IN SITU ET DE VISU: A FORMA O DE PROFESSORES/AS EM SANTA CATARINA NA VIGêNCIA DA REFORMA ORESTES GUIMAR ES (1911-1930)

In 1911, under the leadership of professor Orestes Guimar es, of S oPaulo, the Escola Normal Catarinense (Normal School of Santa Catarina) wasreformed according to the tenets of modern pedagogy, as with the Escola Normalde S o Paulo, in 1891( NB: In Brazil, Escola Normal is a teacher-trainingcourse, part of secondary education, that prepares teachers for teaching in primaryschools). Following the principles of the intuitive method of teaching, then consideredthe state of the art modernising teaching method, the prospective teachersshould learn the art of teaching intuitively: watching, observing how children wereinstructed and educated in the municipal schools, which were adequately equippedto provide a good teaching model. The Normal School should ensure the masteryof the contents of the various areas of knowledge: history, geography, arithmetics,Portuguese language, etc., but the method, i.e., the “how to” teach, should belearned through the observation of experienced teachers. In situ et de visu – thiswas the formula to teach the modern teachers to teach intuitively. How was thisdone? How was the students’ practice done? How was it evaluated? These andother questions are brought up in this study, which is based on documentary andbibliographical research and on testimonies of teachers graduated from the EscolaNormal Catarinense between 1910 and 1930.