Textbooks for biology applied in schools in Russia

• Main Author: Sergey Vitalevich Sumatokhin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Serbian Society of Subject Didacticians 2018-04-01
• Series: Journal of Subject Didactics
• Online Access: http://aes.bio.bg.ac.rs/index.php/JSD/article/view/208

This article describes textbooks that are used in the teaching of biology in schools in Russia. The characteristics of designing biological programme content are presented. The school textbook, as a book, consists of a system of texts, illustrations, apparatus for acquiring knowledge (methodical apparatus) and elements for orientation in the presented contents. In the textbook of biology, different types of texts are distinguished: basic, additional, explanatory. In Russia, biology textbooks for the school public more than ten publishers. A set of biology textbooks, ensuring the continuity of the study of biology in grades 5-9 (10-11) is called the subject line. Authors of different subject lines of textbooks differently select and structure the content of biological education. Depending on the approach to the structuring of the educational material, all subject lines of textbooks can be divided into two groups (system-structural approach and functional approach). These approaches can have a linear or concentric content structure. Each teacher has the right to choose from the variety of subject lines of biology textbooks those that most satisfy his needs.