La Psychologie de l’education: 1870–1913. Politiques educatives et strategies d’intervention

The psychology of education is considered here as a strategical science. It was created in the period between 1870 and 1913, concurrently with the educational policies applied both in the United states and in Europe. An historical analysis allows to distinguish three strategies. The neo-herbartian pedagogy lends importance to instruction; mental statistics supply the means for building up the national unity through an “analysis of the circle of thoughts” (manipulation of mental representations). The Child Study approach, on the contrary, emphasizes the mechanisms through which specific interests are naturally regulated: the national unity comes out of the confrontation of all the individual differences; mental statistics supply the means for a regulation through the average. This liberal strategy had to be modified at the beginning of the 20th century: it appears necessary to monitor competitors and rationalize the social life in order to increase the national output. The psychology of education thus became one of learning and a theory of measurement which supplies the means for a fairer social deal.