“DIDACTIC MATERIAL AS SUPPORT FOR TEACHING”

MONOGRAPH

PRESENTS
JOSE MIGUEL RUMAYOR ZACARIAS
INDEX
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................4
CHAPTER I DIDACTIC MATERIAL............................................................5
1.1 What does the word material refer to?.......................................5
1.2 What is didactics?........................................................................5
1.3 What is teaching material?..........................................................6
1.4 Classification of teaching materials............................................10
1.4.1 Printed materials..................................................................10
1.4.2 Graphic materials.................................................................11
1.4.3 Mixed materials....................................................................11
1.4.4 Listening materials...............................................................11
1.5 Advantages and disadvantages..................................................12
1.6 Features..................................................................................... 13
1.7 Preparation process...................................................................14
CHAPTER II HISTORY OF DIDACTIC MATERIAL....................................16
2.1 FIRST MATERIALS.......................................................................16
2.2 THE NEW SCHOOL......................................................................18
2.3 Maria Montessori.......................................................................19
2.3.1 Basic principles.....................................................................21
2.3.2 Montessori teaching material..............................................22
2.4 Ovide Decroly.............................................................................24
2.4.1 Decroly Method....................................................................25
2.4.2 The Decroly teaching material..............................................27
2.5 Rosa and Carolina Agazzi............................................................27
2.5.1 Principles and Methodology of the Agazzi sisters................29
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 2.5.2 Agazzi teaching material.......................................................31
2.6 Friedrich Fröbel..........................................................................31
2.6.1 Pedagogical principles..........................................................33
2.6.2 Froebel teaching material....................................................34

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INTRODUCTION
The following work deals with the use of teaching material in classrooms as support for

teaching action, since it is essential to make the understanding and management of a topic

more efficient, because it makes the teaching process more understandable and dynamic. -

learning.

The difference between the concept of resource and teaching material is explained,

since the former is an element that helps us carry out a task; In the same way we find the

definitions, characteristics, classification and it explains how the preparation of the material is

carried out.

The first pedagogues who began using material for teaching practice are also taken into

account, such as Maria Montessory or Ovideo Decroly, to mention a few.

And finally, the methods of use and application of the teaching material within the

classroom, in such a way that it achieves its objectives for what it was designed.

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CHAPTER I DIDACTIC MATERIAL

1.1 What does the word material refer to?

The word material comes from the Latin term materialis and refers to what has to do with

matter. Matter, for its part, is that which is opposed to the abstract or spiritual. Its concept

revolves around a series of accessories necessary to carry out a task or essential elements in a

certain action, in addition to being objects that must be used together. (Definicion.de , 2008)

1.2 What is didactics?

Didactics is the teaching-learning process, as well as the discipline or rigorous treatise of

study and foundation of the teaching activity as it promotes the formative learning of

students in the most diverse contexts; It is a discipline of pedagogical nature committed to

achieving the improvement of all human beings through the adaptation and appropriate

development of the teaching-learning process. Didactics is the branch of pedagogy that is

responsible for guiding systematic educational action, and in a broader sense: As the total

direction of learning, that is, it encompasses the study of teaching methods and the resources

to be applied. the educator to positively stimulate learning and the comprehensive and

harmonious formation of the students.

The objectives of the didactics are:

 Carry out the purposes of education.

 Make the teaching-learning process more effective.

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  Apply new knowledge from biology, psychology, sociology and philosophy that can

make teaching more consistent and coherent.

 Guide teaching according to the developmental age of the student to help them

develop and realize themselves fully, based on their learning efforts.

 Adapt teaching and learning to the possibilities and needs of the students.

 Inspire school activities in reality and help the student perceive the phenomenon of

learning as a whole, and not as something artificially divided into fragments.

 Guide the planning of learning activities so that there is progress, continuity and

unity, so that the objectives of education are sufficiently achieved.

 Guide the organization of school tasks to avoid waste of time and useless efforts.

 Make teaching adapted to the reality and possibilities of the student and society.

 Carry out appropriate accompaniment and conscious control of learning, so that there

can be timely rectifications or recoveries of learning. (Medina Rivilla, 2009)

1.3 What is teaching material?

Teaching material is understood as the set of material means that intervene and facilitate the

teaching-learning process. These materials can be both physical and virtual, they assume as a

condition, awakening the interest of the students, adapting to their physical and

psychological characteristics, in addition to facilitating the teaching activity by serving as a

guide; Likewise, they have the great virtue of adapting to any type of content.

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 The importance of teaching material lies in the influence that the stimuli to the sensory

organs exert on the learner, that is, it puts them in contact with the learning object, either

directly or giving it the sensation of indirection.

In other words, it can be said that they are the means or resources that serve to apply a

specific technique in the scope of a specific learning method, with the learning method being

understood as the mode, path or sets of rules that is used to obtain a change. in the behavior

of the learner, and in this way it enhances or improves their level of competence in order to

perform a productive function.

Teaching materials are all those means and resources that facilitate the teaching-

learning process, within a global and systematic educational context, and stimulate the

function of the senses to more easily access information, acquisition of skills and abilities,

and training. of attitudes and values. (Ogalde Careaga, 1997)

The teaching material is closely related to the EA process, therefore, this will be the

means by which the teacher will be able to teach the contents, and the students will not only

acquire the information but will also be able to relate it with experiences or other content so

that everything is more meaningful, since it is the key for students to understand what the

teachers intend to teach.

Currently, teachers cannot be satisfied with students only storing information, but it is

necessary to reflect on it, which is why the importance and significance of teaching

materials, because through these it is intended that students are able to acquire knowledge,

understand it and, subsequently, apply it in any of the areas where it is developed.

Didactic materials help make learning meaningful, and on the other hand, they help

ensure that the content is not as tedious as in some cases it seems, which turns out to be more

motivating.
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 Students mostly make prejudices about some content and an entire subject, which

causes them to unconsciously block themselves from acquiring knowledge, since it turns out

to be difficult at the time; The purpose of using teaching materials is to convert this easy, and

often theoretical, information into something easier and more practical, since the materials

are not only observed, sometimes they are manipulated, tested, smelled or heard, with respect

to At this point, the materials will also be of great help for the stimulation of all the senses

and not just one. (Cerezo, 1982)

Just as Margarita Castañeda mentions “An educational medium is not merely a

material or an instrument, but an organization of resources that mediates the expression of

action between teacher and student.” (Castañeda Yáñez)

The teaching materials strengthen the insertion and integration of students into the

society to which they belong. In other words, it is the exercise of communication in school

that enables students to communicate better in society; Of course, the teacher is the

interlocutor with whom the students first exercise. And the communication will occur in

words, images or in specific materials to exercise or have sensations that better transmit the

learning.

Several criteria must be taken into account in relation to the group to which one will

address, namely:

 Age: the material will be different depending on the age of the user. If it is a young

person, it is important to produce simple material, if it is an adult, the content will be

complex.

 Group size: it is important to note that from 35 students onwards, the group requires

materials with greater impact on the visual and auditory channels.

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  Level of studies: in primary, secondary, high school and professional, the materials

are different depending on the contents of each level, and of course their treatment

through the different subjects.

 Degree of cultural maturation: This aspect has to do with the new conceptions, ideas,

terms of today's academic world and the evolution of the different previous

paradigms that make up current reality.

Although the teacher can work on both the intellectual aspect of the medium and the

mechanical aspect, he is especially responsible for the tasks that refer to the first aspect, since

as an educator he must manage the instructional factors, be able to generate the content of the

message, and organize it according to the learning strategy. The operations related to the

material and technical equipment necessary to materialize the message can be carried out by

a specialist technician, always in collaboration with the educator, in this way the purpose for

which it was designed will be well outlined; Therefore, they have different purposes such as

achieving intellectual skills , which are capacities that the student acquires and that enable

him to manage the environment that surrounds him in a symbolic way. The symbols refer to

those of language and mathematics. These skills are subdivided into discriminations,

concrete and abstract concepts, and higher-order rules; cognitive strategies that refer to

autosuggestion skills that have been developed over time and have the result that they direct

each person's learning, attention and thinking processes; perfecting them will make the

student more independent, skilled and free thinker; verbal information that refers to when

the individual can state in the form of a proposition the names, facts and generalizations that

he has acquired; attitudes that are known as the affective domain, these dispositions modify

the subject's behavior in relation to the type of things, people or events, the appropriate uses

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 of the information in the materials could modify them for the better; motor skills , which are

mostly learned in sports-type physical activities; however, they are not the only learning of

this type that could be acquired, for example, when someone acquires the ability to

manipulate kitchen, dentistry or architecture instruments. (Edukanda)

1.4 Classification of teaching materials

Designing or creating teaching material is making it possible to improve the quality of the

knowledge, skills and abilities of both the student and the teacher in the teaching-learning

process. If the teaching material connects the teacher's saying with the student's reality, then

it will be the appropriate, therefore it is a way to exercise cognitively, affectively and

procedurally in an academic environment, before putting it into practice in everyday life,

beyond the classroom.

Classifying means organizing or in some way ordering a whole to have a better

perspective of the subject at hand, in this case the teaching material. (Moreno Herrero, 2004)

1.4.1 Printed materials

They are physical copies of paper, it is one of the bases of education and learning in

particular, the basis on which every other teaching delivery system has evolved, it is a

teaching tool, it can carry large amounts of information in condensed form. Therefore, it is

ideal for activities that require high levels of abstraction and where logical thinking or

argument is required; There are printed teaching materials in various formats, such as

textbooks, study guides, exercise books, course synthesis, practical case studies, etc.

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1.4.2 Graphic materials

Graphic representation is a resource that, through its use, helps to develop ideas, allowing

them to reach the student in an easier and more direct way. Graphic material, carefully

designed to achieve educational objectives, can be a playful and useful instrument at the

disposal of the educator; With the use of this resource, ideas susceptible to transformation are

given rise, making him a participant in other educational situations that allow a positive

transfer to reality, allowing him to verify previously learned learning and helping him

through the feedback he receives to become aware of his learning and behaviors.

1.4.3 Mixed materials

Device that is used to capture the student's attention, promotes learning and serves as support

for the teacher. You can use it in the classroom with a television and documentary video. It is

full of images and sounds that help the student better understand the topic and achieve

meaningful learning. Sometimes there are videos that, although it is not necessary to explain,

the teacher needs to be aware. The video can be repeated as many times as desired until the

topic is understood. Theoretical knowledge may be more significant with a documentary or

video, since students are shown the practice of what they have seen in class.

1.4.4 Listening materials

Auditory materials are all those audio media that we already know that these instruments are

of great help in education, because they stimulate the function of the senses and activate

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previous experiences and learning to more easily access information for the development of

skills and abilities. and the formation of attitudes and values. They are practical, like a simple

recording or a radio station, which can provide some significant learning to the students, and

not having the student with the same theory must be varied from time to time.

1.5 Advantages and disadvantages

Among the advantages of using the teaching material are:

 Promote active teaching by making the teaching act a dynamic process

 They encourage learning to the extent that they bring students closer to reality

 They strengthen the effectiveness of learning as they combine a range of stimuli in

the messages that students receive

 Facilitates the construction of knowledge since they propose different alternatives for

sensory perception

 They allow the communication between teacher and students to be deepened through

the various activities they propose.

 They favor the development of analysis operations, relationships, synthesis,

generalization and abstraction

 They expand the field of experiences of the students by confronting them with

elements that remain distant in time and space.

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  They allow students to achieve their learning on their own, since this is the result of

their own experience.

Among the disadvantages:

 Display educational material without “exploiting” it, believing that just by “looking

at it” learning is already resolved.

 Presenting a large amount of material together or successively, causing fatigue and

saturation in the students.

 Not considering the convenience and opportunity of using educational material, due

to the lack of correct curricular planning

 Do not insist on verbalizing the results of working with educational materials, which

frustrates the students' development of learning.

 Lack selective and critical criteria, which can lead to passivity or false activity

(UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANGELES)

1.6 Features

Below is a brief description of the characteristics of the teaching aids:

 Ease of use : Whether it is controllable or not by teachers and students, whether it

requires specialized personnel.

 Individual or collective use : Yes, it can be used individually, in small or large

groups.

 Versatility : Adaptation to various contexts; environments, teaching strategies and

students;

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  Open : Allowing the modification of the contents to be treated.

 Promote the use of other materials and the carrying out of complementary activities.

 Provide information : Virtually all educational media explicitly provide information

such as books, videos, etc.

 Motivational capacity : To motivate the student, the materials must awaken and

maintain curiosity and interest in their use, without provoking anxiety and preventing

the recreational elements from negatively interfering with learning.

 Adaptation to the students' work pace : Good materials take into account the

psychoevolutionary characteristics of the students to whom they are directed and the

progress they make.

 Stimulate : The development of metacognitive skills and learning strategies in

students, which will allow them to plan, regulate and evaluate their own learning

activity, provoking reflection on their knowledge and on the methods they use when

thinking. Since learning significantly means modifying one's own knowledge

schemes, restructuring, revising, expanding and enriching cognitive structures;

Cognitive effort. Class materials must facilitate meaningful learning that is

transferable to other situations through continuous mental activity in line with the

nature of the intended learning.(Moreno Herrero, 2004)

1.7 Preparation process

Designing is creating, constructing or constructing something with the goal of satisfying or

covering a need in the best possible way. In the case of teaching material, it is important to

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take into account that the material is useful in relation to the better understanding of a

concept, principle or fact of the subject or subject within a study content.

For this to be efficient, the objective pursued in relation to the content in question, the

level of learning or degree of depth thereof, the user, student or apprentice and the role that

the teacher will play with respect to the content must be specified. material.

The objective refers to what needs to be learned from everything presented in the

content, what is most relevant.

Regarding the level of learning or degree of depth of this, it means establishing what

possibility of information management is being sought, if it is only a superficial one such as

data, dates or locations, it is about the analysis of the existing relationships between the

various components that make up a concrete or abstract structure.

To prepare the teaching material, the following characteristics must be taken into

account:

 Take advantage of the resources offered by the different social, cultural and

geographical contexts of the country, for carrying out activities, as well as for the

preparation of various resources

 That the material made allows the boy or girl to make a series of combinations, which

amuses him or her and favors his or her physical, cognitive and emotional

development.

 That responds to the specific tasks of the educational process

 That corresponds to the age of the student, adjusting to their level of evolutionary

development.

 That clearly reflect its properties and qualities

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  Make it resistant to guarantee its durability

 Make it easy to transport and store

 That does not offer danger

 That there is a wide repertoire of games, toys and materials

 That allows its use in both individual and group activities. (Secretaria de educacion,

2005)

CHAPTER II HISTORY OF DIDACTIC MATERIAL

2.1 FIRST MATERIALS

The history of educational or didactic material is almost as old as teaching itself, although

the work Orbis Sensualium Pictus by JA is usually cited as a reference for the first properly

didactic material. Comenius. developed in the 17th century, since it represents the creation of

the first text or manual generated with the intention of facilitating the transmission of

knowledge by combining the written text with pictorial representations as well as

incorporating the vernacular language of the students to the printed pages. This book had two

peculiarities that made it “didactic”: one was the combination of the written text with the

image, and the other feature was that it was written in the readers' own “vernacular”

language. Compared to books written exclusively in Latin, this work by Comenius

represented a qualitative leap in generating understandable materials for a wide and diverse

audience.

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 In previous historical periods such as in Ancient Greece, during the Roman Empire or

later throughout the Middle Ages, teaching was supported by oral demonstrations and

explanations offered by the teacher. It was the transmission of personal knowledge. The adult

taught what he knew and had acquired throughout his life experience, not what was in books.

The entry, presence and generalization of printed texts and other teaching materials in

teaching was a slow and gradual process developed over several centuries (approximately

from the 16th century to the 19th century) that grew in parallel to the consolidation of the

printed work as a canon of Western knowledge, and to the emergence of a didactic

rationality that theorized and sought to systematize the action and teaching processes.

However, the teaching material did not reach its fullness or at least its hallmarks until the

appearance of school systems in the mid-19th century. Schooling, that is, institutionalized

education aimed at the entire population, is a relatively recent historical phenomenon that

emerged in Europe, in the midst of the industrial revolution, in the mid-19th century. From

then on, especially throughout the 20th century, printed teaching material became the

backbone of a large part of teaching and learning actions at any level and modality of

education.

It was with the creation of public mass education systems carried out by modern

European states in the mid-19th century that the need arose to have a set of means and

materials that would allow two basic pedagogical functions to be put into practice: facilitate,

on the one hand, the development of didactic activities in the classroom, and on the other,

systematize and transmit knowledge to students.

One of the goals or purposes of these universal schooling networks was to offer a

common culture that would allow homogenizing the training of the entire population of the

same country. That is, guarantee that all students uniformly received the same curriculum
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(that is, that children studied the same history, literature, language or national geography)

and consequently were trained under the same pattern of standard culture that guaranteed

social cohesion and provided of a national consciousness or sentiment common to all

citizens. (Martinez Bonafe, 2002)

2.2 THE NEW SCHOOL

It is a movement of pedagogical renewal that emerged in the 19th century, although its

antecedents date back to the 16th century (it is worth highlighting Erasmus of Rotterdam, the

Spanish humanist Luis Vives, the works of Fenelon and Emilio de J. J Rousseau).

Its main pedagogues were John Dewey, Adolphe Ferriére, María Montessori, Paulo

Freire, Roger Cousinet, A. S. Neil, Célestin Freinet and Jean Piaget, among others. The new

pedagogues denounce the disadvantages of traditional education: passivity, education

centered on the program and the teacher, superficiality, encyclopedism, verbalism.

It is based on the psychology of child development, and it was imposed as an

obligation to treat each student according to their abilities. It postulates as a principle that

childhood and youth are ages of life that are governed by their own laws different from the

needs of the adult. There is no effective learning that does not start from some need or

interest of the student, that interest must be considered as the starting point for education.

The teacher-student relationship undergoes a transformation in the Escuela Nueva. The

relationship of power-submission typical of the Traditional School is replaced by a

relationship of affection and camaraderie. The way the teacher behaves is more important

than the word. The teacher becomes an assistant to the student's free and spontaneous

development. Self-discipline is very important in this new relationship, the teacher gives

power to his students to place them in a functional position of self-government that leads
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 them to understand the need to develop and observe rules. They are not imposed from the

outside, but are rules that have come from the group as an expression of the general will.

If there is a change in the content, there must also be a change in the way it is

transmitted. A series of free activities are introduced to develop imagination, the spirit of

initiative, and creativity. It is not only about the student assimilating what is known but about

beginning the process of knowing through search and investigation, respecting his or her

individuality. This makes it necessary to have a more in-depth knowledge of the intelligence,

language, logic, attention, understanding, memory, invention, vision, hearing, and manual

dexterity of each student, to treat each one. according to their abilities. The future citizen is

prepared to be a man aware of the dignity of every human being.

Underlying the New School movement are various pedagogical theories known as

counter-authoritarian, self-managed, and libertarian. Its defining characteristic is the desire to

educate in freedom and for freedom. (Flores Ochoa, 1994)

2.3 Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori (August 31, 1870 – May 6, 1952), was an Italian educator, scientist,

physician, psychiatrist, philosopher, psychologist, devout Catholic, feminist, and humanist.

He was born in Chiaravalle, province of Ancona, Italy, into a bourgeois Catholic family. His

mother was Renilde Stoppani, while his father Alessandro Montessori was a military man by

profession and very strict; At that time, what a woman most aspired to was to be a teacher,

although her family recognized a woman's right to a certain education.

She studied engineering at the age of 14, then biology and finally she was accepted at

the University of Rome, in the School of Medicine. Although her father objected at first, she

graduated in 1896 as the first female doctor in Italy. He was a member of the University
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Psychiatric Clinic of Rome. Later, she studied Anthropology and obtained a doctorate in

Philosophy, during which time she attended one of the first courses in experimental

psychology. She was a contemporary of Freud and developed her own classification of

mental illnesses.

From an unfortunate romance with Giuseppe Montesano, her psychiatrist and

professor, her son Mario was born. The deep disappointment caused by the doctor's

abandonment led María Montessori to join the feminist movement, of which she was a

representative at a national and international level, and represented Italy at the Berlin (1896)

and London (1899) Congresses.

Although Mussolini's regime distinguished her as an honorary member, she publicly

accused fascism of "forming youth according to its brutal molds" and turning them into

"little soldiers." Her opinions caused so much annoyance in the ruling regime that the doctor

had no choice but to go into exile. She left Italy in 1933 when her schools were closed and

went to Barcelona, where she lived for a while and then settled in Holland with her husband

and son. He returned to Italy in 1947 to help reorganize schools and resume classes at the

University of Rome.

He was interested in the education of children with mental deficiencies and applied

experimental methods, ensuring that these children learned to read and write. He developed

his own methods that he later applied to all kinds of children. Through his professional

practice he came to the conclusion that children "build themselves" from elements of the

environment and, to prove it, he returned to university classrooms to study psychology. In

1906, he decided to take care of 60 minors whose parents worked during the day.

He founded the Children's House and developed there what would later be called the

Montessori method of teaching. All of his theories were based on what he observed the little
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 ones doing on their own, without adult supervision. The premise that children are their own

teachers and that to learn they need freedom and a multiplicity of options from which to

choose, inspired María Montessori in all her battles to reform the methodology and

psychology of education.

In 1949 he settled permanently in Amsterdam, and that year he published his book The

Absorbent Mind. In 1950 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of

Amsterdam. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times (1949, 1950 and 1951). He

died in Holland in 1952, at the age of 82, but his thoughts live on in the many educational

institutions around the world that apply his method. (Varios, 2004-2014)

2.3.1 Basic principles

The absorbing mind of children

The mind of children has a wonderful and unique capacity: the ability to acquire knowledge

by absorbing it with their psychic life. They learn everything unconsciously, moving little by

little from the unconscious to consciousness, advancing along a path in which everything is

joy. They are compared to a sponge, with the difference that the sponge has a limited

absorption capacity, the child's mind is infinite. Knowledge enters your head by the simple

fact of living.

It is thus understood that the first period of human development is the most important;

It is the stage of life in which there is the greatest need for help, help that is given not

because one is considered an insignificant and weak being, but because one is endowed with

great creative energies, of such a fragile nature that they require, in order not to be

diminished and wounded, a loving and intelligent defense.

Sensitive periods
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Sensitive periods are periods in which children can acquire a skill very easily. These are

special sensitivities that allow children to relate to the external world in an exceptionally

intense way; they are temporary and are limited to the acquisition of a certain character.

The prepared environment

It refers to an environment that has been carefully organized for the child, designed to

encourage self-learning and growth. In it, social, emotional and intellectual aspects are

developed and respond to the needs of order and security. The characteristics of this Prepared

Environment allow the child to develop without the constant assistance and supervision of an

adult.

The design of these environments is based on the principles of simplicity, beauty and

order, they are bright and warm spaces, which include language, plants, art, music and

books, the living room is organized into work areas, equipped with tables adapted to the size

of children and open areas for work on the ground. Shelves with materials belonging to said

development area surround each of these sectors. The materials are organized systematically

and in sequence of difficulty.

The Role of the Adult

The role of the adult in the Montessori Philosophy is to guide the child and introduce him or

her to the environment in a respectful and loving way. Be a conscious observer and be in

continuous learning and personal development.

The true educator is at the service of the student and, therefore, must cultivate humility,

to walk alongside the child, learn from him and together form a community. (Montessori,

1998)

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2.3.2 Montessori teaching material

María Montessori developed specific teaching material that constitutes the fundamental axis

for the development and implementation of her method.

It is not a simple hobby, nor a simple source of information, it is more than that, it is

educational material to teach. They are designed to capture the child's curiosity and guide

him/her by the desire to learn. To achieve this goal they must be presented grouped,

according to their function, according to the innate needs of each student.

These teaching materials can be used individually or in groups to engage in

storytelling, conversations, discussions, cooperative work efforts, singing, outdoor games,

and free play activities. In this way it ensures communication, the exchange of ideas, the

learning of culture, ethics and morals.

In general, all teaching materials have a more or less elaborate degree of the four

values: functional, experimental, structuring and relationship.

Another feature is that almost all equipment is self-correcting, so no task can be

completed incorrectly without the child realizing it himself. A task completed incorrectly

will find empty spaces or leftover pieces.

The child makes things for himself, simple devices, and observes things that grow

(plants, animals), opening his mind to science. Colors, paint, papers of different textures,

multi-shaped objects and three-dimensional geometric figures encourage them to creative

expression.

Sensory materials are grouped by each sense:

The taste and smell . Plants and perfumes provide the range of smells. Here the material is

naturally constituted by culinary products, with the complement of a series of jars with

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 odorous substances, another identical series has to be classified by comparison, so that the

exact recognition of the odors can be ensured.

The touch . The Montessori material takes into account the tactile sense, in all its forms

(slats and roughness), as well as the thermal sense (bottles with water at different

temperatures), the perception of shapes, etc.

The view . Differential perception of dimensions, colors, volumes and shapes.

The ear . Discernment of sounds with metal boxes, bells, whistles and xylophones. (Serrano,

1945)

2.4 Ovide Decroly

He was born on July 23, 1871, in Renaix (Belgium, East Flanders), and died on September 9,

1932, in Brussels. Son of an industrialist of French origin, he spent his early years in a large

garden where his father introduced him to manual labor. He completed his secondary studies

at boarding schools where he became interested in natural sciences, thanks to a teacher who

allowed him to do experiments in her laboratory. Having obtained a medical degree from the

University of Ghent, he continued his studies in Berlin and then in Paris, where, under the

direction of Professor Philippe, he studied the brains of tabetites, thus orienting himself

towards nervous diseases. Precursor of Intelligence tests.

Back in Belgium he founded in Brussels, in 1901, with the help of Mme. Decroly, who

was her husband's closest collaborator throughout her life, a secular institute for children

with intellectual disabilities. In fact, he opened his own home to handicapped children, which

allowed him to live in direct contact with the subjects he wanted to observe. He thus laid the

foundations of the special institute, currently located in the Vossegat, in Uccle. At the request

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 of friends who were enthusiastic about his new methods for teaching the disabled, he opened

an establishment for these children in 1907, which he called the “Ermita School.” The

direction of both schools was for him a constant and rich source of research and publications.

He actively participated in international scientific life, especially in the first Congress

of Paidology that he presided over in 1911, in Brussels and in the International Congress of

Calais in 1921, where he contributed to the founding of the International League for New

Education. At the same time he was a professor in several establishments, among which are

the Free University of Brussels and the School of Higher Studies, as well as an inspector-

doctor in the Ministry of Justice (Child Protection) and in the Special Education Service of

the municipality of Brussels. (Varios, Pedagogia, 2011-2014)

2.4.1 Decroly Method

"Adapt the school to the child through knowledge and observation of each of the students . "
"School for and for life"

Decroly proposes that the basic activities that must structure all school learning are:

observation, association and expression.

 Observation is the first activity that the school must propose for any learning object,

since it reveals the scientific spirit in the student and creates psychological habit,

will...

 Association is the basic activity that must follow observation by which immediate

specific ideas and notions are related to others often distant by experience, either by

space or time.

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  Expression occurs after observing and associating, and while these activities are

carried out. Through it, the essential communication in any school activity takes

place. (BESSE, 2004)

The organization of activities according to Decroly:

It includes three groups of different exercises, taking into account the three groups of

fundamental psychic processes:

 Impression and perception.

 Association and generalization; reflection and judgment.

 The expression and the act (the will), deducing from this his approach to the centers

of interest.

The activities are developed from materials called educational games, which are
classified into:

 Visual games.

 Visual-motor games.

 Motor and auditory-motor games.

 Initiation games in arithmetic.

 Games that refer to the notion of time.

 Initial games in reading.

 Grammar and language compression games.

The teacher:

 You must individualize teaching, consider the characteristics of each of your

students.

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  Know about psychology to meet the needs of the child.

 Furthermore, Decroly mentions that one should not attribute a superhuman task to the

teacher.

 The educator plays a role of advisor, of help, in close relationship with the family.

 School-Family Relationship
The correlated educational work proposed with the family is important, and even their

participation in the administrative management of the school. (Dalhem & Orellana, 1926)

2.4.2 The Decroly teaching material

Being a method where the senses are used; The teaching material that your school used has

the following characteristics:

 Use mostly images and text.

 The material must be INTUITIVE in nature (real beings or objects)

 Use of the EDUCATIONAL GAME as the main tool that motivates learning.

 MANUAL jobs are the most powerful means to exalt and respect individualities,

since each job will be different.

 The exercises you perform should reaffirm your PERSONAL CHARACTER, which

means that each job will be different for each individual.

 Provide the means for the student to reach abstraction.

 The child must MANIPULATE the instruments that must be gathered and made by

the students themselves with the help of the teacher. (Beltran, 1928)

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2.5 Rosa and Carolina Agazzi

The sisters Rosa and Carolina Agazzi were two experimental Italian educators, born in the

last half of the 19th century.

After completing their teaching studies, they began to teach in the city of Nave, in the

province of Brescia, in 1889-90 in a low-income municipality.

At the suggestion of Pietro Pasquali they decided to found a kindergarten in Mompiano

in 1896. The school model was a success and served as a model for the creation of other

schools that emerged under the name of Agazzi Sisters.

After the First World War, both sisters gave teaching courses to teachers from Trento,

Bolzano and Venezia Giulia.

In 1926 they left teaching, when childcare centers began to spread in Italy.

The educational method of the Agazzi sisters, together with the Montessori method,

inaugurates the era of Italian activism, a pedagogical current born at the beginning of the

20th century, based on the idea that experiences are developed in the learning center and that

the child Do not be a spectator, but an actor in the training process.

He criticizes the precocity of education since it tries to train children and not

schoolchildren. The child must grow up in a family environment that encourages creativity

and must have a constant dialogue with the adult.

The child's activity is the center of the educational process. The environment in which

the child's activities take place should be simple and composed of materials that are part of

everyday life.

Preference is given to free individual activities over collective ones, although under the

supervision of the educator. The child must have the freedom to do what he wants, respecting

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 the order of things, being able to collaborate with other people following the reciprocal

teaching method: the child with more experience and knowledge provides information and

instructions to his less prepared partner.

The intuitive method becomes the main path of learning. The teacher acts indirectly

and respecting the child's spontaneity, organizes and orders environments and situations. The

intuitive method identifies teaching as a way to foster experiences in which children learn

directly and spontaneously through action and observation.

The kindergarten should be designed in such a way that it reflects the child's usual

environment, and organized, in various aspects, like a small house, where the child can carry

out domestic activities as at home. (Varios, Biografias, 1999-2014)

2.5.1 Principles and Methodology of the Agazzi sisters

The educational principles proposed by the Agazzi sisters are the following:

 The globalizing character: Maintain the globalizing principle in the teaching of young

children, since not only one area can be developed in the boy or girl.

 The value of joy: It is free and orderly play in an emotional environment, in which

children's rhythms and needs are respected, in addition to motivating them to

continue with their learning for themselves.

 Knowledge through observation: This refers to the fact that through observation you

are able to create your own concepts.

 The assessment of the activity carried out by the child: It is the need to think about

something and therefore experiment. That way they arrive at reasoning.

 The value of order: material, aesthetic, spiritual, moral, social and harmonious order.

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 All these educational principles contributed by the Agazzi sisters are based on the

intelligent use of things through two instruments:

 The educational museum: consists of varied collections of small things and objects,

which children and educators contribute. These objects are endowed with

characteristics of simplicity and clarity, which make them attractive to children and

stimulate play and the acquisition of important knowledge such as shapes, sizes,

volume , etc.

 Passwords: they are symbols intelligible to children that help organize their activity

and preserve the order of things and the environment.

Its methodology is based on completely respecting the spontaneity and freedom of the

child through independent work. The contents must be presented through recreational

activities.

They had a song to do each activity. These two teachers organized the classroom in a

circular way. They mainly worked for the development of the child and to prepare them for

life. They wanted to acquire order, agility and precision in boys and girls. It is very important

to highlight that in the method they wanted to promote to the teachers that the school where

the boys and girls spent the rest of the day was a continuity of family life, both would be

connected.

He Agazzian method consisted of the following:

 The child learns or assimilates concepts using intuition.

 The didactics is based on an intelligent use of realistic objects obtained from the

school environment.

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  They carry out activities from home and daily life. Some of these are: washing,

dressing...

 Children are provided with a warm and loving environment, similar to home.

 Joy, play and the relationship with a maternal educator are fundamental elements of

this methodology .

 The method is also based on language education , through singing and body rhythm.

On the other hand, the fundamental areas of its system were:

 Sensory education: this type of education is developed by arranging objects by colors,

materials and shapes.

 Intellectual instruction: is based on the exploration of the world and the natural

perception of concepts.

 The education of feeling: It is very important, since it against aggressiveness. It is

developed by practicing religion (since they wanted to develop and cultivate the

religious spirit), physical education and moral education. (Titone, 1966)

2.5.2 Agazzi teaching material

To carry out the activities, the Agazzi Sisters decided to use materials that were not used,

what is currently known as recyclables, they called them “trinkets” to create different

museums, the “Poor Museum” or “Didactic Museum.”

From here, the Agazzi Sisters carried out different activities, which we will name in

more detail below, to promote learning, work on their qualities, classification... Furthermore,

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 to ensure that the children learned to organize and classify, they assigned passwords based on

drawings or symbols identify objects and/or people. (Lombardo, 1958)

2.6 Friedrich Fröbel

Frederick Froebel was born on April 21, 1782 in a village called Oberweissbach near

Rudolstadt in Thuringia in Germany.

He was the youngest of six siblings, his father was a Protestant pastor and his mother

died when he was nine months old.

He learned to write in his hometown as well as simple operations in mathematics and

geometry. In 1792 he lived with his uncle in Stadt-ilm and attended formal school. In the

summer of 1797 his father sent him to learn the trade of forest ranger and learning about

nature became the priority of his life. During that time he learned topography, geometry and

to value land.

At the age of 18 he entered the university of Jena to study mineralogy and

mathematics, two years later he returned to the job of forest ranger in Bamberg. In 1804

Froebel studied architecture for a year at the University of Frankfurt and a year later he

began teaching at Anton Gruner's school in Frankfurt.

Motivated by Gruner's comments, Froebel discovers the ideas of Johann Pestalozzi,

travels to Switzerland and works with him in Yverdon. It was this time that determined his

vocation as a teacher and philosopher.

In 1811 Froebel entered the University of Göttingen and studied Philosophy. Five

years later Froebel founded the German Universal Educational Institute in Griesheim, which

he later moved to Keilhau.

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 In 1826 Froebel published his work "The Education of Man" and designed a collection

of 500 wooden figures, these completely geometric and logical among themselves, which

were used for teaching mathematics.

In 1837 Froebel established a kindergarten in Bad Blakenburg, Thuringia, Germany. In

this school we worked with games, songs, stories and crafts.

In 1840 to commemorate four hundred years since the invention of Gutenberg's

printing press, Froebel launched the German Universal Kindergaten.

In 1843 her book “Maternal Songs” was published, which are a series of songs that

seek to stimulate the senses of children from the first months of life.

In the following ten years, more than forty-four kindergartens were founded throughout

Germany and a teacher training center in Mariethal.

On June 21, 1852 in Mariethal, at a quarter to six in the afternoon, after a small illness,

Frederick Froebel died. (Varios, Federico Froebel, 2010-2014)

2.6.1 Pedagogical principles

For Froebel, the ideal education of man begins from childhood with action, play and work,

ensuring that human beings can be active, creative with values and achieve appreciation for

nature.

Froebel's educational system was based on supposedly natural laws: the law of unity,

the law of self-activity, the law of connection, and the law of opposites, which, put simply,

states that human beings learn best when they perceive things in context with their opposites.

Froebel thought that this last law was particularly important for teaching. When on one

occasion a young intellectual fought him by arguing that this law was the same as Hegel's

dialectic and questioned its usefulness, Froebel responded that although he had not had time
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 to study Hegel's system, he felt that the “total meaning” of his own educational method

rested “on this one law.” “Everything else was mere material, the work of which proceeds in

accordance with this law, and without this law it would be impracticable”

Froebel conceived of children's play as a highly structured activity and was ambivalent

about the value of free, spontaneous play. According to Froebel, the game “was not trivial”

but rather “very serious.” It provided “joy, freedom, joy, internal and external rest, peace

with the world.” Undirected play was, according to Froebel, a waste of time.

“Without rational and conscious guidance children's activity degenerates into

meaningless play, instead of preparing them for the tasks of life to which it is intended to

guide.” Mutter-und Koselieder. Mother Play “Maternal Communication”, the first group of

finger plays and songs aimed to promote the sensory perception of children, including body

awareness, movement, sensory discrimination and imitation activities such as “Limb Play”,

“The weather vane” and “Tic Tac”. The second group of games and songs aimed to teach

concepts of classification, number, size and shape to slightly older children and included

finger games such as “The Nest”, “The Pigeon House” and “Finger Names”. The third group,

known as “soft songs,” was intended to direct the child's attention to more distant objects and

abstract knowledge such as the discovery of the Moon and stars and the play between light

and shadow. The last group of games dealt with social relationships and introduced moral

themes such as the concepts of good and evil. (de Rezzano, 1966)

2.6.2 Froebel teaching material

In his didactic doctrine, he proposed that children should carry out their activity through

special teaching material. With this material, he occupied, educated, taught and made "the
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 little boy happy, profitably filling the moments of his life." At first, all the material designed

to use children's activity in their preschool age was designated with the name "Gifts" by its

author, because "gift", in the meaning that he wanted to give it, means "gift".

The "gifts" are thus one of the five sections that make up the nursery school study

program, such as: gymnastic games, gifts or toys, manual labor, talks and singing.

"The gifts tend to reach complex objects, they provide opportunities for manual

exercises and at the same time they provide the child with ideas and words with which to

express them."

The gifts that make up the series are twelve: first the ball, second six balls, third the sphere,

the cylinder and the cube, fourth the cube divided into eight cubes, fifth the cube divided into

bricks, sixth the sticks, seventh the cans, eighth the rings, ninth papers to fold and glue, tenth

paper to cut and trim, eleventh material to knit and chop, twelfth tools for drawing and

illuminating. (Ruiz, 1986)

The gifts described by Froebel are:

Solids:

Six small balls of red, yellow, blue, green, orange and purple wool.

A wooden sphere, a cube and a cylinder.

A wooden cube that is divided into eight smaller cubes.

A wooden cube that is divided into eight rectangular prisms.

A wooden cube that is divided into 21 full cubes, 3 cut into quarters, and 3 divided into

halves.

A wooden cube made of 18 rectangular prisms and 6 that are divided into smaller square

prisms or rectangular prisms.

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Surfaces:

Large and small tables of various geometric shapes.

Lines:

Chopsticks and rings.

Points:

Small beads.

Line and Point:

Chopsticks and plasticine balls. (Braylovsky, 2008)

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