The Concept of Learning in Waldorf Education
Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: Since the dawn of Western culture a prime concern of all thinkers – from philosophers to psychologists, education theorists and, most recently, neuroscientists – has been the nature of the process of learning and its significance in human life. The Aristotelian and Platonic interpretations of the process with their slant either towards experience or idea were extended in the direction of Christian eschatology in the Middle Ages. The aim and purpose of learning was to bring about closeness to God and liberation from sin (on the development of the concept of learning, see Meyer-Drawe 2008b). During the Enlightenment the reason-endowed individual stepped into the foreground, and this carried with it the implication of learnerautonomy. Kant’s “sapere aude”: “have the courage to avail yourself of your own reason” became the new imperative of learning. As a result of this emphasis upon reason (Vernunft) as the goal, the process of learning came to be thought of in strictly rational terms, thus creating the need for a scientific theory of learning. The “Formalstufentheorie” of Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841) and his followers came to set the tone of educational method, in that they formulated strictly defined rules establishing what was acceptable learning and teaching (Geissler, 2007). Through the work of Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) and John B. Watson (1878-1958), based on the theory of behaviourism, the science of learning achieved an empirical breakthrough. Their results were mainly arrived at through animal experiments. Behaviourism construes learning as a process of conditioning, arising from strictly defined stimulus-response patterns. A further approach to the theory of learning was provided by cognitive psychology. The main protagonists here are Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and Leo Semionovich Vygotski (1896-1934) Both investigated the structural components of human understanding and, in relation to the phases of psychological development, pursued the question of how understanding is generated. In this connection, Piaget envisaged inherent logical structures, whereas Vygotski explained specific forms of understanding and learning in terms of sociocultural factors, especially language.
Source: Research on Steiner education
Author: Jost Schieren
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1604146950