In 2002, middle school textbooks were compiled according to the 7th Training Course. In many ways, differing from the textbooks of the 6th Training Course, they included contents such as materials for reading, guide writings, deep courses, research questions, and so on. However, only external changes of the textbooks do not make guarantee of their quality. The seventh textbooks don’t contain recent academic researches of cultural exchanges and still focus on political history. Moreover, they describe cultural exchanges as trade of merchandises required in the process of building a state. Without basic understanding of cultural exchanges, students would have a difficulty in learning historical changes related to cultural exchanges.
It isn’t actually easy to demand active and voluntary study of younger students. Therefore, the textbooks of the korean history have to include not only political history but also cultural histoty, because a study of the impact of cultural exchanges can cultivate open-mindedness toward other cultures as well as expand the vision of the korean and world histories.
This article aims to make an analysis of learning objectives and curriculum of the 7th Training Course and to show how they were reflected in the middle school textbooks of the Korean history. In addition, it reviewed what the objectives and the curriculum of the amended 7th Training Course were. For this purpose, it focused on the learning contents related to cultural exchange of the ancient and medieval Ages described in the middle school textbooks of the korean hiscory.