TEACHING THE SUBJECT "TARBIYA" (MORAL EDUCATION) IN PRIMARY GRADES ON THE BASIS OF THE INTEGRATION OF STEAM AND JAPANESE EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES

The subject “Tarbiya” (moral education), introduced into the curriculum of general secondary schools of the Republic of Uzbekistan, is intended to form pupils’ moral consciousness, social responsibility, and national and universal values from the earliest years of schooling. In practice, however, the teaching of Tarbiya in primary grades frequently remains verbal and declarative: values are explained rather than lived, and moral knowledge is not transformed into moral behaviour. This article substantiates and experimentally verifies a model for teaching Tarbiya in primary grades based on the integration of two complementary pedagogical systems: the STEAM approach (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics), which supplies activity-based, project-oriented, and creative mechanisms of learning, and Japanese educational practice – in particular tokkatsu (special class activities), dōtoku (moral education as reflection on lived experience), o-sōji (collective cleaning), and kyūshoku (shared meal duty) – which supplies mechanisms for converting values into daily habitual action. A quasi-experimental study was conducted during one academic year in primary grades (Grades 2–3) with experimental (n=112) and control (n=108) cohorts. Data were collected through a moral judgement and behaviour diagnostic complex, structured observation of pupils’ cooperative behaviour, and teacher and parent questionnaires. The experimental cohort demonstrated statistically significant advantages in moral judgement maturity, cooperative behaviour, responsibility for the shared environment, and creative engagement (t=5.78; p<0.001; Cohen’s d=0.78). The study concludes that the STEAM–Japanese integration converts Tarbiya from a subject about values into a practice of values, and proposes a module structure and lesson typology suitable for implementation within the national curriculum.