RESULTS
Let's look at the lapbook as a teaching method from different points of view. Practicing teachers, in particular Gilberg (2020), consider it necessary to use the lapbook at different stages of learning: from the initial familiarization with a certain topic to generalization and systematization of knowledge. To create a lapbook the child has to research certain material, get acquainted with the information, perform certain actions and tasks, solve the tasks and as a result get the final product. Working on it develops the ability to work in a team, find information and summarize and systematize it, negotiate with peers, make decisions and argue for them. 7-8-year-old children are quite capable of designing and creating their own lapbook. This activity is a type of project activity. Types of lapbooks and ways of making them are described in detail (Pyrozhenko, 2021). Depending on the way of perceiving information, all people can be divided into several types: audialists, visualists, kinestheticians, discretists. Work with the Lapbook is universal as it allows to combine the above-mentioned types of information perception and thus develop each of them in students, as can be seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1
Lapbook as a system of parts.
The lapbook can be strictly individual, created by one child or especially for him, as well as collective. Considering the peculiarities of creating a lapbook is a multifunctional way of organizing learning activities: “At the same time, a lapbook is not just a product. It is the final stage of independent research work that the child did while getting acquainted with a certain topic. The Lapbook is a new way to organize learning activities with preschool children and elementary school students. It is a game, creativity, learning and exploring new things, repetition and consolidation of what has been learned, systematization of knowledge and simply an interesting form of joint adult and child activities” (Pyrozhenko, 2021). The basic principle of the New Ukrainian School is integration. Given the psycho-physiological features of the “Alpha generation” (Pliatsok & Oliinyk, 2017), it is such types of work as lapbooking that are most appropriate and justified. For modern children there is no boundary between the real and virtual world, they have almost innate abilities to navigate in gadgets. Hyperactivity is a leading feature of elementary school students, and it is not a flaw in upbringing. These children are in constant motion. According to the observations of teachers in grades 1-4, these children need a quick change of activities. Routine activities tire them, they begin to languish and lose interest in work in general. Besides, visualization becomes of great importance for them. Most of the subjects of the invariant part of the elementary school are integrated. Competencies formed by NUS are aimed not only at acquiring knowledge, but also at their successful implementation in life, at students' adaptation in society, and (mainly) at developing the ability to learn independently throughout life. Thus, modern education focused on resolving the contradictions between the reproductive perception of knowledge and the creative formation of dynamic adaptive skills (Slabchenko, 2018). Let's look at the lapbook as a form of activity. The integrative aspect of learning is implemented through different forms, methods and techniques. Lapbooking to a certain extent can be considered an integrative form, because it requires not only different materials, but also forms of work. Theoretical activity in lapbooking is closely connected with practical, they determine each other. At the preparatory stage of creating a lapbook the main part of the work should be done by the teacher: the choice of the topic (although here it is possible to decide together with the children); drawing up a work plan; selection of appropriate material (at this stage the principle “everything is needed, everything is important” should be applied: pick up diverse material - photos, cut out pictures, applications from paper or fabric, natural components, even products, etc.). Thus, the more various is the design of the lapbook, the greater practical and axiological value it will have. In combination with the cognitive process, practical activities lead to improved learning outcomes. That is why it is necessary to take a responsible approach to preparing the creation of the Lapbook. After all, the more closely connected the materials will be, the more effective interdisciplinary integration will be. And the final product - the lapbook itself - realizes the combination of knowledge and skills, which is what the educational activity of students is aimed at (Figure 2).
Figure 2
Lapbook as a means of forming skills and abilities.
Recently, STEM (Science, Technics, Engineering, Math) and STEAM (Science, Technics, Engineering, Art, Math) are gaining attention in the field of education. They are based on the same principle of integration as the New Ukrainian School. The experience of using lapbooks in elementary schools allows us to refer it to one of the variants of STEM direction. In the process of creating lapbooks on any subject students get new information on engineering, technology, mathematics, art (in particular, fine arts). Consequently, they develop skills that in the future will become the basis for the basics of entrepreneurship, economics, technology. The most time-consuming and voluminous stage is the direct creation of the lapbook. Depending on the purpose of the teacher it can be individual work (when one student alone or with the teacher's moderation creates a lapbook), paired (when students are paired together) and collective (common for the whole class or a certain part). At this stage the teacher acts more as a facilitator who guides and coordinates the work of all participants, ensures successful communication between students and mostly stays away from the direct creation process. Consequently, it is under these conditions that students' work on the creation of the Lapbook is most effective. Even Maria Montessori discovered that apart from mental development it is equally important to develop sensory and emotional skills and fine motor skills. This is exactly what the lapbook is focused on, because it combines such ways of organizing material as: applique, molding, gluing, paper plastic (creating pockets, accordions, envelopes, etc.), collage, diagrams, etc. Accordingly, a variety of materials are selected: different kinds of fabric, paper, cardboard, plasticine, glue, paints, pencils (or felt-tip pens), various accessories for decoration (buttons, ribbons, stickers, grains (or salt, sugar and other products), natural materials).
Before creating a lapbook, students should agree on what it should look like. At the very least, imagine what the end result should be. Then they have to assign roles, decide on a leader (the one who will manage the whole process or vice versa - everyone will have equal opportunities), and figure out some design options. Nevertheless, in the process of work, disputes will arise - something may not go as planned. Then children will have to decide together how to proceed. At this stage the ability to find a compromise, which is very important for modern children, is formed. Given that they are “smartphone kids”, it is difficult for them to communicate directly, because they are used to doing it remotely, via gadget screens, where you can avoid talking, answer anything, being sure that there will be no threatening consequences.
Now consider the lapbook as a form of communication. Successful adaptation in society is impossible without developed communication skills. The ability to find compromises in communication both with peers and with representatives of other generations, to negotiate, to solve common problems, to avoid conflicts (or resolve them constructively) - these are necessary skills for a comfortable life in society. Lapbooking is also aimed at the development of the above skills. Futurist scientists predict that in the near future some common professions will disappear. Instead, others with fundamentally opposite basic principles will come. Among them are such as City Farmer, Emotion Designer, IT Geneticist, Bioethicist, Space Tourism Manager and others (Striletska, 2021). All of them will need the flexibility of mental, emotional and psychophysical abilities of the individual. In particular, the more technical and scientific progress develops, the more the ability to learn during life, to change professions (depending on life circumstances), and to adapt to changes in society will be in demand.
A child's cognitive activity is formed from the first years of life. Therefore, the main task of both parents and teachers is to maintain this cognitive interest. There are many conflicting opinions about the early development of the child, and each of them probably has a scientific and practical basis. However, experience has shown that early child development provides much more developmental opportunities for the older child.
Lapbooking promotes the search for information, and usually additional information. The Google-babies generation is perfectly oriented in the world of information, but they also need the developed skills of selecting the right one, searching for information sources and understanding their truth or fakeliness, highlighting the main thing and systematizing the obtained information. Among even elementary school students, there are cases where their search for information is limited to Wikipedia. Less and less often they use books and encyclopedias as sources of information. Consequently, when they have to look something up in a textbook, they have trouble orienting themselves in the apparatus of the book. To create a lapbook (if it is planned by the teacher as an independent work of students), children have to search for the necessary information in all possible sources, compare it, compare, draw conclusions, generalize. Thus, we can see that this technique promotes the activation of search activity, the ability to navigate in the digital world.
The main advantage of lapbooks as a form of creativity and self-expression is the development of students' creativity. After all, they should not just collect information on a certain topic, they need to arrange it in such a way that a holistic view of a certain subject or theme is formed.
Creativity is not just creating something new, but also a new, unusual way of looking at familiar things. The theme of the lapbook suggested by the teacher or children can be standard, for example (weather). However, the look of the final product should be creative. In order to form a holistic picture of a subject or phenomenon, the lapbook must look unusual, original, non-standard.
The values of education have changed. One of the leading functions of education is the creative self-realization of the child, the formation of such abilities and skills that will help him to successfully socialize. In particular, the situation of creativity reveals the potential available to each individual, through which she can realize her individuality, the freedom of selfexpression. Such situations in pedagogy are called situations of success. Their value lies in the fact that they allow the student not only to show himself and his abilities, but also to adapt successfully in the team, reflectively assess their own results and direct their future activities to qualitative changes.
Teachers consider lapbooking not only a method of organizing learning, but also the basic factor of partnership pedagogy (student-parent-school), which the New Ukrainian school is focused on (Forostiana, 2020). Lapbooking as learning through play has a great practical value. The peculiarity of teaching elementary school children is that they better absorb the material presented in the form of a game. The lapbook corresponds perfectly to this principle. This is a folder in the form of a mini-book, which has pockets, windows, envelopes and other additional elements. They are filled in the form of a game, since most of its components are interactive. Game in the best way to show creativity, because unlike the real world, the limits of conventionality erased, the space for imagination unlimited. The child creates his or her own image, endowing him or her with such features (sometimes fantastic) as he or she imagines.
In terms of purpose we can distinguish: game lapbooks (created for entertainment purposes), educational (to get information), living room (or holiday, such lapbooks are a kind of analog of greeting cards in 3D), etc. The form of the lapbook also depends on the purpose. This can be a mini-book, a base of A4 or A3 format, a pop-up book or other forms (such as they are “seen” by a student or a student's team). Even children can show their creativity and imagination (Forostiana, 2020). So, as we can see, lapbooking helps to realize the creative abilities and individual talents of each student and is an integration of different forms of activity, as shown in Fig. 3.
Figure 3
Lapbook as a system of forms of activity.
To create a lapbook it is desirable to use certain templates prepared in advance. They can be created either by the teacher or together with the students, or even entrusted to the students themselves (depending on the age and level of self-organization). Layouts and templates greatly facilitate the creation process, freeing up more time for comprehension and discussion of the material. Arrows (drawn or volumetric), puzzles, stickers, markers are usually used for better structuring of information. This type of work is related to visualization and resembles the creation of reference charts (very often helping to comprehend the material in high school). This is especially important also because a person perceives the majority of information with the help of eyesight. If we talk about the peculiarities of information perception, then the advantages of lapbook are obvious - after all, the best knowledge is remembered by efforts.
Working in a team, each child has an opportunity to show not only his or her creative abilities, but also leadership qualities. At the stage of direct creation of the lapbook the role of the teacher as a facilitator is important. Every opinion is important, every fantasy has the right to exist. However, it should be remembered that elementary school students are already quite capable of competing, showing leadership qualities, trying to outdo the other in order to attract friends and the teacher (or parents). Even in middle school it persists: students compete with each other, try to stand out among others, defend their positions. In this case, the teacher must make sure that communication in the group does not turn into conflict. On the other hand, it is an excellent opportunity to test their ability to find constructive solutions, to avoid acute situations, to look for compromises, to be able to argue their point of view, to change their position, and to accept criticism. Such work resembles the “aquarium” method, where roles are distributed and it is intended to develop skills of discussion in small groups. Lapbooking can be considered as an integral part of project activity, believes I. Domina: “...often project education is realized through interdisciplinary connections going beyond the program of one specific subject. This greatly expands the teacher's opportunities and promotes creativity, and students often have tasks in the process of solving which acquire practical skills not provided in the theoretical part of the educational process” (Peycheva & Lazarova, 2018). At different stages of its creation, as well as in general in terms of content and purpose, the lapbook is similar to a small project. The main principle of project-based learning is an interdisciplinary approach - that is, the same integration underlying the lapbook. Work in a team (groups, pairs), common tasks and problems, obtaining information (research), self-learning, the opportunity to show creativity, imagination, abilities, the opportunity to be in a comfortable and stimulating situation of success - these are the things that unite these two methods.
Projects can be short-term or long-term in duration (up to one year).
It is a research activity with the goal of forming a holistic picture of the world while illuminating a certain phenomenon.
The creation of lapbooks also satisfies such a direction of educational activity as sustainable development. With the help of lapbooking students not only activate their own cognitive activity, but can plan the trajectory of educational development.
Thus, the creation of the lapbook allows the implementation of a large number of cross-cutting basic competencies of the New Ukrainian School and the needs of society.
Let us consider the application of the Lapbook for the application of specific academic disciplines in elementary school.
When studying the Ukrainian language, it is advisable to use lapbooking at the stage of generalization of knowledge on the topic, when children already have initial ideas about phonetics, graphics, morphology and syntax.
The topic “Phonetics” has a wide range of possibilities for creating lapbooks. Let's consider the plan of a lapbook on the topic “Letters” (1st or 2nd grade elementary school).
1. A letter and its graphic designation (integration with drawing).
2. The origin of letters in Russian and other languages (integration with the history of writing).
3. Calligraphy as a science (integration with the history and culture of other nations).
4. Correlation of letters and sounds (integration with art, physics, literature, mathematics, mathematical).
The main aspect to pay attention to when creating a lapbook according to this plan is the image of the letters. We use the modern alphabet, called the Cyrillic alphabet. But in a time when writing was just beginning to develop, the letters looked very different. The prototype of letters were pictograms, that is drawings, which gave a certain content. So, at the heart of a letter is an image. As a variant of the creative task it is possible to suggest creating one's own image of a letter (or letters).
Calligraphy is the art of writing or depicting skillfully and well. It refers students to the traditions of China and Japan, where calligraphy has long been an art form and cultural value. Thus, cultural competences and cultural universal and national values are developed and formed.
During the study of mathematics lapbooks can be used at any stage of the study of topics. Mathematics provides ample opportunities for the creation of lapbooks, because almost every topic is related to life and has a practical value. Therefore, it is much easier for students to select the material, as they all encounter situations where mathematics is used on a daily basis.
Let's look at an example of a plan to create a lapbook “Mathematics. Figures”.
1. What is a number | How do I write numbers?
2. Poems about numbers (integration with literature, language).
3. Riddles about numbers (integration with literature, art).
4. Numbers in works of art (integration with history, literature, art).
5. Riddles, proverbs and sayings about numbers and figures (integration with literature, language).
As can be seen, integration mostly takes place with literature and language, art. We can also focus on the fact that numbers surround us from birth, people constantly use them in everyday life and it is too difficult to do without them. Connection with folklore (proverbs, sayings, riddles) activates the memory of students, introduces them to the achievements of national Ukrainian culture and cultures of other nations.
As an option of the creative task it is possible to offer children to create their own artwork about numbers and figures, which will significantly diversify the process of studying the topic. And it is possible to use ready lapbooks periodically to restore the information and generalize it, to repeat it before the diagnostic and control stages of studying the topic.
In English lessons, the creation of lapbooks is even a necessity, because visualized information is perceived much better, and this subject is more complex than others.
Let's look at the plan of the lapbook on the theme “Colors”.
1. The names of the colors (in English and Ukrainian).
2. Poems about flowers (integration with literature).
3. Color puzzles with a picture (integration with mathematics, development of spatial thinking and representation).
4. Associations to colors (through illustrations to books, cartoons; integration with art).
5. History of the origin of flowers (in Ukrainian): what they were made of, in what way, what the name came from (integration with culture and history).
6. Creation of own fairy tales (or stories about flowers).
7. You can also apply color combinations in the design of the lapbook (integration with art).
As you can see, even when studying a not very complex theme, “Colors”, it is possible to integrate several subjects and some even ahead of time (history).
The practice of teachers who teach English in elementary schools shows that it is in this form (lapbooking) material is absorbed and remembered best.
In the study of computer science, it is appropriate to create a lapbook at different stages of the assimilation of the topic.
As an example, let's look at the plan for creating a “My Computer” lapbook. It can even be designed in the form of a system unit with corresponding holes and marks, just like on the original unit.
1. The computer as a system (integration with architecture).
2. The main components of the computer.
3. History of creation (integration with history, science).
4. The capabilities of the computer (integration with engineering).
5. The Internet and viruses (integration with physics, biology, psychology).
6. Creating stories about the computer.
Such a lapbook can be filled throughout the study of the topic gradually. This will allow to consolidate the information, because children will return to already ready parts after a certain period of time, adding new ones. Creating a lapbook for this topic implements the principle “complex because of simple”: children get a holistic view of the computer as a complex multifunctional system.
In the study of art you can create a lapbook on any topic. For example, consider the plan for “The Seasons in Art: Autumn”.
1. Autumn in pictures (integration with painting, fine arts).
2. Autumn in musical works (integration with music, culture).
3. Application of natural materials with autumn themes (leaves and flowers; integration with technology).
4. Peculiarities of autumn as a season (integration with geography, physics).
So, art integrates such subjects as culture, natural sciences (physics, geography), visual and musical arts, and technology.
The easiest to create (content-wise) is the subject “I explore the world” because it is built on the principle of integration: different topics contain references to absolutely all academic subjects and even outside the school curriculum. Let us take as an example the theme “Territory”.
1. The territory of the country, the city where I live (integration with geography).
2. What is special about the territory of my city (integration with history, local history).
3. My personal space (integration with psychology).
4. Territory and animals: who designates and chooses the territory (integration with biology).
Here it is advisable to use such a kind of work as QR-codes: create them and print, glue or in some other way add to the lapbook. These can be interactive links to maps (of a city or country), some cultural or historical objects of the city (country), encyclopedic information about animals, etc. This kind of work is appropriate because the textbooks for the elementary school on the subject “I explore the world” have QR codes almost on every page, which means that children are familiar with them and can use.
Practicing teachers successfully implement lapbooking when teaching elementary school students at different stages of topic study: from familiarization to synthesis of the material. Experience shows that this method can be used in any subject: the more topics and academic disciplines are integrated into the Lapbook, the more effective its implementation and the end result.
As a way to organize learning activities and a way to form key competencies of younger students it is appropriate to use lapbooking not only at certain stages of studying the topic, but throughout the whole educational process. The disadvantage of this method of organizing work is that it requires quite a long time to prepare the teacher and is materially costly. However, its educational value prevails over the disadvantages. The process of making the lapbook in the classroom gives children an opportunity to be constantly involved in learning (as it contains elements of a game), to understand their own contribution to the collective work, as well as to be the direct creator of the product, to learn by playing (implementing one of the basic principles of NUS) and thus to perceive and absorb information more easily.
The theoretical material elaborated above allows us to conclude that the use of lapbooks in the educational activities of primary (and not only) schools has a powerful educational effect: it allows the implementation of the leading basic skills, on which the educational reform is based.
The integrative nature of this method allows it to be used in the study of any subject in the variative part of the educational program. Consequently, it is advisable to continue working with lapbooking in high school, complicating the tasks. After all, its consistency, multidimensionality and universality form a holistic view of a particular subject or phenomenon and the world as a whole. And this is the basis for the formation of a worldview.
