Due to changing pedagogical points of view about the aim and the content of education points of view about the target and functions of a modern textbook as a means of teaching are being transformed as well. For overall personality development students need textbooks which don’t only transfer educational information of some volume and complexity but also represent full-sided conditions of a personality’s interaction with a textbook as educational environment which is defined as a situation by the authors. According to the prevailing kind of students’ orientation 4 qualitatively different types of such situations are defined: cognitive orientation, object and activity orientation, axiological orientation, integral orientation. Each of these types is placed in correspondence with 3 groups of personality developing environmental conditions (content sources, stimuli and opportunities for personality growth). This situational and environmental model given is placed on the basis of projecting a modern textbook and defines the criteria of evaluating its personality developing potential.

personality developing educational environment, criteria of quality