Citlivé a kontroverzné témy v aktuálnych premenách dejepisného vyučovania na príklade sporov o Slovenskej republike (1939 - 1945)

The article discusses the determinants of history teaching dedicated to sensitive and controversial topics. These determinants include pedagogical constructivism, group discussions, plurality of opinions and sources and secondary sources, and last but not least, their critical analysis and evaluation. The article further discusses the importance of value issues and student attitudes. Based on this analysis, we have established four recommendations for teaching sensitive and controversial topics in history. Among these recommendations are the establishment of adequate educational goals and learning tasks, the establishment of the initial perspective of the controversy and the subsequent course of the lesson, being prepared that the topic may arise outside the classroom, training students to formulate opinions and accept the opinions of others. All of these are modern trends that correspond to the ongoing curricular reform in the Slovak Republic. We illustrated the article on the subject of the Slovak Republic (1939 – 1945), which belongs to the dark periods of our history. Modern approaches to teaching history contribute to the formation of pro-democratic and civic attitudes of pupils. At the same time, they help teachers to effectively prepare for the lesson. Such analysis and recommendations have been missing in our pedagogical environment until now.