For which type of students is the Decroly Method used?

Concept

The Decroly Method, named after the Belgian physician and educator Ovide Decroly, is a child-centred, activity-based system built on two ideas: centres of interest (organising learning around the child's real needs and surroundings) and globalization (the child first grasps a whole, then breaks it into parts). A defining historical fact about the method is the kind of learner Decroly originally designed it for.

Application

Decroly began this work as a physician caring for children with intellectual disabilities. In 1901 he founded a special institute for backward, mentally deficient, slow-learning children and shaped his centres-of-interest activities around their needs. In its origin the method is therefore tied to mentally disabled, slow-learning students, which is exactly the group this question asks about.

Why the other groups do not fit

• Creative students: fostering creativity is a different pedagogical aim; the Decroly system is not defined by its use with creative learners.

• Average students: ordinary children were reached only later, when Decroly extended the approach at his Ecole de l'Ermitage — a subsequent application, not the method's origin.

• Gifted students: enrichment for gifted learners belongs to a separate tradition; the method was not built for them.