ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ELEMENTS IN TEXTBOOKS IMPLEMENTING EDUCATION CONTENT OF THE 1ST FORM

Environmental protection is one of the most topical spheres in natural science education. Problems regarding integration of environmental protection into the content of education have been broadly analysed by E.Šapokienė, V. Lamanauskas, etc. Environmental protection education is emphasised in universal programmes, general programmes, other education documents, the Public Environmental Education Strategy of the Republic of Lithuania and Action Programme. It is not surprising that one of the goals of general education school is to convey the system of environmental knowledge and skills and to form value principles of environmental protection in a democratic school environment, which promotes students' initiative. The aim of this article is to present the results of research – the analysis of the 1st form textbooks which allowed to identify the number and the particularity of environmental elements in them. The results revealed that the biggest number of environmental protection elements was in the textbooks of environment cognition (‘Aš ir pasaulis' (Me and the World) – 10 topics, ‘Raktas' (Key) – 18 topics which integrate environmental knowledge, develop skills, abilities and value principles). Environmental protection was integrated into 7 topics of native language textbook ‘Šaltinėlis' (Springlet). The textbooks of mathematics, fine arts and technologies included 1-3 environmental elements integrated into their topics. Though the subject itself is very favourable for environmental education, no elements of it were observed in the textbooks of music education. It is obvious that the authors of the textbooks for 1st forms demonstrate a holistic approach to education and environment. The range of environmental activities in the textbooks prepared by them is wide.