德國教育心理學先驅學者E. Meumann及其「實驗教育學」的起源與發展

German Pioneer Scholar of Educational Psychology E. Meumann –The Origin and Development of his "Experimental Educational Science"

經驗取向的教育研究伴隨著國際學生能力評量計畫（Programme for International Student Assesment, PISA）等大規模的跨國調查與評量而在當前的教育研究中有穩固的一席地位，然而經驗研究並非教育研究裡的新事物，追溯德國教育學術的發展脈絡，E.Meumann允為「經驗教育學」這個學術傳統的早期代表人物。根據Meumann理論，術語「實驗的」不僅具有傳統上做實驗的意義，還融入了其他的實徵方法，例如，在場域裡由他人或自己進行之系統觀察，或是運用描述統計的調查方法等，而不獨厚今日所謂的量化或質性之教育研究取徑。他將「實驗教育學」劃歸教育學的學術範疇，並肯認教育學如同心理學或哲學，具有同等的學術自主地位。Meumann關於「自主活動者」的教育思想能反映歐洲新教育運動的核心概念，不僅如此，其教育心理學繼承了德國新人文主義的內涵，並採納了多樣化的研究方法。雖然Meumann的實驗教育學在當時德國的教育學術競逐中未能取得領導地位，但是在經驗研究受到重視的今天，似乎再次展現其前衛的學術價值。

The empirical research of education with the PISA shock and the raising of large-scale transnational surveys and evaluations holds a solid position in current educational research. It is not something new, if one traces the development of educational science in German – E. Meumann along with his “experimental educational science” (Experimentelle Pädagogik) shows the early appearance of this academic tradition. According to his theory, the term “experimental” not only has the meaning of doing experiments, but also incorporates other empirical methods such as systematic observation in the field by others or by oneself, or the use of descriptive statistics in research surveys, etc. He is not exclusive to the quantitative or qualitative educational research approaches today. He classified his experimental approach into the academic category of educational science and believed that the educational science has its own autonomy status as independent discipline such as psychology or philosophy. Meumann’s core concept “self-activating person” reflected the spirit of the European New Education Movement. Furthermore, his educational psychology with adopting a variety of research methods also inherited the connotation of the German new humanism. Although Meumann’s approach failed to achieve a leading position among the educational arguments in Germany at that time, it seems to show once again its avant-garde when empirical research is valued today.