May 10, 2021

May 10, 2021

What The Research Says About These 5 Alternative Teaching Methods

Many public schools follow similar teaching methods and employ the same theories of learning. Public schools are entrusted with teaching children with different abilities and backgrounds, so using methods that tend to work for most kids is popular in the public-school space. But these methods aren’t the only option.

Several alternative teaching methods can be used to educate children. These methods focus on a variety of things, from social skills to self-determined learning. Read on to find out what the research says about five popular alternative teaching methods to help you understand what may work best for your child.

1. Montessori
In 1907, a physician and educator named Maria Montessori opened a child care program in Rome, Italy, which was the humble beginnings of the teaching method known today as Montessori.

Montessori is loved by many educators, parents, and children because it helps to support children in learning by giving them freedom and encouraging questions. Many children who go through Montessori education come out of it as self-directed learners who feel confident in what they know. They often work well with others and think critically about problems, which are helpful skills in the 21st century.

The hallmark of the Montessori method is proving various activity stations for children to choose from. Teachers move from group to group instead of simply teaching at the front of the classroom, and they don’t use a traditional grading system. Montessori is a method that focuses on the whole child and their development, not simply their education.

Montessori works by:

  • Treating each child as an individual. A Montessori education recognizes that each child learns in different ways and tries to accommodate a large variety of learning styles. Students have the freedom to learn at a pace all their own and advance to the next step only when they’re ready, with the teacher as a guide.
  • Nurturing independence and order. With the Montessori method, classrooms are designed intentionally to help a student to self-regulate, even in children of a very young age.
  • Creating a great community. Part of what many people love about Montessori is how close the communities and schools are. Multi-age classrooms start early and often span three years to help create a family-like environment.
  • Providing freedom with limits. Teachers help to set parameters for kids where they have the ability as well as the tools to ask questions and pursue answers.
  • Teaching students to self-critique. Through Montessori education, students can learn to look critically at their work and learn from their mistakes.

There are challenges to Montessori learning as well. It is often expensive to send your child to a private Montessori school; it’s not something that’s accessible to everyone, since most Montessori programs are private, and may be disproportionately challenging for children who are in the inner city or low-income households to attend.

2. Steiner/Waldorf Teaching Method
The Steiner/Waldorf method, often simply referred to as the Waldorf method or Steiner education, uses a holistic approach to learning. It seeks to integrate arts into academics in a way that works to enhance and enrich the learning experience and, hopefully, instill a lifelong love of learning in students. It often uses dance, visual arts, music, and writing to introduce new concepts to students.

Some of the benefits of using the Steiner/Waldorf method include:

  • Providing a slower approach to learning. There are a lot of arts and crafts to be found in a Waldorf classroom, which sets a slower pace to learning, since there’s a distinct lack of technology.
  • Focusing on creativity. Children are free to explore their interests through active learning in the Waldorf method. For example, if they find they like to write, then they’ll be encouraged to write a play or story to grow that love. If they like history, then they may be encouraged to study historical art and create their own.
  • Disconnecting from technology. You will not find a lot of high-tech items in a Waldorf school. The goal is to teach students to learn by embracing their curiosity and using their senses.
  • Teachers stay with students. It’s not unusual for a student to stay with the same teacher for quite some time, depending on the individual school’s practices.

People like Waldorf/Steiner education because it encourages children to express themselves and experiment, but some find it challenging, because reading and math may not be introduced until later and electronic media is not introduced until at least the fifth grade. Some children find they fall behind their cohorts, and catching up can be difficult.

3. Harkness
The Harkness method differentiates itself from other teaching methods through the role of the teacher. They are not meant to guide students; instead, they help to facilitate discussion with little to no active direction. Students in this method learn primarily through interaction with other students.

Harkness is a great method to use to engage students and help them to learn through collaboration, but it requires a very small class size that may not be sustainable in many places. Learning periods must be longer and one subject may be learned for an entire day alone, so students have the chance to ask questions and study.

4. Reggio Emilia
The Reggio Emilia method believes that children are best at solving problems themselves, as well as engaging in their environments and communities at their own pace. This method is incredibly flexible, largely based on a child’s interests and focused around hands-on learning rather than learning in a highly structured classroom.

This method doesn’t use a set curriculum, but instead follows the interests of the child and uses those interests to create a learning plan. It can be a challenging curriculum for teachers, however, since there is a loss of control.

5. Sudbury
The Sudbury method teaches students how to build and be a part of a community. Children work together to create rules and make decisions about how to solve problems and move forward. Children are not separated by age, so it assists students in learning to work together with others who may be younger or older than they are. It is a method that uses student self-direction and lets them use their interests to guide them.

Some students and parents struggle with this method because there’s no evaluation or no honor roll. A student is simply learning, and that’s difficult for many people to grasp, especially if they’ve been to other schools.

Featured image by Jubal Kenneth Bernal on Unsplash