Studies
Dárdai, Ágnes –Dévényi, Anna –Márhoffer, Nikolett –Molnár-Kovács, Zsófia
Textbook research and textbook development abroad, part 2*
The institutions and workshops of international textbook analysis research
In the first half of our two-part study, we presented the most important papers published in international textbook analysis research in almost a decade and a half. We directed our search for the selection of papers to those published between 2000 and 2013. We were highly selective in our choice of literature on textbook analysis, and clearly established at the start of our research that we could not strive to be comprehensive. In addition to collecting professional literature, our goal was also to summarise in these sources of textbook analysis tangible development trends and the scope of problems contained therein. In the first part of our summary, we focussed on presenting the developments and activities of some textbook research institutes and workshops. In the second part, published now, we explore content nodes that can be inferred from professional literature, problematic questions and trends with regard to the presentation of the work of individual researchers. After the presentation of typical research topics, we map out for the first time the functions of textbook research. These include, among others, the support of learning theory and learning methodology research; the support of textbook development, qualification and licensing, and research of the formation of social norms. In this context, we show the aspects of textbook research that connect to various sciences, such as to media sciences, sociology, psychology, the study of history, etc. In addition to the short presentation of concrete research and the results produced, we have placed stress on issues raised concerning the research methodology of textbook researchers, too.
* This study is a condensed, reworked version of a study prepared for a project on the topic of “Research development and preparation of professionals for a system of textbook and instructional materials”, the third topic of the first sub-project of the second phase of the Social Renewal Operational Programme 3.1.1. entitled “Public education in the 21st century (development, coordination)”.
Petrilla Gara, Attila
“Storybook” history? The mythification and schematization of history, and their effect on student motivation
In the present study, the author seeks an answer to the question of which methods can motivate students with regard to the subject of history, which new approaches we can use to develop a positive attitude in this regard. But, if the topic is the connection between the subject and the students, one must take a circuitous route before a strictly undertaken analysis; it is worth defining what (or what not) history is, what is included and what not in the scope of its scrutiny, and for what it is capable and suitable – as well as for what not.*
* Of course I am aware that (as András Katona has said): “The teaching subject is not a miniaturized (miniature) copy of science, but a processing from a didactic perspective of the foundations of science. (András Katona – József Sallai (2002): The Teaching of History. Subject-Pedagogical Summary. National Textbook Publisher, Budapest, 29.), but first in this matter it is necessary to review these foundations, in order to make a comparison of the subjects based on them.
Gyertyánfy, András
Frontal Methods in History Teaching
The essay examines the theoretical background of criticism of frontal methods which are tipical of History teaching. It shows that reform pedagogies fully disapprove such methods whereas constructive pedagogy approves it in a certain phase of the learning process. Further on it analyses the allegation that History teaching aims at indoctrinating national interpretations, and it refers to the requirement of multiperspectivity.
Workshop
Szabó, Márta Mária
What is the textbook good for?*
In our study, we seek the answer to the question of how and for what textbooks are used by those for whom they were made. How do teachers use textbooks? Are they present during instruction, if yes, are they opened – even if in a metaphorical sense? When, on which occasions? And the students? Do they draw a moustache on Caesar? (Perhaps we don’t get an answer to this question.) Do they keep them at the end of the school year and remember them fondly, or do they land in the rubbish bin; is there some kind of personal connection between book and user? Do the authors’ pedagogical-methodological intentions affect the teaching-learning activities, the – horrible dictu – habits, the orientation, the teaching-learning strategies of those who employ them?
We review which methodological culture and as a consequence which use of teaching materials are presumed by documents regulating the content of instruction, by the pedagogy and didactic research of the turn of the millennium, and we undertake an experiment to determine how all this compares with methods of use observed in practice in the classroom.
* This paper is the electronic version of the study published in Pedagogy – Education – Library. Celebratory studies in honour of Ágnes F. Dárdai. Edited by Helga Csóka-Jaksa – ÉvaSchmelczer-Pohánka – Gábor Szebereényi.Pécs University Library publications 12.Pécs, 2014. pp. 93-108.
Szabó, Hajnalka Piroska
A comparative analysis of feminine topics of primary school history textbooks
Our study, published in two parts, examines the feminine aspect of primary school history textbooks and the author analyses them using the method of comparative textbook analysis. Basically, the author was curious to find to what degree the female dimension is validated in history textbooks written after the aughts – which try to reflect the challenges of the new century – and whether they contain the results of the latest research in women’s history. After the first part of the study, which defines the scientific-taxonomic place of the writing of women’s history and gender-sensitive pedagogy, the research-methodological concept of textbook analysis is presented, then the quantitative analysis of textbooks is sketched out, in groups and universally. In the second part, to be published in our next issue, the author reveals a comparative analysis of content on the basis of a qualitative review of categories and analyses series of textbooks from professional and didactic viewpoints as well as shows their textbook profiles.
Tarnóczai, Géza:
Moral Upbringing During the Dualist Period as Reflected in Textbooks of the Time
The subject of moral education/ethics was included in the first National Core Curriculum (1995), along with history, as a part of the subject area of Social Studies. The weight of its role increased in the course of changes undertaken in 2012, making it a continuous subject through the upper grades of primary school. The subject has a long past, extending back centuries, in Hungarian education. Thus a look back on the history of its study is justified. The author presents five ethics textbooks from the Dualist Period in the study, with considerable consequence.