American Journal Of Philological Sciences
339
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue05 2025
PAGE NO.
339-344
10.37547/ajps/Volume05Issue05-93
Implementation and Inclusion of Elective Subjects and
Syllabus in Educational Programs of Credit-Modular
System in Higher Educational Establishments
Yeshimbetova Nadira
Teacher of school No. 18 of the city of Nukus, Uzbekistan
Received:
31 March 2025;
Accepted:
29 April 2025;
Published:
31 May 2025
Abstract:
This article discusses the work done in implementation the credit-module system in higher educational
institutions, the work done inclusion of elective subjects and syllabus in educational programs.
Keywords:
Credit-module system, independent study, elective subjects, approach.
Introduction:
Implementation of credit-modular
system in Uzbekistan. In Uzbekistan in recent 5 years,
the educational system is gradually moving to a credit-
module system of education. Examples are branches of
foreign universities in the country and domestic
universities, carrying out the educational process with
the introduction of international standards. This
experience is gradually being implemented in several
national higher schools. For example, in accordance
with the Decree of the President of the Republic of
Uzbekistan PD-5349 from 19.02.2018 "On measures to
further improve the sphere of information technologies
and communications" at the Tashkent University of
Information Technologies named after Mukhammad
al-Khwarazmi (TUIT). It has been gradually
implementing the transition to the credit system of
education from the 2018-2019 academic years. Besides
mentioned above university such institutions as the
National, Law Universities, University of Oriental
Studies, Tashkent Medical Academy, Ferghana
Polytechnic Institute and others has started to work on
the credit-module system of education. It will provide
an opportunity to train highly qualified specialists who
are competitive in the current unstable international
labor market, as well as to ensure a high rating of an
educational institution among 1000 universities in the
world.
According to Resolution of Cabinet of Ministers of the
Republic of Uzbekistan from 31.12.2020 №824 “On
measures to improve the system related to the
organization of the educational process in higher
educational institutions” from the 2020/2021 academic
year, higher educational institutions of the republic
have begun a gradual transition of the educational
process to a credit-modular system.
In fact, the reform of education and the transition to a
new system began half a century ago in developed
countries and achieved high results and led to the
prosperity of various sectors of the state. Uzbekistan
chose the European ECTS credit-module system after
researching world credit education models. This can be
caused by:
•
ECTS credit-module system is recognized by
many foreign countries;
•
The establishment of this system in Uzbekistan
and neighboring countries (it will be much easier to
ensure the exchange of professors and teachers and
students);
•
Similarity of educational stages;
•
This system shows effective results in
education.
The main objectives of the introduction of the credit
system of education are determined by the following:
• first, in order to improve the quality of education, the
introduction of international educational standards
based on the use of international recommendations
developed taking into account the trends in the
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
340
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
–
2771-2273)
development of information and communication
technologies (hereinafter
—
ICT) in developed
countries, the provision of qualified teachers, the
development of high-quality curricula and teaching
materials;
• second is the expansion of promising exchange
programs for students, teaching staff, and research
scientists with foreign universities;
• third is the creation of a competitive environment
that allows the teacher to improve the scientific and
pedagogical level by mastering new educational
technologies and rational forms of organization of the
educational process;
• fourth —
providing students with the opportunity to
independently form their own educational program
and ensuring transparency of knowledge assessment.
One of the main advantages of the credit system of
education is that it will complement and support
national standards of qualifications. That is, concepts
such as contact hours, academic load and qualification
requirements will be supplemented and linked with the
concepts of transfer, accumulation, recognition of
credits, mobility, flexibility to transform curricula and
individual plans, independence.
The credit system of education also affects the number
of study weeks per semester. It is planned to switch
from an 18-week half-year to a 15-week half-year. The
transfer of theoretical classes to the beginning of the
academic semester will make it possible to optimally
organize the mobility of foreign teaching staff for
lectures. After successfully mastering the theoretical
part of the curriculum, students will conduct practical
and laboratory classes under the guidance of assistant
teachers. Having scored enough points, students will be
admitted to the final tests. The number of credits per
subject or module is determined by the number of
academic hours. In the conditions of the credit system
of education, the concept of "academic hour" is also
changing. The change in the labor intensity of the
academic hour should not affect the teacher's
pedagogical load by increasing the hours of
independent study, since the teacher is obliged to
monitor independent education and systematically
update active educational materials for self-training of
the student.
To compare the distribution of hours for education in
the traditional educational system and the credit-
modular educational system, the curricula of 3 higher
educational institutions of Karakalpakstan, such as
Nukus branch of Tashkent University of Information
Technologies named after Mukhammad al-Khwarizmi
(NB TUIT), Karakalpak State University named after
Berdakh (KSU), Nukus State Pedagogical Institute
named after Ajiniyaz (NSPI), were taken.
From the given curricular it is seen that in traditional
system of education in NSPI the 4 years students have
theoretical and practical studies and specialty practice
in 7 semester 17 weeks and in 8 semester 12 weeks,
while in credit-modular system in 7 and 8 semesters per
15 weeks. In traditional system students have 9
subjects in 7 semester and 7 subjects in 8 semester,
whereas in a new system
–
6 subjects in 7 and 5
subjects in 8 semester. It means that learning
workloads have been decreased. One more thing that
should be paid attention is the list of elective subjects
in credit system. From the curricular we can see that
learners have an opportunity to choose 3 subjects (per
4 credits each) from the list according to their interests
and desire. Moreover, another important part in these
2 curricula is hours for independent study. For example,
in 2021 there is a subject “Stylistics” , that has in total
106 hours, from which 30 hours for lections, 30
–
for
seminars and 30
–
for independent study. The same
subject, but with little change in the name of the lesson,
“English language stylistics” has in 2023, however, the
distribution of hours is different, and that is 360 hours
in total, 90 hours for lections, 90
–
for seminars, 90
–
for independent study. It means that the principle of
credit-modular system 1:1 (auditorium classes :
independent study) works.
In the following you can see the curricula of Philology
and teaching languages department of KSU.
The differences between curricula in traditional and
credit-modular system of education of Philology and
teaching languages department of KSU.
This time, we decided to compare the 1 semester of the
first year. From two years above it is obvious that in
traditional system there are 15 subjects which students
must master, whereas in credit system there are 10
subjects (30 credits) in 1 semester. As an example, we
can show the subject “Introduction to linguistics”; in
traditional system it has in total 64 hours (34- for
auditorium classes, 30- for independent study), when
in credit system this subject has in total 60 hours (30-
for auditorium classes, 30- for independent study). It
shows that at KSU according to credit-modular system
it is paid more attention to independent learning of
students.
Now, you can see the curricula of NB TUIT in the
following:
Since NB TUIT is non-philological university, it has the
only subject related to English; it is “Foreign language
1(for the 1 semester)” and “Foreign language 2 (for the
2 semester)”. In traditional system it had another
name, as “Practical foreign language” and at the first
semester of the first academic year it has in total 100
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
341
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
–
2771-2273)
hours (72-practical lessons and 28-independent study).
However, now in new system of education “Foreign
language 1” has in total 120 hours (4 credits), from
which 60 hours for practical classes and 60
–
for
independent study. Besides, at the first year of study
students choose the elective subjects not from
specialty subjects but from humanitarian.
To summarize the above, we can say that the models of
credit system are widespread. They are US Credit
System (USCS), Asia-Pacific Credit System (UCTS),
European Credit System (ECTS), the UK Credit System
(CATS). Analyzing and observing the experience and
results of universities the Ministry of higher and
secondary special education of our republic considered
ECTS to be more appropriate to implement in our
educational system. Despite the fact the ECTS system is
quite new stage; we can see positive results of
implementing it in our institutions. Therefore, we
assumed it appropriate to focus on its efficiency and
advantages. The main feature of the credit-modular
system is the presence of elective subjects in the
program. It is an important future of the student-
oriented approach.
In this case, the student is given the opportunity to
accumulate part of certain credits established in the
curricula by studying part of the compulsory subjects,
and the rest by studying elective subjects. For example,
each bachelor student has to complete 240 credits till
the undergraduate program, 50% of these credits
(i.e.120credits) from compulsory subjects, and 50%
(120 credits) can be accumulated through elective
subjects.
Elective subjects are chosen by students within the
framework of a specific curriculum, based on their
interests and plans for the future are the sciences. In
this case, the university provides students with a list of
subjects to choose from, which can be studied
throughout the academic year or curriculum, and
students themselves choose from this list and study
subjects that are interesting to them. However, when
choosing the subject the students should take into
consideration that the total number of credits of
elective subjects should coincide with the number of
credits allocated for elective subjects in the academic
year. For instance, if a student should obtain 12 credits
through elective subjects and each subject is reflected
in 4 credits, the student learn 3 elective subjects in that
semester (4 credits*3 subjects=12 credits). In credit-
modular system of education there are two types of
elective subjects:
Limited choice
. This applies to students for each
academic year very limited number of options to select
items a list of items is given and they are in the specified
quantity from this list selects items by credits. For
example, 3 options for students presented with a list of
items and select 2 items from the list may be given the
opportunity. As you can see, this is the student's choice.
Opportunity will be very limited. Also, what course the
student is in. what elective subjects they can study
should also be determined in advance possible This is
also a practice of limited choice.
Unlimited choice
. In this program the student is given
a relatively large list of electives and may receive which
can be studied, and the student chooses from this list
for each semester. Subjects make choices based on the
amount of loans. Restriction on which subject a student
can usually choose in which course will not be posted.
But the amount of credits accumulated by the student
in elective subjects less than the amount of credits
indicated for elective subjects in the semester, or it
needs to not increase. But the right to choose students
is absolutely not. Some optional subjects before the
student starts these subjects may require completion
of another subject (prerequisite).
At the current stage, the loan module for local
universities in our country the system is a completely
new system. Have an initial transition to a credit-
modular system on the basis of the right of limited
choice of practice of optional subjects at stages
Unsurprisingly, this is a logical step to implement.
Syllabus
. Preparation for teaching each subject in the
curriculum in the ECTS system it is recommended that
the teacher first have his own science program. The
science curriculum is a science roadmap that tells the
student the most important things about science
provides information. The form and content of the
scientific program may vary but it should cover at least
the following: description of the course, objectives of
the course, themes of the course, materials and
assessment.
As we have seen in the science curriculum, what is
science, its goals, list of topics that will be covered
during the semester, materials that will be used and
bibliography, methods and evaluation criteria. In
addition, it contains the contact information of the
teacher, weekly with the teacher while counseling,
there may also be consequences for academic
cheating. Creating a scientific program is not a difficult
process. But it's a teacher's school year requires some
thought at the beginning: he is the teacher of his
subject during the semester clearly plan the work you
want to do in advance, science encourages sorting
topics by their importance.
It is most important information must be provided to
students at the beginning of the semester. This
information is very useful for both the teacher and the
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
342
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
–
2771-2273)
students.
Independent work of students.
Independent work of students is a kind of educational
activity of students, which is aimed at independent
performance of didactic tasks, makes learning more
interesting, increases knowledge in a particular field of
science. A number of studies devoted to the study of
student's independent work note that this form of
organization of the learning process contributes to the
formation of a conscious attitude of the students
themselves to mastering theoretical and practical
knowledge, instills in them the habit of intense
intellectual work. In achieving the goal, the necessary
prerequisite is the effective organization of the
student's independent work. The quality and depth of
students' knowledge and the success of teaching in
general depend on this. Students who work
independently can make specific decisions, make
serious proposals, and can choose methods of work in
the process of self-study.
If one of the requirements for classes in biological
disciplines is taken into account - theoretical
knowledge, practical application, laboratory research
of the material, then the conditions for conducting a
technological lesson - to puzzle students in advance
with the topics of planned not only practical classes and
lecture pairs, then in both cases the identity of the main
requirements - the individual work of students suggests
how necessary are the skills of organizing students' self-
study.
In the formation of a person's personality, self-
improvement performs the main function. On this
occasion, Philippe Condi argued: independent
education is a process, method and philosophy of
education, where the student acquires knowledge
through his efforts and develops the ability to receive
information and critical evaluation.
Self-study is the most effective way of self-
improvement of each person, since from time
immemorial people of mental labor prefer to combine
all types of education, including self-study.
Student's independent work - individually organized
realizable work, including in its structure such
components as understanding the goal and the set
educational task, clear and systematic planning of
independent work, searching for the necessary
educational and scientific information, mastering one's
own information and its logical processing, using
research methods work for laboratory research, the
ability to present the acquired knowledge in biological
disciplines, the establishment of self-analysis and self-
control, educational and cognitive activity, as well as
self-regulation, self-government, motivation for
independent learning.
The target and executive components include setting
goals, defining tasks, planning actions, choosing ways
to implement them, introspection and self-control of
results.
The student needs to master the technique of working
with educational and methodical literature before
developing the skills and abilities of independent
cognitive activity and developing skills for systemic self-
education.
Results of the teachers’ questionnaire
The importance of questionnaires in research is
immense,
helping
researchers
gain
relevant
information quickly and effectively. Before creating a
questionnaire for your study, you should first
understand the meaning of questionnaires and the
advantages and disadvantages of using them.
Questionnaires can be of two forms: open-ended and
close-ended questions. Open-ended questions enable
respondents to answer in their own words in as much
or as little detail as they desire. Closed questions
provide respondents with a series of predetermined
responses they can choose from. In our research work
we considered it appropriate to use both forms of
questionnaire.
In our questionnaire there took part in total 20 English
teachers of Karakalpak State University, Nukus State
Pedagogical Institute and Nukus branch of Tashkent
university
of
Information
Technologies.
The
questionnaire has 12 questions concerned to credit-
modular system, its principles and the process of
implementing it in education. Results of the teachers’
questionnaire are presented and analyzed in different
tables.
The teach
ers’ questionnaire consists of the following
questions:
Question 1: Find the definition of the concept credit-
module system.
The majority of teachers 85% are familiar with the
concept of credit-module system, however 10% of
teachers consider that credit-module system provides
universities with educated teachers and students.
Moreover, only 5% of teachers have thought that
credit-module system is teaching learners using new
pedagogical and information technologies.
Question 2: Credit is a conditional unit of measurement
of a student's academic load when studying a
composite curriculum or a separate discipline (course)
performed by a student during education. 1 credit
consists of … .
From above, it is seen that 85 % of teachers are aware
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
343
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
–
2771-2273)
of the number of hours in one credit, however 3% of
teachers have chosen incorrect option.
Question 3: How many credits should each student get
at the end of the bachelor’s and master’s degree?
According to the results above, we can say that only
65% answered correctly to this question, however, we
expected the same results of the second and third
questions as they are related to each other. A teacher
who knows the correct answer to the second question
must necessarily know the answer to the third
question. Since if 1 credit consists of 30 hours and the
subjects of one semester contain 30 credits in total,
then for 4 years of study at the bachelor's degree, the
student
must
gain
240
credits
(30
(credits)*8(semester)=240) and for 2 years of study at
the master’s degree, the master’s student must get 120
credits. 20% of teachers selected option B, that is
Bachelor’s –
200 credits, master’s –
100 credits and
15% chose option A, that is Bachelor’s –
250 credits,
master’s –
150 credits.
Question 4: In the credit-modular system, it is
recommended that a teacher who is preparing to teach
a subject initially have their own syllabus (oqɪw dástúr).
What should syllabus include?
This question is open-ended question and teachers
wrote their answers. However, before analyzing their
answers, we give here the main things that syllabus
should include. They are:
1.
Brief description of the course
2.
Objectives of the course
3.
Themes of the course
4.
Materials of the course
5.
Assessment
According to the results, 60% of teachers included all
the given points above and 40% teachers added that
syllabus should include literature and requirements. It
means that almost all the respondents know how to
design syllabus according to the credit-modular system.
Question 5: What does elective subject mean in credit-
module system?
80% of teachers answered correctly, that is an elective
subject is the subject chosen by students depending on
their interests and desire. However, 5% of respondents
answered that it is a subject selected by teachers and
the other 15% marked that it is an opportunity for
students to select which classes to attend and which do
not participate.
Question 6: What, do you think, are the rights of
students to select the subjects at your university?
As it was stated in the first paragraph, elective subjects
are divided into limited (students in each academic year
are given a very limited list of subjects to make a choice,
and they choose subjects from this list according to a
certain number of credits.) and unlimited (students in
each academic year are given a wide list of subjects to
make a choice, and they choose subjects from this list
for each semester according to a number of credits.
Here, the students’ rights are not limited when
choosing the subject to study in each course).
Since the credit-module system of education is a new
system in our republic, from our opinion, it is
appropriate to introduce a limited practice of elective
subjects. And to this question 65% of teachers pointed
to the limited rights, while 30% -to unlimited and 5%
marked that they are not familiar with the given
information.
Question 7: To what extent are the lessons conducted
at your university student-oriented?
One of the main principles of credit-module system is
to make the process of study more student-oriented.
As the old traditional system used to see the teachers
as the main sources of knowledge, and it was
impossible to make anything without teachers.
Moreover during the classes the teachers spoke
approximately 80% of the whole time of the lesson. It
means
that
classes
were
teacher-oriented.
Unfortunately, there are a few numbers of teachers
who still continue to have such type of classes and it is
a typical process since it is difficult to immediately
switch to a new educational system for both the
teacher and the student, since students from school get
used to teachers as the central manager.
From the above, it is seen that only 25% of teachers
have 100%-80% student-oriented classes, 65% percent
have 70-50% of student-oriented classes and 10% of
teachers are still the main speakers in the class. It
means that we have some issues with making our
students more responsible and independent during the
lessons.
Question 8: Independent learning is one of the main
features of credit-module system. How many percent is
given to independent study (IS) out of the total number
of hours devoted to one subject in a semester?
In a lot of literature it is written that 50% of the hours
are for independent study and 50% are for auditorium
classes. However, we did not include this variant of
answers in our questionnaire, since in other literatures
we also met the second variant (40%-for auditorium
classes, 60%- for IS) of the distribution of hours and
included it in our questionnaire. By doing this we
wanted to check whether our teachers also know about
the second option of allocating hours.
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
344
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
–
2771-2273)
70% of respondents select the correct answer, 15%
state that 30%- for auditorium classes and 70% - for IS,
when 5% claim that 30% - for IS and 70% - for
auditorium classes. And 10% of teachers separately
indicate their correct answer that is 50%-50%. The
answers show that most of the teachers know the both
options of distribution of hours.
Question 9: Can you describe the efficiency of
independent learning in credit-module system based
on outcomes of independent work of your students?
Independent learning is a method or learning process
where learners have ownership and control of their
learning
–
they learn by their own actions and direct,
regulate, and assess their own learning. According to
the results, 80% of teachers describe the efficiency of
independent learning that it shows its results during
the lessons. The students became more motivated and
improve their critical thinking on a particular topic.
Only 20% of teachers answered that it depends on
requirements.
Question 10: What are the advantages of the credit-
module system over traditional system?
According to the results, 90% of teachers wrote their
opinions positively about credit-modular system and
10% of teachers said that there aren’t any differences.
Unfortunately, those 10% of teachers who don’t see
any differences between current and credit-modular
system conduct their lessons in an old way. Since they
don’t know that lessons must be student
-oriented and
the learners should study independently. Besides it
means that these teachers do not allow their students
to be aware of credits, assessments beforehand. This is
contrary to the principle of transparency.
In sum up, we can say that the surveyed teachers did
not show the negative results. Instead by their answers
we could understand in what extent the credit-modular
system is familiar to our teachers, if they know the
functions and the principles of this system and finally
we were able to find out whether this new system is
really being implemented in practice in universities of
Uzbekistan.
CONCLUSION
In Uzbekistan in recent years, the educational system is
gradually moving to a credit-module system of
education and there are already positive results.
Examples are branches of foreign universities in the
country and domestic universities, carrying out the
educational process with the introduction of
international standards. This experience is gradually
being introduced in several national higher education
institutions.
Credit-module system of the educational process is a
model of educational process organization, which is
based on a combination of modular learning
technologies and credits or credit educational units.
Organization and implementation of the learning
process - it is a multifaceted and complex system of
action and interaction.
The relevance of autonomous education grows in the
educational process, which will lead to a growth in the
independence, creative initiative, and activity of
professionals in the future. University students will
always be able to seek aid and advice from lecturers
and fellow students under the credit-module system.
This strengthens mutual solidarity and helps to shape
teamwork abilities. Professors and teachers at higher
education institutions would have more obligation and
demand as the credit-module teaching system is
implemented.
REFERENCE
Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan
No.PD-
5349 from 19.022018 “On measures to further
improve the sphere of information technologies and
communications”.
Decree of President Sh. M. Mirziyoyev “On the appro
val
of the concept of development of the Higher Education
System of the Republic of Uzbekistan until 2030” dated
October 8, 2019 No. PD-5847.
Resolution of The Council and of the Ministers of
Education, Meeting within the Council, Official Journal
of
the
European
Communities,
1976.
https://eurlex.europa.eu/legalcontent/
EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:41976X0219&from=EN]
Ўринов В. Ўзбекистон республикаси Олий таълим
ташкилотларида ECTS кредит
-
модуль тизими:
Асосий тушунча ва қоидалар, “Эл
-
юрт умиди”
жамғармаси ва Республика олий таълим кенгаши
ҳамкорлигида тайёрланган. 2020 й.
-
64 бет.
Polvonov A., Azizov Z. Ta’lim yo‘nalishiga kirish (kredit
-
modul tizimi) fani bo‘yicha o‘quv
-uslubiy majmua.
Namangan. 2022Robert Wagenaar, A History of ECTS,
1989-2019. Developing a World Standard for Credit
Transfer and Accumulation in Higher Education.
International Tuning Academy, 2020.
Шадриков В.Д. Государственные образовательные
стандарты
высшего
профессионального
образования и Болонский процесс / В.Д. Шадриков
// Вопр. образования. –
2004.
“Кредитно
-
модульная система обучения”. А.А.
Тимофеев, Н.А. Ушко, М.А. Ярифа. Современная
стоматология. 1/2013 (стр. 134
-136).
