Three educational practices developed by experts from the Institute of Psychology and Comprehensive Rehabilitation at Moscow City University have been included in the National Catalogue of Proven Educational Practices of the Technology Leadership School in Education.
The School is implemented by Southern Federal University with the support of the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation. The catalogue brings together ready-to-use educational solutions that have undergone practical testing and have the potential to be further scaled across the university sector.
“A Start in the Profession of Special Education Teacher”
The practice developed by Tatiana Klimova and Elena Ekzhanova is a blended course structured as a series of educational episodes.
Tatiana Klimova is a senior lecturer at the Department of Special Education at Southern Federal University and a postgraduate student at the Institute of Psychology and Comprehensive Rehabilitation.
Elena Ekzhanova is a Doctor of Pedagogy and Professor at MCU.
The eight-week course is designed for first-year students enrolled in the Special Education programme. Through a sequence of thematic episodes, students learn to design corrective and developmental support, while developing professional thinking and self-regulation skills. Generative AI tools are integrated into the educational model.
“From Student to Researcher: An AI-Powered Simulator”
The second practice was developed by a team from MCU’s Institute of Psychology and Comprehensive Rehabilitation consisting of Angelina Mironova, Elena Skira, and Ekaterina Khoroshavina.
Angelina Mironova is a senior lecturer at the Institute. Elena Skira and Ekaterina Khoroshavina are Candidates of Sciences (PhD) in Pedagogy and Associate Professors.
The AI-powered simulator is designed for second-year students and aims to develop fundamental research skills and critical thinking. Rather than providing ready-made answers, AI serves as a tool for asking questions, analysing information, and evaluating research solutions.
The learning pathway includes working with AI, critically analysing its outputs, developing academic texts, receiving instructor feedback, revising work, and reflecting on the results. Particular emphasis is placed on developing students’ ability to engage with generative technologies consciously and critically.
“Interactive Games for Speech and Language Therapists”
The third practice included in the catalogue is “Interactive Games for Speech and Language Therapists,” developed by Yulia Shulekina, Candidates of Sciences (PhD) in Pedagogy and Associate Professor at MCU’s Institute of Psychology and Comprehensive Rehabilitation.
University materials also identify the interactive games as Yulia Shulekina’s original educational development, designed to stimulate the professional thinking of future speech and language therapists.
The interdisciplinary intensive focuses on “new forms of texts” in modern speech and language therapy technologies. Participants progress from exploring the subject and studying current approaches to developing their own solutions, presenting them, receiving expert evaluation, and reflecting on their work.
The outcomes include original texts, research ideas and hypotheses, projects, academic papers, and teaching materials. The practice helps strengthen students’ research motivation and encourages them to view the professional role of a speech and language therapist beyond the boundaries of traditional educational models.
All three practices share a common principle: active student engagement in their own professional development. Students do not simply acquire knowledge; they analyse, conduct research, design solutions, create educational products, receive feedback, and evaluate the results of their own work.
The inclusion of these practices in the catalogue highlights the growing demand for educational approaches based on project-based learning, research activities, critical thinking, the use of artificial intelligence, and the development of new models for training future professionals.
For the Institute of Psychology and Comprehensive Rehabilitation, the inclusion in the catalogue provides another opportunity to share its expertise with the professional community and contribute to the dissemination of effective educational solutions across Russian universities.
Photo: MCU