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A regional webinar for history and civic education teachers from Mykolaiv, Odesa, and Kherson regions was held on February 24. The event, organized by “Tkuma” Institute and the “Orion” Publishing House, was dedicated to discussing the role of history textbooks for grade 9 within the framework of the New Ukrainian School reform as an important tool for forming students' competencies, their practical value, and opportunities for integration with other educational components.

Dr. Igor Shchupak presented the author teams of textbooks published by “Orion” Publishing House and emphasized the importance of combining modern scientific research, teaching methods and the needs of school education. He emphasized the importance of the Ukrainian view of history and noted that the topics proposed for study should sound relevant to modern students. According to the author, while working on textbooks, the team sought to connect historical plots with current events and debunk common historical myths. Director of the Scientific Lyceum of International Relations of the University of Customs and Finance Natalia Vlasova presented the integrated textbook “History of Ukraine, World History and Civic Education” for grade 9. She emphasized that the integration of historical disciplines is an important direction in the development of modern historical education. The publication contains practical tasks, final generalizations and tools for the formation of various competencies. Iryna Piskareva, head of the educational programs department at “Tkuma” Institute, spoke about the features of the World History textbook for grade 9.

During the presentations, the authors drew attention to the interactivity of the new textbooks. They demonstrated various rubrics, infographics, illustrations, tables, statistical materials, video presentations, comics, games, simulators and quizzes. Considerable attention is paid to the gamification of learning and the use of an activity approach, which should help teachers organize lessons more effectively and save time on preparation.

The organizers of the webinar expressed the hope that the presented series of textbooks will become a kind of guide for teachers in teaching history, because the right choice of textbook is an important prerequisite for high-quality study of history and understanding its lessons.