Friedrich Froebel was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid

the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique needs
and capabilities.

  he developed an activity based approach to teaching young children involving playing with
objects, singing, dancing and gardening which in 1840 he named the Kindergarten or ‘child’s
garden’.

In 1837 Friedrich Froebel founded his own school and called it "kindergarten," or the children's
garden. During the 1830s and 1840s he developed his vision for kindergarten based on the
ideas of the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the later Swiss educator Johann
Heinrich Pestalozz.

Froebel sought to encourage the creation of educational environments that involved practical
work and the direct use of materials. Through engaging with the world, understanding unfolds.
Hence the significance of play – it is both a creative activity and through it children become
aware of their place in the world.

Froebelian principles as articulated by Professor Tina Bruce (1987, 1st edition and 2015, 5th
edition). summary

1. Childhood is seen as valid in it self, as part of life and not simply as preparation for
adulthood.  Thus education is seen similarly as something of the present and not just
preparation and training for later.
2. The whole child is considered to be important.  Health – physical and mental is
emphasised, as well as the importance of feelings and thinking and spiritual aspects.
3. Learning is not compartmentalised, for everything links.
4. Intrinsic motivation, resulting in child-initiated, self directed activity, is valued.
5. Self- discipline is emphasised.
6. There are specially receptive periods of learning at different stages of development.
7. What children can do (rather than what they cannot do) is the starting point in the
child’s education.
8. There is an inner life in the child, which emerges especially under favourable conditions.
9. The people (both adults and children) with whom the child interacts are of central
importance.
10. Quality education is about three things: the child, the context in which learning takes
place, and the knowledge and understanding which the child develops and learns.
 A Froebelian principled approach to early childhood education in practice (detailed)

 It is important that practitioners offer children what they need now. For example, some
children may need to be allowed the autonomy, (to make choices and decisions and to use their
skills and techniques) to mix their own paints. While other children may not be ready to mix
paints for themselves, and will just waste expensive resources if they are allowed to ladle paint
everywhere, and splash water onto it, but they may be ready to learn how sand, clay and gravel
behave when in contact with water. They can learn about the properties of materials. Another
child may be ready to mix paints, but may need a great deal of practitioner support as they are
in the early stages of learning how to do this.
 The practitioner must nurture the ideas, feelings, relationships and physical
development and embodiment of children.  The practitioner needs to be able to recognise
when children need personal space or need to be diverted into something appropriate for them
without making them feel bad about using the paints inappropriately, because they couldn’t yet
understand.  Children need to be given help sensitively, in a way which will build their
confidence, skills and autonomy.
 All children learn in ways which can be linked with The official framework documents of
their country, such as the areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (England) or The
Curriculum for Excellence (Scotland), The Foundation Phase Curriculum (Wales)  Aistear
(Ireland), or Understanding the Foundation Stage (Northern Ireland) and also Te Whariki (New
Zealand).
 Children are self-motivated when they are encouraged to be so and their intrinsic
motivation to learn is not crushed, but nurtured by practitioners that have an understanding of
them.
 Children are encouraged to develop self-discipline.  This helps children to concentrate
well, and to learn effectively. It also relates understanding of self, others and the universe.
 Children need to be given choices, allowed to make errors, decisions and offered
sensitive help as and when it is needed, This will help children to learn in ways which are right
for each of them as individuals. In this way practitioners are supporting and also extending their
learning.
 Practitioners need to place emphasis on what the children can do, rather than what
they can’t do.  The tone and atmosphere should be encouraging and not judgemental or
critical.  This Froebel believed builds self-esteem and confidence. In other words at every stage
children  need to be that stage – with adults providing opportunities for them to practise and
apply what they know and can do.
 Children need to be given personal space to construct, build and model. However
children also benefit from lots of talking with the practitioner about what they are doing and
going to do. Language, talking and listening to each other, is an important and central way in
which children become symbol users.
 When it comes to taking a Froebelian approach to observing children. It might look as if
the practitioners are only there in the background, but in fact they are central. Practitioners
working with young children, either in group setting or in a home based setting, are key to
helping children develop and learn. Practitioners create warm affectionate atmospheres, which
 open children up to learning and help children to know themselves, respect themselves, like
themselves, and engage with their learning very positively.
 Froebel believed that practitioners also create the physical environment both indoors
and outdoors. He points out how important it is for children to learn without external pressures
from practitioners. The people we meet, the environment and atmosphere, are as important as
what we learn.  We do our best work with helping children to develop and learn when we
observe what they find of interest, and what they show us they would be interested to learn. 
This is the base on which we can build what we need children to know, understand and learn in
order to participate fully in their community and the wider world.

Froebel's Kindergarten Curriculum Method & Educational Philosophy

Kindergarten was the first organized early-childhood educational method. As a keen observer of
nature and humanity, Froebel approached human education from both a biological and a
spiritual perspective. Froebel discovered that brain development is most dramatic between
birth and age three, and recognized the importance of beginning education earlier than was
then practiced. The number of innovations that Froebel pioneered through his research is
startling, and includes multiple intelligences (different learning styles), play-based, child-
centered, holistic education, parent involvement/training, educational paperfolding, use of
music, games, and movement activities for education.
Humans Are Creative Beings
From a spiritual perspective; Froebel understood that what separates us from other life forms is
that we alter our environment. More than simple tool-building, our brains allow us to visualize
in 3-D and imagine a different future. True education therefore must help children to
understand their role as creative beings.
Play Is the Engine of Real Learning
Froebel concluded that play is not idle behavior but a biological imperative to discover how
things work. It is pleasurable activity, but biologically purposeful. Froebel sought to harness this
impulse and focus a child's play energy on specific activities designed to lead them to create
meaning from their experiences.

Froebel

 “ united” was Froebel most popular used word in his writing

 He wanted to show the one within the next
 Formed a symbolic learning experience for a better nurture child’s
brain. ( the material he created was influence by the architecture
 and work in field crystals mythology – mathematical was language
of the universe)
 Based on design/ atomic construction gifts such a play dough that
allow the child to perceive the geometric building block of the
world at a time where the child wasn’t able to understand
intellectually
 3 form to play with gift distinctly: Form of Beauty, Form of Life,
and Form of Knowledge.
o Form of Beauty: form of design of each piece given with
their abstract gift with modify and never destroy a design in
order to allow the child to express his/her creativity.
o Form of Life: creating something from their world using all
the gift given
o Form of Knowledge: (with help of an adult) this guides the
child to explore mathematical and scientific properties of
gift. (ex)
o Froebel’s part of his study was an occupation such songs
gardening movement etc. that helped the child to reinforce
the idea that activates the 5 sense ( visual , auditory ,
kinaesthetic)