Facing the challenges of sustainable education: problem-based learning as an optimizing process of learning english in a multidisciplinary group

Abstract

Darnaus vystymosi esmė – žmogaus gebėjimas gyventi, mokytis ir dirbti harmonijoje su jį supančiu pasauliu. Šių gebėjimų plėtojimas yra tiesioginis darnaus ugdymo uždavinys. Siekiant sėkmingai realizuoti šį uždavinį, ugdomos tokios kompetencijos kaip mokymosi gyventi, veikti ir būti kartu. Jų struktūroje išryškėjantys gebėjimai požiūriai ir vertybės implikuoja tarpdisciplininių studijų aktualijas. Kaip teigia mokslininkai, probleminis mokymasis yra viena iš tokių strategijų yra probleminis mokymasis. Probleminio proceso metu kuriamas darniam ugdymui būdingas tarpdisciplininis turinys, daug dėmesio skiriama besimokančiojo atsakomybei už mokymosi rezultatus, ugdoma komunikacinė kompetencija. Komunikacinės kompetencijos ugdymas yra ypač aktualus užsienio kalbų mokymuisi. Remiantis atliktu tyrimu galima teigti, kad probleminio mokymosi procesas optimizuoja užsienio kalbos mokymosi procesą, nes įgalina studentus aktyviai tyrinėti, rinkti ir domėtis mokslo naujovėmis, konstruoti tarpdisciplinines žinias, argumentuotai kalbėti, aktyviai diskutuoti

The basic issue of Sustainable Development is the ability of being in harmony with world and nature, meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This simple as it may seem issue contains a deep and complex challenge directed towards education: to develop a personality who should possess major competences for sustainable life. Among the wide range of skills and abilities that the education for sustainability declares as necessary ones, there might be highlighted the communicative competence and the ability to analyze scientific data, while revealing their importance to public. For this reason the research paper “Facing the Challenges of Sustainable Education: Problem-Based Learning as an Optimizing Process of Learning English in a Multidisciplinary Group” strives to analyze how the process of learning English as a foreign Language (EFL) can be made more interesting for the language study group of students from different programmers of studies. Participants of the research group are the students from the University of Applied Sciences. The students are from different programmers of studies; their foreign language acquisition is of different levels. The pilot survey of the revealed EFL problematic issues pointed out difficulties of vocabulary usage, argumentative reasoning, public speaking, lack of general educating in philology. These problems were tried to be solved with the help of problem-based learning (further PBL). The effectiveness of PBL was researched in the context of qualitative research paradigm, using the phenomenographic analysis of students’ attitudes towards learning English