Monday, January 2, 2017

Scientific reports by Janusz Korczak

Leonard (notatki wychowańcy Naszego Domu w Pruszkowie. Szkoła Specjalna, R 1927/28, str. 33-42 i 86-99.

Material and Methods


All the scientists have to published their results in especially prepared reports, scientific articles. An article is always divided into a special parts, specifically the Abstract, Material and methods, Results, and Discussion. There is also part called Acknowledgements

The scientific format of an article may seem confusing to start with due to its rigid structure which is so different from the common writing in the humanities. One reason for using this format is that it is a means of efficiently communicating scientific findings to the broad community of scientists in a uniform manner. Another reason, perhaps more important than the first, is that this format allows the paper to be read at several different levels. 
The Materials and Methods (M&M) section is a vital component of any formal scientific article. In this part ones experimental protocol is described such that other scientists can reproduce presented experiments and results. Also the statistical methods are described, thus helping the reader to understand the scientist results and conclusion. M&M includes the protocol for collecting data.

Leonard is a typical scientific publication. Korczak describes in the Materials and Methods section all the sources of the data.
In Leonard, Korczak is mentioning several sources of data.
.
The Plebiscite (Plebiscyty)
It was a voting system for children and about the other children behevior with 3 possibilities to vote:
+
-
0 (zero).

The Plebiscites were continuously run, every month. Below are data concerning Leonard after 2, 3, 8, 9, 18 months of stay at Nasz Dom orphanages. Thre last data represents the Plebiscite afte 2 year - after Leonard left the orphanage in Pruszków. At that time Leonard was 9-10 years old.
.
The Cases
It was a book, the list of complaints, (a kind of preparing prior the children's court )
.
The Calendar
All different stories told by children and written down by Maryna Falska. The content of the stories in the Calendar varied, from very personal to the description of a play children were playing at the yard.
.
The book of Acknowledgements
Daily the acknowledgements from the children were written in this book. The acknowledgements were directed to other children or to the orphanage personnel.
.
Korczak writes that these four sources can give rather good case reports that together will serve as well defined material to understand the pathology and to find the therapy, according to Korczak!


Results from the Plebiscite voting


Results from the  Children Court. The number of cases brought to the court decreased and also Leonards cases were less severe.

Diskussion. The number of cases Leonard had at the Court were decreasing every month. Three months after arrival to Nasz Dom he had 54 cases at the court. The number of cases decreased by 5% every month and after 9 months he had just 7 cases.

The results from the Plebiscite do not follow the same at the orphanage. tendency. Children continued to dislike Leonard during his entire stay at the orphanage. This observation was made by Maryna Falska.

Finally, his mother got a new job and he could move back to her.