To solve the problem associated with highlighting the essence of updating modern teaching methods, which determines the readiness of a modern teacher for methodological activities in the development of the educational environment, a paradigmatic approach was chosen. When using this approach to analyze the genesis of teaching methods as a pedagogical phenomenon, paradigms of teaching methods are identified, for which the dominant teaching methods and the main factors influencing their emergence and (or) change in significance are indicated. Generalization of the established factors made it possible to draw a conclusion about the need to include in the operational composition of modern methods of teaching schoolchildren methods of working with information (its change, structuring and evaluation), as well as methods of self- and mutual learning, taking into account professional-conventional attitudes and communication possibilities of subjects of educational interaction in within the framework of cultural traditions and ideological rules.