Ovide Decroly

Jean- Ovide Decroly ( called Ovide Decroly; born July 23, 1871 in Ronse, † September 12, 1932 in Uccle / Ukkel ) was a Belgian doctor, neurologist, psychologist and educational reformer.

Life

Ovide Decroly grew up in Flanders. Father's side were the origins of his family in France. Ovide Decroly displeased as a teenager, the former high-school education, in particular the abstract instruction in the classical languages ​​courses, which should have a formative influence on his later work. After high school he studied medicine at the University of Ghent, and neuropsychology in Berlin, Paris and Brussels. In 1898 he moved with his wife Agnès definitely Guisset to Brussels and worked in neurological department of a hospital, where he took over the management of a range of " abnormal and speech impaired children." Classic methods of treatment opposed to standing, he founded his own institute in 1901 to care for such children. Some parents who had his work and his teaching observed entrusted him with their 1907 "normal" children, whereupon Decroly founded a school called Hermitage. She was a long time in Ixelles / Elsene in Brussels in 1927 moved Decroly then to the suburb of Uccle. This school Decroly devoted himself to his death in an extraordinary way. In addition, he also worked as a university teacher and trainer in the field of special education. Ovide Decroly was a member of the Masonic lodge Les Amis Philanthropes.

The method Decroly

Decroly initially tried to wake from a medical point of view in an experimental way the attention of children and to analyze their behavior. The knowledge gained in this way then he turned in his school, even for non- learning disabled children and adolescents. Of central importance are the needs and interests of its assisted in co-education students. Of secondary importance is the specific teachers frontal teaching according to a predetermined uniform curriculum. The children and young people should establish a broad consensus about their interests and then learn largely independently outdoors or on trips by observing, associating and grouping in group work. It weighs about a so-called " global approach ", ie it should be gone from the whole and concrete to detail and abstraction, which is the natural and spontaneous approach of children most likely. The teachers have to create a suitable environment in this context. The aim is to achieve the maximum individual learning success at the individual children and young people.

Decroly schools

The school was founded by Decroly still exists. Worldwide, there are several schools that are named after Ovide Decroly. They are not part of a common organization and often not quite follow Decrolys pedagogical methodology.