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Sophia Institute online Art of Teaching Waldorf Program

Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 7

Lesson 8

HELP

Waldorf Methods/Sciences

Introduction

" ... ancient wisdom contained no contradiction between body and soul or between nature and spirit; because one knew: Spirit is in man in its archetypal form; the soul is none other than the message transmitted by spirit; the body is the image of spirit. Likewise, no contract was felt between man and surrounding nature because one bore an image of spirit in one's own body, and the same was true of every body in external nature. Hence, an inner kinship was experienced between one's own body and those in outer nature, and nature was not felt to be different from oneself. Man felt himself at one with the whole world. He could feel this because he could behold the archetype of spirit and because the cosmic expanses spoke to him. In consequence of the universe speaking to man, science simply could not exist. Just as we today cannot build a science of external nature out of what lives in our memory, ancient man could not develop one because, whether he looked into himself or outward at nature, he beheld the same image of spirit. No contrast existed between man himself and nature, and there was none between soul and body. The correspondence of soul and body was such that, in a manner of speaking, the body was only the vessel, the artistic reproduction, of the spiritual archetype, while the soul was the mediating messenger between the two. Everything as in a state of intimate union. There could be no question of comprehending anything. We grasp and comprehend what is outside our own life. Anything that we carry within ourselves is directly experienced and need not be first comprehended. ... Precisely because man had lost the connection with nature, he now sought a science of nature from outside." - Rudolf Steiner in "The Origins of Natural Science."

In Waldorf education, the science subjects do not start with nor are built from theories and formulas. Rather they start with the phenomena and develop in an experiential way, by first presenting the phenomenon, having the students make detailed observations, then guiding the students to derive the concepts that arise from the phenomena, and finally deriving the scientific formulas and laws behind the phenomena.This methodology reflects the way basic science actually has been developed by scientists and trains the pupils stepwise in basic scientific thinking and reflection on the basis of personal experience and observation of the phenomena of nature and the history of science. In kindergarten and the lower grades, the experience of nature through the seasons is brought to the children through nature walks, nature tables and observation of nature around. In later grades, there are specific main lesson blocks dealing with Man and Animal, and other themes. In grade 5, scientific ideas may be taught historically through the study of the Greeks, for example, Aristotle, Archimedes and Pythagoras. In grades 6-8 the science curriculum becomes more focused with blocks on physics (optics, acoustics, mechanics, magnetism and electricity), botany, chemistry (inorganic and organic), and anatomy. In high school, science is taught by specialists who have received college level training in biology, chemistry and physics and these three subjects are taught in each of the 4 years of high school.

Course Outline

Sophia Institute Waldorf Courses: The Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 7
Lesson 1 / Waldorf Curriculum / Introduction
Lesson 2 / Waldorf Curriculum / Grades 7 and 8 (Part 1)
Lesson 3 / Waldorf Curriculum / Grades 7 and 8 (Part 2)
Lesson 4 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Introduction
Lesson 5 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Reading / Grade 7 and 8
Lesson 6 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Math / Grade 7 and 8
Lesson 7 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Chemistry / Introduction
Lesson 8 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Physics / Introduction
Lesson 9 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Life Sciences / Introduction
Lesson 10 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Geography / Introduction
Lesson 11 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Geography / Grades 1 - 8
Lesson 12 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Gardening and Sustainable Living
Lesson 13 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Technology
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Tasks and Assignments for Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 7 /AoT78

Please study and work with the study material provided for this lesson. Use additional study material as wanted/needed. Then please turn to the following tasks and assignments listed below.

1. Create examples of curriculum that addresses the learning method and content appropriate for grade 7 as follows. Curriculum examples should include outlines and goals, activities, circle/games, stories, and illustrations/drawings. Create 2 examples for grade 7
2. Additionally submit comments and questions, if any.

Please send your completed assignment via the online form or via email.

Study Material for this Lesson

Physics/Introduction/Kindergarten/Lower Grades

The main aim of science teaching is to grasp the  core of science that is relevant to the human being  as well as presenting it in an imaginative way to  appeal to the emotions. This means developing a  faculty of observation for the real gestures of nature.  Indeed science lessons begin at the age when the  child gains an ability to see the world causally  and they must serve to cultivate this thinking  faculty. Indeed this can occur in such a way that  a qualitative thinking is developed that continually  considers the changing connection between the  human being and the world. 

Through the limiting of science to size, number  and weight (as Galileo did), that is, to the purely  quantitative, the question of the being of natural  phenomena has been lost. During the rise of the  modern age, man began to ask how he could  control nature, and finally to see this control as  what is essential. This trend has been connected  with the development of causal and theoretical  model views, because it is only possible to have  absolute mastery over natural processes when you  can explain them causally. If this is not initially  possible, phenomena are reduced conceptually to  explainable processes. 

The danger is that these concepts of imposed  quantitative and particle-like models of nature are taken up by pupils as objective reality. From this  experience for example a curriculum formulated in  1977 already has this warning: 

It is essential to use models which are not too  perfect when beginning teaching. There must  be elementary phenomena which cannot  be explained by the models used. Only by  this means do the pupils altogether gain the  insight into the principle of the insufficiency  of models.

What is more valuable from a pedagogical point  of view are however the following principles: 

* 1. In place of models which cannot be  experienced, should be thought processes  which have their basis in real perception. 
* 2. Initially an emotional connection to the  phenomena must be awakened in the child.  This must then be raised from the subjective  level in order that the intrinsic qualities can be  grasped in cognitive activity. 
* 3. Thereby science teaching in the Waldorf  school takes its departure from the sense  qualities. Indeed it can in this respect even be  described as an extremely sense-orientated  method. This plays an important role and has a hygienic-pedagogical aspect. The lively joy  in cognition is healing for the student aged  between twelve and fourteen years, and can  even possibly lighten the tendency towards all-  too-strong self-pre-occupation. 

The phenomenological world view, the creative  forming of thought connections with natural  events requires, however, even more. It should  not only be done out of an honest pedagogical  endeavour towards a human-centred acquisition  of knowledge. Rather it involves a epistemological  discussion of the basic ideas of the empirical  method of science. 

The active participation of the individual person  in the world characterises Rudolf Steiner's theory  of knowledge. In his basic books on this subject  A Theory of Knowledge and The Philosophy of  Freedom', Rudolf Steiner described the connection  between sense impression and thinking. 

Our whole being functions in such a way,  that it flows in reality towards the elements of  each thing observed from two sides; from the  side of perception and from that of thinking. 

Science teaching in the Waldorf school seeks to  do justice to this basic rule. 
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