Waldorf Teacher Training Individual Courses

Waldorf Curriculum / Part 1 / 1 credit

Waldorf Curriculum / Part 2 / 1 credit

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These courses, Waldorf Curriculum/Part 1 and Waldorf Curriculum/Part 2 concern themselves with the curriculum and the basic and underlying principles of Waldorf Education. The knowledge and understanding of these principles is essential for anyone embarking on or deepening their study and ultimately their practical application of this teaching method based on the insights and teachings of Anthroposophy. There are the following three fundamental principles:
  1. The human being (the child and the adult alike) is not only a physical being but also a being of soul and spirit relating to soul and spirit realities.
  2. The child in growing up recapitulates the development of consciousness of humanity and education needs to be tailored and moderated in such a way that it is truly age appropriate meaning relating to the developing consciousness of the child out of insights into the reality of the development of consciousness of humanity.
  3. The Waldorf (or Steiner) Educator needs to be on a conscious path of self development, being at the same time a seeker of spiritual truth and a practitioner of a therapeutic and artistic teaching approach.

A curriculum could be compared to the list of ingredients for a recipe. However good the recipe, the quality of the ingredients is crucial but to make a start the components also need to be available. The distinctive qualities of the Waldorf (or Steiner) Curriculum framework can be regarded as unique, and include:
  • The curriculum unfolds over time, is wide and richly experiential: not merely designed towards narrowly-defined 'achievement', but intended to promote capability for the art of living.
  • The curriculum is really only a series of 'indications', as Steiner described them, pointers inviting interpretation and free rendering, i.e. it calls on and encourages the creativity (or artistry) of teachers.
  • The importance of content is fully recognized (young people need certain skills and useful knowledge), but as a creative framework, the Steiner- Waldorf curriculum is embedded within a developing practice and method. The curriculum outline takes its cue from the development of the child: subject, or content, provides a medium for a meeting and collaboration of teacher and learner. Thus, since meaning and knowledge are built over  time, this is co-constructive learning in which understanding unfolds as a process of learning to learn encompassing both students and teacher.
  • Subject content and necessary competence are always relative to the child: the curriculum is midwife to the emerging individuality, rather than suit of clothes into which the child must be made to fit.
  • The shaping principles of the curriculum are extraordinarily robust and resilient. Many independent educators recognize this fundamental coherence, which has stood the test of time and many generations of children.
  • The creative freedom within the Waldorf curriculum framework enables it to be successfully adapted for a variety of settings, languages and cultures. Schools founded on the principles and example of the first Waldorf School (Stuttgart 1919), can be found around the world, including every inhabited continent. What started as a central European curriculum has been modified by applying its essential principles to the education of children in the Americas, many parts of Africa, the Middle East, India and the Far East, as well as most of the rest of Europe.

Waldorf Curriculum / Part 1 / 1 credit

Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Preschool and Kindergarten
Lesson 3: Grades 1 - 3 (Part 1)
Lesson 4: Grades 1 - 3 (Part 2)
Lesson 5: Grades 4 - 6 (Part 1)

​Waldorf Curriculum / Part 2 / 1 credit

Lesson 1: Grades 4 - 6 (Part 2)
Lesson 2: Grades 7 and 8 (Part 1)
Lesson 3: Grades 7 and 8 (Part 2)
Lesson 4: Grades 9 - 12 (Part 1)
Lesson 5: Grades 9 - 12 (Part 2)
​Lesson 6: Evaluations and End of Year Reports