The Environment of an institution of Additional Education for Children as an Organizational and Pedagogical Factor in the Study of Local History

Aim. To reveal the role of the educational environment of the children’s institutions of additional education as the organizational and pedagogical factors in studying local history. Methodology. The following methodological approaches were used: a systemic allowing to study completely the educational environment of a children’ institutions of additional education; a convergent approach aimed at creating educational environments of a convergent type that combine scientific and humanitarian technologies, ensuring efficiency in activities and achieving high-quality results (meta-results, “cross-cutting” results), and an environmental approach though which the process of education is realized. The work provides an overview of the source base on the study, applies theoretical methods: analysis, generalization, and systematization of materials. It also presents an analysis of experimental and research work (ERW) and uses practical methods of scaling (quantitative expression of qualitative factors in local history education). Results. The article reveals and analyzes the main provisions of theoretical research on the concept of “educational environment” as one of the conditions for local history education of pupils in the institutions of additional education, identifies the component structure of pupils’ local history education, confirms the effectiveness of pupils’ local history education, and determines the degree of formation of pupils’ spiritual and moral qualities, as well as their knowledge, skills, and abilities in local history through tourism and local history activities. Research implications. The theoretical relevance of the study lies in the following: refining and specifying the definition of “educational environment of an institution of additional education for children”; revealing the features of the educational environment; presenting a description of the external and internal aspects of local history education for children; revealing the component structure of the category “educational environment of an institution of additional education for children”: programmatic and methodological, event-based, spatial and infrastructure, social psychological; and the feasibility of using the regional component. The practical significance of the research lies in the implementation of proven forms of local history education for pupils the application of approaches and methods, as well as the effectiveness of components that have been tested experimentally, which contributed to the formation of local history education among pupils in additional education institutions. Conclusions. The study revealed that the educational environment of children's institutions of additional education has several features and should be filled with events with local history content. As a result of the experimental research conducted, the formation of local history education among pupils is effective. Based on the conducted experiment, the components of the educational environment developed and tested by the author can be used in the institutions of additional education for children that implement the process of local history education among students.