贝恩“科学教育学”思想探析

Analysis of Bain's Thought of"Education as a Science"

苏格兰教育学者亚历山大·贝恩的“科学教育学”思想以生理学和心理学研究为基础,以“经验的”科学方法为特征,虽曾饱受争议,甚至一度被遗忘,但其关于儿童身心发展与教育关系的思想以及如何针对儿童身心特点进行教学的观点在今天仍然具有合理性和参考价值。贝恩的“科学教育学”思想既非以“量化”和“实证”为特征的当代“实证科学”方法,亦非纯粹的哲学思辨或经验思辨方法,而是建立在心理学与生理学基础上,同时也重视观察和依据感官经验的教育学,这种研究范式一方面避免了纯粹“实证”方法可能导致的“简单化”结果,另一方面也避免了纯粹哲学思辨的“理想化”或“经验思辨”的局限性,这种经验研究范式在今天仍然值得我们借鉴。

Scottish educator Alexander Bain's thought of"education as a science"is based on his physiological and psychological research and characterized by"empirical"scientific methods.Although it has been controversial and even forgotten for a time,his thoughts on the relationship between children's physical and mental development and education,and how to teach children according to their physical and mental characteristics still have rationality and reference value today.Bain's"education as a science"is neither a contemporary"empirical science"method characterized by"quantification"and"positivism",nor a purely philosophical or empirical method,but an pedagogy based on psychology and physiology,which also attaches importance to observation and sensory experience.This research paradigm,on the one hand,avoids"simplification"outcomes that may result from the purely"empirical"method;on the other hand,it also avoids limitations of"idealization"or"empirical thinking"of pure philosophical thinking.This paradigm of empirical research is still worth learning today.