This study aims to offer a contextual framework for a virtual reality learning environment (VRLE) that would assist in interpreting students’ and teachers’ expectations on how to use VR in the learning process. Due to the current lack of unified recommendations and principles, as well as framework methods, the structure of VRLE, consisting of 4, pedagogical, technological, social and health-preservation contexts may be one approach to the study of VR in education. The study involved 53 school students aged 10–16 years and 49 teachers of various subjects at schools. The participants’ opinions were assessed after the immersion into the VR. The results showed that 79,2 % of learners agreed to learn in school using VR, and 77,5 % of teachers expect to use it in the next five years. A quarter of the learners believe that VR promotes independent and comfortable learning outside the classroom. However, half of the participants are concerned about the possible undesirable health effects of VR. The prospects for further research lie in defining the criteria and designing VR models for each context including technological, pedagogical, social, and health-preservation contexts.

The article researches the use of virtual reality to support STEAM education in general secondary school. To study the impact of STEAM education, the authors proposed a teaching project for the secondary school about convex mirrors and their importance for special visibility and human safety, where the interviewed teachers were able to learn about a real example of the implementation of STEAM education for teaching their disciplines. The purpose of the article is to analyze the meanings and approaches to the use of virtual reality by teachers for organizing the STEAM-oriented learning environment and to identify the basic requirements to VR for supporting the implementation and development of STEAM education. One of the main trends of education modernization is STEAM education, which involves the integration of the natural sciences, the technological sciences, engineering, mathematics and art in the learning process, in particular, at general secondary schools. In light of the findings, researchers indicate that electronic educational resources (including VR & AR) are not only teaching tools for teachers but also a source of inspiration for students, which motivates and stimulates creative thinking. This is an important point considering that creativity is increasingly an important life skill that can help young people cope with the difficulties and uncertainties in their future careers in the fields of STEAM. Prospects for further research are seen in the creation of a model for assessing student performance in STEAM projects. The authors are planning to take into account the differences and features of the use of virtual reality for learning STEAM in schools in different countries, including Ukraine, Spain and Kazakhstan, when creating a multilevel model of STEAM-oriented learning environment using virtual reality tools. The purpose of the model is to evaluate not only the results of tests taken by students after learning this material but also their personal contribution to the final project product, their leadership skills, creative ideas and suggestions, abilities and skills in using ICT and VR in project research. In our next publications, we will focus on several Spanish and Kazakhstani secondary schools to detect the possible differences found in the use of virtual reality to support STEAM education in Ukrainian schools.

The study was carried out from 2018 to 2020 with the challenge - how to assess the level of computational thinking. The research design is mixed since the disclosure of mutual influence of the components of the chain ‘learning programming – computational thinking – evaluating computational thinking’ requires the use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The conceptualisation of the ‘computational thinking’ idea is based on the premise of the impact of abstract thinking and computers on human thinking evolution. The structural interpretation of ‘computational thinking’, consisting of nine components, reflects the presence of a semantic link between teaching programming and the development of abstract computational thinking. Four levels (phenomenological, analytic–synthetic, set–prognostic and axiomatic) of computational thinking have been identified for each of these nine components. The study involved 102 elementary school students who are learning programming in Scratch. The guiding questions and problems we have developed for elementary school students are designed following the characteristics of the four levels of computational thinking. The results of the study showed that the ratio of ‘structural components’ to different levels of computational thinking, with the corresponding characteristics, allows one to determine the degree of its development or its individual components. Keywords: Computational thinking, educational taxonomies, evaluation methodologies, levels of development;

Семантическое влияние программирования на развитие мышления обучающихся: предпосылки, исследование и перспективы

This article substantiates the relevance of the research problem, which consists in the need to solve state tasks in the field of ensuring cybersecurity of social substructures of society, which is the education system. The current legal framework of the problem under study is in urgent need of improvement and development in projection on the educational environment of the school. This is due to the clearly insufficient awareness of its subjects in matters of cybersecurity, cyber defense and cyber ethics. This is confirmed not only by the empirical observations of the authors of this article, but also by the practical lack of clear pedagogical measures of cybersecurity of the school environment. The purpose of the study is to reveal the specifics of cybersecurity of the school environment. To achieve this goal, the authors of the article interpret the concept of cybersecurity in the context of the environmental approach in education, perceived as a methodology of scientific and pedagogical research. Based on these methodological positions, the authors of the article propose a detailed system of parameters and criteria for the examination of cybersecurity of the school environment. The developed system of parameters and criteria for the examination of cybersecurity of the school environment acts not only as a measuring tool, but also as a pedagogical mechanism for the formation of such an environment. Further prospects of the research are connected with the discussion in the scientific and professional audience of the modified methodology of the cybersecurity examination of the school environment proposed by us, its approbation in the real educational process and refinement taking into account the opinions of scientists and teachers. Keywords: cybersecurity, cybersafety, school educational environment, expertise, system of parameters and criteria of expertise.