Using technologies to design personalized learning pathways as a part of scientific practice of students

Abstract

Problem and goal. The article deals with the process of designing the high school internship program of the ITMO Universitys Information Chemistry Center by using information and communications technology (ICT). The program development process involved following stages: client briefing, exploratory study, hypotheses-formation processes and its testing, custom development, learning experience design and project defense. Methodology. The high school students views about the Infochemistry Internship Program were analyzed. Authors conduc- ted in-depth interviews with respondents and retrieved information about students scientific achievements, challenges and recommendations for improving the internship program. During the exploratory research stage the high school internship programs of Russian and foreign universities in the field of biology, chemistry, physics and IT were studied. The initial sample was composed of Stanford University Mathematics Camp (SUMaC), Stanford University Science Circle, Harvard University Summer School (Pre-College Program), Chemistry Research Academy of University of Pennsylvania. Three types of scientific practices - summer camp or summer school, university science circle and a research academy - were identified. Results. The authors emphasized that there is not a single high school internship program in the field of chemistry in Russia like at IMTO University. This immerse education program is based on laboratory learning that allows students experience chemistry principles under the guidance of leading scientists. The concept of the program based on the science education model. It involves the personalized learning pathway, scaffolding activities, and participation in the research project. Flexible learning pathway is the core of the program that includes various levels of personalization: project, scaffolding means, pace of learning, educational content, educational result. To prove the importance of using ICT and social media in educational process authors found the results of the research conducted by University College Dublin and University of Melbourne. Conclusion. The paper has highlighted the significance of revamping internship programs, identified the most common types of scientific practices and proved the importance of selected program principles.