Considering that education system is constantly improving, we have asked our interlocutor, Marija Živković, what latest trends should be followed. “For over a decade now, BIGZ Školstvo has been publishing textbooks for students and teachers. In this process, we closely monitor all innovations in the field of education and digitization that are implemented in developed countries and adapted to the peculiarities of our market,” says Marija Živković, Editor-in-Chief of BIGZ Školstvo and adds:
“Our goal is to create textbooks which structural components support active and meaningful learning and respect the developmental abilities and needs of students. By trying to continuously improve the quality of our textbooks and other teaching materials, together with teaching staff, we have significantly raised the bar of the educational system in Serbia. Accomplishing this goal fills us with motivating energy that unites all of us involved in the educational process. By continuously monitoring quality and evaluating textbooks, we continually perfect concepts and content, while applying all the suggestions from education professionals, who are greatly helping us by sharing their experiences.”
How stimulating and motivating can a good textbook be for children, and how much for teachers?
— The best results are achieved through the synergy of good textbooks and quality teaching. It is therefore important, through textbooks, to bring learning content closer to students, and by doing so, facilitate learning. It is extremely important for us to get students interested and motivated, and this is achieved through a specially designed methodical- didactic apparatus, which is created for each textbook separately. In this way we encourage the creative activities and mental processes of the students. Richly illustrated, with a variety of graphic solutions and icons, our textbooks allow students to easily see the connection between concepts and practice their functional literacy. On the other hand, a good textbook is also an important support tool for the teacher when preparing and conducting classes. Good textbooks provide the teacher with a logical structure with the help of which they can further build up the procedures to use in teaching. Teachers have recognized our textbooks as of highest quality and the proof of this lies in their market presence. Biology, The World Around Us, Computer Science, History and Fine Arts textbooks are especially recognized. It makes us happy when we receive such feedback, i.e. that we have made it easier for our end users – students and teachers – to improve the educational process.
Digitization is becoming increasingly implemented in education. Can e-textbooks completely push out print ones? What are the advantages of e-textbooks?
— Digitization has become part of everyday life, including education. It is very important to use all of its opportunities in the teaching process. A few years ago, our company digitized all the textbooks for elementary school, even before the Law on Textbooks became mandatory for publishers. It has been demonstrated in practice that e-textbooks are a great support to teachers in the teaching process, while giving pupils the opportunity to learn and check their knowledge in a fun and interesting way, using ICT. In order to further improve e-textbooks and give maximum support to students and teachers, starting with this school year, we have decided to upload all the textbooks published under the new Teaching and Learning Curriculum on the MozaBook platform. This regional stateof- the-art solution offers a variety of animations, 3D models, virtual tours, quizzes, and tests, while monitoring and evaluating the individual work of students as well as the whole class. Also, this year, we are going to hold our traditional competition “Digital Treasure of Knowledge”, which rewards the most innovative teaching solutions in preparation for digital teaching. We are grateful that the competition was recognized and supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development and the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications. We are also significantly contributing to the digitization process and believe that the use of digital textbooks will continue to grow. However, numerous studies done around the world show that print textbooks remain a basic and irreplaceable teaching tool.
MOZABOOK
Starting with this school year, all textbooks, published under the new Teaching and Learning Curriculum, are uploaded on the MozaBook platform.