Bringing the Froebel Approach to your Early Years Practice

Helen Tovey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138671164
• eBook ISBN: 9781317207214
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

Have you ever wondered about the origins of the kindergarten and the influence of Froebel on early years practice? What did Froebel mean by a garden for children? Why did he believe that play is central in young children's learning?

Bringing the Froebel Approach to your Early Years Practice looks at the founder of the kindergarten and his profound influence on provision and practice for young children today. The Froebelian approach is not a method but includes distinctive principles which shape and guide practice.

This new edition has been fully updated in line with the revised EYFS and includes:

• extra material on using the approach with children of different ages and the role of the adult
• a discussion of key Froebelian principles such as play, imagination, creativity, learning through self-activity and making connections
• an examination of block play and how this can be developed in contemporary settings
• Froebel's ideas on nature and outdoor play and why these are fundamental to young children's learning
• how Froebel used movement, song, rhythm and rhyme to provide key learning experiences

With examples of innovative practice and ideas for reflection, this convenient guide will help practitioners and students fully understand what the Froebel approach can offer their setting and children.

1	An introduction to a Froebelian approach

Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852), a nineteenth-century German educator, was arguably the most significant of the pioneers of early childhood education and care. He created the first kindergarten, a garden or nursery where young children could grow and develop at their own pace, nurtured by knowledgeable and supportive adults. This was at a time when there was almost no provision for young children. Froebel argued that the earliest years of a child’s life are the most important in a child’s education and lay the foundation for all later learning. Young children, he argued, learn best through self-activity, talk and play. These ideas, although widely accepted today, were radical concepts in Froebel’s time.

Although the word ‘kindergarten’ is widely known today, the name ‘Froebel’ is less well known. Yet many of the resources which we take for granted today – such as blocks, sand, water, clay, finger rhymes, painting and drawing and outdoor play – and practices such as observation-led planning and partnerships with parents and community are closely linked to Froebel’s ideas. He was unique in the way he integrated these resources and practices into a coherent pedagogical approach.

However, although many of Froebel’s ideas have become mainstream today, the values which underpin them are not always well understood, leading to widely differing interpretations and practices. This makes it all the more important to look at the broad principles which underpin Froebelian ideas and to consider them in relation to current practice.

An approach, not a method

A Froebelian approach is not a method. There is no formula or recipe to follow or set of equipment to purchase or prescribed curriculum to adhere to. Nor is it a series of ideas and activities which practitioners can dip in and out of. Rather it is a whole way of thinking about children and childhood, based on a set of values and principles. A Froebelian approach may resonate and overlap with other progressive approaches, but it also has some features which are distinctive.

A Froebelian approach

A Froebelian approach is underpinned by the key principles explained below. A more extensive list of Froebelian principles can be found in Appendix 1 (pp. 125–127).

Respect

A Froebelian approach is inherently respectful of young children. It views children as powerful learners, motivated from birth to explore, investigate and be curious about the world and to try, through their own efforts, to understand it. Education should build on this powerful urge to learn.

Connectedness

Learning should be meaningful and connected to children’s own experiences. It should not be divided up into subjects but should be experienced as a meaningful whole so that children can connect new ideas to what they already know. A view of the whole child is paramount, for everything is linked.

Play, talk and first-hand experiences

Play, talk and first-hand experiences are central to young children’s learning. Play integrates all learning and is the leading form of development in children, allowing them to operate at their highest level.

Creativity

Creativity is the essence of being human and is fundamental to learning. Creativity enables children to make connections between their inner world of feelings and ideas and their outer world of things and experiences, and to reflect on them both. Play, imagination and symbolic representation are important features of creativity.

Freedom and guidance

Free movement, free choice and self-activity are important, but they should be within a framework of guidance in which the role of the adult is crucial.

Play outdoors

Direct, everyday experience of the natural world outdoors is essential so that children can learn to appreciate its wonders and begin to understand the interrelationship between all living things. The nursery garden is a rich environment offering potential for all areas of learning.

Community

Nurseries and schools should be democratic, respectful communities of learners, where adults and children can learn from each other. They should be closely connected to the wider community of people and places.

Positive relationships

Relationships with children should be close, trusting, responsive, interactive and intellectually engaging. They should build on the positive characteristics of each individual child, extending what they can already do, rather than what they are not yet able to do.

Well-informed and qualified educators

The care and education of young children is essential to society. Young children are entitled to knowledgeable and well-qualified professionals who are deeply informed about and attuned to the distinctive nature of young children’s learning and development. Practitioners must constantly strive to develop their understanding through training, observation, research, reflection and discussion.

Froebelian principles today

Many of Froebel’s ideas are now part of mainstream thinking. For example, reference to the unique child, positive relationships, enabling environments, both indoors and outdoors, and strong partnerships can be found in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage in England (Department for Education 2014).

The characteristics of effective learning and teaching resonate strongly with Froebelian approaches. For example:

•    playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’;

•    active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements; and

•    creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

(DfE 2014: 9)

Froebelian educators use curriculum frameworks without following them slavishly. They make links between them and core Froebelian principles and practice. As Bruce, Louis and McCall (2015: xii) state – ‘curriculum frameworks must be used as a resource and never as a limiting straightjacket’.

However, there are also aspects of policy and practice today that do not reflect Froebel’s principles. For example, the current emphasis on ‘school readiness’ runs counter to Froebel’s belief that the best preparation for the next phase of learning is to have the richest and most appropriate experiences in the earlier phases, rather than just ‘preparing’ children for something to come.

It is also possible to find examples of practice which are far from Froebel’s principles, where learning is driven by outcomes and targets rather than children’s powerful urge to learn. Children can be hurried on to the next stage of learning, given activities which have little meaning for them, spend long periods of time sitting listening to adults, or be given dull, passive occupational activities. In some settings children spend much of their day indoors in plasticised environments, cut off from the natural world or from authentic first-hand experience.

Such practices are not compatible with a Froebelian approach, and serve as a reminder that at any time in history there is a need for advocates who can champion the rights of young children and seek to enrich their lives and learning.

Part of an evolving tradition of early childhood education

A Froebelian approach is not about looking back and trying to preserve outdated theories and practices from the past. Rather it is about deepening our understanding of the roots of current ideas and practices in ways which can help us move forward with more strength and confidence. It is part of a tradition of progressive ideas which has evolved over time. It is not a static, rigid approach.

Froebel himself drew on the ideas of Rousseau and Pestalozzi, as well as the prominent philosophers and writers of his day. Other pioneering educators – including Margaret McMillan, Susan Isaacs, Rudolph Steiner and Loris Malaguzzi – built on Froebel’s ideas but also developed their own distinctive features of philosophy and practice.

Froebel argued that that we should acknowledge past ideas, as it is from them that all new growth emerges:

We cannot tear the present from the past or from the future. Past, present and future are the trinity of time. The future demands the renewing of life, which must begin in the present. In the children lies the seed-corn of the future.

(Froebel, cited in Marenholtz-Bülow 1891: 4)

As you think about the ideas in this book and use them to reflect on, question and develop your practice, you can contribute to this rich tradition of ideas and help shape the ideas and practice of the future.

Using the Froebel approach to reflect on your practice

•    What are the key principles which shape your approach to children and families? How are they similar to or different from Froebelian principles?

•    What connections can you see between Froebelian principles and the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (Department for Education 2014)?

•    Where do your ideas come from? Who has been the biggest influence on your philosophy and practice?

2	Friedrich Froebel, his life and his ideas

I wanted to educate men to be free, to think, to take action for themselves.

(Froebel, in Lilley 1967: 41)

Froebel’s early life

Friedrich Froebel was born in 1782 in Oberweissbach, a small town in the Thuringian Forest in what is now Germany. His mother died when he was 8 months old and he spent a lonely, isolated early childhood, looked after by servants and his five older brothers. His father, a strict Lutheran pastor, was so occupied with his religious duties that he had little time to spend with the young Friedrich. It appears the young boy was often in trouble and could do little to please his father and stepmother. In his autobiography he refers to the ‘gloomy, lowering dawn’ of his early life (Froebel 1886: 9). His isolation was made worse by his stepmother’s indifference and eventual rejection of him. He became an introspective child, spending much time on his own in the parsonage garden, in close contact with the natural world of plants, birds and insects. Here he developed the lifelong love of nature which was to shape his educational ideas.

Friedrich’s life changed when, at 10 years old, he went to live with a maternal uncle. His uncle was also a pastor but more gentle and kind than Friedrich’s own father and someone who put a loving religion into practice, showing the young boy the patience and affection which had been lacking from his earlier life. Here he experienced much greater freedom, attending school, playing with boys of his own age and roaming the surrounding countryside. Froebel later claimed that the contrast between the two family environments had a profound effect on the growth of his educational ideas (Froebel 1886).

Figure 2.1 Friedrich Froebel as a young man

Froebel left school at 15 with an aptitude for mathematics and an inte...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Bringing the Froebel Approach to Your Early Years Practice
• Bringing . . . to Your Early Years Practice
• Title
• Copright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 An Introduction to a Froebelian Approach
• 2 Friedrich Froebel, His Life and His Ideas
• 3 A Froebelian Approach to Play and Learning
• 4 An Environment for Living and Learning
• 5 Resources and How They Are Used
• 6 The Nursery Garden and Play Outdoors
• 7 The Wider World of People and Places
• 8 Block Play
• 9 Movement, Song, Rhythm and Rhyme
• 10 Adult Roles and Relationships
• Appendix I: Key Principles Underpinning a Froebelian Approach
• Appendix II: Further Information About Froebel and a Froebelian Approach
• References
• Index