Child-centred Education Research Articles

Dewey's Problem

John Dewey's contribution to educational thought and practice has been identified with child-centered schooling: the problem he is thought to have addressed was how to eliminate rote teaching and learning and adapt instruction to students' interests. Some applaud this while others consider it a disaster. But Dewey was no less dismayed than his critics about what passed for child-centered education. Though he was repelled by rigid, rote teaching and learning, the problems he worried most about did not arise in schools and reached far beyond education. They included the growth of industrialism, increasing economic inequality and the political inequality that resulted from concentrations of wealth and poverty, and the collapse of organic communities as social bonds were torn by capitalist economic relations. These were the problems that Dewey sought to solve in School and Society and much other writing. In that volume he sketched a scheme in which schools would create a counterculture that would correct the ...

Measuring the Mind: Education and Psychology in England, c. 1860-c. 1990

The central claim of Measuring the Mind is that, contrary to popular opinion, the psychologists who dominated educational policy-making between the wars were educational progressives and political radicals. They argued that education should reflect the requirements of children rather than the convenience of adults, and regarded intelligence testing as an instrument of child-centred education. These psychologists owed their political inspiration to the meritocratic ideal and lost popularity with the waning of this ideal after the war. Four main themes dominate the discussion: the emergence of educational psychology as a distinct discipline; the recent history of ideas about children's mental development; the role of experts in formulating educational policy; and the rise and fall of the measurement of merit.

Implementation of individualized patient education for Hispanic children with asthma

An educational program known as the Childhood Asthma Project (CAP) was implemented to reduce morbidity among Hispanic children with chronic asthma. Seventy-three children, ages 6–16, participated in 4 program phases: baseline assessment, one-on-one child-centered education, application, and maintenance. During baseline assessment, child and parent asthma beliefs and behaviors were evaluated and used to create educational modules on symptom recognition, peak flow meters, medications, and precipitating factors in Spanish and English. Children learned the importance of self-management, practiced using inhalers and peak flow meters and charted peak flow recordings. Videotapes provided peer modeling by showing Hispanic children with asthma performing self-management tasks. During the application phase, patients practiced self-management behaviors at home and reviewed progress with a nurse educator. During maintenance, the success of self-monitoring was reviewed at follow-up appointments. Recommendations for designing health education interventions for Hispanic children are provided.

How the curriculum can lead to quality care and teaching in early childhood education

In Korea many professors in early childhood education try very hard to spread child-centred education and they have succeeded in a way, even though most parents still prefer the academic-oriented programme. Since the 1980’s most kindergartens have reorganised their classroom environment into interest corners and now try to give children initiative and the freedom to choose. In particular, Ewha Kindergarten Curriculum Model of Ewha Womans University, the Open Education Programme of Yunsei University, The Interaction Model of DukSung Women’s University and The Integrated Curriculum Based on Activities of Chung-Ang University are well-known programmes based on child-centred education. We have a long way to but we do believe that it is worth trying.

Child-Centered Early Childhood Education in Eastern Europe the Step by Step Approach

Child-Centered Early Childhood Education in Eastern Europe the Step by Step Approach

Is Idealistic Child-Centered Education Practical?

Is Idealistic Child-Centered Education Practical?

Child-Centred Education and Its Critics

Child-Centred Education Rousseau Revisited Footnotes to Rousseau Gathering Support Child-Centred Education Arrives Philosophy and R S Peters The Philosophers' Critique The Power of Peters The Black Paper Years The Curriculum and the Profession

Centring on Child-centred Education

Centring on Child-centred Education

Child-Centred Education and Innate Sinfulness: Compatible or Mutually Exclusive?

Child-Centred Education and Innate Sinfulness: Compatible or Mutually Exclusive?

Child-Centred Education and its Critics, John Darling (Paul Chapman Publishing, 1994), pp. viii + 119, £9.95

Child-Centred Education and its Critics, John Darling (Paul Chapman Publishing, 1994), pp. viii + 119, £9.95

Creative Music Education in Japan during the 1920's: The Case of the Elementary School Attached to Nara Women's Higher Teachers College

‘Creative music-making’, as developed in recent years in Great Britain and other countries, has also become popular in Japanese music education; for many music teachers have come to think seriously about the significance of child-centred music education instead of teacher-centred music education. Such a trend seems to be new. However, as in the United States and Great Britain, child-centred music education has been implemented previously – during the 1920's, in Japan's case. This development began in the Elementary School Attached to Nara Women's Higher Teachers College. The author describes the ideas and practices of creative music education in this school, and its historical background, comparing them with creative music-making today.

Un obstacle à l'émergence d'une pédagogie centrée sur l'élève : le formalisme. Approche historique

En proposant de placer l'élève au centre du système éducatif, la Loi d'orientation de 1989 cherche à rompre avec le formalisme qui tend à apprécier la valeur de l'action pédagogique davantage à travers sa cohérence interne (aphorisme) qu'à travers les résultats obtenus (évaluation a posteriori ou réalisme). Sous la IIIe République, le formalisme est largement développé dans les milieux pédagogiques. On observe cependant, dans l'entre-deux-guerres, certaines évolutions vers le réalisme s'opérant suivant des modalités et des rythmes différents selon que l'on s'intéresse aux Instructions officielles, à la Revue pédagogique ou aux instances hiérarchiques locales telles que les inspecteurs d'académie ou les inspecteurs primaires successifs ; la position institutionnelle de ces derniers en faisant des observateurs privilégiés du terrain. Bien que circonscrits, les changements observés constituent l'une des conditions théoriques d'un passage ultérieur d'une pédagogie sans élèves à une pédagogie centrée sur l'élève, d'une pédagogie de l'enseignement à une pédagogie de l'apprentissage.

The Dalton School: The Transformation of a Progressive School

The Dalton School, an independent, progressive school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, was founded in 1919 by Helen Parkhurst. Influenced by educational leaders such as Maria Montessori, Frederic Burk, Carlton Washburne, and John Dewey, Helen Parkhurst established a child-centered, progressive school which attempted to incorporate the notion of a democratic community within the boundaries of an educational program. This innovative program became known as The Dalton Plan. In this book, Susan F. Semel tells the story of The Dalton School from its earliest beginnings through the present day. Her story traces the history of progressive education within the walls of The Dalton School, focusing on the school's heads, including Charlotte Durham, Donald Barr and Gardner Dunnan. During certain periods of the school's history, as progressive education waxed and waned in the educational community at large and as educators responded to demands for more content-based curriculum, The Dalton Plan was modified. At other times, the school was impervious to the infusion of current educational thought. Consequently, during some periods of its history, The Dalton School was on the cutting edge of educational reform while, during others, the school swam against the tide of alternative education or neo-progressivism to favor a traditional back-to-basics approach. Ultimately, Semel uses the original Dalton Plan as a yardstick by which to measure what has happened to progressive education in the larger world. While Susan Semel concludes that The Dalton School, in its present state, is not the same school that Helen Parkhurst founded, it still employs an educational program that pays attention to the needs of a multicultural society and reconfirms the spirit of child-centered pedagogy as an important concern of the Dalton community.

Rousseau as Progressive Instrumentalist

In Emile Rousseau emphasises four pedagogical principles which have become associated with child-centred education. Rousseau's conception of education, however, is utilitarian. This combination of principles and overall conception anticipates one particular strand of policy thinking today: the ‘new vocationalism’. As a postscript, this paper asks why little work in the history of philosophy of education has been done, and identifies the early arguments of R. S. Peters as responsible for this failure.

Empowering a society of future users of information technology: a longitudinal study of an application in early education

This paper presents a six-year study of the use of computers in a Greek primary school, based on the premise that, in contrast to current technocentric views regarding the use of information technology in the Greek educational system, computers can be used as tools for self-enhancement. The aim of the school project was to infuse a child-centred pedagogy, through the learning of Logo programming, into the whole of the school's society, i.e. all children and all teachers. Within this context, we have identified and explored how children may learn programming through a process of forming ‘naive’ or locally applicable theorems concerning key programming ideas such as the use of primitives, structuring a problem by means of writing procedures, and constructing and working with generalised notional objects by means of defining procedures with variable inputs. We discuss the emerging interrelated educational and technological aspects concerning this kind of learning, and then set these against the challenge to exploit the developing technology further in order to design expressive media of increasing flexibility and power, and to focus on specific learning domains.

Belief systems of early childhood teachers and their principals regarding early childhood education

The relationship between kindergarten teachers' and their principals' belief systems was analyzed to determine differences or similarities in belief statements about child development, early childhood curriculum, and teaching strategies. Three belief factors were identified as (a) academics, (b) childcenteredness, and (c) activity issues. Results indicated that teachers tend to disagree with a strong emphasis on academics, but they firmly agree with child-centered practices, and very strongly agree that motor activities, expressive arts, and physical movement belong in early childhood education. In general, principals reflected similar beliefs, but the similarity is less strong between male principals and teachers than between female principals and teachers. This suggests that in schools headed by male principals there is a greater discrepancy in belief systems than in schools headed by female principals. Furthermore, teachers saw their district as being more favorable toward academics and less favorable toward child-centered education. Results are discussed in light of differing career paths of male and female administrators, state-mandated “academics” programs, and teacher empowerment.

Child-Centered and Discipline-Based Art Education: Metaphors and Meanings (abridged)

(1990). Child-Centered and Discipline-Based Art Education: Metaphors and Meanings (Abridged) Art Education: Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 16-21.

Subject‐centred Versus Child‐centred Education—a false dualism [1

ABSTRACT Changing fashions in how the school curriculum is organised are sometimes seen as a regular shift from child‐centred to subject‐centred education, and back again. At the present moment, the British Government is enforcing ‘subject‐centredness’, partly as a reaction to criticism of declining standards attributed to less rigorous child‐centred approaches. On the other hand, other Government initiatives hark back to child‐centred principles. This apparent paradox is partly resolved through a closer analysis of one particular tradition of ‘child‐centred’ education, and of what is represented by ‘subjects’. Such analyses take us necessarily into ethics and epistemology.

Mainstream schooling for the physically handicapped: How can counseling help?

The needs and interests of handicapped children can be properly met with a combination of counseling techniques and with an interplay between actors and agents. The systematic planning and organization of counseling should be based on a partnership from all sectors of the client system. This partnership implies the continuous interaction and collaboration between the different actors and agents involved in the planning, organization and implementation of counseling services. Counseling practices should prove more effective in this area if they can be modelled from, and reflect child-centered education. Further, counseling practices should be built upon an appropriate system of coordination, information and evaluation, which considers the complex and conflicting nature of this largely unstudied aspect of mainstream schooling.

Child-Centered Teaching: Through Children's Eyes

Child-Centered Teaching: Through Children's Eyes