Brigade-Laboratory Method

one of the forms of school study used in the USSR in general-education schools, higher educational institutions, and technicums in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. The students, united in a brigade headed by a brigade leader from their midst, worked independently on lessons assigned for a period of from two weeks to one month. The assignments indicated the order in which the work was to be done and included textual material, problems and exercises, and test questions. The teacher did not explain new material to students and counseled them only in cases of difficulty. Upon completion of all assignments, concluding lessons were conducted, at which the brigades gave an account of completed work. There was no accounting of individual students’ mastery of the material. All this had a negative effect on students’ knowledge and gave rise to a lack of systematic work, a lack of personal responsibility, and irresponsibility in educational work. The practice of using the brigade-laboratory method as a universal method of education was condemned by the decree of the Central Committee of the ACP (Bolshevik) of Aug. 25, 1932.