The article is based on a research based on the analysis of educational publications in mathematics with a valid endorsement of the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic. The analysis of educational publications is based on the identification of elements of the history of mathematics that are directly related to the development of geometric thinking of pupils. The individual elements of history supporting pupils' motivation may include either correctly formulated assignments related to the geometry curriculum, quotations of famous mathematicians, various interesting facts from the history of geometry, open questions forcing pupils to think and think critically or various pictures and illustrations directly related to the geometry curriculum. These forms of historical elements can either directly or indirectly develop geometric thinking in primary school pupils.

The aim of this paper is to present the results of a research aimed at analysing mathematics textbooks and workbooks for the second grade of primary schools in terms of the occurrence of historical elements in the geometry curriculum in the different grades.

We investigated tasks from the history of mathematics focused on geometric thinking of pupils in the context of the potential development of pupils' motivation and interest in mathematics at the second level of primary schools in the Slovak Republic. Elements of history in the teaching of geometry in primary schools represent one of the fundamental factors to contribute to the formation of pupils' motivation and thus to arouse in pupils a desire to know geometry in a broader context. However, research has shown that knowledge of the history and comprehensive knowledge of the genesis of any science contributes to a more lasting acceptance of new knowledge. Pupils can more easily integrate the knowledge acquired in this way with their existing knowledge of mathematics and gradually build up its system and structure. Structured knowledge consequently has a higher potential in developing not only the pupils' geometric imagination.

Our research was based on the premise that by analysing the history of mathematics, useful insights into the formation of mathematics can be gained, thus giving pupils a better understanding of the needs of geometry learning. We will refer to this thesis as the genetic parallel method in this paper.

We can speak of motivation when in the course of cognition there is a discrepancy between "I don't know" and "I would like to know". The desired effect will cause the pupil to have a desire for knowledge, which is an elementary component in learning not only mathematics. The desire for knowledge can be facilitated by the use of historical inserts throughout all phases of the lesson. As pupils' concentration gradually decreases, a motivational insertion can not only reawaken pupils' interest in the lesson, but also motivate them to participate further in the process of acquiring new knowledge. The right form of motivation is the basis for active pupil activity in the classroom. Therefore, on the basis of our research, we consider the consistency of geometric thinking and history of mathematics as a non-negligible part of geometry teaching and development of geometric thinking of pupils in primary schools.

Keywords: History, mathematics, education, motivation, textbook.