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Vol. 38 (Nº 25) Year 2017. Page 16

Innovative Approaches to Representing Learning Material in the Educational Literature on Culturology

Enfoques innovadores para representar el material de aprendizaje en la literatura educativa sobre Culturología

Aigul Linarovna FAIZRAKHMANOVA 1; Vadim V. KORTUNOV 2; Natalya Mikhailovna NESOVA 3

Received: 09/03/2017 • Approved: 15/04/2017


Content

1. Introduction

2. Literature and research review

3. Methodology

4. Results

5. Discussion

6. Conclusion

References


ABSTRACT:

This paper analyzes the use of innovative approaches to representing learning material in the educational literature on culturology. It looks into specific issues in designing new-style textbooks for institutions of higher learning. The authors examine some of the key requirements for putting together the textual component of textbooks. Based on the research reported in this publication, the authors arrive at the following conclusions: - developing quality educational literature requires factoring in the theoretical tenets of textbook theory, making use of the various resources available within the information environment to expand the volume of learning material and properly organize student learning activity, and encouraging the active participation of college instructors in the development of new-style textbooks; - the efficient organization of student learning activity will be facilitated by the use of a new style of textbook – a textbook which print version will have hyperlinks in the form of pictograms that will be active in its electronic version; - the use of ideas and concepts from systemic and information approaches, supplemented with a psychological-didactic approach, helps to ensure the proper and efficient development of new quality study books and proper assessment of the quality of existing ones.
Keywords: study book, designing a study book, systemic-information approach, psychological-didactic approach, text, extra-textual components, multimedia accompaniment, indicators of the quality of a study book

RESUMEN:

Este artículo analiza el uso de enfoques innovadores para representar el material de aprendizaje en la literatura educativa sobre culturología. Se examina cuestiones específicas en el diseño de libros de texto de estilo nuevo para las instituciones de enseñanza superior. Los autores examinan algunos de los requisitos clave para reunir el componente textual de los libros de texto. Basándose en la investigación presentada en esta publicación, los autores llegan a las siguientes conclusiones: - el desarrollo de una literatura educativa de calidad requiere el factoraje en los principios teóricos de la teoría de libros de texto, aprovechando los diversos recursos disponibles en el entorno de la información para ampliar el volumen de material de aprendizaje Y organizar adecuadamente la actividad de aprendizaje de los estudiantes, y alentar la participación activa de los instructores universitarios en el desarrollo de libros de texto de estilo nuevo; - la organización eficiente de la actividad de aprendizaje de los estudiantes será facilitada por el uso de un nuevo estilo de libro de texto - un libro de texto cuya versión impresa tendrá hipervínculos en forma de pictogramas que estarán activos en su versión electrónica; - el uso de ideas y conceptos de enfoques sistémicos e informativos, complementados con un enfoque psicológico-didáctico, contribuye a garantizar el desarrollo adecuado y eficiente de nuevos libros de estudio de calidad y una adecuada evaluación de la calidad de los existentes.
Palabras clave: libro de estudio, diseño de un libro de estudio, enfoque sistémico-informativo, enfoque psicológico-didáctico, texto, componentes extratextuales, acompañamiento multimedia, indicadores de la calidad de un libro de estudio

1. Introduction

The integration and globalization of information and cultural processes at the stage of transiting to a knowledge society are providing a rationale for the need to modernize the education system across all dimensions, especially, the area of textbooks. This is why there currently is topicality with issues relating to the structure of the present-day content of the textbook, the methodological foundations of constructing it, the criteria for selecting learning material for each discipline, the procedure for expounding the learning content, etc.

In today’s climate of intensification of education and transitioning to new approaches to organizing the educational process (distance learning, the case method, etc.), society is increasingly growing aware of the need to develop relevant study guides. This need is felt especially keenly in relation to new educational courses that are just emerging or evolving, when there is a lack of established textbooks and teaching materials.

The issue owes its topicality to the existence of two major problems. The first problem is that many authors of present-day college textbooks and study guides do not always comply with all relevant requirements for designing the study book and rarely go beyond the use of traditional well-proven study book design techniques to make sufficient use of best practices and techniques from some of the new domains of scientific knowledge, like systemology, informatics, and documentation science. The second problem lies in the fact that providing instructions to the present-day students with their increasingly prevalent “mosaic” thinking patterns may require the use of new style study guides that would be an integration of the print and electronic versions with an expanded multimedia accompaniment.

An analysis of existing study guides has found that today the ideas of a systemic approach and those of design and modeling oriented toward the author’s subjective vision of particular scholarly problems are hardly ever used. All this may significantly impede the assimilation of the learning material by undergraduate and graduate students on the one hand, and hinder the possibility of using and assessing the quality of the study books on the other.

Also, research has identified a number of major trends in today's informatized society. Thus, for instance, one of the characteristics of society’s present-day state is information technology (IT) support for presenting information in the form that is most comprehensible to the present-day student – multimedia, the use of which is increasingly making less sought-after the ability to perceive printed text and conceptualize it. Having said that, presenting information verbally in the form of printed text remains, and, probably, will long do, the most precise and unambiguous way of doing it. Consequently, there arises a discrepancy between the way in which information is delivered in the digital surround based on the development of information technology and perceived by the student in everyday life and the need for them to process learning material presented in traditional printed form. Based on the above, there arises the need to modernize the principles of constructing educational texts in such a manner as to bring the textbook, both content- and form-wise, in line with not only the pedagogical model of scientific knowledge but also with the major psychological characteristics of the intellectual development of the subject of learning, i.e. existing approaches ought to be supplemented with a psychological-didactic approach.

2. Literature and research review

The development of textbook and study guide theory and research into particular aspects of the development of college study guides have been undertaken at different times by scholars V.P. Bespalko (Bespalko, 1988), V.G. Beilinson (Beilinson, 1986), P.G. Buga (Buga, 1987), A.G. Molibog (Molibog, 1975), N.I. Tupalskii (Tupalskii, 1976), S.G. Shapovalenko (Shapovalenko, 1976), and others. Many of the present-day issues associated with college study books have found reflection in works by S.G. Antonova (Antonova & Vakhrushev, 2004; Antonova & Tyurina, 2001), L.G. Tyurina (Antonova & Tyurina, 2001; Tyurina, 2006), M.A. Dubik (Dubik, 2010), D.T Tanirbergenova, K.N. Sarieva (Tanirbergenova & Sarieva, 2002), Zh.A. Shokybaev, D.A. Karazhanova, D.R. Kozhagulova (Shokybaev, Karazhanova, & Kozhagulova, 2014), and others.

Research indicates that the study book is an integral system comprised of a number of structural components, which may be divided into 2 major categories: textual and extra-textual components (Kroker & Algina, 2010).

Among the structural components of text are:

main text – text that is used to get across all of the theoretical and practical material within the study book; main text undergoes didactic and methodological processing;

additional text – materials that accompany the main text in the form of separate sections and text fragments; additional texts are not mandatory but may play an important role in terms of expanding the study book’s subject area and fostering a general cultural mood;

explanatory texts – explanatory notes, refreshers, endnotes, tables, diagrams, appendices, reference materials, glossaries, recommended literature lists; explanatory texts come with font accentuation, which facilitates a deeper understanding of the main text and better organization of independent work; explanatory text also includes the preface to the book.

The backbone factor uniting all of the components of the study book into a single system is the main text and namely the logic of presenting it. This logic is determined by the specificity of the culturological discipline. Some of the key requirements for constructing the text component of the study book are discussed below.

The overarching principle motivating the author to write the study book should always be the aspiration to present the material to the student in as easy-to-understand a manner as possible, while keeping the information precise. It should be noted that the novelty in writing educational texts consists not in discovering new scientific truths but in presenting already known truths in such a way as to keep them as easy to grasp, fathom, and assimilate as possible.

Text in study books must be in line with the following criteria: ensure the adequacy and speed of the perception of educational information by students, as well as ensure that students will long remember the material. Compared to the scientific text, it must be more detail structured and academic.

Some researchers are convinced that it pays to learn to construct a textbook from two parts that are not equal in volume, meaning and technical execution: the main, stable one, is intended to serve colleges for quite a long time, and the additional one, if need be, may be removed and replaced with something else. Determining each part is determining the so-called “kernel” and “shell”, meaning the course curriculum (Tovpinets, 1991).

The next issue is selecting scholarly material. In didactics, there is the principle of selecting the curriculum’s scholarly content, which could be used as a guidepost in selecting educational material:

1. In selecting scholarly material, it pays to be oriented toward the type of the educational discipline, its leading component.

2. In putting together the scholarly-subject content, it pays to be oriented toward the integrity of reflecting it in the study book and the didactic manifestation of this integrity for students. The integrity of representing the various elements of knowledge is realized through their lineup and structure. Here, it is also necessary to focus on the object and subject of the theory, the empirical basis, the ideal object, and application.

3. In selecting the subject content, it pays to factor in its age potential, i.e. the unity of subject, world-view, historical-scientific, methodological, and evaluative knowledge (Glebov, 2002).

The next problem is the constructing of the text itself. Here, it is necessary to consider the following characteristics of the text: the logicalness of the way it is presented, its difficulty and complexity, and its style. The degree to which students comprehend the study material largely depends on how well the material is presented logically (Dulatova, 2010).

Extra-textual components are the second large block in the structure of the study book. These include: the material assimilation apparatus, illustrative material, and the orientation apparatus.

The material assimilation apparatus is an instructional apparatus that is needed to help realize the student’s independent work, reinforce their knowledge obtained, and administer control over their talents and skills. This apparatus incorporates exercises, assignments, and test questions. The instructional apparatus ought to be correlated with the didactic consistent patterns of the educational process: subsequent to reading new material, one becomes aware of facts and then goes on to conceptualize consistent facts between phenomena, gets an insight into the inner essence of what is being studied, and, finally, summarizes and systematizes knowledge.

Questions, as an indispensable element of the methodological apparatus of the study book are divided into reproductive (requiring reproducing the knowledge obtained) and productive (requiring creative summarizing, finding evidence, explaining various concepts, and refuting wrong views), closed-ended (requiring unequivocal answers) and open-ended (allowing equivocal, variative answers).

The orientation apparatus helps cultivate student interest in the subject. Its major elements include the foreword, the conclusion, supplementations, explanations, clarifications, the table of contents, indexes, headers, rubrication, as well as illustrative materials – diagrams, figures (drawings), tables, and flowcharts. Among the indispensable ways of styling the orientation apparatus is the highlighting of significant concepts and terms introduced for the first time, the use of symbolic notations (legends) drawing the reader’s attention, and the use of fonts of varying size. The use of the same orientation apparatus elements established at the outset ought to be consistent throughout.

The foreword provides an insight into the logic behind the learning of the subject, the key principles of the approach to mastering the knowledge, and the major characteristics of the way the material is structured.

The conclusion is intended to help the learner summarize the knowledge obtained and learn about the possibility of acquiring a more profound command of the subject. It imparts completeness to the study book’s knowledge system – however, it may be deliberately dispensed if one wants to accentuate the openness of the system of cognition with a view to motivating the learner to continue the educational process.

In the book, supplementations, explanations and clarifications may be placed inside the text, interlinearly, or after the text.

3. Methodology

The paper shares the results of a survey of students conducted with a view to identifying the factors impeding the establishment of a proper level of communication between a study guide on culturology and a potential reader.

The survey was conducted among first- through third-year college students. The survey’s system of questions was centered on a single research agenda and aimed at identifying the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the subject of the analysis – a study guide on culturology. The survey participants were provided with the opportunity to evaluate some of the guides’ major parameters, point out the books’ major imperfections, share what was the most important to them about the guides, and bring forward relevant proposals.

The survey engaged 100 students majoring in 4 different disciplines (25 students per discipline). The major idea behind the questionnaire was to find out to what degree the parameters of the educational literature on culturology were meeting the needs of those using it.

On the strength of the survey results, there was conducted some research work on creating and testing a new study guide on culturology using the following methods:

- systemic analysis, employed with a view to systematizing existing approaches to construing the essence and objectives of innovative approaches to presenting material in the educational literature;

- scientific synthesis, employed with a view to developing innovative practice-oriented solutions on presenting material in the educational literature using systemic-information and psychological-didactic approaches.

4. Results

The survey revealed that most students were using study guides recommended by their instructors. Yet, at the same time some of the students stated that the recommended literature was not quite in keeping with the learning plans for seminar classes and the list of questions for tests or exams. Most had to turn to the Internet and reference literature to look for some of the information they needed, with 36 respondents confessing to having had a hard time searching for information when writing their library-research papers and reports.

In evaluating the parameters of different books, the students stated they had the following issues with the study guides:

- regarding the volume: the volume of text being too big or being too small;

- regarding the structure: most of the text being just solid text in the book’s sections which is not broken down into subdivisions, containing no inferences or summaries, and lacking terminological glossaries and indexes (missing in all of the textbooks specified by the students);

- regarding factual material: too many gaps in the way information is presented, too many titles, names, and dates, too many redundant details;

- regarding illustrations: a lack of illustrative material in some textbooks on the history of culture, poor typesetting, illustrations not matching the references to them, and illustrations being provided sporadically;

- regarding the language and style:  the language being too academic, which makes one to overlook the text; familiar and interesting material being presented in too perplexing and uninteresting manner; the text containing too many unknown terms, which draws too much of the learner’s attention to these terms, ignoring the fact that such terms are just language that helps to gain an insight into general concepts, scientific facts, consistent patterns, and theories; long sentences, overuse of clichés and officialese, errors (the students confessed to having detected linguo-stylistic imperfections in all of the study guides they were using);

- regarding the highlight system: too little or too much material is highlighted;

- regarding self-control aids for assimilating the material (questions and problems): these either missing altogether or being too broad, so broad that answering or solving them may take hours; the answers being self-evident or prompted by the way the questions are formulated; a lack of variety in the way that questions are constructed; material being perplexing and ambiguous;

- regarding reference lists: some being provided at the end of the book, not after each topic; the use of outdated sources and publications that are no longer available; the references being incomplete;

The study found that year after year most instructors are making no amendments to recommended literature lists, thus offering students outdated publications. Besides, not all of them are available in the college library.

Table 1 provides the average scores (based on a 5-point scale) for 2 different study guides on culturology (Drach, 2010; Karmin & Novikova, 2004).

Table 1. Degree of Student Satisfaction with Culturology Study Guides

No.

Criterion

Average score for culturology study guide

Culturology study guide by G.V. Drach

Culturology textbook by A.S. Karmin and E.S. Novikova

1

volume

4.1

4.2

2

structure

3.8

3.6

3

factual material

3.7

3.9

4

illustrations

3.3

3.1

5

language and style

2.8

3.0

6

highlight system

2.5

2.2

7

self-control aids

2.9

3.4

8

reference list

3.5

3.4

Thus, the study identified some of the most common student complaints on such key parameters of the educational literature on culturology as volume, structure, the highlight system, the quality of self-control aids for assimilating the material, credibility, ease of understanding, the degree to which factual material is interesting and advisable, language and style, the quality, quantity and reasonability of illustrations.

It may be asserted that among the major preconditions determining the quality of the educational literature on culturology are the high professional level and personal interest of the guide’s author(s); objective reviewing; meticulous editing; quality artistic execution and proper typesetting.

Of particular interest were respondents’ proposals as to enhancing the quality of the educational literature on culturology. Thus, for instance, some suggested there ought to be some form of administrative liability for negligence in designing educational publications that would get study guide authors and publishers to be more responsible about preparing the book. Some of the respondents suggested that it would be a good idea to have a field-specific appended section in the book in case it is going to be used by students pursuing different majors. If implemented, this could enable the students to get a more detailed insight into a portion of mankind’s cultural assets that is related to their field. Another worthwhile suggestion is to provide selections of illustrations for the book on a disk.

As a solution to the above issue and a way to implement an innovative approach to presenting material in the educational literature on culturology, the authors of this paper propose using a combined (ramified) study book structure that meets the following general requirements for the new-style educational book:

1. Scientific depth and practical concreteness.

2. Being in line with the major dimensions and results of scientific thought, its present-day state.

3. Being in line with the requirements for training specialists.

4. The didactic level of the study book, i.e. its comprehensibility and its ability to supplement lecture and practical classes and stimulate independent work.

5. The manual ought to fit into the scientific and pedagogical concept of the instructor.

6. The manual ought to be in line with both the existing and future system of organizing the educational process.

7. The proposed ramified study book structure is centered on the extra-textual component. This component is supplemented with one more block – multimedia accompaniment with different levels of interactivity, which is active in the guide’s electronic version. This approach implies maximum visualization of the learning material in the extra-textual component, which will help teach the student to think in a systematic way, perceive information in a structured fashion, develop their imagination, conceptualize knowledge, and make them aware of and perceive its completeness.

8. The systematized problematicity of representing learning material, which develops creativity, facilitates the depth of understanding the material, and motivates the student to process information.

9. Conceptual integrity, i.e. identifying what is essential and what is secondary, identifying causes and effects, and focusing on the logic of deepening and concretizing knowledge.

10. Variance, i.e. the possibility of choosing from different variants for assimilating the course in accordance with one’s objectives: getting a general idea, adjusting existing knowledge, systematization and practization of knowledge, mastering the fundamentals of knowledge, getting a thorough command of the subject.

11. Terminological precision and a systematized glossary of terms.

12. The standardized “labor intensity” of assimilating the material.

A systemic approach used in creating the study book presupposes the mandatory analysis of the system’s structure. It is for this reason that the authors have determined the major characteristics of the structure of the study book and principles of implementing its structure.

By its structure, the study book is expected to represent a certain program of learning – or, per certain authors, a certain algorithm of learning. The more complete this program, the more the study book satisfies the principles of didactics. The program of actions ought to realize such principles of didactics as the systematicity and consistency, deliberateness and activity, individualization of learning under conditions of the mass, accessible and firm character of knowledge, and the economization of the learning time.

The principle of consistency is realized by both the very structure of the study book and by special instructions on the procedure for the study of the educational material. The principle of deliberateness and activity is realized through the demonstration of the significance of each topic to the future practical activity or future learning, i.e. through providing an insight into the objective of learning. The principle of accessibility is realized by the following: in terms of content – by relying on material known to the student, and by volume – by dividing the learning material into sections or into fragments of information. The principle of economizing the learning time is realized through specifying the optimum way of learning the material for the student, and the principle of individualization – through ramifying the program. To realize the principle of the firmness of knowledge in the study book, there are test questions which the student has to answer. These also help students to self-check themselves. Sometimes it pays to adopt the path of creating study books that rely on already existing educational literature (Kortunov, 2013).

It pays to make these study books more detailed for junior students than for senior ones so as to gradually cultivate in students the ability to engage in independent work with both educational-instructional and periodical or monographic literature.

In developing the study book, the author specifies the list of educational literature for the student to work with; selects material that will be included (sections, paragraphs); divides the learning material into fragments and specifies their borders; determines the program of student actions on each fragment; establishes the way of providing backward communication and assessing knowledge on each fragment (the method of answers being random or constructive, involving or not involving the use of technical aids for self-control).

Based on the ideas of systemic-information approach, the authors suggest considering the following orientative model for the study book:

at the outset, the manual will clearly set out some of the baseline information and objectives: the course’s place and role in the system of training the specialist, what the course is founded on and what it precedes, and what the student is expected to learn from it;

in the introductory part, it pays to provide an insight, using specific and comprehensible examples (factoring in the preliminary preparation of students), into the methods of working with the study book, including model transformations that are the most typical of the course which may ensure obtaining additional “output” data;

the material is presented across the book’s sections, topics, and questions in a maximally concise, modeled way;

the system of questions and assignments that need to be performed, including those dealing with self-control, ought to be built across specific sections and the entire course with the use of consistently amplified generalizations and deepening of information;

lists of additional literature recommended with a view to preventing potential (the most probable) complications and deepening of knowledge ought to come with a brief commentary on each of the works or groups of works.

Based on the model proposed, here are the key requirements for the content of the study book, which ought to:

be in keeping with all didactic principles;

contain the methodology of working with the book;

have information divided into fragments the volume of which depends on the complexity of its content;

realize backward communication from the student to the pedagogue (the author) on each fragment;

have, if possible, an adaptive program for working with the study book. The number of questions on each fragment ought to be minimal but must reflect the student’s understanding of the essence of the fragment of information sufficiently enough. Additional questions ought to form part of the main question and be formulated factoring in the most common student mistakes;

realize backward communication not only on the material studied at the moment but on previous material as well.

From the perspective of a psychological-didactic approach, the specificity of the study book on culturology consists in the use of various techniques in creating it – from the thorough structuring of the way the educational material is presented using all kinds of present-day typesetting techniques to the mediated delegating to the study book some of the duties of the pedagogue related to organizing the educational process.

The efficiency of the first technique, which consists in the visual structuring of the text, may be quite high but its application may often create an effect opposite to the one desired – excessive infatuation with colored cut-ins and all kinds of symbolic indexes may cause attention distraction. It may be more efficient to use text fragments positioned within the main text and semantically linked with the main text with a view to interpreting terms contained in the main text.

In addition to the above-mentioned techniques, there are other ways to organize the textual part of textbooks that may directly or indirectly facilitate drawing the student’s attention to working with the book. These include special techniques for writing the text, like replacing the monological form of representing the learning material with dialogical and polylogical. These forms are quite efficient in respect of texts used to represent the content of Humanities-based subjects, including those related to culturology. Interaction between the reader and the author (authors) of the educational text, which is mediated by the content and form of verbal messages, may be directed at creating a phatic dialogue, which is in wide use in electronic educational media and may facilitate in the printed book the personification of the text’s author by the student (Zimina, 2003).

It will also pay to use in educational texts verbally or verbally-and-graphically described problem situations (assignments, exercises) containing hidden questions and material for searching for the answer based on independent reasoning. The narrative component preceding the formulation of this kind of educational assignment should incorporate the motivational component which will help anticipate the perception of the problem statement, a variety of data and ways of considering them, and a set of questions provided at the end of the book which will orient the learner toward the reflexive analysis of the problem and ways of solving it.

The textbook ought to prepare the learner gradually, yet consistently and persistently, for self-education, which, in particular, is reflected in using motivation factors as much as possible. This role could be played by narrative textual and illustrative elements with information that is not mandatory to assimilate but is easy to read and perceive. These elements are concentrated in the “For the Curious” section.

5. Discussion

Among the potential key indicators of the quality of educational books, based on an information approach, are the following.

Ease of understanding. The study book’s quality of being comprehensible is commensurate with the degree to which it allows the evaluator (the student) to comprehend its main purpose. The study book will be easy to follow if it is written in clear and plain language and utilizes proper terms and expressions, contains relevant references to accessible documents, and helps the reader gain an insight into complex and new elements. With respect to text, comprehensibility implies the text being structured in a clear-cut fashion, the uniformity of the system of references, all names, notations  and acronyms being written the same way throughout the book, all acronyms being deciphered, and all symbols and notations being used in a coordinated manner.

Being complete. The study book’s being complete in terms of text implies that all text elements specified in the ”Contents” section are in place, with each element developed as completely as possible. The study book as a whole will possess the quality of being complete if it reflects with a sufficient degree of completeness all the aspects which make up its subject and, plus, contains a set of rules that represent the proposed solutions to the problem with a sufficient degree of completeness as well.

A sense of purpose. The study book will possess a sense of purpose if it does not contain excessive information. Wordiness, excessive phrases and repetitions may obscure the main idea and prevent the reader from focusing on the essentials. In some cases, requirements formulated in relation to ease of understanding and a sense of purpose may come into conflict with each other – e.g., when special knowledge is needed in order to comprehend the problem (information that is missing in a particular study book).

Mobility. The study book will possess the quality of being mobile if it adapts easily and efficiently to various structural and content-related changes in curricula and didactic requirements. In a way, the quality of being mobile is tantamount to the quality of being self-sufficient or autonomous, i.e. it has the qualities necessary for it to work without engaging other instructional resources (other aids).

Consistency. The study book will have the quality of being internally consistent if it is characterized by a unity of terminology, abbreviations, and symbols. The study book will have the quality of being externally consistent if there is a way to trace its conformity with certain requirements. The quality of being internally consistent partially intersects with the quality of being easy to understand. Indeed, using terms and symbols in a consistent manner may facilitate boosts in clarity in the study book. External consistency determines the degree to which the study book may be checked for conformity with the requirements, specifications, or restrictions set for it.

Ease of use. The study book will be convenient to use if there is a way to update it from time to time in keeping with changing requirements. In particular, ease of use implies its comprehensibility and its ability to lend itself easily to amendment. The latter is needed in order to remediate any flaws detected and make relevant changes in step with the development of the subject area. Another major aspect of ease of use is the simplicity of the right use of the study book. By contrast, the wrong use of the study book ought to be made as hard as possible or, ideally, impossible altogether.

Human factor. The educational book considers the human factor, if its comprehending does not require an unjustified expenditure of time and intellectual effort on the part of the student.

The essence of a psychological-didactic approach to creating a study book consists in the following. It is commonly known that comprehending new material is a multi-aspect cognitive activity aimed at getting an insight into the essence of what is being studied, abstracting away from what is not essential and generalizing the essential attributes and consistent patterns of something. It is always preceded by pieces of knowledge obtained earlier and becoming topical and connected through links established between them. The new becomes the familiar; it comes to be interpreted through the known as a result of complex interaction between thinking and conceptual memory; it is memorized and assimilated. This process ought to take place under a positive mood to ensure the effective perception of new material by the student. When creating the positive mood, it is necessary to focus on the stage of actualization of base knowledge and implement relevant pedagogical actions. At the same time, the role of the factor stimulating the actualization of base knowledge may also be played by some of the study book’s structural units. An example of such structural units is the “You’re Already Familiar with This …” section, which precedes the new material and orients the student toward recollecting (maybe reviewing) certain knowledge. Another way to actualize the student’s base knowledge is through a narrative text that may contain certain historical information, story problems, or descriptions of situations that may (and do) occur in everyday life (Chertopolokh, 2001).

6. Conclusion

The present-day study book is, above all, a tool for organizing the educational activity of students. It ought to, above all, be oriented toward the technology of stage-by-stage assimilation and deepening of knowledge, and it pays to factor into it the methodology of systemic assimilation of knowledge. Of major significance is the availability of supportive diagrams and tables that teach students to identify the essentials and build the conceptual structure of knowledge. It ought to contain the following 3 components: didactics, psychology, and methodology. The first component represents fundamental knowledge on the discipline. The second one is realized through ensuring the match between the content and the student’s age and psychological characteristics, as they distinguish junior students from senior ones. A methodologically competently organized study book ought to be fitted out with an apparatus that enables the instructor to organize various student activities, like the reproductive rehashing of material, taking an active part in a business game, a discussion, etc.  Diversifying the types of student activity (e.g., reading the text, working with additional material, presentations, illustrations, or videos) appears to be crucial to the realization of the third component of the study book.

To ensure the quality of learning in colleges, in developing the educational literature it pays for the author to factor in the theoretical tenets of textbook theory, novel approaches to training specialists, and the various resources available within the information environment with a view to expanding the volume of learning material and properly organizing the learning activity of students. The above-stated information predetermines the need for the active participation of college instructors in the development of new-style study books. There is a need for a new approach to be taken in creating the study book whereby the very construction of the book takes on the function of managing the reading and assimilation of the material. In this case, the author ought to come up with techniques that are capable of attracting the readers’ attention to a particular section of the text, orient them across it, etc. In this regard, it pays to modify the way educational texts are constructed through supplementing a subject-centered approach with a psychological-didactic one. Interaction between the reader and the author (authors) of the educational text, which is mediated by the content and form of verbal messages, initiates a pseudo-dialogue and facilitates the personification of the text’s author by the student in the printed book. An important role is played by narrative textual and illustrative elements that carry information that is not mandatory but is easy to follow and perceive.

References

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1. Kazan Federal University, Russia, 423630, Elabuga, Kazanskaya street, 89

2. Russian State University of Tourism and Service, 141221, Russian Federation, Cherkizovo, Moscow Oblast, Glavnaya St. 99

3. Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Mikluho-Maklay Str., 6, Moscow, Russia, 117198

Contact Email: irek_m_f@mail.ru


Revista ESPACIOS. ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 38 (Nº 25) Año 2017

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