Instructional Literature

handwritten and printed works used as aids in teaching or in the training of personnel, either in educational institutions or for independent study.

Instructional literature is classified according to types of publications. The first type of instructional literature, that of syllabi and methodological instructional literature, includes standard and nonstandard syllabi, methodological instructions for implementing syllabi, and methodological memoranda and guides. The second type of instructional literature comprises materials used specifically for instruction: primers, textbooks, textual teaching aids, lectures, lecture outlines, and collections of lectures. The third type of instructional literature, that of auxiliary instructional literature, includes anthologies, guides for practical training, collections of practical assignments, exercises, and problems, programs of practical studies and of seminars, atlases, collections of drawings, exercise books, and laboratory journals. Another example of auxiliary instructional literature is foreign-language readers with vocabularies and notes. The main form of instructional literature is the textbook.

There are different types of instructional literature for primary and secondary general-educational schools, vocational-technical schools, specialized secondary educational institutions, higher educational institutions, schools for party and political education, and educational institutions for advanced training of specialists.

Instructional literature constitutes an important percentage of works published worldwide. According to data provided by UNESCO, the total number of school textbooks published in different countries varies from 3.5 to 39 percent of the total number of titles published. This wide variation is caused by differences in the educational systems of the respective countries.

The USSR has a uniform system for the administration of public education and for the publication of instructional literature for all types of educational institutions. In 1975, instructional literature constituted more than 10 percent of the output of books in the USSR in terms of the number of titles published, and more than 26 percent in terms of the number of printed copies.

Instructional literature for general-educational schools is published by the educational and pedagogical publishing houses of the Union republics in the republics’ national languages. In the autonomous republics, instructional literature is published in the national languages by the republics’ publishing houses.

Educational and pedagogical publishing houses in the USSR include Prosveshchenie (RSFSR), Radians’ka Shkola (Ukrainian SSR), Narodnaia Asveta (Byelorussian SSR), Ukituvchi (Uzbek SSR), Mektep (Kazakh SSR), Ganatleba (Georgian SSR), Maarif (Azerbaijan SSR), Šviesa (Lithuanian SSR), Lumina (Moldavian SSR), Valgus (Estonian SSR), Mektep (Kirghiz SSR), and Luis (Armenian SSR).

Instructional literature for higher and other specialized educational institutions is published by such central specialized publishing houses as Kolos and Meditsina, by the central publishing house Vysshaia Shkola, and by the republic publishing houses Vishcha Shkola (Ukrainian SSR) and Vysheishaia Shkola (Byelorussian SSR). Instructional literature for higher and other specialized educational institutions is also published by the publishing houses of the USSR’s major universities and by the scientific publishing houses of the Union republics. The central publishing house Politizdat publishes instructional literature for political education.