Progressive Education

Pedagogical Movement: A Summary

• Progressive education is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present.

• The movement finds its roots in modern experience and aims to distinguish itself from traditional education that was rooted in classical preparation for the university and strongly differentiated by social class.

• Progressive education can be traced back to the works of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, both of whom are known as forerunners of ideas that would be developed by theorists such as John Dewey.

• Johann Bernhard Basedow, Christian Gotthilf Salzmann, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel, Johann Friedrich Herbart, John Melchior Bosco, Cecil Reddie, John Dewey, Helen Parkhurst, Rudolf Steiner, and Maria Montessori are some of the notable figures associated with the pedagogical movement.

• The movement emphasizes experiential learning, self-activity, play, and group activities as essential factors in child education.

• The teacher's role is not to indoctrinate but to encourage self-expression and guide students through their learning.

• The movement spread throughout the world, with Dalton education, Waldorf education, and Montessori education being some of the popular forms of progressive education.

• Traditional education uses extrinsic motivation, such as grades and prizes, while progressive education is more likely to use intrinsic motivation, basing activities on the interests of the child.

• 21st century skills, such as analytic reasoning, complex problem-solving, and teamwork, are associated with progressive education and deeper learning.

• Germany's Hermann Lietz and Edith and Paul Geheeb founded schools based on Reddie's model, while Poland's Janusz Korczak was a notable follower and developer of the pedagogical movement.

• The movement aims to develop a child's talents and prepare them for success in the rapidly changing, digital society and workplaces.

• The movement is a response to traditional methods of teaching, and it is defined as an educational movement that gives more value to experience than formal learning.History of Progressive Education

• The names of Pestalozzi, Froebel and Spencer discovered the unknown half of humanity: children, and exerted an influence on the educational process in other orphanages of the same type.

• The Quaker school in Ballitore, Co Kildare in the 18th century had students from as far away as Bordeaux, the Caribbean, and Norway.

• Sgoil Éanna, or St Enda's was founded in 1908 by Pádraig Pearse on Montessori principles.

• In Sweden, an early proponent of progressive education was Alva Myrdal.

• The ideas from Reddie's Abbotsholme spread to schools such as Bedales School, King Alfred School, London, and St Christopher School, Letchworth, as well as all the Friends' schools, Steiner Waldorf schools, and those belonging to the Round Square Conference.

• Alexander Sutherland Neill believed children should achieve self-determination and should be encouraged to think critically rather than blindly obeying.

• Margarethe Schurz founded the first kindergarten in the United States at Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1856, and she also inspired Elizabeth Peabody, who went on to found the first English-speaking kindergarten in the United States – the language at Schurz's kindergarten had been German, to serve an immigrant community – in Boston in 1860.

• William Heard Kilpatrick was a pupil of Dewey and one of the most effective practitioners of the concept as well as the more adept at proliferating the progressive education movement and spreading word of the works of Dewey.

• The most famous early practitioner of progressive education was Francis Parker; its best-known spokesperson was the philosopher John Dewey.

• In 1918, the National Education Association, representing superintendents and administrators in smaller districts across the country, issued its report "Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education."

• The Progressive Education Association founded by Stanwood Cobb and others worked to promote a more student-centered approach to education.

• Rabindranath Tagore was one of the most effective practitioners of the concept of progressive education.

• Seikatsu tsuzurikata is a grassroots movement in Japan that has many parallels to the progressive education movement.