Biography of johann heinrich pestalozzi theory

(1746–1827)

The founder of what became known as the ‘Pestalozzi Method’ for the education of young children, Zurich‐born Pestalozzi believed that children should learn through activity and through the handling and use of material objects rather than simply through words. He argued that children should be encouraged to follow their own interests, make their own discoveries, and draw their own conclusions. In this, he was exploring and developing the educational ideas of Rousseau, and particularly Rousseau's recognition of the potential conflict between the pursuit of individual freedom and the necessity for civic responsibility. His approach emphasizes the importance of allowing children room for spontaneity and the freedom to generate their own ideas and activities, and of allowing them to arrive at their own answers. In order that they may do this, their ability to reason, judge, and perceive for themselves must be nurtured and encouraged. In this sense, his method has much in common with the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education which was developed in Italy over a century later. A key underlying principle of the Pestalozzi approach is that it is not enough to provide children with an education which is purely cognitive or intellectual; that they should be given a balanced, whole‐child approach to learning based upon psychomotor, affective, and cognitive development, or, in Pestalozzi's phraseology, ‘hands, heart, and head’.

Pestalozzi developed the concept of Anschauung, or object lesson, which was the principle that no word should be employed until it was thoroughly understood by concrete observation or perception, whether it referred to a material object, an action, or a means of distinguishing one thing from another. From this his proponents have developed principles which inform much of modern‐day pedagogic practice at all levels, such as the necessity, in effective teaching, of starting with the concrete before

In the history of education, the significant contributions of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi are (1) his educational philosophy and instructional method that encouraged harmonious intellectual, moral, and physical development; (2) his methodology of empirical sensory learning, especially through object lessons; and (3) his use of activities, excursions, and nature studies that anticipated Progressive education.

Career and Development of Educational Theory

The development of Pestalozzi's educational theory is closely tied to his career as an educator. Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Pestalozzi was the son of Johann Baptiste Pestalozzi, a middle-class Protestant physician, and Susanna Hotz Pestalozzi. Pestalozzi's grandfather, Andreas Pestalozzi, a minister in the rural village of Hongg, inspired his evolving philanthropic mission to uplift the disadvantaged Swiss peasantry.

Pestalozzi, who had an overly protected and isolated childhood, considered himself to be socially inept and physically uncoordinated as an adult. His formal education was in institutions in Zurich. He first attended a local primary school and then took the preparatory course in Latin and Greek at the Schola Abbatissana and the Schola Carolina. His higher education was at the Collegium Humanitatis and the Collegium Carolinum, where he specialized in languages and philosophy.

With other university students, Pestalozzi was influenced by Jean Jacques Bodmer, an historian and literary critic, whose reformist ideology urged regenerating Swiss life by renewing the rustic values of the Swiss mountaineers. Pestalozzi joined the Helvetic Society, an association committed to Bodmer's ideals, and wrote for The Monitor, a journal critical of Zurich's officials. Pestalozzi was jailed briefly for his activities, which the authorities deemed subversive.

In 1767 Pestalozzi studied scientific agriculture with Johann Rudolf Tschiffeli, a physiocrat and experimental farmer near Kirch

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (January 12, 1746 – February 17, 1827) was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer, who greatly influenced the development of the educational system in Europe and America. Not only was he an innovative teacher, but he was also committed to social reform, and carried out several humanitarian projects involving children orphaned during war. His educational method emphasizes the importance of providing a loving, family-type environment in which the child can grow and flourish naturally, becoming a whole person balancing their intellectual, physical, and technical abilities, with emotional, moral, ethical, and religious growth. According to Pestalozzi, when individuals are well educated in this way, social improvement and regeneration occurs.

Although his ideas were adopted with considerable initial success in many parts of the world, the social problems he sought to solve continued, and even his own schools were unable to maintain the harmonious "family" atmosphere he advocated, finally closing due to bitter disputes and conflicts among the teachers that lasted several years. Without solving the problematic relationships within families, which, after his time, increasingly led to divorce and family breakdown, his educational method was doomed to suffer the same failures.

Life

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was born in Zürich, Switzerland on January 12, 1746. His father died when Johann was only five, and his mother raised Johann and his sister alone. Johann started his formal education rather late, at the age of nine, but successfully completed school on time. He initially enrolled to study ministry at the University of Zürich, but due to his shyness he decided to switch his major from theology to law.

At the University of Zürich, Pestalozzi met Johann Kasper Lavater and the reform party. He entered the world of politics. However, the death of his friend Johann Kasper Bluntschli turned him from

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi: pedagogy, education and social justice. His commitment to social justice, interest in everyday forms and the innovations he made in schooling practice make Pestalozzi a fascinating focus for study.

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746 – 1827). Born in Zurich, Pestalozzi took up Rousseau’s ideas and explored how they might be developed and implemented. His early experiments in education (at Neuhof) ran into difficulties but he persisted and what became known as the ‘Pestalozzi Method’ came to fruition in his school at Yverdon (established in 1805). Instead of dealing with words, he argued, children should learn through activity and through things. They should be free to pursue their own interests and draw their own conclusions (Darling 1994: 18).

I wish to wrest education from the outworn order of doddering old teaching hacks as well as from the new-fangled order of cheap, artificial teaching tricks, and entrust it to the eternal powers of nature herself, to the light which God has kindled and kept alive in the hearts of fathers and mothers, to the interests of parents who desire their children grow up in favour with God and with men. (Pestalozzi quoted in Silber 1965: 134)

Pestalozzi goes beyond Rousseau in that he sets out some concrete ways forward – based on research. He tried to reconcile the tension, recognized by Rousseau, between the education of the individual (for freedom) and that of the citizen (for responsibility and use). He looks to ‘the achievement of freedom in autonomy for one and all’ Soëtard 1994: 308).

His initial influence on the development of thinking about pedagogy owes much a book he published in 1801: How Gertrude Teaches Her Children – and the fact that he had carried his proposals through into practice. He wanted to establish a ‘psychological method of instruction’ that was in line with the ‘laws of human nature. As a result he placed a