Pedology is ... Understand the concept

Pedology - a science that combines the approaches of medicine, biology, pedagogy and psychotechnics to the development of the child. And although as a term it is obsolete and has acquired the format of child psychology, universal pedological methods attract the attention not only of scientists, but also of people outside the scientific world.

History

The history of pedology begins in the West at the end of the 19th century. The emergence of its largely contributed to the intensive development of applied branches of experimental pedagogy and psychology. The combination of their approaches with anatomical and physiological and biological in pedology occurred mechanically. More precisely, it was dictated by a comprehensive, comprehensive study of the mental development of children, their behavior.

The term "pedology" was introduced by the American scientist-researcher Oscar Chrisman in 1853. In Greek, the definition sounds like "the science of children" (pedos - child, logos - science, study).

Origins

The first works on pedology were written by American psychologists G.S. Hall, J. Baldwin and physiologist V. Preyer. They stood at the origins of the developmental psychology and collected a huge amount of empirical material on the development and characteristics of children's behavior. Their work has become largely revolutionary and formed the basis of child and age psychology.

In Russia

At the beginning of the 20th century a new scientific trend penetrated into Russia (then the USSR) and received a worthy continuation in the works of the psychiatrist and reflexologist V.M. Bekhterev, psychologist A.P. Nechaev, the physiologist E. Meumann and the defectologist G.I. Rossolimo. Each of them, by virtue of his specialty, tried to explain and formulate the laws of child development and the methods of its correction.

Pedology in Russia received a practical scale: pedological institutes and the "House of the Child" (Moscow) were opened, a number of specialized courses were conducted. In schools, psychological tests were conducted, the results of which included the completion of classes. Leading psychologists, physiologists, doctors and teachers of the country were involved in the study of child psychology. All this was done for the purpose of comprehensive study of child development. However, such a simple task did not justify the means.

By the 20s in Russia pedology is a vast scientific movement, but not a complex science. The main obstacle for the synthesis of knowledge about the child was the lack of a preliminary analysis of the methods of sciences that make up this complex.

Errors

The main mistakes of Soviet pedologists were the underestimation of the role of hereditary factors in the development of children and the influence on the formation of their personalities in the social environment. In practical terms, scientific miscalculations include defect and application of tests for intellectual development.

In the 1930s, all the shortcomings were gradually corrected, and Soviet pedology began a more confident and meaningful way. However, already in 1936 it became "pseudoscience", an unwanted political system of the country. Revolutionary experiments were curtailed, pedological laboratories were closed. Testing, as the main pedological method, has become vulnerable in educational practice. Since the results most often presented were children of priests, whiteguards and "rotten" intellectuals, and not of the proletariat. And this went against the ideology of the party. So the upbringing of children returned to traditional forms, which caused stagnation in the educational system.

Principles of pedology

The development of pedology in Russia brought certain fruits, it formed the basic scientific principles:

• Pedology is a holistic knowledge of the child. From this position, it is not considered "in parts", but in general, as the creation of a biological, social, psychological, etc., simultaneously. All aspects of its study are interconnected and intertwined. But this is not just a messy set of data, but a clear compilation of theoretical guidelines and methods.
• The second guideline for pedologists was the genetic principle. He was actively studied by the psychologist L.S. Vygotsky. On the example of the child's egocentric speech ("speech minus sound") he proved that childish babbling or "babbling under the nose" is the first stage of the inner speech or thinking of a person. The genetic principle demonstrates the prevalence of this phenomenon.
• The third principle - the study of childhood - proved that the social environment and life significantly affect the psychological and anthropomorphic development of the child. Thus, neglect or rigidity of upbringing, malnutrition affect the child's mental and physiological health.
• The fourth principle is the practical importance of pedology - the transition from cognition of the child's world to its change. In this regard, pedological counseling, interviews with parents, psychological diagnosis of children were created.

Pedology is a complex science, therefore its principles are based on a comprehensive study of the child. Psychology and pedology for a long time were identified with each other, the second concept came out of the first. Therefore, the dominant aspect in pedology is the psychological aspect.

Since the 1950s, the ideas of pedology have partly begun to return to pedagogy and psychology. And 20 years later, active educational work began with the use of tests for the intellectual development of children.