History teaching in secondary school - new attitudes and contemporary textbooks

Įteisinus trijų koncentrų istorijos mokymą vidurinėje mokykloje, išryškėjo keletas labai svarbių trūkumų. Juos iškelia ir aptaria didaktikos specialistai. Istorijos mokymo problemų dažniausiai kyla dėl kai kurių dabartinių vadovėlių – jų tekstai parašyti neatsižvelgiant į mokinių amžiaus, psichologines ir dalykinio parengtumo ypatybes. Straipsnyje aptariama, kaip galima būtų įveikti metodinius ir dalykinius mokymo proceso nesklandumus; pabrėžiama, kad būtina dar kartą pergalvoti istorijos mokymo sistemą nekeičiant Bendrųjų programų, ir pritaikyti naujas mokymo priemones – vadovėlius ir skaitinių knygas.After introduction of three-circle history teaching in the 5th–12th forms of secondary schools, some important disadvantages became evident, among the most important ones being duplication of teaching material in different circles. In the first circle, i. e. in the 5th–6th forms, teachers, instead of episodic course, tend to teach systemic course; teachers also often fail to prioritize visual aids and texts according to pupils’ age. Such a situation is mainly determined by the existing textbooks as some of their texts do not correspond to pupils’ age and psychological peculiarities as well as the level of subject matter acquisition. To avoid conspicuous duplication in the circles, it is relevant to revise the existing history syllabus within the framework of the National curriculum. Accordingly, new history teaching textbooks and readers should be adapted to the revised syllabus. In new textbooks, the preferable content of history teaching in three circles could be the following: in the 5th–6th forms – episodic course History of Traditions and Mode of Life, in the 7th–10th forms – systemic course Political History, in the 11th–12th forms – systemic course History of Culture. Such sequence would eliminate obvious duplication in the circles. The topics should cover major historical events from the World and Lithuanian history, and the ratio of the topics could be determined by the importance of these events to the world and the development of Lithuanian society