Learning in the Early Years

Samantha Stanley

Unit 4 – Learning in the Early Years!

Task 2

This assignment identifies they key ideas and work of Margaret McMillan, Maria Montession, Rudolph Steiner and Fredrich Froebel. To discuss how those early educators have influenced current early years practice and to identify to ways in which current provision and practice is influenced by the work of the early educators.

Margaret McMillan (1860 – 1931)

Margaret McMillan believed in active learning through first-hand experiences and emphasised feelings and relationships aswel as physical aspects of movement and learning. She believed that children become whole people through play. She thought play helps them to apply what they know and understand. Margaret McMillan emphasised the importance of a close partnership with parents: she encouraged parents to develop alongside their children. Her most important achievement is to have been described as the ‘godmother’ of school meals and the school medical services. She believed that children are unable to learn if they are undernourished, poorly clothed, sick etc. To be described as the ‘godmother’ Margaret McMillan began a campaign to improve the health of children by arguing that local authorities should install bathrooms, improve ventilation and supply free school meals, eventually the House of Commons became convinced that hungry children cannot learn and passed the 1906 Provision of School Meals Act. Margaret McMillan pioneered nursery schools, which she saw as an extension of, not a substitute for home and as communities in themselves. She emphasised the value of open air and introduced gardens for families to play and explore.

Margaret McMillan has had a powerful influence on the provision of nursery education in the UK. Today children are given access wherever possible to outdoor areas and encouraged to make gardens and use natural materials. Early years settings give opportunities for children’s physical, social, imaginative and creative play and encourage expression of feelings. Active learning is encouraged through provision of a wide range of materials and equipment. Margaret McMillan’s views on the nursery school as a community are followed through today as parents are invited into schools and seen as partners in the care and education of their children. School ...

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Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952)

Maria Montessori was a doctor who spent a lot of her life observing children especially those with special needs. To Maria Montessori children are seen as active learners who go through sensitive periods in their development when they are more open to learning particular shills and concepts. Montessori did not think there was a need for adult correction. Children are seen not seen as part of a community but work largely on their own in a quiet and peaceful environment of total concentration. Little parental evolvement is encouraged. Maria Montessori did not see the point in play; she did not encourage children to have their own ideas until they had worked through all her graded learning sequences: she did not believe that they were able to do free drawing or creative work of any kind until they had done this. Maria Montessori designed a set of what she called didactic materials which encouraged children to use their hands. Her approach moved children through simple to complex exercises. For her, the highest moment in a child’s learning was what she called ‘the polarisation of the attention’. This is when the child is completely silent and absorbed in what they are doing.

Mainstream provision sees the child as an active learner and some of Maria Montessori’s ideas and materials are used, such as particular shapes, e.g. small, medium and large shapes. Although Maria Montessori believed that children should work alone and that this would help the children to become independent learners, the mainstream practice would not usually leave children to work through activities alone but encourages group work and intervention by adults to scaffold the learning process.

Rudolph Steiner (1861 – 1925)

Steiner believed in childhood as being a special phase of life and that the children need a protected environment where all-round development can take place. Rudolph Steiner emphasised the spiritual, moral, social, artistic and creative and the need to care for each other. He did not emphasise what is taught but how and when. He believed that young children need to be protected from formal learning and learn through imaginative and creative play using simple tasks and activities with natural materials. To Rudolph Steiner what the child eats and the symbolic behaviour of the child is very important. Rudolph Steiner never went against the temperament of the child, he always went with it. Rudolph Steiner’s curriculum is very powerful for children with special educational needs who can integrate because other children are actively helped to care about them.

In Steiner schools, the learning opportunities are often repeated as many times as necessary so that all children are confident including those with special needs. At the Steiner schools establishing relationships is valued and reaching out to the community is considered as part of the nursery’s role. Mainstream settings believe in early childhood as a unique phase of life that is more than just preparation for adulthood and that the individual child’s needs and personality are important. Mainstream settings consider the how and when the process of learning occurs but also the content. Although they do not emphasise the spiritual importance as much as Rudolph Steiner did.

Friedrich Froebel (1782 – 1852)

Friedrich Froebel emphasised the importance of physical activity and exploration involving real experiences, especially creative play, finger plays, songs and rhymes. He stressed the importance of making one thing stand for another, i.e. symbolism. He stated how symbolic behaviour is best developed through play, especially imaginative and pretend play. Friedrich Froebel developed play activities and materials to promote symbolic play. He called these play materials ‘the gifts’. Activities such as songs, movements and dancing were called ‘the occupations’. Froebel recognised that parents are the child’s first educator and stated that teachers should be like ‘mothers’ to young children. Froebel thought that children learned outdoors in the garden aswel as indoors. He encouraged movement, games and the study of natural science in the garden. He thought that children should have the freedom of movement, clothes which were easy to move about in, and sensible food which was not too rich. He thought that children’s best thinking is done when they are playing. Froebel placed great emphasis on ideas, feelings and relationships. Relationships with other children were as important as relationships with adults.

Current mainstream settings encourage learning through first-hand experiences and play remains central to provision for children’s learning, including language development through rhymes and finger plays. He emphasised the expressive arts, mathematics, literature, the natural sciences, creativity and aesthetic (beautiful) things.

Current mainstream provision places emphasise on positive relationships and social development and values parent and carer partnerships.

The early educator which has had the most extensive influence and affect on current practice is Friedrich Froebel. Most mainstream early year’s provision in the UK is based on Froebelian principles. Children’s development is encouraged through provision of a wide range of materials and activities tailored to the needs of the individual child.

The current best practice emphasises Friedrich Froebel‘s beliefs that creativity, science and the humanities are important, these are now integrated across curriculum areas. Friedrich Froebel allowed children to use the ‘Gifts’ and ‘Occupations’ as they wished, with out having to do set tasks of the kind that adults usually asked of them. In the current practice this is known as free-flow play, this occurs for an average of 80% of a child’s day at nursery.

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