초등 사회과 교과서 역사영역 비교 분석 - 한국, 중국, 일본, 미국 교과서를 중심으로 -

Abstract

The guideline of the revised 2007 textbook of social studies specifies ‘an easy and interesting textbook’ and ‘a textbook that takes into account the level and interest of the learner and would enable self-directed learning.’ In order to find whether the elementary school textbook according to the revised curriculum has been developed as the guideline specifies, this study aimed at seeking some pointers to compilation of a history textbook of better quality by comparing our elementary school history textbook with those of other countries and analyzing them. One chapter of each social studies textbook of Korea, China, Japan, and the United States was selected to conduct a comparative analysis of the organization of contents, the functions and types of study questions. As a result, Some ideas to supplement for the history textbooks of Korean elementary school are proposed. as follows. First, the organization of contents calls for a flexible and diverse makeup based on topics, getting out of uniform organization of chapters. And it is required to have not explanatory texts for the purpose of delivery and memorization of knowledge, but a variety of formats tailored for access to the inquiry process of learning. Second, in terms of the way to present study questions, it would be better to have forms of questions for double-checking contents just studied and questions leading students to more diverse thinking, rather than presenting comprehensive study questions. Third, it appears that, instead of descriptions based on diachronic system, selection of more interesting and meaningful topics relevant to the elementary stage and descriptions based on those topics would be more helpful for understanding of history. In addition, since our textbooks are under the government-designated textbooks system which regulates the formats and number of pages, they cannot afford to cover more varied information. Institutional support is needed to provide diverse information taking into account both economic and educational feasibility as well as to improve the formats, the number of pages, and the quality of paper for more engrossing textbooks.