Do School Social Studies Textbooks Need to Be Changed?

Abstract

Expected learning outcomes have changed following the adoption of the new Federal State Educational Standards of General Education. New organizational forms, teaching methods and tools are required to achieve the new learning outcomes, which affects functionality of conventional learning aids, school textbooks in particular. New interrelation mechanisms are being developed between the textbook and the other components of learning environment, transforming the textbook from the “communicator of ready-to-consume knowledge” into a “navigator for independent learning”. Under such circumstances, it is important to evaluate teachers’ attitudes towards the textbooks used, their perception of the changing role of textbooks in the learning process, and their satisfaction with textbook content, namely the methodological apparatus and its potential for achieving the new learning outcomes.

This article presents the results of a survey assessing school teachers’ perceptions of the system of learning tasks in some widely assigned social studies textbooks from the series edited by Leonid Bogolyubov, Anatoly Nikitin and Tatyana Nikitina, Gennady Bordovsky, and Yevgeniya Korolkova. The survey covered thirteen regions of the Russian Federation: Moscow Oblast, Voronezh, Tambov, Bryansk, Tver, Smolensk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Rostov-on Don, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, and Saransk. The interview questionnaire included six themed modules: target audience profile analysis, teachers’ usage of different textbooks, the role of social studies textbooks in the learning process, textbook influence on the achievement of the new learning outcomes (formation of key 21st century competencies), teachers’ assessment of teaching guidebooks, and availability of social studies teaching packages in schools.

The article only explores the findings obtained for one questionnaire module, which explored how the methodological apparatus of social theory textbooks affected the creation of conditions for achieving metadisciplinary learning outcomes by school students, and offers recommendations on improving this apparatus.