The
various educational approaches
Montessori
education
Montessori classrooms provide a prepared environment where
children are free to respond to their natural tendency to work. The children's
innate passion for learning is encouraged by giving them opportunities to engage
in spontaneous, purposeful activities with the guidance of a trained adult. Through
their work, the children develop concentration and joyful self-discipline. Within
a framework of order, the children progress at their own pace and rhythm, according
to their individual capabilities.
Steiner
Waldorf education
This curriculum is based on a pedagogical philosophy that
places emphasis on the whole development of the child, including a child's spiritual,
physical and moral well-being as well as academic progress. There is a strong
emphasis on social abilities and the development of pre-numeracy and literacy
skills. Formal learning begins later, and learning is done in a very creative
and artistic environment.
Multiple
intelligences education
Howard
Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences has greatly changing the way some teachers
teach. The 8 intelligences are: Linguistic intelligence, Logical-mathematical
intelligence, Musical intelligence, Spatial intelligence, Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence,
Interpersonal intelligence, Intrapersonal intelligence, and Naturalist intelligence.
The
Reggio Emilia Approach
The Reggio Emilia approach creates conditions that will
enhance and facilitate a child's construction of "powers of thinking through
the synthesis of all the expressive, communicative and cognitive languages",
and based on principles of an Emergent Curriculum, Project Work, Representational
Development, Collaboration, Teachers as Researchers, Documentation, and Environment.
Homeschooling
Homeschooling is the most flexible and diverse educational
option available today. The variety of homeschooling styles reflects the diversity
of the people who choose this method. Most homeschoolers, use an eclectic approach
that is partly structured and partly interest-based. This method allows parents
to pick and choose the classes and materials that meet their children's needs.
Democratic
schools
The root ideas of a democratic education are as simple as
they are radical: children should be accorded the same human rights and freedoms
as adults; they should be granted responsibility for the conduct of their affairs;
and they should be full participants in the life of their community.
Small
schools
The
National Asssociation of Small Schools exists to advise and support small schools
against threats of closure, to lobby and campaign on behalf of small schools,
to promote the virtues of small schools and especially their links with local
communities, whilst publicising and developing best practice.
Human
Scale Education
HSE believe that small classes, small schools and large
schools restructured into smaller units enable children to feel secure and more
self confident, teachers to know their pupils as individuals and meet their learning
needs more readily, parents to become more involved in their children's education
and schools to become democratic and environmentally sustainable communities.
Cooperative
Learning
Cooperative approaches involve small, heterogeneous teams,
usually of four or five members, working together towards a group task in which
each member is individually accountable for part of an outcome that cannot be
completed unless the members work together. |
