Methodological guidelines for the use of cultural and natural heritage in school curricula

The aim of the study was to develop methodological foundations for the analysis of natural and cultural heritage by integrating schools’ in-class, extracurricular and project activities that realize the potential of the heritage in educational programs. The study was carried out on the materials of Russian legislation, taking into account the results of Russian educators’ research and methodological developments in school subjects related to the study of cultural heritage. As a methodological basis, a culturological approach was used, combining highly specialized approaches in student-centered education. The author notes that currently there is a contradiction between the potential of cultural heritage in the formation of a “person of culture” and the lack of elaboration of the methodological basis that implements this potential in school curricula. In the course of the study, personality-oriented directions and culture-oriented concepts of modern Russian education were overviewed. It has been revealed that the complexity of methodological support in the study of the use of cultural and natural heritage in school curricula consists in the heterogeneity of approaches to understanding such use, multifunctional in nature. As a result of the analysis of the existing methods and programs of school subjects, it has been revealed that the main problem of the developed approaches is the study of heritage only at lessons. The potential of schools’ extracurricular and project activities is practically not used. It has been determined that the study of cultural and natural heritage at lessons in each specific case should take place through the transformation of typical methods, their effective combination within the framework of different subjects. The methodology for studying cultural and natural heritage developed in the study includes several levels: 1) schools’ educational subject-oriented activity; 2) students’ project activities; 3) holding of contests and competitions; 4) extracurricular school activities. Each level has its own formats for studying heritage in the framework of in-class, extracurricular and project educational activities. Such a model will allow educational organizations to form a qualitatively new school teaching and educational space, involving the development of the spiritual, patriotic and civic components of modern education. A further study of the methodological foundations of studying heritage in school curricula should include the definition of criteria for selecting objects of cultural and natural heritage in school subjects.