Principles of Teaching and Learning

of Emile, Pestalozzi agreed with Rousseau that humans are naturally good but were spoiled by a corrupt society, that traditional schools imposed dull routines of memorization and recitation, and that educational reform was needed to improve society.11 Although Rousseau inspired him, Pestalozzi significantly revised Rousseau’s method. While Rousseau rejected schools, Pestalozzi believed that schools, if properly organized, could become centers of effective learning. He reconstituted Rousseau’s homeschool approach into simultaneous group instruction in schools.

In his schools at Burgdorf and Yverdon, Pestalozzi developed a preservice teachereducation program where he served as a mentor to the future teachers being trained in his method. Like Comenius, Pestalozzi emphasized the right of children to be taught by caring teachers in a safe environment.12

Philosophically, Pestalozzi, a realist like Aristotle, believed that the mind formed concepts by abstracting data conveyed to it by the senses. His method of objectcentered instruction influenced Froebel and Montessori, discussed later in this chapter, as well as later progressive educators. (See Chapter 6, Philosophical Roots of Education, for more on realism and progressivism.)

4-3a Principles of Teaching and Learning

Pestalozzi organized his approach to teaching into “general” and “special” methods. The general method, which had to be in place before more specific instruction occurred, sought to create a caring and emotionally healthy homelike school environment. This required teachers who, emotionally secure themselves, could win students’ trust and affection and nurture their self-esteem.

After the general method was in place, Pestalozzi implemented his special method, which stressed direct sensory learning. Guided by Rousseau’s warnings against highly abstract lessons that were remote from children’s everyday life, Pestalozzi began instruction with children’s direct experiences in their environment. In this approach,

11Gerald L. Gutek, Pestalozzi and Education (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1999), pp. 21–51. 12Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, How Gertrude Teaches Her Children (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Library, 2009).

TiMeLine

JoHAnn HEinRiCH PEsTALozzi

a n d Pho tog raphs Division [LC-USZ62-10897] s t n P r i Lib rar y of C on gress 1754 Student at Schola Abbatissana and Schola Carolina in Zurich

1781 Publishes Leonard and Gertrude

1740 1750 1760 1770 1780

1746 Born in Zurich, Switzerland 1764 Student at Collegium Carolinum in Zurich

1774 Founds school at neuhof, his farm

> Photo 4.2 Pestalozzi teaching students at his institute in Burgdorf, Switzerland; note the large wall charts used in teaching counting and arithmetic.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-41995]

object lesson A method developed by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who used concrete objects as the basis of form, number, and name lessons. 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.

1790

1799 Director of orphanage at Stans

1801 Publishes How Gertrude Teaches Her Children

1804–1825 Director of institute at Yverdon

1800 1810

1800–1804 Director of institute at Burgdorf

1820 1830

1827 Death at neuhof