KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

The first stage of a professional training course for teachers of Art and Technology was held at the Aghavandzor-based educational center of Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU) from August 18 to 24. The training is organized within the framework of cooperation between ASPU and Artas Foundation.

Professors from several partner universities from Switzerland, as well as from ASPU are involved in the training group to follow the methodological work and do translations.

About 40 teachers from Yerevan and marzes (provinces) participated in the seven-day course. They got acquainted with some skills and nuances of teaching fine arts and technology in schools.

Naira Mkhitaryan, a lecturer at the Chair of Fine Arts at ASPU, is included in the training group. Within the frames of the same cooperation program, she did an internship at the Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland. She says the internship program was very effective and interesting as it helped her improve her skills, familiarized with innovations, provided a platform for exchange of experience and knowledge, helped compare the educational and teaching systems of the two countries and successfully combine the existing ones. “During the training, we followed and participated in the entire process of teaching with various methods. This is a very interesting and important training for Armenian teachers,” the ASPU lecturer said adding that more training courses of the same format should be organized in the future as there is a need for them.

Talking to aspu.am, the participants said the training was very effective and useful, and helped them improve their skills and knowledge as creators and educators. The trained specialists say they will successfully use the experience and innovations [acquired during the course] in their schools, giving fresh impetus to the teaching of Fine Arts and Technology.