MODERN SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY TEXTBOOKS: PROS, CONS AND WAYS OF MODERNIZATION
A critical analysis of modern school textbooks on geography is given in the article. The analysis is related to the compliance of the Federal state educational standard of basic General education with the following requirements: methodological, psychological, aesthetic and hygienic. The presented positive aspects of geography textbooks were identified: wellbuilt methodological apparatus; colorful design, the presence of maps, schemes, diagrams, drawings; a system of questions and tasks aimed at organizing independent cognitive activity of pupils through the use of research methods; integration of physical-geographical and economic-geographical branches of geography. The authors of the article revealed the given below negative points in geography textbooks: simplification of scientific geographical information; insufficient description of physical-geographical processes in solving practical problems; lack of connection between the simplified theory of initial courses of geography and practical tasks that are given in Russian exams (the Basic State Exam and the Unified State Exam) in geography; incomplete reflection of the local history approach. Specific examples from existing geography textbooks were provided to confirm the established disadvantages. The national project «Digital school» was reviewed. This project suggests using geography textbooks in the educational process together with other teaching tools, including digital ones. Thus, the geography textbook plays an essential role in shaping the geographical outlook of pupils. In addition, textbooks contribute to the achievement of personal, metasubject and subject learning outcomes. Ways to modernize geography textbooks were defined based on the analysis of the state of Russian school geographical education, namely, the converting textbooks to digital format using interactive applications, videos, demonstrations of experiments and observations, electronic maps and electronic test tasks.