TOPIC 08

CONTRIBUTION OF EDUCATIONAL THINKERS IN THE 18TH

AND 19TH CENTURIES

Key figures
 John Locke (1632-1704).
 Johann Pestalozzi (1746-1827).
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778),
 Fredrick Wilhelm Froebel (1782-1852)
 Maria Montessori (1870-1952).

8.1.JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)

BACK GROUND
1. John Locke was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of
Enlightenment thinkers and known as the "Father of Classical Liberalism".
2. Born: August 29, 1632, Wrington, United Kingdom Died: October 28, 1704, Essex, United
Kingdom Nationality: English
3. Education: Westminster School, Christ Church, Oxford Parents.
4. Before his death on October 28th, 1704 he would earn the title as the Father of liberal
philosophy.
5. His ideas would also be used as a keystone for the revolution of the North American colonies
from England.
6. Locke had many prominent friends who were nobles in government and also highly respected
scholars of the times.
7. He was good friends with the Earl of Shaftesbury and he was given government jobs which he
served with Shaftesbury.
8. Locke lived in France for a while and returned to troubled times in England.
9. In 1679 his friend the Earl was tried for treason. Although Shaftesbury was acquitted, the Earl
decided to flee England anyway to escape further persecution.
10. He fled to Holland where William and Mary ruled but had some claim to the English throne.
Owing to his close association with the Earl, Locke also fled to Holland in 1683. He returned to
England in about 1688 when William and Mary were invited to retake the reign of England in
what historians call the Bloodless Revolution.
11. Eventually Locke returned to Oates in Essex where he retired. He lived there until his death in
1704.

LOCKE'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY

THEORY OF VALUE

What knowledge and skills are worthwhile learning? What are the goals of Education?

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 1. The skill and knowledge needed to order our actions in accordance with the laws of nature; to
treat our possessions and persons responsibly, and to avoid coming under the absolute control
of others (Yolton, p. 16)
2. Acquiring knowledge frequently establishes a habit of doing so -satisfying natural curiosity
frequently establishes the habit of loving and esteeming all learning (Deighton, p. 23)
3. Pursuit of truth is a duty we owe to God and ourselves (Cranston, p. 23)
4. The goal of education is the welfare and prosperity of the nation -Locke conceived the nations's
welfare and prosperity in terms of the personal happiness and social usefulness of its citizens
(Deighton, p. 20) Education for Locke provides the character formation necessary for becoming
a person and for being a responsible citizen (Yolton, p. 3)
5. His education philosophy is an effort to show how democratic constitutional monarchy might be
preserved and improved (Deighton, p. 20)

THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

What is knowledge? How is it different from belief? What is a mistake? A lie?

1. Knowledge is publicly verifiable, measurable, plain, demonstrable facts - not imagination

(Cranston, p. 17) .
2. The best instance of knowing is intuiting - by intuiting is meant a power which the mind
possesses of apprehending truth (Aaron, p. 221)
3. Knowledge, like good character, is a set of mental habits rather than a body of belief (Deighton,
p. 21) Knowledge is limited to imperfections of ideas we have; we can have probable knowledge
even when we can't have certain knowledge (Cranston, p.22)
4. Knowledge is the perception of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas (Hutchins, p. 347) -
four sorts: identity or diversity, relation, co-existence and real existence
5. Knowing is an infallible intuition; opening is coming to a conclusion after weighing the evidence,
but without certainty (Aaron, p 248).
6. Mistakes and lies would be a lack of evidence and defiance of evidence.

THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE

What is a human being? How does it differ from other species? What are the limits of human potential?

1. Locke defined man as both rational and moral (Yolton, p. 26, 27)
2. Man becomes moral through education - humans have no innate ideas of God, no innate moral
truths, no natural inclination of virtue -
3. Man is subject to the rule of natural law which was ultimately God's law made known to man
through the voice of reason (Cranston, p. 11)
4. Locke's denial of innate ideas put a premium on individual effort, on the labor necessary to gain
knowledge from experience (Tarcov, P. 83).
5. Man could be ruled and or could be free -
6. Man is endowed with natural rights such as life, liberty and property (Cranston,, p. 12)

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THEORY OF LEARNING

What is learning? How are skills and knowledge acquired?

1. The learning that gentlemen should possess is general, according to Locke (Deighton, p 21).
2. Learning is a great help to virtue and wisdom, but without them it produces only the more
foolish or worse men (Tarcov, p. 198)
3. From infancy onwards, the child's efforts toward bodily pleasure and toward power in
possessions and over others should be thoroughly frustrated.
4. The result will be that habits of self-centered, aggressive behavior and of preferring ignorance to
learning will not become established (Deighton, p. 22)
5. Skills and knowledge are acquired by example and practice instead of charging of children's
memories with rules and principals (Cranston, p. 16)
6. Unconscious habits are bred by practice and manners learned by example (Cranston, p. 16)

THEORY OF TRANSMISSION

Who is to teach? By what methods? What will the curriculum be?

1. The goal of the gentlemen's education cannot be achieved by sending him to a school. Learning
should be superintended by a tutor assisted by genuinely interested parents (Deighton, p. 22 )
2. For working classes, poor children of both sexes between the ages of 3-14 should be compelled
to attend school with "teachers" (Deighton p. 20)
3. Locke attacked ordinary method of teaching - manners learned by example, latin learned by
speaking (cranston p. 16)
4. The best way to get men to do what is wanted is not to terrify or force them but to motivate
them, to arouse and then rely on desires, while letting them think, not without justice, that they
are acting for their own sakes and of their own free will (Tarcov, p. 98)
5. Methods for poor - learn by practice; for gentlemen - bring pupil to practice the activities of the
gentlemanly ideal until they become habitual (Deighton, p., 22)
6. Curriculum for the poor: focus on regular worship for sake of religion and moral improvement,
handicrafts and agricultural skills, vocational arts - may have intended that young should learn
to read, write and do math but made no statements to that effect (Deighton, p. 20)
7. Curriculum for gentlemen: health - the first ingredient of personal happiness; development of
good character - consisting of three groups of habits - virtue, wisdom and breeding; to include
reading, writing and arithmetic, Latin, language and literature (Greek for scholars only) ;
literature of France and England, the natural and social sciences; the arts should occupy a minor
place -which Locke considered a useless or dangerous thing (Deighton, p. 21-22)
8. Learning -that gentlemen should possess is general; detailed learning is only for those who
would become scholars; one should know in detail what is directly useful in managing personal
affairs. (deighton, p. 21)

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THEORY OF SOCIETY
What is society? What institutions are involved in the educational process?
1. Men once lived in a state of natural anarchy but had banded together to form political society
(Cranston, p. 11)
2. Men entrusted power to rulers on the condition that natural rights were respected by rulers.
Natural rights and natural law are rooted in edicts of God which were inalienable (Cranston, p.
12, 13)
3. Men possess these traits: 1) natural freedom - right to life and liberty; 2) necessity for labor; and
3) capacity of reason - from # 1 & 2 - flows right of property in things which is chief factor in
foundation of society (Cranston, p. 24-25)
4. The child enters both a family and a nation. The family's duty being slowly to awaken the child
to virtue. The government must perform its part in the social contract - to preserve the rights to
life and liberty of all the citizens (Deighton, p. 23)
5. Each of these communities should be guided by moral laws, laws devised from the laws of
nature which are God's laws (Yolton, p. 20)

THEORY OF OPPORTUNITY

Who is to be educated? Who is to be schooled?

1. The citizens of the nation fall into two kinds: those who posses property to some significant
degree and those who do not.
2. The f first group is made up of gentlemen, the second of workingmen. Both gentlemen and
workingmen ought to be personally happy and socially useful, but since they occupy different
stations in society, their happiness and usefulness must differ.
3. The welfare and prosperity of the nation demand that children of the propertied class be
educated in a way quite different from children of the poor (Deighton, p. 21).
4. Locke believed that the daughters of gentlemen should be education in much the same way as
their sons (Deighton, p. 24)
5. Children of the poor class should be kept away from schools - even the best - because they
would fall into the company of undesirables (Cranston, p. 17)

THEORY OF CONSENSUS

1. Why do people disagree? How is the consensus achieved? Whose opinion takes precedence?
2. Wrong doing is a sign of ignorance; people should be enlightened, use own power of reason, be
prudent, reflective and calculatory instead of being moved by impulse (Cranston, p. 24).
3. The mind perceives the agreement between our idea and itself, and a disagreement in this
respect between it and all others (for example, white is white and not black).
4. The mind also perceives a violation between its ideas. In one sense all the agreements are
violations, for an agreement is a violation. (Aaron, p. 225)

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JOHN LOCKE’S PEDAGOGY

1. In 1693 John Locke, after writing extensively on topics such as human understanding,
government, money, and toleration, published a book which seemed quite heretical at the time:
Some Thoughts Concerning Education.
2. Consider the three key themes which are addressed: 1. the development of self-discipline
through esteem and disgrace rather than force or reward; 2. the significance of developing a
good character; and 3. the importance of developing reason in a child by treating the child as a
rational entity.
3. Many of Locke’s ideas are quite humane and consistent with his strong democratic sentiments.
4. Locke’s belief that the mind is a piece of wax or white paper which the active educator must
keep as still as possible in order to accurately stamp the information she would have the pupil
passively receive.
5. “As the strength of the body lies chiefly in being able to endure hardships, so also does that of
the mind.

SELF DISCIPLINE, REASON AND CHARACTER

1. And the great principle and foundation of all virtue and worth is placed in this, that a man is able
to deny himself his own desires, cross his own inclinations, and purely follow what reason
directs is best, though the appetite lean the other way.”(Locke writes in Some Thoughts
Concerning Education, section 32)
2. Locke begins his book by noting that a sound mind in a sound body is the formula for happiness.
3. The problem is that nature rarely supplies an individual with both; thus one needs education to
acquire both physical and mental fortitude.
4. The great mistake I have observed in people’s breeding their children has been, that this has not
been taken care enough of its due season; that the mind has not been made obedient to
discipline, and pliant to reason, when at first it was most tender, most easy to be bowed. Some
Thoughts Concerning Education,section 34
5. Locke’s “great principle”, that which allows one to cross one’s inclinations, is self- discipline. But
in order to achieve such discipline one must first be disciplined. parents all too often err by
being too lenient or too strict.
6. Either extreme prevents a child from growing up as an adult governed by reason, that is, an
adult marked by self-discipline. For a spoiled child will end up having no mastery over
inclinations and a severely disciplined child will lose the vigorous, self-confident spirit necessary
to amount to something in the world.a perfect balance between the two is where the secret of
education resides.
7. “To avoid the danger that is on either hand is the great art: and he that has found a way to keep
up a child’s spirit, easy, active, and free; and yet, at the same time, to restrain him, from the
many things he has a mind to; and to draw him to the things that are uneasy to him; he, I say,
that knows how to reconcile these seeming contradictions, has, in my opinion, got the true
secret of education.” Some Thoughts Concerning Education, section 46
8. The first approach which Locke is interested in refuting, is the so-called “rod”. This common
chastisement “is the most unfit of any to be used in education” (section 47) insofar as the rod

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 (1)leads to no mastery over our inclination to indulge corporeal pleasure and avoid pain but
rather encourages it; (2) leads to an aversion of what the tutor is trying to get the student to be
interested in; (3) leads to the development of a “slavish temper”; (4) leads to a timid creature
who has no spirit and will therefore be “useless to himself and others” (section 51). All four
criticisms are united by the same logic: the rod ends up producing and/or strengthening the
faulty disposition it was employed to remove. As a result the rod is self- defeating as a means of
developing the discipline which is to lead to self-discipline or rational autonomy.
9. Locke’s own answer in section 56: the incentives of esteem and disgrace (1)children are very
susceptible to praise and commendation; (2) esteem and disgrace works best when
accompanied by corresponding agreeable or disagreeable rewards. Locke’s idea is this: the best
means of discipline is to cast a cold shoulder and to use the silent treatment when a child does
wrong. For no child wants to be left out. No child wants his or her actions to go unrecognized.
Thus to be disgraced is to allow the child to experience the consequences of its bad behavior.
The child comes to realize that certain actions will lead the group to turn their backs on
uncivilized behavior. Conversely, esteem leads to acceptance, recognition, and productive social
cooperation.
10. And here gives me leave to take notice of one thing I think a fault in the ordinary method of
education; and that is, the charging of children’s memories, upon all occasions, with rules and
precepts, which they often do not understand, and are constantly as soon forgot as given. Some
Thoughts Concerning Education, section
11. Locke thinks we should proceed: (1) make sure the child understands and can carry out the task
you set for them; (2) have them repeat the task over and over until the performance of the task
no longer depends on memory or reflection. “It will perhaps be wondered, that I mention
reasoning with children and yet I cannot but think that the true way of dealing with them. They
understand it as early as they do language; and, if I misobserve not, they love to be treated as
rational creatures sooner than is imagined. It is a pride should be cherished in them, and, as
much as can be, made the greatest instrument to turn them by.” Some Thoughts Concerning
Education,section 81

CONCLUSION

Locke's writing which most influenced the founding fathers of the United States Constitution
was the idea that the power to govern was obtained from the permission of the people. He
thought that the purpose of government was to protect the natural rights of its citizens. He said
that natural rights were life, liberty and property, and that all people automatically earned these
simply by being born. When a government did not protect those rights, the citizen had the right
and maybe evens the obligation of overthrowing the government. We can conclude that in
order to educate, we must “make room” in the head: the paper must be clean, the wax must be
smooth, the cabinet must be empty. Any thoughts of fear or frustration will inevitably crowd the
space which must receive the sensory data from without.

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8.2. JOHANN HEINRICH PESTALOZZI (1746–1827)
BACK GROUND

1. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a writer, political and social reformer, and educator. ◦ Born and
educated in Zurich, Switzerland January 12, 1746 ◦ Inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s idea of “
going back to nature” ◦
2. Known as the Father of Modern Education. ◦ In 1780 he wrote a series of reflections The
Evening Hours of a Hermit outlining his educational theory that educations begins at home. ◦
3. In 1781 he produced his masterpiece Leonard and Gertrude. ◦ Due to his deep sense of human
suffering he continued to educate and help orphan children. ◦
4. In 1805 he opened his private school in Yverdon a French- speaking district of Switzerland, and
steadily worked on this project for 20 years. This school gained international reputation.
5. ◦ In 1826 the school was closed and Pestalozzi retired and died in 1827.
6. Pestalozzi’s Influence On Modern Education ◦ Besides teaching children with his unique
methods, Pestalozzi also taught education leaders of his day, including Friedrich Froebel, the
founder of the kindergarten movement.
7. Additionally, his methods and writings influenced later educational leaders and philosophers,
such as Johann Friedrich Herbart, John Dewey, Maria Montessori, and Jean Piaget and became
the foundation of elementary education today.
8. Pestalozzi’s Childhood : Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi's early life played a significant role in his later
development and interests. ◦
9. The roots of Pestalozzi's belief in the 'original goodness of man and of his dedication to the poor'
resulted from the unfailing love and attention given by his mother. ◦
10. The intense love and devotion by his mother and faithful servant resulted in a sheltered
environment and limited opportunity to interact with other children or develop practical skills.
11. Young Pestalozzi's awkward behavior and eccentricities in social situations further ostracized
him among his young peers.
12. These early social difficulties impacted Pestalozzi's philosophy of education and resulted in his
emphasis on practical training and socialization of the child.

PESTALOZZI'S PEDAGOGY
1. Pestalozzi's work ◦ "Children should learn through activity and through things (hands-on tools).
◦ They should be free to pursue their own interests and draw their own conclusions. ◦
2. The three elements of head, heart and hands is what is most important to children receiving a
great education. ◦ His writings continually emphasized the importance of the mother in a child's
life and the impact the mother-child relationship had on the child's development.
3. Pestalozzi defined education as "the natural, progressive, harmonious development of all the
powers and faculties of the human being"
4. Aim of Education◦ Pestalozzi felt that the object of education was “not perfection in the
accomplishments of the school, but fitness for life; not the acquirement of habits of blind
obedience and of prescribed diligence, but a preparation for interdependent action.” ◦ Not to
impart knowledge but to unfold the natural faculties latent or hidden in every individual. ◦ He

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 suggested two purposes of education: ◦ Development of the individual. ◦ Improvement of the
society. He saw education as central to the improvement of social conditions
5. Method of Education ◦ Centred on the child not curriculum. ◦ Teacher should not teach through
words but allow children to discover the answers themselves. ◦ No use of books but direct
method. ◦ He advocated an inductive method, in which the child first learns to observe, to
correct its own mistakes, and to analyze and describe the object of inquiry. The child starts with
simple objects and simple observation, and builds toward more complex and abstract things.
Only after that can the child start to use books. ◦ In order to allow children to obtain more
experience from nature, Pestalozzi expanded the elementary school curriculum to include
geography, natural science, fine art, and music.
6. Major Components of Pestalozzi's 'Method Morf, one of Pestalozzi's most capable disciples,
summarized the instructional methods: 1. Emphasis on observation or sense perception
("intuition"). 2. Language always being rooted in observation of an object. 3. Judgment or
criticism being inappropriate when students are learning. 4. Teaching "should begin with the
simplest elements and proceed gradually according to the development of the child...in
psychologically connected order." 5. Enough time should be directed to the lesson to allow
mastery.
7. Role of Teacher: Teaching is not an exercise in dogmatism, but in development. 7. Teachers
must respect students. 8. "The chief end of elementary teaching is not to impart knowledge and
talent to the learner, but to develop and increase the powers of his intelligence." 9. Knowledge
and power are related; skill results from learning information. Love should regulate the relation
between teacher and student, "especially as to discipline." The higher aims of education should
regulate instruction.
8. Discipline in the classroom ◦ Pestalozzi maintained that the classroom should be like a family.
The atmosphere must be loving and caring, like in a good Christian family, where the family
members are cooperative, loving, and kind to one another. He developed the idea of the “family
classroom” from the way his mother raised him and his sister. ◦ Family is thus, for Pestalozzi, an
essential component of education. ◦ He believed that "without love, neither the physical nor the
intellectual powers will develop naturally"
9. Pestalozzi's view on Education ◦ I wish to wrest education from the outworn order of
doddering old teaching hacks as well as from the new-fangled order of cheap, artificial
teaching tricks, and entrust it to the eternal powers of nature herself, to the light which God
has kindled and kept alive in the hearts of fathers and mothers, to the interests of parents who
desire their children grow up in favor with God and with men. (Pestalozzi quoted in Silber
1965: 134)
10. Conclusion ◦In one of his final writings, Swan's Song, Pestalozzi wrote a concise conclusion of his
method: “Life itself educates.”

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8.3. EDUCATIONAL THEORY OF JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712-1778)
Summary of Rousseau

 Rousseau was a French philosopher, a pioneer of the Naturalism movement in Europe, during
the Enlightenment period (18th century)
 His two main philosophical focuses were nature and the child
 Put an end to the traditional views of the child, showing that children are creatures of nature
and they act and grow in harmony with natures laws
 Children should not be educated as miniature adults
 His philosophy had 8 main theories

Theory of Society

 Man must be educated with the goal of improving society, he must be ready for all sociological
outcomes
 Theater is a product of an evil society, it is an artificial form of entertainment and no education
can come from it
 Amusement must be derived from man's work, relationships and needs, different from the work
but inspired by the same spirit
 European culture forgot about morals when they focused in on intellectual culture alone

Theory of Learning

 Education must be progressive and follow the natural progress of the human heart
 Early education must be based primarily on the senses
 Promotes an emphasis on the physical world, no book learning in early education
 The learning process is one of trial and error
 A positive education begins only if a child is aware of his relationships with others

Theory of Human Nature

 The original human nature of man is to be good, but it is tainted by society

 To be good is existing "according to ones intrinsic potentiality of one's nature"
 A rational person is aware of the common good and feels a need to live harmoniously with
others
 The goal of the human endeavor is happiness

Theory of Transmission

 Teachers will teach in nature, outside the confines of society

 Students are provided with physical, applicable materials instead of abstract concepts
 Teachers must understand their children individually to be able to teach them effectively

Theory of Opportunity

 Separate but equal form of naturalistic education for girls and boys

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  There needs to be a separation due to gender
 Girls cannot be educated to be men, and vis versa
 Women were naturally supposed to be the center of the family: housewife, mother, and have a
good reputation

Theory of Knowledge

 The instrument of knowledge is our own body

 Education should be rooted in man's moral nature
 We should not use books in place of nature and our senses because that teaches us to believe
much and know little
 Educate to be a man not a certain occupation so they can do whatever is needed in any situation

Theory of Consensus

 The core reasons for disagreements stem from wants, desires, oppression, and pride
 Men can combat that by giving himself to all, allowing security and natural freedom
 The public spirit must seek the common good; everyone's needs must coincide

Theory of Value

 Man's first duty is to be human

 It's also man's duty to keep harmful influences away from the young child
 There should be no early childhood education, children should just play
 Children need to be children before being men
 The object of education is to make a man, not a soldier, priest, etc.

Conclusions

 Rousseau's educational theories caused people to rethink how children were taught
 His theories were originally banned, but were an inspiration after the french revolution to the
new national educational system

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8.4. FRIEDRICH FRÖEBEL (1782-1852)

Biography

 Born 1782 in small German town to parents with 5 children before him
 Mother passed away shortly after his birth
 Friedrich spent much of his time in the family garden and developed a deep love of nature that
would eventually influence his later ideologies
 Friedrich’s father remarried a stepmother who treated Friedrich poorly. When the couple had a
baby, Friedrich became an outsider to his family
 His grades plummeted, and his father assumed he was dimwitted and sent him to an all girls’
school where the focus was more play than learning
 When Friedrich was 10 he was able to move in with his uncle who was kind and compassionate
and gave Friedrich the confidence to succeed in school, however he was only able to live with
him until he was 15
 When Friedrich was 20, his father passed
 Being that this was the beginning of the 1800’s, there was a lot of political unrest in Europe.
Prussia was dividing, America and France were experiencing revolutions and forming ideas of
individualism, and Germany was centered on the idea of romanticism, which idealized a
harmony between nature, man, and God
 During this time, Voltaire and Pestalozzi were reforming education by disbanding the idea of the
child as a miniature adult.
 He agreed with most of Pestalozzi’s philosophy, especially that children are active learners, and
that the universe is constantly changing. Froebel called this a worldview of education.
 However he did not agree with all of Pestalozzi’s ideals, and left the school to become a private
tutor. “The parents of the children he tutored offered Froebel a small patch of their property to
use as a garden. The learning experiences with the children in the garden convinced Froebel that
action and direct observation were the best ways to educate”
 The success of Froebel’s garden tutoring led him to open his first institute in 1816 in Keilhau
 This school was an experiment for Froebel and offered children a progressive education built on
his philosophy that “[…] discovery and recognition that educated the child to unity, as well as
the diversity of things in nature” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014).
 He believed that education was achieved through play and free exploration of the environment,
beliefs which Friedrich developed during his time with Pestalozzi.
 This school was small, beginning with only five of Froebel’s nephews making up the student
body. Within a year the population of the school grew and formed a community.
 The school suffered financially, and his reputation was tarnished

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  From this experience he wrote The Education of Man, which outlined his educational
philosophy.

Kindergarten

 In 1837 Froebel opened another institution.

 He called this school kindergarten, the literal English translation meaning children’s garden.
“Froebel saw his kindergarten as a sanctuary for young children.
 It was used both to help them prepare and to protect them from the regimentation they would
soon face in school”.
 The philosophy of this school was based off of The Education of Man, which dealt more with
logic and less with science.
 This institution was the first to offer education to children aged three to seven. Prior to this
school, education began at age seven.
 Froebel felt that children should be educated when they are young, as he knew that the early
years affected later life outcomes, and that children needed a different environment outside of their
family home.
 Froebel developed materials for the children in his school, which he labeled as gifts. The gifts
were meant to familiarize the child with materials and enhance learning

How Children Learn

How?:

 Play based approach that is child directed

 Hands on, open-ended experiences
 Songs and Circle Time
 Engaged in the learning process

Learning Environments:

 Prepared and stimulating

 Outdoors or in natural environments

Materials:

 Building blocks
 Coloured geometric shapes attached to strings
 Modeling clay
 Spinning tops
 Cut outs of cardboard shapes,

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  Peas, cork balls and beads
 Toothpicks
 Natural (sticks, stones)

What should children learn

 Simple to complex (Personalized Development)

 To be one with nature; enjoy and appreciate
 How everything is connected and works
 Cause and effect
 To be creative, innovative and imaginative
 Problem solving and perseverance
 Independent and Confident
 Academic development in language, math, music and science
 Social participation and self-expression
 Fine and gross motor skills
 Cutting, folding and weaving
 Patterning, constructing and drawing

Role of Adults

 There is little differentiation between adults and children.

 Children should take on adult roles.
 Mothers are the first teachers of humanity also the primary educator of the children (Brief
History of the Kindergarten, 2013, p. 1)
 Mothers “cultivated play” while fathers “protected and guarded it” (Lascarides, & Hinitz, 2011,
p. 95).
 Parents are the first educators who support home and school education (Comparison among
Froebel, Montessori, Reggio Emilia and Waldorf-Steiner Methods, 2016).
 The role of adults in supporting learning is also known as “gardens” (Comparison among
Froebel, Montessori, Reggio Emilia and Waldorf-Steiner Methods, 2016).
 Teachers influence cultural aspects of learning (Froebel Web an Online Resource, 2002).
 Teachers are “seen as guides who share knowledge” (Froebel Web an Online Resource, 2002).
 Teachers promote education by asking open-ended questions.
 Teachers encourage children’s self-expression, using play (Friedrich Froebel, 2016).
 Teachers did not hold the knowledge but rather shared it.

Effectiveness of Froebel’s Approach

Environmental Structure

 Self directed and developmentally appropriate.

 Materials promote independence in play.
 Hands on, open ended play with purpose.
 Develop child’s coordination, natural curiosity, spirituality .
 Promote active play as a key component “Play is purposeful not idle” (Spielgaben, 2013).

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 Social Structure

 The parent is the first educator (strong ties between home and school learning).
 Educators should act as “gardeners” of a child’s learning and not as “the keepers of knowledge”
(Spielgaben, 2013).
 Educator’s can only teach what the child is ready for so to determine developmental
appropriateness is key.
 Froebel’s theory of learning still greatly influences early learning programs and kindergartens
around the world.
 Froebel introduced block use and pattern use in early learning which has now become a core
tool in early years education (Provenzo, E. 2009).
 Froebel’s methods paved the way for many theorists to come on building off of these models
and further developing them into how we understand early learning and optimal curriculum
today.

8.5. MARIA MONTESSORI(1870--1952)

Proponent of Early Childhood Education
Biography
 - Born on August 31, 1870 in Chiavaralle, Italy
 - Only child to a highly respected middle class family
 - After completing elementary education, she enrolled in a technical school (liceo)
 - Pursued a seven-year curriculum (Italian Literature, French, Sciences)
 - Enrolled in Istituto Technico Leonardo da Vinci and studied engineering
 - Left engineering to study medicine (first declined, first woman, humiliating experience)
 - Did laboratory work and studied pediatrics at Children’s Pediatric Hospital (major
influence)
 - Opened Scuola Magistrale Ortofrenica in 1900 with Dr. Giuseppe Montesano
 - Trained hearing-impaired and mentally deficient children
 - Trained teachers to educate children with handicapping conditions
 - Developed an intimate relationship with coworker Dr. Montessano
 - Realized the problem of “latchkey” children, unattended children
 - Opened first school, Casa dei Bambini (50 children between 3 to 7)
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 - Her reputation started growing abroad (USA)
 - Started training directresses
 - American educators began to criticize her method, the Montessori wave stopped
 - Montessorianism occurred again in the 1950s
 - 1929 - Montessori and son Mario established the Association Montessori
Internationale (AMI) to control and supervise Montessori activities and training
programs
 - Spent her last year promoting the Montessori method and training people
 - Died on May 6, 1952
Social, Political, and Economic Background
 - Born 10 years after Italy became a united nation
 - Unification: movement known as Risorgimento
 - Desire for small states and principalities to become one country
 - Unification: product of the forces of liberalism and nationalism
 - Desire for Italy to industrialize and modernize its economy
 - Opposition from the pope, “imprisoned” himself in the Vatican
 - People confused between being loyal to the pope and to the king, the head of their
state
 - Italy experienced a process of modernization and development

What Is She Known For?

 Made a significant contribution to educational theory and practice, especially to early
childhood education.
 Developed a distinctive method of education that is now present in many countries
around the world. (6000 schools in USA).

. What Did She Stress on?

 Importance of early years for later success
 A psychic power possessed at birth, an inner self-teacher that stimulate children's own
self-directed learning.

What Did She Believe?

 - She believed that the educational process involves: the child and the environment
 - By interacting and being involved with the objects and situations in their environment,
children actively engage in their own auto-education.
 - Children need the freedom to act to bring about their own growth and development
 - Imperative for children to be free to explore and interact with their environment

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 - Children possess a strong capacity for mental concentration, if they are genuinely
interested in an activity, they will willingly expand their attention and energy on it,
staying with it, until mastering the skill or task it involves.
 - Children are naturally and energetically working to achieve functional independence
 - Emphasized children’s freedom to explore their environment and spontaneously
discover knowledge.

Montessori’s Philosophy of Education

 - Based on her conception of science, her observations of children, and her extensive
research in anthropology, psychology, and pedagogy.
 - Created an educational method designed to educate the whole child - physically,
mentally, and emotionally.
 - Montessori developed a new method without sacrificing order and structure,
encouraging the joy of spontaneous learning.
 - Believed that children experience crucial periods called “sensitive periods” in which
they are in a high state of readiness for particular learning such as sensory training,
exercising motor skills, language learning, and social adaptation

Curriculum
 Individualized learning
 Practical skills (washing hands, buttoning shirt - sense of independence)
 Motor and sensory training, Formal literacy, Computational skills and subjects
 Materials for sensory education - aimed to develop children’s competency in perceiving
concepts
 Order in using materials
 Teaching reading when students are ready
 Writing and reading - closely related to create readiness
 Teaching natural environment by planting and cultivating
 3 stages: birth to age 6, ages 6 to 12, ages 12 to 18

The Role of Family

 - Paramount institution
 - Primary source of identification, loyalty, commitment
 - Family: determined a person’s education and career depending on background and
social status

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 (Peasants-farms, middle class-managers, or commerce, aristocracy-inherited wealth,
leisure)
The Role of Women
 - Fixed by custom and tradition
 - Expected to be central sustaining force, wives, and mothers
 - Lower class-agricultural, domestic, or factory laborers
 - Middle class-elementary teachers, nurses
 - Aristocracy-learning art, music, and literature

Role of the School

 “children acquire intellectual vigor, independence, and initiative as spontaneously,
joyfully, and tirelessly as they acquire physical independence and vigor as a by-product
of physical play.”
 Recognize the technological change and provide for the children of the working mothers
 Create a safe environment where mothers can have “great relief and freedom to their
own work”
 Help children attain maximum development
 Offer effective learning in orderly environment
 Develop children’s sensory and motor abilities
 Give freedom of choice within a structured environment
 Encourage their independence and self-confidence
 Lets children choose their own material, and work at own pace

Role of the Classrooms

 Prepared environment is especially conducive for intellectual and moral development
 It encourages the child to act spontaneously and freely, to choose the task, and build
self-esteem by meeting and mastering the challenges found in a safe learning setting.
 Special physical arrangements (tables, chairs, apparatus) fitted to children’s sizes and
needs
 Not restrict children’s movement and freedom

Role of the Teacher

 Very different from the traditional schools
 Teachers are “directress”, they guide and direct the learning process without interfering
 Directresses act as a diagnostician who creates an education profile for each child
 Educator trained in Montessori method

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 To guide children in their own self-development
 Trained in clinical observation of children and scientific pedagogy
 Sensitive to children’s readiness and stages of development
 Establish prepared environment, appropriate apparatus and materials
 Cooperate in the children’s own self-education
 Little intervention, only guide

Itard & Seguin

 Children needed to experience activities appropriate to their stage of development at
right time
 Aligning instruction to particular developmental stages, using didactic material
 Train children to perform practical skills so they could achieve independence
 Mental deficiency required a special kind of education + medical treatment
 Special kind of education is facilitated by using didactic materials and apparatus

The “Absorbent Mind” Stage

 “absorbent mind” stage - birth to age 6, children work at exploring their environment,
develop motor skills.
 Children are engaged in absorbing sensory impressions and information from their
environment. This is driven by the child’s interior impulse to acquire this knowledge for
self-development and eventual independence
 During this stage, children also absorb linguistic and cultural patterns of their cultural
group

The Educational System During Montessori’s Time

 High rate of illiteracy in Italy
 Followed the continental European patterns - class determined
 Classroom teacher - the central instructional agent
 Instruction relied heavily on textbooks
 Children followed instructional routines (recitation, dictation)
 Liceo - Technical and vocational schools
 It provided basic literacy, but discouraged spontaneity and creativity
 Looked spontaneity as a challenge to authority

Montessori’s Influence
 Distinctive achievements in education - role in the European women’s movement

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 Spoke out for the improvement of women’s social economic status, equal pay
 She predicted that science and technology would liberate women of the future from
gender-designated careers, especially domestic work
 Did research on mental illnesses, psychological disorders, children’s psychology and
education
 Studied Itard and Seguin (French physicians and psychologists) (great influence on her
work)
 Urged that mentally impaired children to be housed in educational institutions rather
than insane asylums with adults
Summary: Montessori’s Principles
 1. The principle of freedom to explore the environment in order to gain greater
independence.
 2. The development of will - by choosing the material with which one will be engaged
and by respecting the rights of other children to work with the material of their own
choice.
 3. The power of attention in which a child concentrates on accomplishing a task.
 4. The principle of work by which a child stays at a task, often performing repetitive
actions, until it is mastered

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