Nursery World - Learning & Development: Early Learning

From 2002-15, the Froebel Research Fellowship project focused on
children's creative thinking and learning. David Hargreaves, Sue Robson,
Sue Greenfield and Hiroko Fumoto share their findings.

Do Friedrich Froebel's ideas, which he set out about 150 years ago, have any relevance for early years education today? This is the key question that we at the Froebel Research Fellowship (FRF) project have been trying to answer.

Froebel stressed the growth of knowledge from inside rather than from outside the child, emphasising the understanding of principles rather than learning rules by heart, saying, 'What the pupils know is not a shapeless mass, but has form and life.'

Froebel, therefore, opposed education that tries to impose knowledge from the outside: 'We possess a great load of extraneous knowledge, which has been imposed on us and which we foolishly strive daily to increase...we have very little knowledge of our own that has originated in our own mind and grown with it'.

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included