THE CHILD-CENTERED

PHILOSOPHY OF
EDUCATION
 The Meaning of Child-Centered Education

 The Child-centered education finds the chief value of education in the child.

 In a child-centred education, the school curriculum is selected and organized according to

the psychological principles of learning that stresses child interests, child motivation, and
child activity.

 The learning situation is based upon the experiences of the child.

 The teacher must direct and guide the learner at his own rate of space or according to his
ability to learn.

 The child-centered philosophy is based on the educational concept that the child is the
center of the educative process.

 The starting principle of teaching deals with the nature of the child to be educated.

The great philosophers

 Jean Jacques Rousseau

 Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

 Edward Thorndike

 John Dewey

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

 The first writer to insist that education shall be based upon the nature of the child.

 Rousseau believed that the process of education should gravitate around the child.

 He stated further that the nature of the child rather than the logical order of the subject-
matter should determine the nature of teaching.
JOHANN HEINRICH PESTALOZZI

 Like Rousseau, Pestalozzi “emphasized the importance of the nature of the child and that
the child must be thought of in relation to the subject-matter.”

 He sought to understand the nature of the children and to build his teaching around the
natural, progressive, and harmonious development of all the powers and capabilities of the
human being.

 The child’s original nature or what he inherits is the capital with which education must
work. His intelligence, attitudes, interests, and desires underline the educative process.

EDWARD THORNDIKE

 Thorndike recognizes the nature of the child as the first principle of all education

 His acquisition of knowledge, his formation of habits and skills, and his development of
abilities and attitudes are conditioned and limited by his biological equipment.

 The innate tendencies become avoidable as a drive to teaching or stimulates to learning.

 It is the function of the school to provide the necessary conditions and opportunities by
which these innate tendencies can be developed and applied.

JOHN DEWEY

 He is also in agreement with those who believed that education should center on individual
child, but he takes the view that the child must be considered as a member of the group.

 This point of view has led to the development of what is generally known as the “Child-
centered School”.

 Insight into the child’s nature and sympathy with the child’s life are really essential to
efficient and successful teaching.
 The Whole Child the Center of Teaching

 As child is the center of education, development of the mind, body and spirit of the child
should be reflected in the program and planning of education.

10 Essential Characteristics of a Child- Centered Education

1. Dignity of the child.

The spirit of child-centred education upholds the dignity of the child in the academic and
social fabric. Such a system of education gives due respect to the individuality of the child.
2. No Discrimination.

Child-centred education is above caste, creed, sex and economic and social background of
the child. There is no place for discrimination of any kind in child-centred education.
3. Education-The Fundamental Right

Child-centred education regards education as the fundamental right of every child. Every
child is educable, no matter whatever is his social and economic background.
4. Curriculum, Syllabi, Teaching

In child-centred education, curriculum, syllabi and teaching are organised in accordance

with the needs and interests of children.
5. All-around Development of the Child.

Child-centred education aims at total, all-round development of children. So, teaching

styles and techniques should be geared to the well being of the child which leads to his
cognitive, affective and cognitive development.
6. Positive Discipline.

Child-centred education aims at positive discipline. While enforcing rules of discipline,

child's dignity and individuality must be respected. The modes of punishment should not
violate the basic human values.
Teachers who indulge in such inhuman acts of punishment must be brought to the door
of justice. Child-centred education condemns such misbehaviour on the part of inhuman
teachers.
 7. Continuous Evaluation.

Under child-centred system of education, the evaluation procedures should be continuous

and remedial. Child's deficiencies are identified and remedial measures are instituted in
progressive manner.
8. Helping Every Child to Acquire Minimum Level of Learning.

In child-centred system of education, teachers are more inclined to help children actualize
their potential. In the words of G.L. Arora, "A teacher making use of child-centred
approach ensures that each and every child acquires the minimum level of competencies
in all the subjects."
9. Not Soft-Pedagogy.

Child-centred approach is not 'soft- pedagogy'. It is creating a child-centred ethos in the

school under which child's right to education must be recognised. He should be helped to
nurture and realise his creative potential.
10. Child - The Nucleus.

In child-centred approach to education, j it is child who is the nucleus of the whole

system. It is child who is to be educated. The teacher and all other agencies of education
are really means to educate the child.

The Teacher is Important Too.

The child-centred approach to education in no way minimizes the importance of the teacher. In a
way, the teacher's importance is enhanced and his functions become varied and complex. He has
to study the child psychologically and has to adopt his methods of teaching to suit individual
differences. In spite of transmitting knowledge alone, his function now is to develop the entire
personality of the child.
 Developing the Nature of the Child

 To make teaching effective and learning productive, the teacher must know the nature of
the child to be stimulated, directed, guided, and evaluated. To understand the child the
teacher must :

 Know him as a biological organism with needs, abilities, and goods

 Know the social and psychological environment of the child and;

 Know the cultural forces of which he is a part.

 The behaviour of the child at any given amount is the result of biological environment
factors operating simultaneously.

 The child behaves as he does because he is a human being with needs and motives, and
because he is surrounded by environmental and cultural forces which determine his
behaviour, and help meet these needs and motives.

 Human nature is highly modifiable and teachers have crucial roles to play in the process of
producing changes in children’s behaviour.

 It cannot be denied that what children are to become depends upon influences arising
from the school and other educational agencies like the home and the church.

 To consider the child first, it would bewell to bear in mind that in the early years the prime
social influence will be the family.

 To a great, extent family influences will be beyond the scope of the teacher even though
she may consider them unsatisfactory.

 It is highly desirable, however, that she be aware of the social background of the pupils.
Only by being so aware can she really come to grips with the problems and possibilities of
her pupils in the classroom.

 A teacher who is aware of the influence of environmental stimulation on development of

the child will not just wait for the abilities of her children to appear, she will realize that the
quality of their learning depends upon very largely on the quality of experiences she
provides for them in the classroom.

 She will therefore not wait on maturation for development but will anticipate it in her
teaching in the realization that she is creating a condition for that development.

 Good teaching, she will remember, is that which outpaces development.

 In practical classroom terms their means that while the children are mastering one stage,
the teacher is looking to the next and at same time preparing for the ground for the
children to move ahead, but will seek to provide the conditions to make them ready.

 The teacher will also adopt a similar approach to the question of intelligence. She will be
able to see the I.Q obtained by an individual test as a diagnostic guide, but she will not
regard it as a natural ceiling of the child’s ability.

With such outlook the teacher will avoid the practice of explaining educational failure as
being due to dullness or low I.Q.
 The teacher must bear in mind that intelligence is not a fixed quantity.

She will understand that I.Q is a measure of current performance which can be improved
by good teaching.
 Educational Concepts based on the Nature of the Child

The educational concepts based on the nature of the child are the following:

1. The learner is an active organism who must be stimulated, directed and guided toward the
realization of all inherent potentialities, thereby becoming a worthy member of a
democratic society.

Educational aims, methods and techniques must be geared to the ability, needs, and
interest of the learner.
2. The learner must be the centre of educative process.

The learner’s original nature must be the starting point of his education. Teaching is
effective when it is based on the psychology of learning, making the learner as the centre of
educative process.
3. The growth and development of the learner is orderly and unified.

The teacher must work with the whole child who grows as a whole, not just on his mental
or emotional development.
4. Each learner is the product of his own peculiar heredity and environment.

The teacher must understand the distinctive growth patterns and developmental
characteristics of each learner and their effect upon his behaviour. Each learner thus be
provided for in special ways, not only as to single, immediate needs, but as to total future
needs.
5. There is a high correlation between mental and physical growth of the learner as measure on
the basis of chronological age. Growth is continuous in all areas of mental and physical
activities.

This fact must be taken into consideration in selecting and organizing educational activities
and projects.
6. Each learner must be considered a unit individual and as a member of the supervisors in
planning and implementing growth programs, and in evaluating the outcomes.

Some pupils can be stimulated to move along at a more rapid rate that others, since there
are variations in all around maturity from pupil to pupil.
 7. The innate tendencies or power of the learner can be used as drivers for individual work
and as stimulus to learning.

Some innate tendencies can also be utilized to stimulate group activities and to establish a
sound spirit of true sportsmanship and fair play.
8. The innate tendencies of the learner can be used by the teacher to direct the learner in
such a way that they will produce activities that will lead to further activities.

9. The nature of the child must be made the basis of the formulation of the immediate and
ultimate aims of education.

If the aim of education is to lead the learner grow in terms of knowledge, habits, skills,
abilities, and attitudes, his original nature should be the starting point in the endeavour to
accomplish his growth and development.
10. The nature of the child rather than the nature of the subject-matter should determine the
nature of teaching. Likewise, the type of teaching to be used is also determined by the type
of learning involved in the process.

Different types of learning calls for different types of teaching methods and techniques.
11. Each pupil differs greatly within himself in his potentiality to learn. This psychological
concept is based on the principle of individual differences or the principle of trait
differences.

The teacher should not expect the learner to achieve equally in all school subjects and
activities. Ability grouping as practiced in some schools is a violation of the principle of
individual differences or trait differences, unless such grouping is done separately for each
subject.
12. It is an accepted fact that each individual is created with the power to create. In other
words, all pupils possess creative ability, but in different degrees.

Creativeness can be developed in the classroom if the pupils are given freedom to be
creative. It is an accepted fact that we can only creative if we are free from preconceived
standards set up by the teacher. The school curricula must be organized to encourage
creativeness of the learners.