Local lore-based history education for primary school children

This article discusses some aspects of history education for primary school children, namely, determining the objectives of history education; identifying the major stages of solving the problem of history education for primary school children in the history of Russian pedagogy; and defining the requirements to the methods of the organization of this process in modern school based on the use of local lore. The objectives of history education include the moral upbringing and general education of primary school children, the formation of historical conceptions as the propaedeutics of learning history in the secondary school, and the development of the basics of historical consciousness. The analysis of scientific literature determined the stages of the formation of history education for primary school children in Russia. The first stage was represented by manuscripts and cheap popular prints as the first source of history education for children (17th and 18th centuries), the second by the propaedeutic course "History" in Russia's primary school (18th and 19th centuries), the third by the ideologically oriented social and historical subjects in primary school (the 1920s to the 1990s), and the fourth by history and social science as components of the course "The Surrounding World" (late 20th century and early 21st century). The modern history subject for primary school children is characterized by integration with regard to the content of education, which includes episodic Russian history and world history. When teaching history in primary school it is expedient to use the potential of historical local lore. The main objectives of historical local lore are as follows: (1) to inform primary school children about the most significant events in the history of Russia and the small homeland, (2) to provide the original chronological structure of historical knowledge, and (3) to provide the continuity of history, the Russian language and Russian literature courses. The content of historical local lore is shown using the example of a region of Russia, namely, Kemerovo Oblast. The methodological system of modern history propaedeutics is based on the use of visual methods and entertaining material, as well as the local lore-based principle of content selection, which promotes the development of the positive motivation, learning skills and historical erudition of primary school children.

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