Pedology

PEDOLOGY, the science of the growing and developing child and adolescent, studying the patterns of development in a specific socio-historical class environment. Some authors consider Tiedemann the first herald of pedological ideas, who in 1787 wrote 'Observations on the Development of Mental Abilities in Children,' while the beginning of P. as a science is traced to the late 19th century, when Stanley Hall in 1893 at a pedagogical congress in Chicago organized a section for the study of the child; the following year in Edinburgh an association for the study of the child was organized, and in 1899 in Paris a society for the psychological study of the child was established, publishing the journal 'Pedology.' However, as can be seen from the further exposition, all this has still very little in common with P. in our Soviet understanding, and therefore we have every reason to consider P. a young science, called into being by the October Revolution and the needs of education: healthy, active, and conscious builders of socialism. Until recently, various authors attributed completely different content to the concept of P., reflecting mechanistic, idealistic, and eclectic understandings of P. Thus, for example, such definitions were in circulation: 'Pedology is the science of the growth, constitution, and behavior of the typical-mass child in different epochs and phases of childhood' (Blonsky). 'Pedology is the scientific synthesis of all that constitutes the essential results of individual scientific disciplines studying the child each from its own special side' (Basov), 'Pedology is the synthesis of psychoneurological sciences about the developing child' (Zalkind). 'Pedology is child psychology' (Kornilov), 'Pedology is child reflexology' (Bekhterev), 'Pedology is the theory of the pedagogical process' (Molozhavy), 'Pedology is part of pedagogy' (Krupenina). In these definitions, as can be seen, the class content of P. as a social science is completely eliminated, and it is treated completely detached from its socio-political orientation and the requirements of social construction. Attempts to interpret P. as a biological science or 'biosocial' represented crude biologization. No less erroneous was the definition of P. as a mechanical combination of biology of the child's organism and child psychology. P. does not mechanically combine the data of the sciences on which it is based, but takes them in a new qualitative specificity, using them in the plan of a comprehensive study of the child, with the social behavior of the child and adolescent being fundamental in this study. The relationship of P. with pedagogy is determined by the fact that P. studies the age-related patterns of development of children, which is one of the necessary prerequisites for the proper organization of the pedagogical process. Along with bare biologization, ignoring social factors as the main determining factor in the development of the child, there was an underestimation of the active role of children in the pedagogical process (Arkin, Aryamov). The leftist theory of the 'withering away of the school' led to the denial of P. as a science and thereby to the denial of the need to take into account the age characteristics of children for the pedagogical process (Shulgin, Krupenina). Only in a persistent, irreconcilable struggle on two fronts - with mechanism and Menshevik idealism, which found for themselves particularly fertile ground in such a new creative science as P. - as a result of the consistent implementation of the principle of party-mindedness in P., it was possible to overcome the distortions of both right-opportunist and leftist nature that distinguished P. for a number of years, and to outline approaches to a clear Marxist-Leninist understanding of P. However, even now P. is in the initial stage of its methodological elaboration. In content, P. currently only outlines the main questions to be studied, only delimiting its field from other disciplines. Therefore, a finished characterization of the methods and content of P. cannot be given at present. The main methodological principles of pedological study of the child are: the principle of studying the specific child in the conditions of a specific class environment and social construction in the USSR, the principle of holistic study of all individual aspects and processes of development in all their connections and mediations from the point of view of class development of the personality, the principle of studying individual periods of development and the patterns of their transition from one to another. On the basis of these principles, the study of the child takes place - psychological, anthropometric, etc. However, in each of these directions, it is necessary to keep in mind the limited, non-self-sufficient significance. In these directions, P. had particularly many distortions (overestimation of test methods, vulgar constitutionalism, crude correlation between data of anthropometric research and mental development, etc.). Only on the basis of a holistic study of the child's development is a pedological characteristic created, which ensures the proper organization of the pedagogical process. The main tasks facing P. on this path can be formulated as follows: determining the educational capacity of each age period (hence the enormous importance of age-related P., which establishes certain indicators of the degree of social development at different ages), determining the most productive methods of introducing new educational material into the child at different ages with different social, class, national, and individual characteristics of the child. The historical resolutions of the CPSU Central Committee on primary and secondary schools of 1931 and 1932 set new responsible tasks before P. The polytechnization of the school requires from P. a pedological analysis of new school programs and pedological substantiation of active methods of teaching individual subjects in connection with the age characteristics of the mental development of children and substantiation of methods of organizing children in school and rationalization of pedagogical processes, primarily the study of child labor in school workshops and in production, the development of pedological norms of child labor, substantiation of methods of vocational training for the purpose of proper alternation of mental and physical labor of students on the basis of subordinating the productive labor of children to educational and training goals, studying the technical activity and creativity of children. Along with this, P. must provide substantiation of methods of socio-political education in school, conscious discipline, study the content, forms and methods of pioneer work, artistic education, participation of children in public work, etc. The fulfillment of all these tasks requires a significant growth of pedological cadres. Already at present, they are numerous in number. Their training is currently proceeding both from among doctors along the lines of faculties for the protection of motherhood and childhood, and from among teachers along the lines of pedological departments of pedagogical institutes. Scientific research work in P. is also proceeding along both lines - medical (institutes for the Protection of Children's Health) and pedagogical. In 1928, the first pedological congress took place; pedological sections worked at a number of congresses - OZD, psychoneurological (the last in 1930 at the congress on human behavior). See also Protection of Health of Children and Adolescents.