Psychological Aspects of Disposition in the Children's Stories of Iakob Gogebashvili

Abstract

Iakob Gogebashvili, a prominent Georgian educator and pedagogical reformer, made a significant contribution to the development of educational theory and practice during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. His pedagogical concept is fundamentally based on the idea of the psychology of disposition. The children’s stories created by him, through their thematic content and methodological structure, serve the principles of developmental education. In his children’s literature,Iakob Gogebashvili articulates a nuanced correlation between the goals of didactic instruction  and the foundational principles of educational psychology. In our view, the psychological aspects of learning and teaching remain underexplored in his literary works. His stories stand out for their pedagogically and psychologically appropriate selection of material. During the learning process, students are truly engaged, sensing the power of language, the depth of national roots, love for their homeland, and the value of education. This contributes to their intellectual, moral, aesthetic, physical, and professional development.

The stories of Iakob Gogebashvili are distinguished by the careful pedagogical and psychological selection of material. In the process of studying his works, the student truly attains a certain emotional disposition and gains an understanding of the power of native roots, the significance of language, the love for one’s homeland, and the importance of learning and education. This encompasses various aspects of intellectual, moral, aesthetic, physical, and professional development. "Motives, personality traits, 'value orientations,' and other individual behavioral factors do not define the exhibited behavior in isolation from one another; rather, they are subordinate to the regulating mode of the holistic personality" [Uznadze 1949].

Iakob Gogebashvili, as one of the foremost authorities on the Georgian language, skillfully  and insightfully adapted the contemporary  educational approaches and methodology of his era to the linguistic and literary resources of Georgian. He put an incredible amount of work into collecting and adapting existing educational materials in the original language, creating new literature. His ideas in pedagogy were ahead of their time and from a modern point of view, they can be considered a work of the future, respectively, with a pedagogically and psychologically correct editing. Iakob Gogebashvili's pedagogical work is permeated with psychological aspects.By connecting children to their Georgian roots and shaping their identity throughout their lives, he demonstrates the qualities of great educator with a profound understanding of child psychology.