Education in the light of science
Highly critical of the way teachers were trained, Professor Gilbert De Landsheere was one of the pioneers of experimental pedagogy in French-speaking countries from 1960 onwards.
Professor Gilbert De Landsheere was an internationally renowned specialist in the field of experimental pedagogy. When he died in 2001, at the age of 79, he left a scientific legacy that remains very much alive today. The researcher had remarkable foresight. His British colleague T. Neville Postlethwaite described him as a visionary when he wrote: "Gilbert De Landsheere has always had a sixth sense for guessing what will matter tomorrow in the field of education
His career was atypical. As Dominique Lafontaine, President of the Department of Educational Sciences and the Evaluation and Quality of Education Research Unit (EQUALE) at the University of Liège, recalls, he first studied to be a primary school teacher, then took a regendat and a degree in Germanic philology, before studying educational sciences at the University of Liège. This last initiative was the fruit of a conviction he had forged during his previous training, the limits of which he had been able to measure. he was very critical of teacher training," says Dominique Lafontaine. He saw it as a kind of ideological indoctrination, during which they were given tricks of the trade. He, on the other hand, advocated a more scientific, research-based, university-style training program
At the end of his studies, Gilbert De Landsheere was awarded a scholarship that enabled him to travel to the United States to visit a number of educational research laboratories. At the time, at the end of the 1950s, the educational sciences had not yet truly gained their autonomy from the disciplines with which they were associated - depending on the country, psychology (as was the case in Belgium), sociology or philosophy. The situation was different, however, in the United States, where scientific rigor was the order of the day in school education and, as a result, pedagogy drew on experiments conducted in the laboratory and in the field (in the classroom).
Experimental teaching laboratory
In 1960, Gilbert De Landsheere obtained his doctorate in educational science and was appointed professor of experimental pedagogy at the Institut de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation of the Université de Liège. Armed with his convictions, which his trip across the Atlantic had only strengthened, he set up a research center in Liège in 1992, which he named Laboratoire de pédagogie expérimentale. The newborn laboratory struggled to find a firm institutional footing, but with perseverance and patience, its founder quickly established it as one of the most renowned educational science research centers in the French-speaking world.
convinced of the need to establish teaching practices scientifically, he wanted to break with the ideological positions that were proliferating at the time and guiding action in the educational field," points out Professor Lafontaine. He adopted a quantitative, behaviorist approach Some were quick to label him ironically as an outdated positivist or a narrow behaviorist. In fact, he used quantitative analysis as a safeguard against ideological approaches. However, after a few years of ostracism, epistemological pluralism was to find its way into his laboratory. Gilbert De Landsheere wrote: "With maturity, we have been able to give the qualitative approach its rightful place" Or again: "I've always accepted that my collaborators take positions that differ from mine. But on two conditions: that they remain at the service of education, and that they are rigorous in their choices
Nevertheless, there's no mistaking the nature of the term "experimental" when referring to the laboratory founded by Professor De Landsheere. Due to a lack of public funding, this research center had very little opportunity to carry out educational experiments under laboratory conditions. Funding was (and still is) preferentially reserved for large-scale surveys or the development of tools or devices for teachers. gilbert De Landsheere was not frustrated by this, although he would have liked to be able to carry out experimental research on a regular basis," says Dominique Lafontaine. In fact, the medical model was very close to his heart. Perhaps he would even have liked to be a doctor... The fact is, the quantitative research he and his colleagues carried out in the natural environment was quite similar to epidemiological surveys, as are the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment - a series of studies conducted by the OECD to measure the performance of education systems) surveys today. »
Concerned with educational equity and teacher training, Gilbert De Landsheere has played a leading role - at both Belgian and international level - in the debate on the quality and equity of education systems.
Three pillars
His main aim was to make teaching practices and classroom pedagogy more research-based, but without his laboratory necessarily carrying out the research itself. More generally, his work rested on three pillars. Firstly, he wanted teacher training to be based on scientific research findings and to be university-level. Secondly, he wanted his laboratory to be open to debate. Finally, he attached great importance to the concept of evaluating the education system. His book Évaluation continue et examens. Précis de docimologie(1), published by Labor in 1992, in which he highlights the subjectivity that can be involved in the construction and grading of examinations. He also pointed out the guidelines that scientific research provides for improving the situation. Professor De Landsheere was also one of the founding fathers of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), whose headquarters were initially based in Liège, and one of the pioneers of the first international comparative studies.
According to Dominique Lafontaine, he was a man of unfailing optimism. his confidence in scientific results and the evidence they produced was such that he underestimated the obstacles to be overcome in the field," she says. For example, he was convinced that examinations would disappear in favor of continuous assessment of student progress. This overlooked the fact that a number of people in the field (teachers and parents) were still very attached to exams and grades
Gilbert De Landsheere also wholeheartedly embraced the ideas of American pedagogue Benjamin Bloom, who claimed that every pupil is capable of acquiring a body of knowledge deemed fundamental, provided they put in the time and resources. Most pedagogues continue to rally behind this postulate of educability, which, as Dominique Lafontaine sees it, is at least "a utopia that guides pedagogical practices ».
The "boss"
Gilbert De Landsheere was hostile to the traditional split between fundamental and applied research. In essence, he said: "He who seeks in the hope that his eventual discoveries will be of no use is not a researcher, but a poet." Perhaps, if we wish to be mischievous, this clear-cut opinion was the result of the near-impossibility, due to lack of financial support, of carrying out fundamental research in his laboratory.
As a result, he published few articles resulting from such research, which would certainly be a handicap today. On the other hand, his more "practical" contributions, drawing on the results of the most advanced research carried out across the Atlantic, were much appreciated. In particular, he wrote a number of popular works that bridged the gap between the Anglo-Saxon and French-speaking worlds. In the words of Dominique Lafontaine, he was a "ferryman".
To carry out his work, he maintained close collaborations with other internationally renowned researchers, notably within the framework of IEA studies. His perfect knowledge of English and German enabled him to write articles in both languages. This set him apart from most of his French-speaking colleagues in the field of educational science. Breaking out of the linguistic confines in which they were confined facilitated his rise to international renown.
He was awarded numerous scientific and honorary distinctions. The most prestigious was undoubtedly the World Cultural Council's Vasconcelos Prize, awarded to him in Mexico City in 1988. as there is no Nobel Prize in education, this prize is considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize," says Professor Lafontaine. The Vasconcelos Prize has only ever been awarded to leading figures in our discipline. »
1988. Gilbert De Landsheere receives the José Vasconcelos Prize, considered a Nobel Prize in the field of education. The World Cultural Council's awards enjoy a very high reputation and are considered among the most prestigious distinctions a personality can receive.
And the man? Optimistic, elegant, with a deep sense of humanity, a love of life and the arts, and a good sense of humor. Within his team, which numbered some sixty people in its heyday, he was called "boss", with a respect mingled with affection. Tolerant and adept at dialogue, he was also very demanding, because he had high expectations. His demands concerned both content and form. After spending considerable time himself improving the style of his collaborators, he eventually recruited Dominique Lafontaine, a trained novelist, to take on this task. Thus began the career of the director of the department, which is a direct descendant of the Laboratoire de pédagogie expérimentale...
« Gilbert De Landsheere didn't hesitate to give new members of his team important tasks quickly, so that they could prove themselves," she continues. She adds: "The atmosphere in his team was quite extraordinary, especially as he had a great sense of fun. »
In 1988, his former colleagues wrote a book in his honor: L'art et la science de l'enseignement (The art and science of teaching), a title in which the allusion to medicine as the science and art of healing echoes his conception of the sciences of education.
Text by Philippe Lambert
Scientific references
(1) De Landsheere G., Continuous assessment and examinations. Précis de docimologie, Labor, 1952.
Gilbert De Landsheere
Gilbert De Landsheere has studied at all levels, from primary school teacher to regent in Germanic languages to licentiate in Germanic languages. At the age of 35, he returned to the auditoriums of the University of Liège to study educational science. In 1958, the University of Liège sent him to Katanga to set up an experimental teaching program in preparation for Congo's independence. i lived in the bush," he recalls with emotion, "Africa was a revelation for me... All in all, I taught in fifty-two different countries! In 1960, Gilbert De Landsheere became Professor of Experimental Pedagogy at the Institut de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, where he spent his entire academic career. Two years later, he laid the foundations for a research center - the Laboratoire de Pédagogie expérimentale - from which he had drawn the model during a trip to the United States. "I was exceptionally lucky! I was awarded a grant to go to the United States to visit the teaching laboratories I wanted. It was a revelation to the new world". For thirty years, he was involved in evaluating the performance of school systems, among other things with the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. His work was rewarded in 1988, when he was awarded the Vasconcelos Prize, considered the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in Educational Sciences. Gilbert De Landsheere died in 2001 at the age of 80.
Dominique Lafontaine
Dominique Lafontaine is a full professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, where she chairs the Department of Educational Sciences and the EQUALE (Evaluation et qualité de l'éducation) research unit. Since 2004, she has also been Director of the Department for the Analysis of Teaching Systems and Practices, and advisor to the Rector on teaching issues. Her teaching focuses on experimental pedagogy, teaching processes, comparative approaches to educational systems and the construction of tests and questionnaires. Her research focuses on the efficiency and equity of education systems. Dominique Lafontaine has been a member of the PISA International Reading Panel since 1999, and of the International Contextual Questionnaire Panel for PISA 2018. She acts as liaison between these two groups. In French-speaking Belgium, Dominique Lafontaine is a member of the Commission de pilotage de l'enseignement obligatoire and is regularly consulted for her expertise on educational policy issues.
