Natural Experimentation, Teacher Training and Democracy: An Experiment Carried out at the Escola de Aperfeiçoamento (1945)

Abstract

The article is a study in the History of Psychology that describes how Helena Antipoff, a teacher at the Belo Horizonte School of Education, appropriated Alexandre Lazurski's Natural Experimentation method as a didactic tool for training teachers, creating an exercise in democratic education. The source selected shows the appropriation of the method, allowing us to discuss a different use to that made in the USSR. The source was analyzed in the following stages: reading and description of the Natural Experimentation proposed by Antipoff; comparison with Lazurski's method in order to investigate possible appropriations and transformations; analysis of the use of the instrument for the purposes of teacher training and creating an exercise in democracy. Appropriation is understood according to Chartier: an active operation characterized by specific ways of internalizing an intellectual motive, transforming it and making different uses of this material. The data obtained from this experience shows the use of concepts such as self-judgment, hetero-judgment and egocentrism and enabled Antipoff to work on the theme of personality, highlight the importance of the scientific method for evaluating individual differences and propose a reflection on the development of the democratic spirit.