Piontkovskyi-Vykhvaten B. Modernization of the content of gifted students` education in secondary schools of Ukraine (the second half of the twentieth century).

Thesis presents the actual problem of modernization of the content of gifted students` education in secondary schools of Ukraine in the conditions of social changes of the second half of the twentieth century. The objective experience in improving the content of gifted students` education is understood and new knowledge that can enrich the theory and practice is discovered. The urgency of the dissertation is due to: on the theoretical level, the expansion of historical and pedagogical knowledge about the peculiarities of updating the contents of gifted students` education and the establishment of the periodization of the progress of this educational phenomenon in the second half of the twentieth century; on the practical level – the need for creative adaptation of the experience of the previous historical period to the development of the content of education in modern institutions of general secondary education. The chronological boundaries of the study cover 1951-1999 years of the twentieth century. The territorial boundaries of the study are the territory of Ukraine in the historical period of the second half of the twentieth century. According to the results of the research, the peculiarities of the modernization of the content of gifted students` education in secondary schools of Ukraine in the second half of the twentieth century were identified and characterized for the first time. Historical and pedagogical reconstruction of the improvement of the content of gifted students` education in the historical period of the second half of the twentieth century has allowed to reveal new knowledge about the ways of the progress of pedagogical science and practice. According to the criteria of the socially determined goal of modernizing the content of gifted students` education in secondary schools of Ukraine in the period of the historical and pedagogical advancement of the second half of the twentieth century, periodization was developed and two periods were identified: the period of finding ways to improve the content of gifted students` education at secondary schools in the conditions of transformation of the Soviet system of education on a normative-knowledgeable basis paradigm (1951-1991), the modernization of the content of gifted students` education in secondary schools of Ukraine in the conditions of formation of market relations (1991-1999). Four stages are defined and characterized in the first period. They are: actualization of the improvement of the content of gifted students` education (1951-1959); the formation of a practical-oriented content of education based on polytechnics in secondary schools (1959-1964); adaptation of the content of gifted students` education to scientific and technological progress (1964-1984); updating the ethnocultural content of gifted students` education in conditions of partial democratization (1984-1991). There are two stages in the second period: the stage of modernization of the content of gifted students` education based on intra-school differentiation (1991-1996); the stage of modernization of the content of gifted students` education based on a personally oriented paradigm (1996-1999). The concept «modernization of the content of gifted students` education», biographical information about the teachers of that time, chronological limits on the course of changes that influenced the modernization of the content of gifted students` education were specified. Systematization of the source base of scientific research, the characteristics of the influence of social factors on the evolution of the purpose and content of gifted students` education got further development.