Application of the literary text as a starting point in the integrative approach in teaching in the first cycle of primary education

The application of the literary text as a starting point in the integrative approach in teaching in the first cycle of primary education is considered in this paper. A survey was conducted on a sample of 225 primary school teachers in order to determine the following: (1) whether they use a literary text as a starting point in the integrative approach in teaching; (2) how they evaluate their methodological competence during institutionalized training for the application of the literary text as a starting point in the integrative approach; (3) did they undertake further professional trainings in terms of methodology in this area and, if so, in what ways did they do it; (4) how they assess their methodological competence for the application of the literary text in this function. The obtained results show that 38.2% of the primary school teachers regularly and 57.3% occasionally use a literary text as a starting point for the integrative approach and that they consider the preparation that requires greater engagement (68.0%) as the greatest difficulty in applying this approach. They also believe that during their university training they were partially qualified (50.2%) to apply the literary text as a starting point in the integrative approach, but that they had the opportunity (92.4%) to expand their methodological knowledge on this topic, most often through seminars (56.44%), and they estimate, in the largest percentage (53.8%), that they are competent enough to implement such an approach in practice. In the conclusions, the need for further research in this area is stressed and it is implied that methodological courses at teacher education and pedagogical faculties should be enriched with the content on integration.