DOI: 
http://dx.doi.org/10.15293/1813-4718.2505.02
UDC: 
37.016:94+37.02
Khlytina Olga Mikhaylovna
Кандидат педагогических наук, Assoc. Prof. of the Department of History, Novosibirsk state pedagogical university, khlytina@mail.ru, Novosibirsk
Druzhinina Julia Viktorovna
Кандидат исторических наук, Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, Novosibirsk, druzok5111@yandex.ru, Novosibirsk

The Objectives of the School History Course from the Perspective of First-year Students

Abstract: 
The article highlights the issue of the goals and meanings of studying history in modern Russian schools, which is revealed from the perspective of first-year students at a pedagogical university–yesterday’s graduates of schools and secondary vocational education institutions who received a general historical education at a time when new educational standards and uniform federal history textbooks were being introduced. The purpose of this article is to identify the goals of studying history in school as reflected by high school graduates who are first-year students at a teacher training university. Methodology and methods. The methodological basis was a systemic-activity approach to teaching history, which involves the acquisition of historical knowledge, subject-specific skills, and experience of learning history, as well as value judgments in the process of educational activities that are personally meaningful to the student. The phenomenological approach was also taken into accounting: the open answers (judgments) of first-year students were interpreted as a reflection of their subjective experience of studying history at school and their attitude toward history as a school subject. This paper analyzes first-year students’ answers to the question “Why do all schoolchildren in Russia study history as a compulsory subject?” from the perspective of the functions of historical science and historical knowledge in the modern world. The analysis covered 1104 questionnaires completed by first-year students at NGPU. The article concludes that the responses of first-year students focus primarily on three functions of history (identification, cognition, and education), which are determined by the level of historical education they have received and its priority objectives. A significant percentage of first-year students recognize the worldview nature of history as an academic subject. There’s not much focus on the cognitive and critical role of history in the answers, which shows that history is mostly taught as just a “knowledge” subject, with not much attention paid to teaching students the basic skills of historical and cognitive activity. Consequently, university courses in Russian history should not simply continue to broaden students’ horizons, but also teach them to think critically and contextually, and develop their ability to analyze versions and assessments of the past. A correlation has been established between the level of historical knowledge of first-year students and their reflected range of goals and meanings of studying history at school. Students with a low level of knowledge see mainly the cognitive potential of the course (history as a space of knowledge about the past). Students with a grade of “4” or “5” in history are ready to discuss worldview and epistemological issues of historical knowledge.
Keywords: 
school history course; historical education; history teaching; goals of studying history; functions of history
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