This article has the objective to analyze the triad content-method-student in its perspective of constitution of a new pedagogical culture for the training of teachers, in the period of 1932 to 1938. To do so, it analyses the Primary School of the Institute of Education of Rio de Janeiro as a device to implement new pedagogical practices based on a new way of dealing with school content, articulated to new teaching methods and a new conception of student. In the mist of these transformations, a significant change is perceived in the emphasis of teaching practice: from the "object of teaching" to the "subject of learning", producing a conception of teaching characteristic of the Institute of Education of Rio de Janeiro: the "teaching by real-life situations", in which the psychological knowledge is highlighted.