The content of the term of individualization of learning in the context of the history of the development of the idea of individualization in education

In the theory of pedagogy, an uncertainty associated with the content of the term of individualization of education has existed for a long time. Various authors define and use the term of individualization in a variety of senses, often having not nuanced, but fundamental differences. The situation is partly aggravated by the fact that the term is not directly defined in the legislation of the Russian Federation, and the term definition in the Russian Pedagogical Encyclopedia practically borrowed from the Soviet Pedagogical Encyclopedia is incomplete from a historical and methodological point of view. In this paper, by analyzing the stages of development of the idea of individualization of education, the author formulates the content of the term of individualization to solve the problem of existing discrepancies in the definition of this term and the content of individualization in education. The difference in the content of the term of an individual approach and individualization of education is highlighted. The author considers the history of the development of the idea of individualization by the method of historical periodization using the historical-genetic approach, which allows considering the trend towards individualization in education as a dialectical alternative to the traditional teaching system from the moment of the birth of the concept of an individual approach in learning. The creation of the first individualized teaching method by E. Parkhurst, the Dalton plan, is presented as the result of the development of the idea of individualization in education. Obviously, the results obtained do not create a new understanding of the term of individualization in education, but only substantiate scientifically the use of this term with a certain methodological content, which is already used by some educators. The content of the term of individualization in education proposed in the paper allows excluding the existing duplication and confusion of concepts in this area.