Exploring literacy in the Waldorf and brain-based Grade 1 environment

Abstract

This is an ethnographic study comparing two Grade 1 classrooms in different schooling systems in terms of literacy. The first is in a 'brain-based' school, in the public schooling system. Factors such as proper nutrition, hydration, the role of movement, and emotional interest are featured. The second is in a Waldorf school, representing the largest independent schooling system worldwide. Waldorf takes a slower approach to teaching literacy through using aesthetic, storytelling, creative expression, and movement in the learning of letters. Both schooling systems have been analyzed in terms of their placing of importance on the psycho-motor, affective and cognitive faculties of the child. The study involved spending time in each classroom to observe the physical qualities of the school environment, the rhythms of the day and the content taught. The purpose was to see if certain techniques or insights into the teaching of literacy could be obtained from the two systems which would have relevance in other schooling systems. . . Brain-based and Waldorf schooling come from two very different backgrounds. Brainbased schooling is a contemporary attempt at bridging studies of the impact of neuroscience on education and classroom practice. It considers the role of three levels of the brain - the reptilian, the limbic and the cognitive - in working together towards healthy education. It relies on theories such as Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences, learning types, and the need for proper nutrition and movement within the education day. Waldorf education is based on the work of Rudolf Steiner in the early 1900s and is based on a developmental perspective of the child as a spiritual being. It considers the child within a larger world, and needing the creative aspect of storytelling and artistic expression in the integration of intellectual material. The two have been compared for their similarities and differences, in relation to the teaching of literacy.