Parents would always want only the best for their children. And while there is no manual that answers all our questions on how to raise happy, productive, and compassionate humans, there are schools of thought that can help us in our daily parenting.
When it comes to our children’s learning styles, we found out there are different types—auditory, visual, or tactile. Apart from these concepts, there are several methods of education practiced around the world. Here’s a quick guide on what would better fit your child’s needs, your goals, and your lifestyle as a family.
1. Montessori
The century-old Montessori Education “fosters rigorous, self-motivated growth for children and adolescents in all areas of their development—cognitive, emotional, social, and physical,” according to the American Montessori Society. The child-centric education system was founded by Italian physician Dr. Maria Montessori, who once said, “Free the child's potential, and you will transform him into the world.”
The Montessori method has key executions: how the classrooms are arranged (learners are usually free-seating, or on the floor), has prepared environments suitable to kids’ age and height, specific or open-ended learning tools, and an area conducive for acquiring real-world skills, among others. Trained Montessori teachers and licensed Montessori institutions are also expected to enforce the following:
- Multi-age classroom
- Use Montessori materials (hands-on approach to learning)
- Child-directed work (fostering independence)
- Uninterrupted work period (free choice for children to work at their own pace)
2. Waldorf Steiner
This system of learning, based on the philosophy espoused by Rudolf Steiner, seeks to cultivate values and is highly structured based on the learner’s age.
Steiner schools follow these four stages:
- Early Years (3 – 6)
- Lower School ( 6 – 11)
- Middle School (11 – 14)
- Upper School (16 – 18)
Students begin formal learning like writing, reading, and numeracy at age 6, which is not a norm in the Philippines. The idea is to let children “develop speech, coordination, and their relationship to themselves, others and the world around them during the pre-school years and in Kindergarten.”
In this style, a teacher's assessment is very crucial too because he or she “stays with one group of pupils for up to eight years in the lower school and his or her knowledge of the child is therefore very extensive,” according to the Steiner Waldorf Foundation.
3. Reggio Emilia
This educational system has a pluralist approach, and is based on “the image of a child with strong potentialities for development and a subject with rights, who learns through the hundred languages belonging to all human beings, and grows in relations with others.”
According to its official website, this learning concept advocates the idea that education comes in different forms and points of view, but “based on mutual respect, valuing the diversity of identities, competencies, and knowledge held by each individual and is therefore qualified as secular and open to exchange and cooperation.”
It is also driven by a poem written by Loris Malaguzzi, "No way. The Hundred is There," which emphasizes that a child “equipped with 100 languages” is at the center of learning.
4. The High Scope Method
The curriculum of schools using this method is often guided by the following content: Approaches to Learning, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development and Health, Language, Literacy, and Communication, Mathematics, Creative Arts, Science and Technology, and Social Studies.
This learning method is hinged on the following key elements:
- Adult-Child Interaction, which encourages “shared” control and uses encouragement instead of praise
- Learning Environment, which must be “predictable,” a teacher-arranged classroom equipped with “diverse, open-ended materials that reflect children’s home, culture, and language”
- Daily Routine, which offers a “balanced variety of experiences and learning opportunities,” and follows a “plan-do-review sequence, in which children make decisions about what they will do, carry out their ideas, and reflect upon their activities with adults and other children.”
- Assessment, which is composed of “objective anecdotal observations of children collected throughout children’s natural play.”
5. Multiple Intelligence
Schools adhering to this learning style use the theoretical framework developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner, who advocated that intelligence should not be based on IQ alone. Hence, for children to be able to maximize their potential, they should be exposed to ways that would enhance various forms of intelligence such as:
- Linguistic intelligence (“word smart”)
- Logical-mathematical intelligence (“number/reasoning smart”)
- Spatial intelligence (“picture smart”)
- Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence (“body smart”)
- Musical intelligence (“music smart”)
- Interpersonal intelligence (“people smart”)
- Intrapersonal intelligence (“self smart”)
- Naturalist intelligence (“nature smart”)
The Multiple Intelligence system encourages parents and educators to find where the learner would thrive most, instead of forcing children to meet previously set standards.
This does not however mean information or activity overload.
“You don’t have to teach or learn something in all eight ways, just see what the possibilities are, and then decide which particular pathways interest you the most, or seem to be the most effective teaching or learning tools,” according to the US Institute for Learning.
Where does your child fit? Where would your little learner enjoy the most? Check out trial classes or get ideas from parenting groups and mom-buddies. You may also explore some class offerings on Edamama.
