Experimental pedagogy

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Experimental pedagogy is an educational trend of thought marked by educational experiments. From 65438 to 1930s, under the advocacy of German physiologist Muller Johannes, physiology gradually became an independent science inclined to experiment, and at the same time prepared necessary natural scientific knowledge and experimental research methods for psychology as a science.

Under the influence of empiricism, positivism and experimental physiology, marked by German psychologist Feng Te 1897, the world's first psychology laboratory was established in Leipzig University, from which experimental psychology was born and developed. Feng Te used this laboratory to train a large number of students. In this context, it is difficult for experimental educators to separate early education experiments from psychological experiments. No matter in thought or method, experimental psychology provides something that can be directly used for reference and absorbed for experimental education thought.

The birth of experimental pedagogy

190 1 year, German educator Man Mei first called the idea of experimental education "experimental pedagogy". 1907, German educator Rai published a book "Experimental Pedagogy", which systematically expounded the idea of experimental education. Later many educators developed it. Experimental educators believe that educational problems should be analyzed and studied by psychological experiments from the perspective of experimental psychology.

Man Mei believes that the previous educational theory lacks accurate basis, and it is only a collection of ethical structure or personal experience, which easily leads to the consequences of guiding practice with false claims. In order to make people understand the reasons for adopting certain educational means, Man Mei emphasized the study of educational problems by experimental methods, and applied psychological experimental methods to educational research for the first time, thus creating a precedent of "experimental pedagogy".

Rai, who was contemporary with Man Mei, believed that the previous pedagogy was vague because it had not been tested. Starting from experimental psychology, he used scientific methods such as observation, experiment and statistics to explore the principles of pedagogy and the basis of teaching methods, and on this basis, he first wrote Experimental Pedagogy.

The work of Man Mei and Rye immediately aroused a warm response, and the trend of experimental education was popular for a while, and quickly spread from Germany to Britain, the United States and other countries, forming the wave of educational experiments in Europe and America at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century.

Characteristics of experimental pedagogy

The characteristics of experimental pedagogy lie in using natural science experiments to study educational problems, emphasizing the simplification of research phenomena, strictly separating the tested methods, factors and conditions from other irrelevant factors, and observing the development and change characteristics of experimental objects in the educational process with the help of experimental instruments, special equipment and some artificial methods; It is emphasized that the reliability of experimental results is compared and quantitatively tested by statistical methods, so as to find the causal relationship between educational variables, and to reveal and establish educational principles accordingly. This makes the educational experiment change from the experimental practice of early teaching reform to the basic method of educational research with strict operational norms under the paradigm of scientism.

Under the impetus of educational experiments, experimental methods are introduced into the field of educational research, which overcomes the inherent defects of speculation and illustration in previous educational theory research and forms the basic form of educational experiments that focus on quantification and exploration of reasons.

Ley's Experimental Pedagogy

Experimental pedagogy is the main representative of German experimental education school in the early 20th century. By W·A· Ley.

William August (Lay, 1862— 1926), a famous German educator and psychologist, is the founder of experimental pedagogy as famous as Ernest Meiuman.

Lai 1892 published the book "Scientific Teaching Method". From 65438 to 0893, he was employed as a teacher in Karlsruhe Normal School, and later he was promoted to principal. He has worked in this school for 30 years, and many of his educational experiments have come from the experiments of this school and its affiliated primary schools. In the same year, he founded a small private experimental education research institute. 1897— 1898 published experimental reports on school work such as orthographic teaching method and arithmetic teaching method, and publicized experimental pedagogy to ordinary educators and psychologists. Since then, he has devoted himself to the scientific cause of experimental education.

1903, he submitted a research paper entitled "Experimental Teaching" to Harley University and was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy. The following year, at the first international conference on school health and the first conference on experimental psychology, he called for the establishment of experimental education laboratories in universities, normal schools and primary schools in big cities.

1906 In September, Ley began to teach experimental pedagogy at Kristiania University. From 1904 to 1906, he co-founded and edited Experimental Education magazine, which became famous. 1907, resigned from the magazine because of disagreement with Meiman.

Ley wrote a lot in his life, including about 20 research monographs and more than 60 periodical papers. In addition to experimental pedagogy and the science pedagogy, orthography pedagogy and arithmetic pedagogy mentioned above, the more important ones are action school (191year) and pedagogy and professionalism (1965438+).

Ley's Experimental Pedagogy was first published in 1903 in Wiesbaden, Germany (originally named Experimental Teaching Theory). 1907 is the second edition of the series Nature and Spiritual World; 19 10 released the third edition. The first edition is different from the second edition, and the second edition is different from the third edition. The first edition only pays attention to the narrative of psychology, and the pedagogy system began to exist in the third edition. After the book was officially published, it had a great influence all over the world. It has been translated into many languages, such as Bohemian, Russian, Japanese, English, French, Serbian, Spanish and Czech. The English version was translated from the third edition by A Weil and E.K.Schwartz, and the Chinese version was translated from the English version by Jin and Citizen. 1July, 938, the first edition was published by the Commercial Press in the name of "Modern Education Masterpiece". The Chinese translation is about 200,000 words and nearly 300 pages.

Before the translation of this book, there are three prefaces, which were written in Karlsruhe in the autumn of 19 17 (the first edition was 1907), for English translators, and Professor P.R.Radosavljevich's long preface "Dr. Lai and His Contribution to Modern Education". The text of this book consists of four parts:

First, the nature and significance of experimental pedagogy

(A) Overview of the development of experimental education

(B) the nature of research methods and experimental education

(c) Look at the nature and problems of education from the viewpoint of experimental pedagogy, that is, general pedagogy.

Second, the research in the field of general pedagogy.

Personal education

(2) Nature education

(3) Social education

Third, research in the field of teaching.

Organic course

(b) Unified school system: boys and girls

(3) Teaching methods

Four. Review and Prospect (Note)

Lai believes that there is a fundamental difference between experimental pedagogy and old pedagogy; The process of educational experiment includes three interrelated and inseparable stages. He made an organic curriculum plan that was completely different from traditional education, and established the important position of "action" in the educational process.

(A) About the difference between experimental pedagogy and old pedagogy

Ley emphasized that the main difference between old pedagogy and new pedagogy (that is, experimental pedagogy) lies in the different ways of experience collection and research methods. The old pedagogy was based on perception, introspection and observation of others. These methods are far from enough, and they are also lost in vague discussions and arbitrariness. Some are based on experience, but they have not been tested by experiments. The author believes that only by studying children from the psychological and physiological aspects such as muscle movement, sensory imagination, memory and will can we provide scientific basis for pedagogy theory.

Experimental education relies on a large number of observations, statistics and experiments to supplement the shortcomings of the old pedagogy research methods and make them more perfect. Experimental pedagogy is the expansion and rigor of old pedagogy, so it can be called complete pedagogy. It is not only experimental psychology or educational psychology, because its research object is not limited to psychology. Experimental pedagogy should explore children's biological, anthropological, health, economic, ethical, moral, aesthetic and religious experiences and children's social environment through observation, statistics and experiments. He pointed out that educational theorists should promote the further development of pedagogy from two aspects: comprehensive experiment, statistics, systematic observation and the relationship between biology and philosophy.

The author thinks that systematic observation, statistics and educational experiments are nothing more than traditional observation and experience, and the experience of the new pedagogy-experimental pedagogy is broader, more thorough, more accurate and more reliable than that of the old pedagogy. Therefore, the research method of experimental pedagogy can give people a more reliable tool to evaluate normal or abnormal educational phenomena and students' personality than the old pedagogy.

Ley pointed out that the research methods, results and related conditions of experimental pedagogy are accurately defined, and this kind of research can be controlled, expanded and strengthened in different parts of the world, which can ensure the reliable and sustainable development of pedagogy among different civilized nations. This advantage cannot be provided by the old pedagogy. The old pedagogy only regarded psychology and ethics as auxiliary sciences, while experimental pedagogy relied on all biological and philosophical sciences. The so-called biological science refers to strict biology, ecology, anatomy, physiology, hygiene, psychotherapy and psychotherapy. The so-called philosophical science refers to the theories about knowledge, namely epistemology, political economy, ethics, aesthetics and religious philosophy. Therefore, the foundation of experimental pedagogy is broader and more practical than the old pedagogy.

Lai believes that experimental pedagogy, like other new things, must fight against misunderstanding and prejudice. He listed all kinds of misunderstandings about experimental pedagogy in society and refuted them one by one.

(B) About the three stages of educational experiment

1. Hypothesis stage (hypothesis holds). The author does not exclude all the research results and practical experience of the old pedagogy. He just criticized that the old pedagogy often only used deductive induction to raise experience into principles, while experimental pedagogy, as a new pedagogy, needed these principles and principles sublimated from experience to be verified by experiments. Many methods, theories or doctrines regarded as final products in old pedagogy are only an initial hypothesis in experimental pedagogy, and whether this hypothesis is correct or only correct in one aspect or only partially remains to be tested. "Hypothesis" is the connection between old education and experimental pedagogy.

2. Experimental stage (experimental planning and execution). Ley emphasized that the situation of educational experiments must be simplified and conform to the characteristics of the classroom. Simplify all kinds of situations to only one cause in a certain period of time within the possible scope, so as to determine the position of all kinds of causes in the results. Intention phenomenon must be observed in a particularly simplified situation. In his view, one of the conditions that an educational experiment must meet is that the situation in the experiment is similar to that in the classroom. The author advocates that teachers with practical experience should play a leading role in experimental teaching, rather than trained psychologists. He believes that only educators and teachers who have undergone various theoretical and practical experiments from long-term practical experience can be competent in hypothesis establishment, educational research, planning and implementation, interpretation and confirmation of results and their application in practical education, and there is no need for so-called special school psychologists.

3. Application stage (proving the accuracy of the obtained results in practical work). The author thinks that experimental pedagogy is different from experimental psychology. Experimental pedagogy pays more attention to the analysis of general psychological processes, while experimental pedagogy pays more attention to the application of experimental knowledge. This practical application is not only the ultimate goal of experimental pedagogy, but also an opportunity to further test whether the experimental results are correct.

(3) About organic courses

Lai believes that many disadvantages of traditional schools are mainly the lack of connection and systematicness between subjects in the curriculum plan. Therefore, all kinds of energy of students, including time and energy, have been greatly destroyed. The author emphasizes that it is urgent to replace the chaotic curriculum piled up by various subjects with an organic curriculum. To this end, he developed the following detailed curriculum plan:

Rye opposed Herbart's intellectualism and formalism curriculum plan. In his view, education and teaching is an activity that affects students and causes them to react. In the process of teaching, students' response is divided into three steps: feeling (getting stimulation) → classification (or assimilation) → imitation (performance), in which performance or imitation is of great significance, because only through this step can students show their initiative and take action. On the basis of this understanding, the organic curriculum plan made by the author divides teaching into two parts: physical observation and formal imitation. He thinks that expression has a positive impact on observation and classification, and formal teaching also has an impact on fact teaching. The interaction between them is interactive.

The "fact teaching" from observation includes two aspects: the discipline of natural research and the discipline of culture. The discipline of natural research (causal field) consists of natural history, natural science, geography and astronomy; The disciplines of culture (that is, the fields of goals and values) include history, politics, economics, sociology, psychology, ethics, moral and religious teaching and educational science. The "formal teaching" from performance mainly consists of the following parts: three-dimensional performance, modeling, experiment, animal and plant protection (manual); Mathematical expressions, mechanical drawings, geometry and arithmetic; Speak, read, write and recite in Chinese; An excellent performance of poetry, prose, works, etc. ; Perspective painting, sketch, painting, modeling and other performances; Music performance, singing; Adjustment, drama performance, games, dance, gymnastics; Self-expression, the leader in School and Society.

"Action" is the basic principle of the educational process.

Ley's experimental pedagogy based on experimental research summarizes the general theory of students' actions to deal with the surrounding environment. Students first get impressions and perceptions through observation, then process them in consciousness, and finally show them through various actions. Students interact with their surroundings in two ways. They feel the influence of their surroundings and react in their daily life. In the author's view, studying and clarifying students' actions in response to the surrounding environment should be the basis and main task of all pedagogy, so Rye's experimental pedagogy is also called "action pedagogy".

The author believes that "classification" or "assimilation" is the arrangement of perceptual impressions, and "feeling" and "classification" are only two important links in a complete behavior. An action must be expressed by "action". Only in this way can the psychological reaction process be completed. Therefore, the author emphasizes that activity, action and performance are the basis of psychological development, and activity and the resulting psychological process are the most important components of "action school" and "action" pedagogy, and performance, activity or action should become the central link of school education and the basic standard of educational process.

The author experimented with the teaching methods of spelling and arithmetic for the first time. He proved that the significance and image of sports have great educational value. He used mathematical methods to determine the functional relationship among vision, hearing, speech and writing in spelling teaching.

In order to test which method is the best way to learn spelling words, the author divides students into four categories, two of which are divided into several groups. (1) Category I: Examiners read the words to be tested and ask students to write them silently. Among them, the first group only listened and did not do any oral actions; The second group listened and whispered; The third group can read aloud while listening. (2) The second category: the examiner writes the words to be tested on the blackboard for the students to see. Among them, the first group just looked, without any verbal action; The second group of students can watch and read quietly; The third group of students can read aloud at the same time. (3) There is only one group in the third category, that is, oral spelling. The main test is to write the letters on the blackboard and let the class spell them out loudly one by one. (4) There is only one group in the fourth category, that is, reading and copying.

After a period of time, the test shows that the average number of errors in the first group is 3.04, that in the second group is 2.06 and that in the third group is 2.25. Category II: group 1 1.22, group 2 1.02, and group 3: 0.95. The third category is1.25; The fourth category is 0.54. According to these statistics, the author thinks that the sense of movement generated by the activities of speech organs and hands can significantly promote spelling learning, among which copying is the most valuable. Therefore, the significance of "activity" in education is far greater than just visual and auditory sensory perception.

It is this experiment that proves that "action" is the basic principle of education and extends to form the system of action pedagogy. Paying attention to experimental methods and emphasizing the value of "action" in education constitute the most basic characteristics of the author's educational thought. Therefore, the author strongly emphasizes that the school of "sentence" and "book" must be changed into the school of "action" or "action" based on the basic educational principles of social activities.

Rye and Meyman have different views. Mei Yiman believes that experimental pedagogy is nothing more than "experimental psychology" and "research of facts", while Lai has always regarded experimental pedagogy as general pedagogy, which is divided into three parts: one is individual pedagogy with individual qualities and talents as the research object, the other is natural pedagogy with the influence of nature and living environment as the research object, and the third is social pedagogy with society as the research object. At the same time, it is argued that the observation and systematic summary of children's reaction to the environment is the basis of pedagogy, and all kinds of teaching should be carried out through the observation and analysis of students' actions. This kind of experiment is a teaching and classroom experiment, not a laboratory experiment advocated by Mei Yiman.

Ley's Experimental Pedagogy is divided into four chapters to comprehensively examine the significance and essence of experimental education, and draws the conclusion that pedagogy is not only an art derived from practical experience, but also a scientific conclusion. Ley's contribution to education also includes theory (science) and practice (art). At the beginning of the 20th century, most educational ideas and school reform practices in Europe (including Soviet Russia) were deeply influenced by him. The author advocates the experimental research of education all his life, and advocates that education should be included in the objective scientific research category, which is conducive to overcoming the disadvantages of the old pedagogy, such as subjective deduction, rigid method, arbitrary theory and lack of testing, and has made valuable exploration and due contribution to the scientification of pedagogy.

The author emphasizes that "action" is the most basic principle of the whole education, which gives people a refreshing feeling against the bad habits of traditional education at that time and has a great impact on Herbart pedagogy, which was still dominant at that time, and has positive significance. The author calls the school that pays attention to intelligence and quietness "reading" and "sitting", and his school "activity" and "initiative".

Because this kind of "activity" is restricted by self-will, it is also called "concept school" to show the difference from "school that pays attention to intelligence" It advocates teaching through "action" and self-development through "performance". The author advocates education based on "movement" and opposes education based on "concept", and the new education movement in Europe almost began at that time. As Professor Radoville pointed out in the preface before the text of this book, Rye's Experimental Pedagogy, although small in scale, is extremely valuable because it discusses experimental education in a unique way, and no such ideological material can be found in similar works written by any other author at that time.

The author believes that many disadvantages of traditional schools are caused by the lack of organic connection between disciplines. Schools characterized by "action" must reform the traditional teaching methods, link various disciplines in the unity of "perception, classification and performance" and establish an organic curriculum plan. This organic curriculum plan has played a positive role in opposing the bad habits of traditional education curriculum.

However, the author's demand for the unity of "perception, classification and expression" among all disciplines can only lead to new formalism. He established the educational process on the basis of biological diagram, studied pedagogy with biology, neglected the characteristics of education itself, and formulated an all-inclusive curriculum plan, which was biased. The author pays attention to "performance" and "action", overemphasizes the role of performance, painting, singing, dancing and games in the whole teaching plan, and ignores the teaching of systematic knowledge, which objectively tends to lower the level of general education and has certain limitations.