The “methods of instruction” theme described on pedagogical manuals in Portugal and Brazil (second half of the nineteenth century – the 1920’s)

Abstract

The study analyzes a set of books on pedagogy, methodology
and pedology for the training of primary school teachers printed
from the second half of the nineteenth century to the 1920’s, in
Portugal and Brazil. The goal of this study is to show how these
publications disseminate knowledge that should be mobilized by
teacher training school students. The universe of publications is
seen as an area of social and cultural reception and dissemination
of knowledge. The main interest is surveying how a given reality
is perceived in pedagogical manuals, privileging one entry: the
debate about the “methods of instruction”. This debate reflects
important changes in the technical-pedagogical exercise of
teaching and deals essentially with the proper execution
of simultaneous teaching, that is, with the management of
heterogeneity in the classroom.