Theory of the School Textbook and Researches on it in the USSR

The article gives a survey of the latest Soviet researches concerning the theory and analyses of the school textbook. The article is thematically divided into four parts. The first part is devoted to a general theory of the school textbook. The concept itself of the „school textbook“ is defined, and an account is given of some approaches by Soviet authors to the classification of textbook types and the typology of textbook functions. The other parts deal with specific spheres of textbook researches: Part two concentrates on an analysis of the school textbook structure (definition of the components making up the textbook as a whole). Part three deals with the evaluation of the school textbook qualities (an account is given of methods of an objective analysis of the textbook’s various qualities and their influence on pupils’ mastering of the subject-matter). Part four is devoted to the problems involved in the use of the textbook by the pupils themselves (description is given of a concrete research demonstrating inadequately developed skills of pupils for work with the textbook). In conclusion the author of the article appraises the Soviet theory of the school textbook as an intensively developing area of pedagogical research, whose chief work consists in analyses of the existing textbooks as well as in predictive analyses of newly introduced textbooks or those which are being prepared.