Waldorf pedagogy
The Waldorf pedagogy is an educational system originating from the conceptions of the founder of anthroposophy, the esoteric educator Rudolf Steiner. The first Waldorf school was founded in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany.
Today there are more than 1,000 independent Waldorf schools, about 2,000 kindergartens and 646 special education centers, located in 60 countries, making it one of the largest independent school movements internationally. There are also various Waldorf-based public schools, charter schools and academies, and homeschooling settings. Waldorf-based schools have been criticized for their mystical approach to knowledge, for being part of a religious group, and for a lack of academic rigor. In addition, its promotion of pseudoscience and magical thinking has been criticized. Waldorf schools have been identified as a risk factor for vaccination reluctance in an academic paper published in 2011.
Steiner's division of child development into three main stages is reflected in the schools' approach to early childhood education, which focuses on hands-on activities and creative play; primary education, which focuses on the development of artistic expression and social skills; and secondary education, which focuses on the development of reasoning and empathy. Qualitative assessments of student work are integrated into daily classroom life, quantitative tests play a minimal role in primary education, and tests Standardized tests are generally limited to those required for college entrance. Individual teachers and schools have a great deal of autonomy in determining curricular content, teaching methodology, and the organization of authorities.
Origins
The first school based on Steiner's ideas was opened in 1919 in response to a request from Emil Molt, the owner and CEO of the Waldorf-Astoria-Zigarettenfabrik — the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory. —, in Stuttgart, Germany, to educate the children of factory employees. This is the origin of the name "Waldorf", which is today a registered trademark in some countries, in association with the method. Stuttgart grew rapidly, and over time, most of the students were children of families not directly related to the company. The mixed school was the first comprehensive school in Germany, educating children of diverse social classes and abilities.
Waldorf education became more widely known in Britain in 1922 through Steiner's lectures on education at a conference at Oxford University. The first school in England, now the Michael Hall School, was founded in 1925; the first in the United States, the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City, in 1928. By the 1930s, numerous schools modeled on the original school or its pedagogical principles had opened in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Hungary, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Political interference by the Nazi regime limited and eventually closed most Waldorf schools in Europe, with the exception of the British, Swiss, and Dutch schools. The affected schools were reopened after World War II, although those in Soviet-held areas were closed again a few years later by the communist regimes.
In North America, the number of Waldorf schools increased from nine in the United States and one in Canada in 1967 to about 200 in the United States and more than 20 in Canada today. There are currently 29 Steiner schools in the UK and 3 in the Republic of Ireland.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Waldorf schools began to proliferate in Central and Eastern Europe. More recently, many schools have been opened in Asia, especially in China. There are currently over 1,000 independent Waldorf schools around the world.
Conception of child development
The framework of Waldorf education follows Steiner's theory of child development, which divides childhood into three stages of development, and describes appropriate learning strategies for each stage. Steiner's educational ideas are based in teaching and learning differentiated by genetic phases, once the child's abilities have been formed and in the deployment of cultural knowledge; in one the postulate of an "all" educational program that embraces the head, the heart and the hands, and in a heterogeneous organization throughout the school system and also in the classes. In this way they follow the educational theories of "common sense", developed since Comenius and Pestalozzi.
The stated purpose of this approach is to awaken the "physical, behavioral, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual aspects" of each individual, as well as encourage creative and analytical thinking. A review carried out in 2005 finds good results in the development of the creative and social capacities of Waldorf students, but warns of various limitations, such as the too small scale of the studies and cultural diversity, and points out the paucity of studies on their own. Waldorf schools that make systematic comparison difficult.
"Where is the book in which the teacher can read about what teaching is? Children themselves are this book. We should not learn to teach any other book more than that which lies open before us and consists of children themselves. "Rudolf Steiner, Human Values in Education
Initial education: preschool and kindergarten (up to 6-7 years of age)
Waldorf pedagogical theory believes that, during the first years of life, children learn best through unconscious imitation of practical activities. Therefore, the early childhood curriculum focuses on experiential education, allowing children to learn by example and imaginative play. The overall goal of the curriculum is to "impregnate the child with the feeling that the world is good".
The daily routine includes free play, art work (for example, drawing, painting, or modelling), rounds (songs, games, and stories), and practical tasks (for example, gardening, cooking, and cleaning), with rhythmic variations. periods of outdoor recess alternate with activities inside the educational space. The classroom is intended to resemble a home, with simple tools and toys made from natural materials that lend themselves to imaginative play. The use of natural materials has been widely praised by numerous authors for meeting the aesthetic needs of children, encouraging their imagination and reinforcing their identification with nature. although in certain reviews it is also evaluated whether the preference for what is natural, for materials non-manufactured, includes "a reaction against the dehumanizing aspects of 19th century industrialization" rather than a "reasoned assessment of the needs of 21st century children".
Preschool and kindergarten programs generally include seasonal festivals drawn from a variety of traditions, with attention paid to the local traditions of the community in which they operate. Waldorf schools in the Western Hemisphere have traditionally celebrated festivals Christian, although many American schools also include Jewish festivals.
Waldorf kindergarten and lower grades generally discourage students' use of electronic media, such as television and computers. There are several reasons for this: Waldorf educators believe that the use of these devices conflicts with the developmental needs of young children, since their use implies physical inactivity and the contents may be inappropriate or undesirable and hinder the imagination.
Primary education: from 6-7 years to 12-14 years
Waldorf educators believe that preparation for formal learning depends on greater independence of character, temperament, habits, motor skills, and the development of intellectual abilities such as memory and abstraction. Formal instruction in reading, writing, and other academic disciplines are not introduced until students enter elementary school, when pupils are around seven years of age. Steiner believed that engaging young children in abstract intellectual activities too early could negatively affect their growth. and development.
Waldorf elementary schools emphasize the cultivation of children's emotional lives and imaginations. In order for students to connect more deeply with the subject, academic instruction is heavily accompanied by artistic work that includes storytelling, visual arts, drama, movement, vocal and instrumental music, and crafts. The core curriculum includes history, geography, algebra, geometry, biology, physics, chemistry, languages, and also subjects such as geology, mineralogy, astronomy, nutrition, language arts, and mythology. The school day usually begins with an academic lesson or "core lesson." #3. 4; 1.5 to 2 hours, cognitively oriented to a single topic, over the course of approximately 3 weeks. This class typically begins with introductory activities that may include singing, instrumental music, or recitations of poetry, sometimes including a verse. written by Steiner for the start of a school day.
The task of primary educators is to represent on a personal level a role model that children naturally want to imitate, gaining authority through fostering the relationship with the child and nurturing curiosity, imagination and creativity". The goal of this second stage is to "imbue children with the feeling that the world is beautiful". Standardized textbooks are not usually used, but rather It is the children who record the knowledge acquired in their notebooks, each generating their own personal study material.
Primary Waldorf education allows for individual variations in the pace of learning, based on the expectation that a child will grasp a concept or achieve a skill when ready. Cooperation takes precedence over competition. This approach is also used extends to physical education: competitive team sports are introduced in the upper grades.
Each class (group of children) normally stays together as a cohort throughout their years, developing as a quasi-familial social group whose members know each other quite well. In the primary years, a teacher Central teaches core academic subjects. A central role of this classroom teacher is to provide supportive role models through personal example and stories from a variety of cultures, nurturing, and exercising loving and creative authority. Classroom teachers are typically expected to teach a group of children over several years, a practice known as looping. The traditional aim was for the teacher to remain in a class for the 7 or 8 years of the 'lower school' cycle, but in recent years the duration of these cycles has been treated more and more flexibly. Already in first grade, specialized teachers teach many of the subjects, including music, crafts, movement, and two foreign languages from complementary language families (in Spanish-speaking countries often in English or German and in French); these subjects remain central to the curriculum throughout the elementary school years.
While classroom teachers play a valuable role as personal mentors, establishing "lasting relationships with students," especially in the early years, this approach is criticized by some researchers. Noting that there is a danger that any authority figure will limit students' enthusiasm for inquiry and assertion of autonomy, Ullrich emphasized the need for teachers to encourage independent thinking and explanatory discussion in these years, which can be compensate with the actions of the teachers of special subjects. In this regard, there are good results in a number of schools where the class teacher accompanies the class for six years, after which specialist teachers play a significantly greater role.
Secondary education: 12-14 years and older
In most Waldorf schools, students enter secondary school when they are about fourteen years old. This may vary depending on the countries and the modality adopted by each school. Secondary education is provided by specialist teachers for each subject. The curriculum is much more focused on academic subjects, although students typically continue to take courses in art, music, and crafts. The curriculum is structured to foster students' intellectual understanding, independent judgment, and ethical ideals, as well as as well as social responsibility, with the aim of developing the capacity for abstract thought and conceptual judgment.
In the third stage of development (ages 14 and older), children in Waldorf programs must learn through their own thinking and judgment. Students are asked to understand abstract material and are expected to have sufficient foundation and maturity to form conclusions using their own judgment. The intention of this third stage is to "imbue children with a sense that the world is real".
The general objectives are to provide young people with the foundations to become free, morally responsible, and integrated persons, with the aim of helping young people to "go out into the streets" as free, independent and creative beings'. No independent studies have been published on whether or not Waldorf education achieves this goal.
Temperaments
Steiner considered that children's cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development are interrelated. Teachers in Waldorf schools often consider the holistic characteristics of their students and do not focus solely on academic skills. Instead, they use the an idea that Steiner adapted from the four classical temperaments: melancholic, sanguine, phlegmatic and choleric, for pedagogical use in the primary years. Steiner indicated that teaching must be differentiated and take into account the different needs that these psychophysical types represent. For example, "cholerics take risks, phlegmatics take it easy, melancholics are sensitive or introverted, and sanguines take things lightly". Today Waldorf teachers can work with the notion of temperaments to differentiate classroom work with each child. The order in which children sit and class activities can be planned with the temperament of students in mind, but this is often not apparent to students. outside observers. Steiner also believed that teachers should consider their own temperament and be prepared to work positively in the classroom, that temperament is emergent in children, and that most people express a combination of temperaments rather than of only one type.
Educational theory and practice
The philosophical foundation of the Waldorf approach, anthroposophy, points to the primary pedagogical goals of these schools: to provide an education that enables children to become free human beings, and to help children embody their "identity developing spirit', carried over from preceding spiritual existence, as beings of body, soul, and spirit in this lifetime. Educational researcher Martin Ashley suggests that this latter role would be problematic for secular teachers and parents in state schools, and the commitment to a spiritual background of both the child and education has been problematic for some committed to a secular perspective.
While anthroposophy supports curriculum design, pedagogical approach and organizational structure, it is not explicitly taught within the school curriculum and studies have shown that Waldorf students have little awareness of it. Tensions can arise within the Waldorf community between a commitment to Steiner's original intentions, which has sometimes acted as a valuable anchor against different educational fads, and an openness to new directions in education, such as the incorporation of new technologies or modern accountability methods. accounts and evaluation.
Waldorf schools often have striking architecture, using walls that meet at varying angles (not just perpendicularly) for a more fluid, less space-enclosed feel. The walls are often painted in subtle colors, often using a lazure technique, and include textured surfaces.
Evaluation
Waldorf schools primarily assess students through reports on individual academic progress and personal development. The emphasis is on the learning process and on a characterization through a qualitative description. The progress of the students is evaluated mainly through the work in academic blocks and the discussion about this progress that the teachers make in their weekly meetings. Standardized tests are rare during elementary school, they become more frequent in secondary school to train students to the university evaluation regime. The student is encouraged, rather than competing with his peers, to work on self-improvement since he is himself the benchmark against which to measure their performance. Letter grades are generally not awarded until students enter high school, as the educational emphasis is on the holistic development of children and not just their academic progress.
Curriculum (Curriculum)
Although Waldorf schools are autonomous institutions that are not required to follow a prescribed curriculum (beyond those required by local governments), there are widely agreed guidelines for the Waldorf curriculum, supported by common principles of schools. Schools offer a broad curriculum "guided by close observation and recording of what content motivates children at different ages" and which includes, for example, the contents of the study plans of some European countries, such as England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Core academic subjects are presented through morning lesson blocks of up to two hours lasting several weeks. These lesson blocks are integrated horizontally at each grade level so that the topic of the block will be included in many of the classroom activities, and are vertically integrated so that each topic will be reviewed over the years with increasing complexity as students develop their skills, reasoning abilities, and individual sense of self. This has been described as a spiral resume.
Many subjects and skills not considered central parts of conventional schools, such as art, music, gardening, and mythology, are central to a Waldorf education. Students learn a variety of fine and practical arts. Elementary students paint, draw, sculpt, braid, knit, and crochet. Older students build on these experiences and learn new skills, such as pattern making and sewing, wood and stone carving, metal working, bookbinding; and doll or puppet making. Fine arts instruction includes shape drawing, sketching, sculpting, perspective drawing, and other techniques.
Music instruction begins with singing in early childhood, and choral instruction remains an important component through the end of high school. Students typically learn to play pentatonic recorders, recorders, and/or lyres in the early grades of elementary school. Around the age of 9, diatonic flutes and orchestral instruments are introduced.
Certain subjects are largely unique to Waldorf schools. The most significant is Eurythmy, an art of movement that generally accompanies texts or music, which includes elements of theater and dance, and is designed to provide individuals and classes with a "sense of integration and harmony" #34;. Although taught in other educational contexts as well, cooking, agriculture, and outdoor and environmental education have long been incorporated into the Waldorf curriculum. Other differences include: non-competitive games and free play in the younger years compared to athletic instruction; instruction in two foreign languages from the beginning of primary school; and an experiential-phenomenological approach to science whereby students observe and represent scientific concepts in their own words and pictures instead of finding the ideas first through a textbook.
The Waldorf curriculum has always incorporated the theory of multiple intelligences in a pioneering way.
Science
Waldorf schools cultivate a phenomenological approach to science education, that is, they use an exemplary methodology of inquiry-based learning with the aim of "strengthening interest and the ability to observe". objective is to cultivate the sense of "meaning of integrity of nature, a totality from which the human being is not separate or alienated" while achieving precise scientific concepts. Empirical measurements, including several PISA studies, have shown that students in Waldorf schools are more motivated to study science and achieve significantly better understanding than students in comparable state schools..
A study of science curriculum compared a group of American Waldorf school students with American public school students on three different test variables. Two tests measured verbal and nonverbal logical reasoning, and the third was a TIMSS international test.. The TIMSS test covered the scientific understanding of magnetism. The researchers found that Waldorf students scored higher than public school students and the national average on the TIMSS, while they scored the same as public school students on tests of logical reasoning. However, when logical reasoning tests measured students' understanding of part-whole relationships, Waldorf school students also outperformed public school students. The study authors noted Waldorf students' enthusiasm for science, but they considered the science curriculum to be "somewhat outdated and obsolete, and also included some dubious scientific material", which suggests an issue for improvement in the science curriculum. Education researchers Phillip and Glenys Woods, who reviewed this study, criticized the authors' involvement in an "unresolved conflict": that allegedly inaccurate science may lead to better demonstrable scientific understanding.
Technology
Waldorf schools avoid the use of technology in the classroom until early adolescence, consistent with their hypothesis that early use impairs learning.
Spirituality
Waldorf education aims to educate children about a wide range of religious traditions without favoring any one of them. One of Steiner's main goals was to establish a non-denominational, spiritual environment for children of all backgrounds who recognizes the value of role models drawn from a wide range of literary and historical traditions in the development of the child's fantasy and moral imagination. Indeed, for Steiner, education is an activity that fosters the connection of the human being with the divine and, therefore, is inherently religious.
Waldorf schools were historically "Christian and theistically oriented"; as they expand into different cultural contexts, they adapt to "a truly pluralistic spirituality." Waldorf practices are often modified from their roots in European and Christian beliefs to meet the historical and cultural traditions of the local community. Examples of such adaptation include Waldorf schools in Palestine and Japan, which celebrate festivals of these cultures, and classes at the Milwaukee Urban Waldorfschool, which have embraced African-American and Native American traditions. Such festivals, as well as general assemblies, which play an important role in Waldorf schools, generally focus on the various grades they present. his work.
Religion classes, universally absent from American Waldorf schools, are compulsory in some German federal states, so in Waldorf schools each religious denomination provides its own teachers for the classes, and a class on religion is also offered. non-denominational religion. In the UK, public Waldorf schools are not classified as 'faith schools'.
Tom Stehlik places Waldorf education in a humanist tradition, and contrasts the philosophically grounded Waldorf approach with that used in secular state education systems (whose approach is "value neutral").
History
Waldorf pedagogy has its roots in the beliefs of the Austrian philosopher, literary scholar, educator, artist, playwright, social thinker, and Austrian occultist Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), founder of what is known as anthroposophy. Steiner lacked experience or teacher training of any kind, so he based his tenets of his pedagogy on mystical trances (see Rudolph Steiner and Spiritual Science). According to himself, during those trances he consulted a kind of esoteric universal mystical library of wisdom that he called the “akashic record” which, also according to his words, was "written in the ether".
The foundations of Waldorf pedagogy boil down to Steiner's mystical belief that the human being is an individuality of spirit, soul, and body, whose capacities unfold in three developmental stages of seven years each (seven years) from birth to maturity: the first one, from 0 to 7 years, the second from 7 to 14 years, and finally, from 14 to 21. The first seven years would be based on imitation natural as a means of learning, the second, through imagination and art, the third in the search for truth and reality. The Waldorf doctrine, therefore, values the first stage as the only one in the life of the child, since he is imbued in the spiritual world at the same time as the earthly one, for which reason they would have the ability to read directly from the akashic record mentioned above.. It is for all this that an interference by teachers with practical or realistic teachings is not recommended.
The economic boost needed to transform these ideas without pedagogical or psychological foundation into a physical center for children's education came when a wealthy businessman named Emil Molt, owner of the Waldorf-Astoria-Zigarettenfabrik cigarette factory in Stuttgart, embraced the beliefs of the anthroposophical current; in 1919 he asked Rudolf Steiner to create a school for the children of his workers. Rudolf Steiner adapted his mystical beliefs into an educational system tailored to him and founded the school. She was the nucleus from which, and thanks to the financial support of his patron, he managed to spread his beliefs through new adherents of his vision. Waldorf schools soon began to emerge in Germany and then the Waldorf school movement spread to the rest of Europe and the world.
In a series of talks, Steiner spoke to the workers, parents of the students, about the need for social renewal, a new way of organizing society, its political, cultural and economic life. It was his proposal for the so-called social Tripartition or Triformation. Within the framework of a Germany defeated in World War I, which was unable to establish a stable political or economic system, his beliefs tinged with change and social improvement had resonance.
During the Nazi regime, Waldorf schools were forced to adhere to the principles of National Socialism, leading some to close. They reopened after World War II. Finally, the growth in the number of Waldorf schools has been maintained since the 1970s, with most of these post-1990. For this reason, the modern popularity of Waldorf pedagogy has been associated with the rise of the New Age spiritual movement.
Relationship with states and governments
The former director of the United Nations Cultural, Scientific and Educational Organization, Federico Mayor Zaragoza sympathizes with Waldorf pedagogy, according to his statements: "the ideals and ethical principles (of the Waldorf school movement) correspond with those of UNESCO".[citation required]
In the UK, Waldorf schools receive a waiver from the Department for Education on the requirement to teach Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as part of initial education (ages 3-5). Education researchers John Siraj-Blatchford and David Whitebread praised the UK Department of Education for making this exception, noting Waldorf education's emphasis on simplicity of resources and the way education cultivates the imagination.
Controversy
Waldorf pedagogy, being based on pseudoscience, has received multiple criticisms from the scientific, pedagogical, and social spheres, especially from those who have studied or worked in educational institutions based on this method, which is accused primarily sectarian through indoctrination.
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