Developing Independent Information Retrieval Skills in Primary School Students at Local History Classes

The article features the pedagogical conditions for using local history classes as a means of developing information retrieval skills in primary school students. The authors described the psychological and pedagogical aspects of developing independence in young schoolchildren via academic and extracurricular activities. They also designed a set of criteria and indicators for assessing the competence of information search. The new methodology uses the primary school course of local history to teach children the skill of unfacilitated information search. The experimental part of the research took place in comprehensive school No. 60 in the city of Novokuznetsk. The first stage included ascertaining, while the second stage concentrated on skill development. Books on popular science, art, and local history were applied in the classroom and during extracurricular activities. The results obtained at the control stage underwent quantitative and qualitative processing. The article can help primary school teachers to plan their local history classes whilst developing the independent research skills in their students.