Educational approaches

19. Which specific educational approaches are offered?

Freedom of choice

Parents are able to choose freely between different educational approaches, in line with their individual educational beliefs and preferences. The basic principles of some of the best known of these approaches are presented below. Further details regarding the actual implementation can be obtained from the responsible providers or directors of the individual day care facilities.

It is always a good idea to pay an advance visit to the chosen day care centre, together with your child, to gain a first-hand impression of the concept pursued there. Many facilities offer the possibility of a »test day«.

Fröbel approach

Friedrich Fröbel (1782 - 1852) is considered the father of the kindergarten. His theories of education covered the whole period from infancy to youth, taking up Pestalozzi's ideas of education as motherly achievement and furthering his principle of independence. The central elements of the Fröbel method are free and independent activity, and the child's capacity of self-determination.

All offers take into account the child's own experiences, which are considered the foundation for all learning. Integrated education with provisions for social, artistic, manual, creative and cognitive learning and activity were basic principles for Fröbel. He was convinced that understanding was necessarily a product of activity, and that education should therefore offer guidance, rather than intervening with instructions and commands.

Promotion of a child's natural exploratory urge through play is a decisive aspect of Fröbel's kindergarten teaching concept. To this end, he devised his so-called »Fröbel gifts and occupations«, building blocks in the form of a ball, cube and cylinder, supplemented with activities such as counting and modelling, weaving and paper-folding, drawing, group games and exercise, and even work in the garden. Kindergarten according to the Fröbel method serves as a complement to family upbringing with the task of social education.

Montessori approach

Maria Montessori, an Italian physician and education reformer (1870 - 1952), already contributed to a new perception of child development over a hundred years ago. For her, all potential for development lies within the child itself. The task of a teacher is to provide a suitable environment, in which the child can develop freely. Key concepts implemented in daily activities are thus freedom, order, peacefulness, concentration, creative learning, self-direction, independence, the new teacher, sensitive periods, the child as the architect of mankind, and not least the request to adults she formulated for children: »Help me to do it myself«. The teachers are not placed above the children, but instead seen as supervisors and observers of the children's needs and development. Maria Montessori believed in the hidden creative powers in all beings, and expected teachers to bring these powers to the light and to motivate a child to independence. Corresponding materials were also devised to support this goal.

Freinet approach

This approach to education refers back to Célestin Freinet (1896 - 1966), who developed his methods together with other French teachers in the so-called »modern French school movement« in the 1920s. Typical for Freinet teaching is the immediate practical context. Freinet himself never gave up his work as a teacher. His methods were first recognised in Germany in after-school supervision, later in kindergartens and more recently also in mixed-age day care groups.

One important principle of the Freinet method is that the children are able to take up the initiative. They should discover their environment through empirical enquiry, through research, experiment and exploration at their own pace. Freedom is coupled to an acceptance of responsibility for meaningful activity and thus for the establishing of a direct relevance to life. The children in this way develop productivity, independence, self-reliance, proficiency, social behaviour and sympathy. A variety of workshops, materials and techniques promote these competencies. The adults assist and accompany learning in a stimulating and fertile environment.

Waldorf approach

Methods derived from the anthroposophic views of human development expounded by Rudolf Steiner (1861 - 1925) were first implemented in education in 1919 and are in the meantime a basis for teaching all over the world. At its simplest level, the Waldorf approach is based on example and imitation, rhythm and repetition. For Rudolf Steiner, childhood can be divided into a series of seven-year developmental stages. The key transition points were seen as the loss of milk teeth and puberty. For pre-school day care, the interesting stage is the first of the three phases, in which the child is still a predominantly imitative being.

The calming influence, and at the same time the most important person for the playing children spread across the whole room, is always the supervising adult. As their example, he or she demonstrates to the children, how we are ourselves responsible for the outcome and processes of our daily life. The adult's duties incorporate also all aspects of his or her thoughts and feelings, as expressed in deliberate actions and his or her radiated nature. The children relate to their example, and learn assimilatively the relevance of different forms of productive work.

Reggio approach

The Reggio approach to education can be understood as a process of dialogue between adults and children. This occupation with the »higher goals of child development« began with the opening of the first public kindergarten in the Italian province Reggio nell'Emilia immediately after the Second World War. The initial intention was to bring democratic and social forms of education into the previously fascist-dominated pre-school system. This political dimension is still reflected today in the concepts of Reggio education, in which child development is described as an element of comprehensive social processes. Emphasis is placed on the close interaction between politics, culture and education, and the diverse associations between education activities and the socio-cultural reality in the world outside.

Reggio teaching is an innovative educational approach. It remains open to new ideas and embraces change and further development. All those involved in education are seen as actors in a process of dialogue and mutual learning. The child, with its thirst for exploration and knowledge, stands at the focal point of the network child-parent-teacher-environment. A kindergarten is thus for all a place of communication and experience. Decoration and furnishings provide a wealth of stimulation for intensive observation, but at the same time also open up new angles and perspectives. Seeing, experiencing and understanding are for the Reggio concept closely interrelated aspects of child learning processes.

Social-ecological approach

The theoretical foundations for this approach were laid in the 1980s by developmental psychologist and social ecologist Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917 - 2005). It was his assumption that human development is self-determined by the individual and accomplished autonomously in the course of ongoing interaction with the individual's environment. This interaction produces material objects, for example houses, tools or furnishings, but at the same time also rules of social behaviour, i.e. cultural values and standards. According to Bronfenbrenner, both adults and children develop in so-called »ecological systems«, which are nested over several dimensions and whose individual elements influence each other. The family or kindergarten could be considered such a system. A change in any element of this system, for example the departure of a particular teacher, results in a change in the whole system. The most remarkable aspect of Bronfenbrenner's theory is that he does not see children solely as persons shaped by their environment, but rather as active designers who gradually take possession of and reform the environment in which they live. This approach is today integral to the work in many socio-educational fields. It is also the principle followed by the municipal child day care centres in Dresden.

Kneipp's theories of health

To live healthily in harmony with nature and in this way to pursue active prevention and find healing - this holistic approach became the foundation of therapies proposed by Sebastian Kneipp (1821 - 1897). »Advise and help each other!« he told the people. Kneipp envisaged a way of life guided by the laws of nature, as an important prerequisite for health and well-being. His concept has remained valid in scientific research to this day, and is used and further developed in numerous medical disciplines. Former elements of hydrotherapy and herbalism, for example, have evolved into a comprehensive and recognised system of natural healing based on the five principles water, exercise, medicinal plants, nutrition and order. The key success factor remains the perception of body, mind and soul as a single entity. Kneipp's theories of health have also been taken up in child day care, with the aim of promoting an early awareness for healthy activity.