Why do otherwise?

The advent of active pedagogies

Education is at the heart of our lives. It is one of the foundations of our societies. It guarantees the sustainability of our values, our cultures, our civilizations.

As parents, the education of our children is at the heart of our concerns. Because we want the best for them and do everything we can so that they grow up and become independent, responsible, happy and fulfilled adults.

For millennia, many educators, from Socrates to New Education, have addressed the question of how to make education better.

In recent centuries, the Enlightenment, wars and subsequent societal changes have inspired the creation of new approaches, some of which have been very successful, such as Friedrich Fröbel's kindergartens, or more recently schools Montessori.

These efforts to develop new educational spaces and apply these methods have gained new momentum over the past two decades. At the same time, discoveries in neuroscience have shed new scientific light on the functioning of the brain, its development, and on the analyzes and responses proposed by active pedagogies.

Each of them is unique and each of the great pedagogues behind these movements had deep convictions, based both on their own experiences and observations at different times and in different contexts.

However, whether it was Montessori, Mason, Steiner, Malaguzzi, Freinet, Decroly, Cousinet or Neill, among many others, they all had in common certain fundamental principles which constitute the bases of these pedagogies.

 

Learning requires autonomy

The first principle is the one which gives them this active dimension. Learning is child-led, discovery guided by their interests, at their own pace. The child must enjoy learning. So much so that play is central, learning takes place through play. Decroly has also introduced the concept of “educational game”, the Steiner-Waldorf pedagogy gives pride of place to “free play”.

The environment offered to the child for learning will be different from one to the other. When the elements of the “prepared environment” in Montessori pedagogy are deeply thought through, in the same way as the architecture of Reggio schools is, at Mason “the atmosphere”, the environment in which the child evolves must not not adapt to him, so that he learns real things.

Where the outside is open to the world that surrounds the child, giving an important place to the society in which he evolves, as with Freinet, or even where society is integrated into the school with parents and members of the community who come to share their knowledge and know-how like at Reggio, the discovery of the outside will first be through that of nature at Steiner.

But this exploration of the environment in which the children evolve will be done, in each of them, in an autonomous way. They have the freedom to learn by making mistakes, by having their own experiences, from a very young age. Emmi Pikler advocated letting young children discover activities on their own and move freely, without adult intervention.

Maria Montessori provided children with materials that they could use as they wished, and come and go freely from one to the other. In all these teaching methods, it is essential that children do it themselves.

 

Doing and creating, together

The notion of cooperation is also significant. The role of the teacher will take various forms. He could be a resource or even a participant in activities, in the Reggio-Emilia pedagogy for example, while he will rather have the role of guide in Montessori.

On the other hand, children can be both actors or resources at the same time or in turns. It doesn't matter whether they are working alone or working on a group project, they will help each other, plan, observe and do things together.

This could consist of carrying out research together at Freinet, or offering help to another child with a Montessori activity. At Neill, children manage themselves completely, democratically. In the Cousinet method, children form groups to devote themselves together to “knowledge activities” and “creation activities”.

The idea with active pedagogies is not only that children acquire skills, but also or even above all that they learn to be.
Art and crafts also hold a preponderant place in active pedagogies. They constitute a multitude of forms of expression which are all ways of learning differently. They are even a pillar of some of these pedagogies.

At Steiner, art and craftsmanship are present through multiple activities such as painting, embroidery or pottery, but also dancing and singing, as at Fröbel. There are so many artistic activities and forms of expression that correspond to them to discover that Loris Malaguzzi speaks of the “100 languages ​​of the child”, a fundamental element of Reggio-Emilia pedagogy.

 

The advent of neuroscience

Many other people in other fields have studied the issue of child development, from the constructivism of Jean Piaget to the most recent research in neuroscience.

In the latter, the advances of recent decades have demonstrated in multiple ways that the major principles that these educators have established through their work promote the development of our children.

Children's brains are built through cerebral plasticity, that is to say the strengthening, arborization and pruning of the billions of neuronal connections that they have from birth.

The human brain is highly plastic until around the age of 25 and produces itself, no matter what, without special circumstances or efforts. However, the maturation of different parts of the brain does not occur at the same time or at the same pace, and certain contexts will optimize the construction of neural circuits, or on the contrary alter it.

Different parts of the brain have different roles but are interconnected through these circuits. These circuits are innumerable and are built through the strengthening of connections between neurons. This process is called myelination.

To detail this essential notion in brain plasticity a little more, let's consider each experience that the child has as a neural circuit. When the child experiences, this circuit strengthens.

What neuroscience validates

Taking these concepts into account, and if we look at the principles of active pedagogies mentioned above:

  • By following the child's interests and rhythms, and allowing them to learn through play, we will give them the opportunity to focus on what interests them at the time it interests them and to devote as much time to it as they wish.

When the child has a real interest in the subject studied, he will work on it until he masters it. Each time he gets a little closer to this goal of mastering his subject, he will release dopamine, which will help strengthen the neural circuits, but also feel pleasure, which will make him want to continue dedicate your efforts and time to it.

By spending time, he will be able to repeat his experiences as much as necessary to master what he is learning. This repetition will strengthen its neural connections.

  • By offering them autonomy and the freedom to discover for themselves, they will experiment, try things, sometimes succeed, and often make mistakes.
Mistakes cause frustration in the child. This frustration results in the release of epinephrine which will indicate to the brain that it needs to adjust its neural circuits.


These two learning processes are complementary and accelerate plasticity, thus allowing you to learn faster.

  • By giving them a framework in which they cooperate, make decisions, have a voice, children socialize, become cultural, and learn the rules of life in society.

They also learn to show empathy, for others as well as for themselves. When their environment shows empathy and kindness towards them, this promotes the strengthening of the neural circuits between their prefrontal cortex and their amygdala, and they thus learn to regulate their emotions.

  • Art helps develop creative skills, generating personal images that children observe.

It allows a better understanding of the visual world and contributes to the development of the entire brain to improve learning.

Arts and crafts play a role in stress management and relaxation, and manipulating materials can play a role in helping children regulate their mental states and emotions.

 

The lessons to be learned for us, parents

By being active in their learning, children are not constrained or subject to their education. But it is essential that autonomy is also associated with concepts like non-violent communication and empathy, because an education that is sometimes negative, even violent, puts them in states of stress which lead their nervous system to release cortisol, harmful for the construction of their neural circuits, and thereby for the development of their brain.

As parents, the education of our children is a whole. Their well-being, their balance, their success are essential in our eyes and require an environment that promotes their development in this direction.

To do for themselves, to think for themselves, to develop their critical thinking through education and not through instruction, what active pedagogies and neuroscience teach us from this point of view is that it is by giving them space and autonomy they will become independent and fulfilled individuals.