Child-centred education

222 Pages·1970·7.632 MB·English

by  Harold Entwistle

Child-centred Education

Child-centred Education
HAROLD ENTWISTLE
METHUEN & CO LTD
11 New Fetter Lane· London EC+
First published 1970
by Methutn & Co. Ltd
@ 1970 Harold Entwistle
Printed in Great Britain
by Ebeneur Baylis & Son Ltd
The Trinity Press
W oraster and London
SBN 416 IS760 I
Normal
LBI025.2 .E5 1970
38052000017720
Distributed in the U.S.A.
by Barnes & Noble Inc.
for Giles

Contents
1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2 INTRODUCTION: CHILD-CENTRED
EDUCATION 11
2 THE INDIVIDUAL CHILD 22
The justification of individual education
The limitations of individual education
THE CHILD AND SOCIETY 32
Social education and the individual
Social education in a democracy
4 THE FREE CHILD 48
Freedom and constraint in education
Regulatory constraints and school democracy
Disciplinary constraints in education
Authority in education
Discipline and self-discipline in school
THE EDUCATED CHILD 77
Education as a preparation?
Scientific and spontaneous concept
attainment
The developmental curriculum and the
present-future antithesis
6 THE CHILD AND THE CURRICULUM 95
'We teach children, not subjects'
Natural or artificial learning?
The curriculum and the integrity of
experience
Subjects and integrated studies
Curricular integration through subj~ct
studies
8 Cot~lrnts
7 EDUCATION FOR LIFE 120
Educational utilitarianism
Educational activity for its own sake
Educational activity for the learner's sake
Culturally valuable activities
Education for lifelong life
8 THE CHILD AS AGENT OF HIS OWN
EDUCATION 142
Child-<:entred education as anti-didactic
Learning as a problem solving activity
Learning by doing
9 THE TEACHER AS AGENT OF CHILD-
CENTRED EDUCATION 155
The limitations of child-<:entred learning
metaphors
Teachers or teaching machines?
JO TEACHER TRAINING AND CHILD
EDUCATION 172
11 CHILD-CENTRED EDUCATION IN THEORY
AND PRACTICE 185
Limitations imposed by the institutionaliz-
tion of education
Sociological impediments to child-<:entred
education
The limitations of experimental education
Educational theory and the attitudes of
teachers
The primacy of educational practice
12 CONCLUSION: LEARNER-CENTRED
EDUCATION 203
APPENDIX A note on Whitehead's principle
of rhythm in education 21.'1
INDEX 219
Acknowledgements
This text is an adaptation of materials forming part of a Ph. D.
thesis, The Concept of Activity in Education, accepted by the
University of London in 1966. In rewriting this material for a
more general readership I have had the benefit of valuable
critical comments from the following friends and colleagues who
have read all or parts of the manuscript: jeanette Coltham,
Ken Dagnall, David Hargreaves, Eric Hoyle, Philip Jackson,
John Naylor, Geof Roberts, Raymond Ryba, Phi! Walking
and Keith Whalley. My grateful thanks are due to these and
to my wife, who has also assisted with the numerous secretarial
chores inseparable from work of this kind.