 4-years Teacher Education bachelor course. The first graduates of a new 5-year course in Russian as a Foreign Language with knowledge of Chinese language will get their certificates in 2022.

The International Educational Salon was held on 7-9 December within the “Russia in Scientific and Cultural Dialogue” Project framework, with a support by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.

How far may we keep the social touch in the face lockdown and virus restrictions? Erica Panfilova, student of the Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology, PSU took part in the #INFOCUS 2020 International Forum for Inclusive Social Transformations, traditionally taking place at the UN Headquarters in Geneva (Switzerland).

Erika Panfilova, a student in psychology, is the Good Instructor of the innovative inclusive program by the New City “Druzhny”. At the motivational session “Children and Adults: Practices of Effective Partnership in Achieving Social Well-Being” Erica spoke about an online marathon to support children during a pandemic.

“We have developed a program to distract children from negative news and get them interested in competitive activities. From 23 March to 11 May, our patrons performed creative tasks, met online and run communication there. Not only were we able to relieve stress among children and support them in a new challenge, but also to revealed their talents, sharing positive and useful time together,”

says Erika Panfilova.

The Forum was held from 2 to 3 December in an online format. The key agenda was the issue of providing inclusive approach under self-isolation. The Forum was attended by over 1000 representatives of the non-profit sector, business companies and educational institutions. The key Forum participants were socially active young people capable of contributing to the inclusive environment, receiving the status of the #INFOCUS youth ambassadors.

“I have been one of the organizers of inclusive events for three years, already. During this time, I became a Forum expert. Now I help our patrons from the New City “Druzhny” and other programs to become ambassadors, too, so that they could spread our inclusion practices in other territories of Russia,”

Erika Panfilova shares.

The #INFOCUS Forum is a priority discussion platform with the participation of the largest UN entities, public sector and business community on sustainable development and expansion of inclusion. The Forum defines its mission in contributing to 17 goals of sustainable development by UN. In particular, the Forum addresses challenges of inclusive society, social partnership and formation of social capital. The Forum’s goal is the development of universal approaches and the search for effective technologies for expanding social inclusion with the participation of all public institutions: education, NGOs, youth leaders, business, and government.

The New City “Druzhny” is an innovative program by the National Association for Education Development “Notebook of Friendship” (Тетрадка Дружбы), aimed at interaction and joint leisure of children and youth with different levels of physical, mental and psychological abilities. The “Notebook of Friendship” has been organizing UN-based events since 2010. The Association urges to provide more accessible and effective education through implementation of high humanitarian technologies, aka ‘high-hume’. The Association contributes to developing the inclusive society, volunteering and charity by designing and supporting youth-oriented activities.

On 17 December, the Center for Digital Humanities at Perm State University held an online seminar in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Humanities, uniting researchers from the USA, Russia and Germany.

“The process of data accumulation gets increasingly relevant. Regardless of its digital character, the growing abundance of data makes it more and more complicated. Using artificial intelligence technologies, developing neural networks, overcoming limitations of the first pilot projects – all this will inevitably lead to a widespread practical use of artificial intelligence for solving everyday problems. New ambitious projects in various fields – economy, industry, culture will be launched”

says Nadezhda Povroznik, head of the Center for Digital Humanities, PSU.

The Seminar included three reports:
• “Artificial Intelligence and Culture: So Far, What Can’t Computers See?” by Dr. Lev Manovich, expert in new media and digital culture, professor at the City University of New York, founder of Cultural Analytics Lab (USA).
• “The Way People Read and the Way Computers Do: the Analysis of Fiction and Readers’ Behavior” by Pavel Braslavsky, Senior Research Fellow, Ural Federal University (Уральский федеральный университет), Yekaterinburg, HSE, Moscow (Russia).
• “Answering Comparative Questions with Arguments” by Alexander Bondarenko, researcher at Halle-Wittenberg Martin Luther University (Germany).

A question-and-answer session followed each report. The questions touched the concepts of the future culture, e-traces of reading, and search engines. On the whole, discussions concentrated upon the idea of human and digital collaboration.

This seminar followed the discussion “Information Technology and Cultural Heritage: Preservation, Study, Use”, which took place at PSU in October, addressing the issues of IT application for preservation, study and use of cultural heritage.

Dr. Nikolai Maksimovich (Николай Максимович), Deputy Director for Research, Natural Science Institute (Естественно-научный институт ПГНИУ), Perm State University, is included in the editorial board of Discover Water Journal by Springer.

Discover Water is part of the Discover journal series committed to providing a streamlined submission process, rapid review and publication, and a high level of author service at every stage. It is an open access, community-focused journal publishing research from across all fields relevant to water research.

Currently, the Journal editorial board received a proposal to form a thematic issue on any possible topic related to the Earth’s hydrosphere. The Journal invites interested colleagues to cooperate in this area. Publications and suggestions for the compilation of the collection can be sent to gtp@psu.ru.

The collaboration between Nikolai Maksimovich and James LaMoreaux, chief editor, Discover Water, began in 2018 with a mutual participation in an international conference in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2019, a joint monograph by scholars from Perm State University and the University of Belgrade (Универзитет у Београду) was published, edited by James LaMoreaux.

Dr. James LaMoreaux, Chairman of the Board of PELA GeoEnvironmental, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. Dr. LaMoreaux also serves as President of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) US National Chapter, Chairman of the IAH Commission on Mineral and Thermal Water and a member of the IAH Karst Commission. He is Editor of several Springer’s international journals: Environmental Earth Sciences, Carbonates and Evaporites, and Sustainable Water Resources Management. He also serves as Editor of the Environmental Geology Volume of Springer’s Encyclopedia of Science, Sustainability, and Technology and as Editor of several Springer book series.

Dr. Nikolai Maksimovich, Honored Ecologist of the Russian Federation, PSU, has been invited to the editorial board of Discover Water magazine as a dedicated scholar in hydrosphere, for almost half a century. His studies and resolution of practical oriented tasks had been carried out both in Russia (Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Buryatia, Udmurtia, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Perm, Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk Territories, Kurgan, Kirov, Orenburg regions, etc.), and abroad (Tajikistan , Belarus, Turkmenistan, etc.).

According to Interfax.ru (Moscow, 5 December), international students studying at Russian universities who cannot study online will be asked to take an academic leave or postpone classes to a later date period, said Valery Falkov, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.

“There are specialties and areas in which distance education is excluded, technically: like, teaching a doctor or engineer requires personal presence, otherwise these specialties and related disciplines become impossible to teach” Valery Falkov said in an interview on the Russia 24 TV channel (“Россия 24”, ВГТРК).

“In such situations, the relevant disciplines will be transferred to a later date. Otherwise, in case of absence of opportunity to study them, students will be offered to go on academic leave. Additional classes are also possibleafter a full-time presence,” the Minister has stated.

The minister also mentioned that the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Министерство науки и высшего образования РФ) understands the difficulties of international students who cannot get back to Russia and continue their education due to restrictions imposed by the spread of COVID-19.

“The most frequent problem faced by students from abroad is the lack of Internet. In some countries, it is particularly a question of electricity or connection costs (…). Now we are carefully looking at all these problems for each student. There is no universal solution”, – noted Valery Falkov.

Earlier in the media, there were reports that due to the pandemic and the closure of borders, many students from foreign countries failed to continue their studies in Russia and would be expelled. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation has denied such information, stating that “there were no deductions of international students in connection with the transition to distance learning.”

According to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, 300,000 foreigners are studying in Russia, yet 100,000 of them cannot enter Russia to continue their education. The Ministry has stated that universities aim at individual work with each international student in a distance format.

News Source (in Russian)
Translation: Perm State University