Steiner Waldorf Approach

This context of learning was made by Rudolf Steiner. He was born in Austria in 1861 and Died in 1925. He was a writer as well as a lecturer that took on many subjects. Steiner was the man to first come up with Anthroposophy. This is a spiritual movement that basically states that a child’s moral, spiritual and creative aspects need as much as their intellectual side of them. He didn’t simply want people to believe all that he was saying and just disregard it with an acceptance, but he wanted to people to really understand what he wrote about.

According to SWSF (2014) ‘The first Steiner school opened in Stuttgart in 1919 for children of workers at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory’. This is not really a very usual way in which a context begins, but it gives the history of this context some substance and some usefulness. This type of learning, has lots of controversial sides to it. They tend to be small schools that gathered lots of ideas from Piaget, which is interesting. This context focuses on adults being the models, they do not give out direct instruction to the children but they have the freedom to just ‘get on with it’. The Steiner Waldorf schools have different routines during the day that makes Mainstream schools much more different from them. 

SWSF (2014) explain that the main priorities of the whole approach is to give children an ‘unhurried and creative learning environment where children can find the joy in learning and experience the richness of childhood rather than early specialisation or academic hot-housing’. 
I feel that this concept is a really good one, it has a holistic approach also, they focus on the pupil's learning rather than fuss with the details. Although some would say that this approach to learning is a bit unorganised and doesn't really provide pupils with a professional feeling. The teachers are facilitators, they do not give out instructions often, the pupils have freedom with their learning which is something that maybe mainstream schools could take on board. But with saying that, it's not always right to do that, there will be times that pupils need concrete guidance, which they may or may not get from the teachers which is disadvantage. 

According to Jill Tina Taplin (cited in Miller, L and Pound, L) 'throughout this lower school period, the children will stay in their own mixed-ability class with their peer group. It is normal for the class teacher who joins them in class one, to stay with that class as long as possible, up to class eight'. This basically states that the teachers that they have in the first year, will be their peer group teacher all the way until they leave the school, which is good in a way because it gives the pupils to have more of a relationship and a bond with the teacher, which can only end in mutual respect which makes for a happy learning environment and a healthy, supportive atmosphere. But if the whole bonding process doesn't take off, and the pupils don't really like that particular teacher, it means that they cannot do anything about it, they are stuck with them day in day out. 

I think that overall, this context is a really good chance for pupils to learn but as I have discussed, there are flaws with it. 


Reference List


Miller,L and Pound, L (2011) Theories and Approaches to Learning in the Early Years. London: Sage. (Accessed in 9th December). 

SWSF. (2014) ‘What is Steiner Education?’http://www.steinerwaldorf.org/steiner-education/what-is-steiner-education/ (Accessed: 2th of December 2014)