About us
What do we do?
The PICK educational program has been designed to enhance linguistic, intercultural, and creative competencies crucial for success in the modern world. To help achieve this goal, we have developed a specialized training program for educators.
The PICK program is a valuable tool that enhances learning while preserving the existing curriculum. Our program excels as it integrates various methods from psychology, sociology, anthropology, and linguistics to create an incredibly effective didactic system. Our comprehensive approach takes into consideration educational aspects, as well as the psychology of personality and the sociocultural environment of the student.
Creative competence
The program aims to develop creative competencies grounded in everyday cognitive processes. While exceptional creative achievements are not ruled out, the main focus is utilizing these abilities to solve day-to-day problems.
Intercultural competence
The program aims to significantly enhance intercultural competence by fostering essential cognitive, emotional, and behavioral traits necessary for effective interaction with individuals from diverse cultures. It provides an in-depth understanding, appreciation, and practical application of cultural factors that impact how people perceive, assess, feel, and act in intercultural situations. This promotes mutual adaptation, tolerance, and productive cooperation in a highly effective manner.
Plurilingual competence
The program employs groundbreaking techniques that facilitate active and systematic language switching. This guarantees an immersive foreign language learning experience while nurturing and enhancing the learner’s native language. Additionally, we provide effective techniques to minimize foreign language anxiety, making our program a top choice for language learners.
Systemic adaptation
The main objective of this program is to help individuals develop a systemic adaptation that enables them to interact proactively and assertively with their environment. This involves evaluating the current social and psychological conditions and gaining a deep understanding of their own abilities in those conditions.
Personality traits
The program is designed to significantly boost students’ intrinsic motivation for learning, openness to new experiences, assertiveness, self-confidence, emotional intelligence, and curiosity.
Skills and abilities
The program aims to improve language and communication skills while also developing goal-setting, creative perception, cultural awareness, and flexibility of thinking.
Why do we do this?
Imagine a world where communication barriers don't exist and cultural differences are celebrated. Our innovative PICK program combines plurilingual, pluricultural, and creative educational models to make this vision a reality. By embracing multiple languages and cultures, we're not just learning to speak to each other; we're learning to understand and appreciate our diverse world. This program doesn't just prepare students for global citizenship; it inspires creativity and fosters an inclusive community where every voice is heard and valued. Join us in shaping a future where diversity is our strength and creativity is our common language. Together, we can build bridges, not walls.
How do we do this?
The uniqueness and significance of the PICK program constitute a unified instructional model that effectively ignites creative potential, enhances foreign language acquisition, and develops intercultural competence seamlessly and methodically. By developing these soft skills, students become better equipped to adapt to the demands of the modern world. This includes acquiring new traits and developing new abilities and skills that help them thrive in various situations.
Our major concepts
Sociо-pedagogical partnership
The cornerstone of efficacious socio-pedagogical partnerships is cultivating trust and collaborative synergies among students, parents, educators, and administrative personnel, all united by shared objectives, values, and accountability for educational progression.
Problematization
This principle underscores the imperative of empowering students to formulate educational tasks autonomously, engage in rigorous research, and operate independently. Such competencies are pivotal in fostering motivation and instilling a sense of personal accountability within the educational milieu.
Action-oriented learning
Each instructional session is designed to facilitate opportunities for learners to discern the practical applicability of the knowledge acquired, either through autonomous exploration or under the tutelage of their instructor. Educators are adeptly trained to underscore this dimension, offering pertinent examples to bridge theoretical knowledge with real-world contexts.
Consistency and integrity
To ensure the holistic development of each student, all program components must be meticulously integrated, fostering consistency and integrity across cognitive, personal, and sociocultural dimensions. This integrative approach facilitates sustained daily engagement in activities that enhance creativity, foreign language proficiency, and intercultural competence.
Individualization
Acknowledging and valuing the diverse perspectives of all educational stakeholders is imperative for cultivating self-confidence and active engagement. It is vital to recognize that individual differences play a central role in applying these principles. The program excels at engaging a broad spectrum of students in diverse activities while concurrently honoring their unique attributes and interests.
Personification
The application of the personification principle holds significant promise in augmenting emotional intelligence within the student cohort. This approach facilitates a more profound comprehension of one’s emotions and experiences, thereby reducing the propensity for negative responses in social exchanges.
Dialogue
Active engagement plays a pivotal role in the PICK program, serving as the foundation for cultivating a conducive learning atmosphere and advancing the dual objectives of enhancing communication proficiencies and mitigating bullying. Promoting reciprocal dialogue between students and educators is fundamental to this pedagogical strategy.
Our didactic and psychological principles
PICK program
The program is designed to provide comprehensive training to educators to enhance their pedagogical approach. Its overarching aim is to revolutionize the methodologies of educators by integrating the nurturing of soft skills into their instructional repertoire. The program champions the importance of soft skills alongside academic knowledge to foster an educational environment that is adaptive, forward-thinking, and aligned with the evolving demands of the global landscape. It is a transformative resource, poised to redefine the educational trajectory while preserving curricular coherence.
The program includes a set of three training modules. These modules are meticulously crafted to cultivate essential soft skills: creativity, intercultural competence, and multilingual aptitude.
The program parallel organizes lectures and workshops across three thematic clusters. These sessions aim to stimulate intrinsic motivation, establish a supportive psychological environment, and equip participants with critical thinking and project management capabilities.
Furthermore, the program extends psychological and methodological support to educators as they navigate the implementation of the PICK program within the educational milieu.
Finally, the program thoroughly evaluates academic performance, ensuring a holistic teacher and student progress assessment throughout its implementation.
If you become interested in our program, do not hesitate to contact Prof. Dr. Anatoliy Kharkhurin.
Advantages of the PICK training
Who is PICK training intended for?
Training modules
Lectures and workshops
What do we give?
to school
to teacher
to student
Feedback about our program
The training sessions based on the PICK system left a positive impression on me. What was previously applied intuitively has now become systematic. The sessions were organized so that we, the teachers, actively engaged in the work and productively collaborated in pairs and groups, which was not tiring at all. The professional development system was flexible and non-imposing.
I achieved my goals of developing creativity and flexibility of thinking and also formulated new goals for professional growth. The methodological material and the links to examples of techniques I actively use in my work were especially valuable.
Yulia Babkova, elementary school teacher
I have been working in children's education for over 20 years. I teach social studies and history at a school with an ethnocultural Jewish component. The PICK program has been a successful example for me of combining blocks for developing creativity and communication skills with many practical exercises and topics that can be used in teaching and personal development. The sessions were intensive and dynamic, with practical case studies. Each participant could express their views, enhancing their competencies and selecting the necessary material for themselves.
It is also worth noting the well-developed presentations and workbooks for the program. In my work (social studies and history lessons), I actively apply methods for developing creativity and presentations that use cultural comparisons (everyday life, language, currency, etc.). Thank you for the interesting training!
Sergey Antonovsky, history and social studies teacher
The PICK training exceeded all my expectations. It harmoniously combines theory, active practice, and workbooks: in each session, you receive tools for work and immediately try out new techniques under the guidance of a mentor.
I now gladly use the methods from the first module ("Creativity Breeds the Creator") in my lessons, such as "New Good" and "Cinquain." They help develop openness to new experiences, cognitive flexibility, the ability to generate ideas, and the skill to place meaningful accents. The second module ("The World is Open to Everyone"), aimed at developing intercultural competence, has already shown its importance by helping to learn mutual understanding and constructive conflict resolution.
Thank you for the interesting experience! I look forward to new meetings!
Tatyana Danilova, Russian language and literature teacher
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
What are the techniques in the PICK program?
- The PICK training program is very flexible. Some of the methods are specific associative, metaphorical, dialogical, project, and game-like techniques adapted to a specific academic subject.
- Some of the techniques are psychological and didactic methods of successful communication between a teacher and a student. The teacher independently decides when and what strategies should be used. We do not emphasize mastering a specific learning tool; instead, we focus on the general outline of educational activities.
- The main methods and techniques used by the teacher during the educational process are mixed learning technologies, code-switching methods, brainstorming techniques, psycholinguistic games, associative techniques, metaphorical games, and role-playing games. Special emphasis is placed on establishing a favorable psychological climate and developing students’ emotional intelligence during the lesson. Therefore, we use methods of developing dialogue, active listening, relaxation techniques, meditation, and visualization. As a leitmotiv of the training, we use a project-oriented approach in teaching.
How do we support teachers during implementation?
We provide methodological and psychological support during the implementation of the PICK program.
- Online chats with PICK curators to share experiences and solve current issues.
- Bimonthly online/offline supervisory support groups for a detailed implementation analysis.
- Bimonthly thematic webinars and masterclasses from PICK system experts aiming to deepen theoretical and methodological analysis and practical improvement of specific techniques.
- Webinars, masterclasses, and handouts about the PICK program for parents, teachers, and school administrators to facilitate harmonious social and pedagogical partnerships.
How is training for teachers organized?
The training program comprises three modules that aim to provide teachers with the necessary theoretical and methodological groundwork of the PICK program. It also trains them in plurilingual, intercultural, and creative teaching techniques. It allows them to put various didactic methodologies into practice. The training is conducted every six months, a week before the start of the academic semester. After the training, teachers implement the learned methods in their work with students.
The training algorithm for each module
1. Acquisition of knowledge and skills: Studying the topics of the module and mastering the appropriate techniques. Each day includes the following blocks:
a) Warming-up. Maintaining the physical well-being of participants, mobilizing their internal resources, and stabilizing their emotional state.
b) The main part. Discussion and testing of teaching methods and techniques.
c) Relaxation. Relieving muscle and emotional tension.
d) Reflection. Feedback about the current state of mind, the work done, and expectations from further work.
2. Homework: Prepare a lesson presentation on a selected subject using mastered techniques to independently plan the implementation of PICK techniques in the actual learning process.
3. Project defense: presentation of a prepared lesson, general summary of the module, and a survey of participants.
A teacher receives a training certificate for each completed training module. Teachers who have completed all 3 training modules can sign up for the PICK coaching course to obtain a certificate for conducting PICK training.
What do teachers receive at the training?
- A workbook with step-by-step instructions on implementing acquired PICK methods and techniques.
- A list of sources and literature for more profound development of PICK methods and techniques.
- Visual materials