NEW SCHOOL

and pedagogical renewal (xix-xx)

1. FOUNDATIONS

● Renewal of education and school problems.

● The student is the CENTER.
● Practical.
● It does not respond to a single pedagogical current but brings together different
currents.
● School should not be an artificial environment separated from life, but a small real
world.
● Contact with the nature and reality of things.
● Organization through projects or work units.
● First New Schools in England, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland from
1880.
● Reference authors in Europe: Dewey, Montessori, Decroly, Freinet.
● They are based on the freedom of the child as an individual and consider that each
child must live and give expansion to his own life
● The New School is a boarding school, because only the total influence of the
environment in which the child moves and develops allows for fully effective
education.
● The natural influence of the family, if it is healthy, is always preferable to the best boarding
schools.
● The New School is located in nature, because this constitutes the child's natural
environment. But, for intellectual and artistic culture, it is advisable to have a city
nearby.
● The New School groups the children in separate houses, groups of 10-15 children,
under the moral and material direction of an educator, with the support of his wife or
a collaborator.
● Children must not be deprived of an adult female influence or the family atmosphere,
which boarding barracks cannot provide.
2. PEDAGOGICAL PRINCIPLES

● Individualisation: respecting individual needs and the abilities and aptitudes of each
child.
● Socialization: educating the individual for society.
● Globalization of education: the contents of education must respond to global units, or
centers of interest for the student.
● Self-education: the student is the center, (s)he is the one who must organize his own
learning.
● Co-education.

3. PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION

JOHN DEWEY (1859 - 1952)

HE WAS… ● Philosopher.
● Educational theorist.
● American.

PHILOSOPHY ● The human being is an active organism that takes shape in

its contact with the environment.
● Education is the primary means of social reform.
● Philosophical point of view: instrumentalism. A theory is
considered valid based on a practical examination of the
consequences derived from its application.
● Considers that the child learns from experience.

PEDAGOGY ● Combines an active approach focused on children's abilities

with the social approach to the educational process
(education for action).
● Progressive education, where education is "a constant
reorganization or reconstruction of experience".
● The school reconstructs the social order.
● Education is related to the common, to the community and to
communication. It involves growth, direction and control.
● The educator: guide and mentor, responsible for the process of
connecting theory and practice.
● The evaluation: observation by teachers of the relevant
individual and social behavior of the children in weekly
meetings.
 ● Main features: continuity and interaction.
● Problem method (scientific method): learning becomes an
investigation activity carried out by groups of students under
the tutelage and guidance of the educator.

METHOD 1. Consideration of a current and a real experience of the child in

his/her family or community environment.
2. Identification of any problem or difficulty in this context.
3. Inspection of available data and search for viable solutions.
4. Formulation of the solution hypothesis.
5. Testing the hypothesis through action, that is, in practice.

SCHOOL - ● The maxim is "learning by doing".

LABORATORY
● Curriculum based on "occupations": functional activities (linked
to the child's social environment), practical and training in
the physical, intellectual, aesthetic and moral levels. The
training centers were: wood, accommodation, food and
clothing.
● The school must be a laboratory in which the different ways
of thinking become concrete and put to the test.
● Learning is a search for the unknown and not just a passive
absorption of things.

BOOKS ● My pedagogical creed (1897)

● School and society (1899)
● The child and the curriculum (1902)

4. SCIENTIFIC OR EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

MARIA MONTESSORI (1870 - 1952)

SHE WAS… ● Doctor.

● Pedagogue.
● Italian.

OBJECTIVES ● Prepare the child to face life and the environment.

● Facilitate a pleasant atmosphere for the children in the classroom.
● Do not interfere in the efforts of the child, in his own learning.
● Provide sensory materials that exercise the senses.
● The main objective of his method is that the child develops
his possibilities to the maximum within a structured environment
 that is attractive and motivating. The house, the garden, the
furniture and the teaching material are designed for the
spontaneous reaction of the child.

PRINCIPLES 1. Observation of the nature of the child.

2. Universal application in children of any country.
3. Child is a lover of intellectual work, chosen spontaneously and
carried out with deep joy.
4. Learning by doing, at each stage (s)he is provided with
occupations to develop his/her faculties.
5. Maximum spontaneity and enabling him/her to achieve
academic goals.
6. Neither rewards nor punishments, discipline is born from the
child.
7. Respect the child's personality and remove adult influence,
giving him/her space to grow with biological independence.
8. Teacher treats each child individually in each subject and
guides them according to their individual needs. The teacher
helps the child at all times by preparing the environment, and
the means and maintaining the child's creative activity.
9. Respect the internal rhythm of the child's soul.
10. Rejects competitiveness and promotes mutual aid.
11. The child has freedom of choice, which is why (s)he has no
tension.
12. Develops the child's entire personality, not only intellectual
capacity, but also the powers of deliberation, initiative and
independent choice, as well as emotional complements.
13. Safe, structured and orderly learning environment, based on
teacher understanding and love as a driver of child growth
and development. Introduces aspects such as: chairs and
furniture to the size of children, one hour of sleep at school,
outdoor trips, recreational materials.
14. Co-education.

BOOKS ● The Montessori method: scientific pedagogy as applied to

child education in the children’s houses (1912)
● The absorbent mind (1949)

5. PEDAGOGY OF CENTERS OF INTEREST AND GLOBAL

METHODS.
 OVIDE DECROLY (1871 - 1932)

HE WAS… ● Psychiatrist.
● Educator.
● Belgian.

IDEOLOGY ● Worried about school failure.

● Respect for spontaneous activity and for the natural forms of
children’s behavior.
● Interest-based learning.
● No fragmentation of subjects, program of associated ideas or
centers of interest.
● Natural and social life is the educator's. Life must be present in
the school and students must learn from reality as it is.
● The educator: guide of the learning process who must not
violate the individual way or pace of learning of each child.
● School life must be a continuation of family and social life.
● He founded École de l'Ermitage (1907), as a school of and
for life.
● Principle of individualization.
● Co-education.
● Mental activity: first global knowledge of objects and concepts
based on an initial interest of the individual. Afterwards, the
student performs an unconscious or conscious analysis.
● There is no need for simplifications; the child can face life as it is,
with its complexity, because he will perceive it and approach
it globally, and the school and the teacher are the ones who
will have to lead him/her along the path of analysis, taking
into account his/her interests.
● Global reading: learning to read through a first sentence the
teacher writes that explains an event that students have
experienced together. They memorize the sentence and
reproduce it orally. Then they analyze it word by word.

SOCIAL ● Observation: the child directly observes what interests him/her or

MAIN
objects and concepts are presented to him to experiment with
ACTIVITIES
directly. Without simplifying.
● Association: Ideas and notions are related to each other. Through
the association of ideas, abstract concepts are assimilated and
acquired.
● Expression: occurs during and after the other two and includes
the abstract expression of language, manual and artistic
activities
 BOOKS ● Acts of individual psychology and experimental psychology
(1908)
● La liberté et l’éducation (1925)
● Initiation à l’activité intellectuelle et motrice par les jeux
éducatifs (1978)

6. CÉLESTIN FREINET

CÉLESTIN FREINET (1896 - 1966)

HE WAS… ● Pedagogue.
● French.

IDEOLOGY ● The child is of the same nature as the adult (put yourself in his
place).
● No platform, be at the level of the children. Educate in dignity
and mutual respect (children-teachers).
● Before judging a child we must check if their behavior is the
result of health, balance or difficulties.
● Allow the child to choose, let him/her take initiative. Order and
discipline must not be imposed but assumed by all, the
teacher must speak as little as possible.
● Every individual wants to succeed, failure is an inhibitor of
initiative and enthusiasm. The teacher must help to organize a
school where children always succeed.
● Punishment is always a mistake. It is necessary to stimulate the
positive expectations of the child and his/her self-esteem
● Work and not play is what is natural in the child. A pedagogy of
work is needed: the school must allow the child to experience
work tools and techniques to satisfy his/her desires for
curiosity, growth and conquest. Not imposed by the adult.
● Learning through experience: action is the basis of intelligence
(manipulative, artistic, sensitive, speculative, political, social).
● The school: school cooperative, manages school life and work
for all users (treasurer, secretary, mural, assembly, etc.).
Balance individual learning/group work.

PROPOSES ● The textbook is a mistake for learning in school.

● Natural methodology: life books [daily type with children's
everyday situations], text and free drawing.
 ● Printing press and printing techniques: school newspaper.
● Classroom library: self-correcting and school files.
● Interschool correspondence: with other schools.
● Work plan: each student organizes work, time and
self-evaluates.
● Active calculation [calculation of everyday life things].
● Weekly cooperative assembly.
● Conferences.
● Mural diary: mural hung in the classroom with three parts where
children can write: criticize, congratulate and propose.
● Centers of interest.

BOOKS ● L’éducation du travail (1942)

● Pour l’école du peuple (1969)
● Méthode naturelle de lecture (1963)