History Didactics in Lithuania: Its Development and Today

Straipsnyje nagrinėjama istorijos didaktikos, anksčiau vadintos istorijos mokymo metodika, raida Lietuvoje. Apžvelgiamas Lietuvos Respublikos, sovietinės Lietuvos ir atkurtos Lietuvos Respublikos laikotarpis, kiekvieną iš jų aptariant pagal tuo metu parašytus istorijos didaktikos pobūdžio mokslo darbus, taip pat metodinius leidinius, mokslo straipsnius. Įvardijamos institucijos ir svarbiausių darbų autoriai, prisidėję prie istorijos didaktikos plėtojimo. Aptariamas besikeičiantis istorijos didaktikos vaidmuo ilgalaikėje perspektyvojeThe article reviews the development of history didactics in Lithuania. The author argues that the methodological thought of history teaching reached its peak of prosperity in the years of the Republic of Lithuania when history had become an important study subject in fostering the national spirit, and a number of prominent Lithuanian historians worked as history teachers. Based on their pedagogical experience as well as the methodological literature on history teaching of other countries, they wrote and published articles on the topics of history teaching in magazines and newspapers, shared their experience in teacher conferences. The first methodological aids for history teachers developed by Juozas Geniušas (1927), Pranas Penkauskas (1930) and Ona Maksimaitienė (1939) were published. The author concludes that in Soviet Lithuania the thought of history teaching was developed by two institutions – Pedagogical Research Institute and Vilnius Pedagogical Institute – whose employees published the publications of methodological type. Most of such publications were prepared by Z. Pilkauskas, V. Vaičiulis, S. Stašaitis and J. Parnarauskas. The publications included practical guidelines for history teachers; they reviewed the practice of history teaching in Lithuania. Most of them repeated the ideas of prominent Soviet authors whose works were published in Moscow, and it was attempted to apply them to the situation in Lithuania. The methodological thought was tightly associated with Soviet ideology. Barely several articles on history didactics were published. Two people – Z. Pilkauskas and J. Parnarauskas – defended their dissertationsVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŠvietimo akademij