Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/on-the-road-towards--child-centered-education-step-by-step-in-moldova/5019276/
As a result of the decrease in the number of preschool-aged children in a small town in Moldova and the merger of two kindergartens, the classrooms that survived had to be reorganized. It happened that Ionel, a four year old who had previously attended a Step by Step classroom, was transferred into a non-Step by Step classroom. Within a couple of weeks, the kindergarten principal was very surprised when Ionel’s mother walked into her office and sincerely concerned, and slightly reproachful, asked,“What wrong have we done? Why were we punished by this transfer to the non-Step by Step classroom? Our child does not ask questions any more . . . ”
This anecdotal story is very symptomatic of the crucial role the teacher has in molding the personality of the young learner and his attitude towards learning, either by fanning the child’s curiosity and further promoting his inquisitiveness as basis for active learning, or rather by stifling this innate curiosity and the child’s natural drive for learning.
The latter is most likely to happen in a so-called teacher-centered educational paradigm, in its extreme manifestation, when the teacher’s main concern is to deliver the curriculum content and to treat the children as ...