Student-directed teaching is a product of research done by Don and Anne Green, who work in the Canadian education system.
Nascent in the progressive philosophy is a feeling that education has remained unchanged for far too long: since its inception, in fact, a century and a half ago.[when?]
Although it affects everyone, it is most noticeable in children: ultimately, the institution of mass schooling has been unable to keep up with the changes dictated by the intense proliferation of knowledge.
[2] Even then, it was evident that schooling had a "hidden" agenda: to ensure that "youth readily accept the developing religious, political and social patterns and become good citizens of the state and of the newly established church" (Kotin & Aikman, qtd in Grant 166).
[2] The compulsory schooling movement in the 1850s was led by Horace Mann and by Sears and Harper of the University of Chicago and by Thorndyke of Columbia Teachers College.
Because of the newfound freedom and wealth promoted in the United States, the middle of the 19th century was a period of great immigration: [Horace Mann] lived at a time of tremendous social change when immigrants were pouring into the Northeastern states, farmers were leaving rural areas to work in factories, and cities were growing rapidly with crime and poverty on the rise... Mann and other reformers were alarmed by the upheaval, and promoted state regulated public education as a way to bring order and discipline to the working class in this rapidly changing society.
Threatened by the growing population of urban poor, Mann and his fellow reformers placed a major emphasis on "moral training," standardization and classroom drill.
While the Industrial Revolution did indeed speed up many production cycles, it also created a vacuum within the warehouses, which necessarily had to be filled by trained human activity: the machines still needed people behind them to direct the work.
In the 1850s, Mann and his fellow reformers began the standardization and systematization of public education: "(a) All children received the same social and political ideology, (b) schools were an instrument of public policy that aimed at fixing society's problems, and (c) state agencies were created to control local schools.
Mill (1859/1978) in their claim that "schooling aims, as it has for a very long time, to inculcate just those habits, attitudes, and skills that legitimate it in the eyes of powerful economic interests" (p.
[5] Spring (1974) agrees: "Schooling means... shaping the total character of the individual to meet the political and economic demands of the state" (p.
[8] Reitman (1992) also sees American education as the result of struggle between incompatible goals: promoting democracy, supporting economic competitiveness, and teaching moral values.
In Task, the student will demonstrate his/her ability to select the amount, kind and complexity of the practice to be done to complete the objectives.
Students who choose this style must be able to teach each other, to engage in discussion, and then come to a consensus, to stay focused and to make good decisions about the practice necessary to master the objectives.
In Earned Time, a student can work in an area of high interest, demonstrating high-level thinking and new learning.
The choice is not not to work, but rather to take part in a passion area directly related to the student's ability and interest.
The idea behind the Community of Learners is premised on the notion that "in [this] environment children take charge of their learning, as their strengths and gifts rise to their potential.
The children are free to move around the classroom, interacting with their peers, teacher and available resources equally and indiscriminately.
Anne Green arranges her Community of Learners in the following manner: ...children's desks, or home base (as they call it), are arranged in a circle, leaving a wonderful free area in the centre of impromptu mime, plays, dance , and groups gathering to hear a story, song, or poem woven into the learning... the outer edge of the classroom accommodates painting, music, books, manipulatives, children's projects, and small groups of students, parents and the teacher, all of whom can slip in and out of the center to mediate or join the ongoing learning.
The Waldorf method of education is based on Rudolf Steiner's concept of anthroposophy, where learning is interdisciplinary, integrates practical, artistic and conceptual elements, and is coordinated with the rhythms of life.
The Waldorf method, despite its efforts to improve education holistically differs in that there is still a set program to follow, flexible as it may be.