ANALYSIS OF INTEGRATED COURSE TEXTBOOKS «I EXPLORE THE WORLD»

Abstract

The article addresses the problem of an integrated approach in primary education. The process of development of the integrated course «I Explore the World» is analyzed and its implementation in the textbooks for the 2nd grade of general secondary educational institutions. The structure and methodological apparatus of these textbooks are analyzed. The study found that the development of the textbooks took place without a single integrated course concept. Each team of authors proceeded from the implicit and largely different requirements of typical educational programs. Given that the content of the course involves the unification of five different educational sectors (and also the cross-curricular links with two more), it can be conditionally considered as an integrated one. We analyzed eleven sets of textbooks. The analysis shows the search by the authors’ teams of their course concepts and textbooks. Most textbooks demonstrate traditional, but qualitatively improved approaches to the content selection and structuring, some are completely new. Most textbooks follow the «fragmentary and situational integration» associated with particular topics / objects of study. In principle, finding transparent integrative ideas for such an integration of five educational sectors is not a simple task. On the plus side, all the authors managed to get related material from several industries around one topic, eliminating duplication in the study of a number of issues. Working with such textbooks relieves students of fatigue and overstressing by switching them to various activities.