Pestalozzi: Educating the Whole Child’s Mind, Body, and Emotions
> Photo 4.2 Pestalozzi teaching students at his institute in Burgdorf, Switzerland; note the large wall charts used in teaching counting and arithmetic.
object lesson A method developed by
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who used concrete objects as the basis of form, number, and name lessons.
95
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-41995]
children studied the objects—plants, rocks, animals, and man-made items—they encountered in their daily experience in the environment. Pestalozzi devised object lessons in which children learned the form, number, and names of objects. To learn an object’s form, they traced, outlined, and sketched its shape. To learn numbers, they counted the objects. Then they learned the names given to objects. The students moved gradually from drawing exercises to writing and reading. The first writing exercises consisted of drawing lessons in which the children drew a series of rising and falling strokes and open and closed curves. Developing children’s motor coordination and hand muscles, these drawing and tracing exercises prepared them for writing. From counting exercises, they moved to adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing objects (Photo 4.2). Pestalozzi incorporated the following strategies in his preservice teacher-preparation program. Teachers should (1) begin with concrete objects before moving to more abstract concepts; (2) begin with the learner’s immediate environment before moving to what is distant and remote; (3) begin with easy and simple exercises before moving to complex ones; and (4) always proceed gradually and cumulatively. Pestalozzi’s method was incorporated into elementary schools and teacher-education programs in Europe and the United States.
1799 Director of orphanage at Stans 1801 Publishes How Gertrude Teaches Her Children 1804–1825 Director of institute at Yverdon
1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1800–1804 Director of institute at Burgdorf
1827 Death at Neuhof
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