Schoolology as a proposal of Antipoffian pedagogy for teacher education in Minas Gerais in the 1930s

Abstract

The innovative proposal of a new area of research called Schoolology – the science of the school – initiated by the psychologist and educator Helena Antipoff at the Escola de Aperfeiçoamento de Professores de Belo Horizonte in the 1930s is examined through an archival study. Schoolology relied on the concepts of child psychology and experimental pedagogy developed by Édouard Claparède, as well as on the method of natural experimentation invented by the Russian psychologist Alexander Lazurskyy. The purpose was to obtain an objective synthesis of the relationships between the multiple factors intervening in children’s learning at schools: their physical, mental and social development of students, the social and cultural practices of their families, the pedagogical procedures used by teachers, and the institutional functioning of schools. The schoolological studies made it possible to identify several factors that influenced the academic performance of students, such as the retention rates in the first year of schooling, the hygienic and nutritional conditions of the children, the pedagogical methods, the organization of the schools, and the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the families.