SPECIAL COURSE «HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL TEXTBOOK OF MATHEMATICS»: CONTENTS AND STRUCTURE

Abstract

In the context of reforming the education system in Ukraine, the problem of updating the content of mathematical education, which is reflected in modern mathematics textbooks, is particularly relevant. Therefore, it is very important that the content of the textbooks meet the requirements of today. Improving the content of a modern mathematics textbook requires a qualitative analysis of the factors that influence the state of school textbooks. The most comprehensive study of the historical development of the school textbook of mathematics contributes to a deeper understanding of the pedagogical, psychological, political, textual and other aspects of the creation of mathematical educational literature. The study of the historical development of the school textbook for mathematics is fragmentary and needs special attention. It is important to systematize the historical experience of the creation of mathematical educational literature, and to find out the general trends of designing and developing the content of a modern mathematics textbook. Modern schools also need highly qualified mathematics teachers who are able to select, analyze and critically evaluate teaching material. Therefore, it is necessary to include in the system of training of future teachers of mathematics a special course that helps to develop the ability of a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the positive and negative tendencies in the creation of school educational literature in mathematics for several centuries. The study of future mathematics teachers an author’s special course in «History of the school textbook of mathematics» contributes to: understanding of the historical development of the school textbook of mathematics and the factors that influence its content; contribution of domestic and foreign teachers of mathematics in improving the content of mathematical education; gaining future competences for mathematics teachers. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to disclose the structure and content of the author’s special course «History of the School Textbook of Mathematics» as a component of the difficult professional training of future mathematics teachers. Forming the structure of the course, a number of scientific literatures on pedagogy, history of mathematics and mathematics education and theory of educational literature were studied in order to obtain information on the historiography of the school mathematics textbook of different times. Be able to develop a periodization of the history of the school mathematics textbook that formed the basis for the semantic content of the course. The author’s special course «History of the school textbook for mathematics» includes four content modules. The first module introduces the concept of the history of the school textbook of mathematics as part of the general theory of school textbooks. The second analyzes the most famous educational mathematical texts in the world (from the first civilizations to the Middle Ages). The third module is devoted to the content of mathematics textbooks used in the territory of Ukraine in the nineteenth and twentieth century’s. The development of national educational literature from the 1920s to the 21st century is discussed in the fourth module. As a result of the analysis of educational activity of future mathematics teachers during the study of the special course «History of the school textbook of mathematics» and their relation to it, it is concluded that this author’s course can be an effective means of comprehensive training of future mathematics teachers.