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Abstract: The article deals with the methods supporting the process of learning A. P. Chekhov’s short story “The Bet” in secondary school. The thematic focus of the study is due to the fact that “The Bet” as a text of Russian classical literature remains on the periphery of secondary education. The aim of the work is to introduce Chekhov’s short story “The Bet” into the methods field in order to turn to it at lessons in literature-biased classes and in the framework of research work of schoolchildren in classes studying literature at the basic level (olympiads, project activities, etc.). To carry out an interdisciplinary analysis of the problem, the article draws on a diachronic review of methods manuals and guides on the work of Chekhov, literary studies of recent decades, federal educational documents within which the school literature curriculum operates today, electronic resources with scenarios for studying the short story, and pedagogical periodicals. The analysis of the methods literature shows that the available rarely described models of studying “The Bet” are mainly focused on the moral-ethical reading of Chekhov’s narrative. The artistic value of “The Bet” and the theoretical-literary aspects of the text (first of all, the originality of its genre), which could become a basis for a detailed analysis of the short story in secondary school, remain outside the syllabus. At the same time, literary criticism of recent decades, including the Chekhov Encyclopedia (2011), provides extensive material for shifting the emphasis from the currently fixed “social science” discussion of “The Bet” in the classroom to a comprehensive analysis of its artistic features. The results of the multidisciplinary research made it possible to formulate a cluster of tasks and questions of various levels of complexity, a topic for discussion and project work facilitating the study of “The Bet” in secondary school, previously not used in the methods of teaching literature.

About the author(s) :

Elena V. Getmanskaya

Moscow Pedagogical State University (Moscow, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6801-8114

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 18.04.2025; date of publication: 31.10.2025

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