EXAMINATION 4238 Question 4.

EXAMINATION 4238
Question 4.

However a teacher teaches, their own fundermental beliefs about learning, discipline, the nature of children and how they value education take over. What are your fundermental ideas about the nature of education and classroom management?

Steiner pedagogics see that the teacher has "a sacred task in helping each child's soul and spirit grow". (1) The core assumption here is that the spirit has primacy, and additionally, by correct training, and personal discipline, one can attain experience of the spiritual world.

Steiner education strives to recognise the individuality of the child and aims to create a physical, social and spiritual environment in which that individuality can unfold with confidence, ‘love and belonging’ – Glasser. To meet these aims, Steiner education offers a broadly based learning program balancing artistic, practical and academic activities, offering opportunities for ‘power, freedom and fun’- Glasser.

This holistic education aims to integrate the arts into traditional content. Steiner education curriculum can be seen as organically embodying Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences. Thus it is important to elevate diversity and difference and view each child as valuable and worthwhile. (Teacher Effectiveness training).

Human beings, through self-regulation, can learn to manage their own behaviour, and solve problems through good communication including active listening on the part of the teacher. Given the right support, students are capable of self directed learning. (Thomas Gordon).

“A moral foundation is laid when the individual is guided to the source whence he must draw the impulses which supply him/her with forces leading to ethical activity.”- Rudolf Steiner

"Education is always self -education, and as teachers and educators we are merely the environment in which the child is educating himself. We have to provide the most favourable environment so that the child will be able to educate himself according to his inner destiny", Rudolf Steiner


Steiner inspired education seeks to develop an inner mobility and subtlety in children to help them deal with the challenges of rapidly changing social structures and technology. Teachers must be dedicated to creating a genuine inner enthusiasm for learning in every child through powerful, imaginative and dynamic presentation, designed to make even apparently dry and prosaic subjects interesting and relevant. This method removes the pressure for competitive testing, placing and rewards. Motivation is encouraged to come from within in a similar way to Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory, which when applied, allows people to contribute to society through their own strengths.
Throughout Steiner education the perceived changes in the child's development and the crucial changes in student-teacher relationships determine the lesson content and teaching process. Rudolf Steiner repeatedly stressed that educational perpectives must 'arise from the nature of the growing child himself '
Here we see some similarities to Piaget's stages of development . Piaget realised that children were not miniature adults and that they go through four major developmental stages. The Rudolf Steiner curriculum is also based on four stages of development.
Both Piaget and Steiner emphasise the importance of play in children’s early learning (0-7). Both maintain that play enables children to develop their perceptual ability and intelligence and provides them with opportunity for socialization and experimentation with everyday reality.
Vygotsky was a contemporary of Piaget. Guided by Marxist principles, Vygostsky sociocultural theory of cognitive development focuses on how the culture of a social group, its shared beliefs, values, knowledge, skills and customs is transmitted to the next generation because children actively construct their knowledge through social interaction. Children “grow into the intellectual life of those around them”.-Vygotsky. Steiner also espoused that the range of skills that can be developed with adult guidance or peer collaboration exceeds what can be attained alone.

To this end, honest communication between students and teachers is vital and will prevent misbehaviour- Gordon. Glasser tells us that all lasting psychological problems are relationship problems. By modelling positive and acceptable behaviours, teachers lead students to take effective control of their lives.

In the case of corrective discipline, apart from preventative stategies including the crucial effective classroom management and logical consequences, (Glasser/ Dreikurs), the model I would choose for deeper issues is the Restorative Justice Method.

"The need for imagination, a sense of truth and a feeling of responsibility – these are the three forces which are the very nerve of education."- Rudolf Steiner




References:

Edwards, C., Watts, V., (2004). Classroom Discipline & Management: an Australian Perspective. John Wiley & Sons : Australia
Rudolf Steiner Archive- http://www.rsarchive.org/