The article was written by Kristian Mirchev from the program “Children Explorers”
“Children Explorers” is a joint initiative of the National Network for Children and Eurochild. Several teams of young people are exploring six significant issues, that were already identified as important for them and their community. The research was conducted during the period November 2024 – June 2025. The teams of young people will be exploring six significant themes that they themselves have identified as important to them and their community.
In February 2025 the young people explored the theme of ‘Education’ that is important to them. They conducted individual interviews with teachers. Based on the summarized answers to the five main questions on the topic they emerged the opinion of the respondents, which we will present to you in the article.
Teachers were asked which teaching methods they identified as innovative from their practice in the profession. The most frequent answers related to techniques that connect theory and practice regarding the possible – audio-visual aids, test sites, presentations, and usage of 3D models of natural phenomena in natural geography lessons.
“Lessons Outside the Classroom. A hands-on lesson on rocks and crustal composition (at the SU Museum of Mineralogy); Tree species in temperate latitudes (at the park); Endangered plant species (at the Botanical Garden)”.
Another common association is the combination of different scientific disciplines. An example is the joint lessons in geography and history, geography and biology, and geography and physics.
“Countries of the world can be represented by their culinary specialties”.
We asked the teachers which were the strengths of their chosen methods. The most common answer concerns the implementation of the strategy to encourage the active participation of students in the learning process, followed by developing creativity and provoking children’s initiatives and young people in the educational process. Visualization was also identified as a strength, as it assists in making information easier to grasp.
“Teamwork, flipped classroom, interactive illustration of processes in nature, etc..”
We were interested in what qualifications a modern teacher needs to have to meet the students’s needs. The most common response is that it is needed to relate the teacher’s ability to adapt to the differences of children and young people so that they can meet their needs educationally. Another response is for the teacher to have a continuous drive to expand their knowledge.
“To be aware of current technology as well as the needs of the students at the moment. To adapt to the relevance of curriculum topics and to impart practical knowledge and skills to students”.
“Needs to be able to attract and retain attention to what they are doing and when it is not working, change teaching methodology on the fly. To make teaching interesting”.
We asked what needs to be changed in the Bulgarian educational system to teach children for the time after graduation. The most common answer is that education needs to be better oriented with reality and the practice, and to the needs of the society (examples are like financial stability, etc.). Another answer is related to the implementation of the interdisciplinary method, including decreasing the educational material and focusing on quality.
“It is necessary to focus more on the skills that can be used in real life, and not on the pure theory, and the applications for the interviews for the different institutions and conducting sample interviews.”
“The educational system is to be related to the students’ needs regarding the moment. To have more interdisciplinary classes. To show the applicability of the knowledge and skills, and to create more skills in the students, not only a pure theoretical knowledge.”
We would like to understand the impact of digitalization on nowadays education. The most common answers of the teachers are that it affects both good and bad over the educational process.
“It helps but also interferes. It helps because it makes it easy to find the right information, but it limits free personal thinking. It leads to unknowing the language wealth, it takes away alive connections between people and the cultural heritage of life.”
Regarding the question of how well the country is coping with encouraging innovation methods, the grades are from 2 to excellent), and the most common answer is 3 points.
