Pedagogy and Theory of Child Development
The structure of the education follows Steiner's theories of child development, which describe three major developmental stages of childhood, each having its own learning requirements, as well as a number of sub-stages. These stages are broadly similar to those described by Piaget.
- In early childhood learning is largely experiential, imitative and sensory-based. The education emphasizes learning through practical activities.
- During the elementary school years (age 7–14), learning is artistic and imaginative, and is guided and stimulated by the creative authority of teachers. In these years, the approach emphasizes developing children's emotional life and artistic expression across a wide variety of performing and visual arts.
- During adolescence (age 14-19), the emphasis is on developing intellectual understanding and ethical ideals such as social responsibility to meet the developing capacity for abstract thought and conceptual judgment
Waldorf education realizes an unusually and perhaps uniquely "complete articulation of an evolutionary developmental K-12 curriculum and creative teaching methodology." its underlying principles continue a pedagogical tradition initiated by Comenius, Pestalozzi, and Herder Its methodology encourages collaborative learning.
Read more about this topic: Waldorf Education
Famous quotes containing the words theory, child and/or development:
“A theory if you hold it hard enough
And long enough gets rated as a creed....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The child ... stands upon a place apart, a little spectator of the world, before whom men and women come and go, events fall out, years open their slow story and are noted or let go as his mood chances to serve them. The play touches him not. He but looks on, thinks his own thought, and turns away, not even expecting his cue to enter the plot and speak. He waits,—he knows not for what.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Ultimately, it is the receiving of the child and hearing what he or she has to say that develops the child’s mind and personhood.... Parents who enter into a dialogue with their children, who draw out and respect their opinions, are more likely to have children whose intellectual and ethical development proceeds rapidly and surely.”
—Mary Field Belenky (20th century)