Author Janja Zmavc in the chapter Teaching rhetoric in primary school –
towards modernization of society with classical techniques and practices presents
the characteristics of teaching rhetoric as a compulsory elective subject in the ninth
grade of elementary schools in Slovenia. It represents a unique education feature,
since in other European educational systems (as well as elsewhere in the world) at
elementary level stakeholders are not familiar with an independent subject where
pupils could systematically learn the principles of successful public persuasion.
After a brief presentation of the circumstances surrounding the placement of
the subject of rhetoric in the Slovenian elementary school curriculum, the author
outlines its characteristics and presents some particularities of teaching this skill
from 1999 to the present day. The main focus in the second part of this paper is
the presentation of partial results of the project Developing of theoretical bases
and practical guidelines for teaching rhetoric in primary and secondary schools
which has been conducted at the Educational Research Institute Slovenia from
2018. The author demonstrate the main (content and didactic) directions of
developing a new version of the subject-curriculum for teaching rhetoric in the
primary school. Thus, the author tries to show that rhetoric seen as an integral part
of the elementary education does not represent an additional ballast or burden
but precisely because of its unique (i. e. classical) features, it enables a critical
reflection of knowledge and promotes democratic processes within the school
environment, which represent one of the key elements in the development of
students’ competences for effective participation in modern democratic cultures.Collection name: LIBRARY "PEDAGOGICAL THEORY AND PRACTICE" 5
