SPECIAL ASPECTS OF USING FICTION IN BIOLOGY CLASSES

Despite the significant achievements in various areas of pedagogy, the issue of developing students’ interest in the studied material continues to be acute. One of the instructional techniques contributing to solving this problem is related to the use of fiction and popular science literature in the natural sciences lessons. The study aims to identify special aspects of using fiction in biology lessons. The author determined and considered the fiction’s main uses in the sciences subject area. The author surveyed subject teachers to identify the number of integrated classes (biology-literature) developed and conducted by these teachers and the number of biology lessons using fiction and popular science literature. Two hundred thirty-two teachers took part in the survey. The study identified that 96.6 % of teachers surveyed do not integrate biology and literature lessons, and 96.1 % of teachers do not use additional fiction and popular science literature in their lessons, replacing it with videos from the Internet. On the example of biology and geography lessons, the author shows a variety of methodological approaches to the use of literary texts and related tasks. The study shows that the largest number of guidelines on the use of literary texts since the beginning of the XX century has been published for geographers, as the guidance papers for biologists, predominantly, began to appear much later. According to the survey, when choosing fiction, the biology teachers give preference to classical texts written in the XIX–XX centuries. The fiction of modern authors is practically not considered in biology lessons. Teachers use literary texts in biology lessons both to influence the emotional sphere of students to increase their interest in the subject and to check the level of educational material digestion. Today, the activity of teachers in the use of fiction in biology lessons has noticeably decreased, giving way to videos. One of the reasons for rear use of literary texts in the science lessons, the author considers the insufficiently high level of general training of teachers and the general reduction in the quality of education.