1. Miss Tep Sonimul
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
(1746-1827)
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (January 12, 1746 – February 17, 1827) was
a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who advocated education of the poor and
emphasized teaching methods designed to strengthen the student’s own abilities.
Pestalozzi’s method became widely accepted, and most of his principles have been
absorbed into modern elementary education.
He founded several educational institutions both in German- and French-speaking regions of
Switzerland and wrote many works explaining his revolutionary modern principles of education. His motto
was "Learning by head, hand and heart (3H)". Pestalozzi’s pedagogical doctrines stressed that instructions
should proceed from the familiar to the new, incorporate the performance of concrete arts and the experience
of actual emotional responses, and be paced to follow the gradual unfolding of the child’s development.
Pestalozzi asserted that education should be centered on the child, not the curriculum. Since
knowledge lies within human beings, the purpose of teaching is to find the way to unfold that hidden
knowledge. Pestalozzi advocated direct experience as the best method to accomplish this. He also advocated
spontaneity and self-activity, in contrast to the rigid, teacher-centered, and curriculum-based methods used in
other schools.
Teachers should not teach through words or giving children ready-made answers, but allow children
to discover answers themselves. Nothing is better than a direct sensory experience. Thus, in early education,
Pestalozzi recommended that children use no books, but rather learn through direct experience.
He advocated an inductive method, in which the child first learns to observe, to correct its own
mistakes, and to analyze and describe the object of inquiry. The child starts with simple objects and simple
observation, and builds toward more complex and abstract things. Only after that can the child start to use
books.
In order to allow children to obtain more experience from nature, Pestalozzi expanded the elementary
school curriculum to include geography, natural science, art, and music.
He maintained that the classroom should be like a family. The atmosphere must be loving and caring,
like in a good family. He developed the idea of the “family classroom” from the way mother raised children.
And he also suggested that teachers always need to be loving and kind, and earn the trust of the children. He
believed that "without love, neither the physical nor the intellectual powers will develop naturally".

2. Miss Tep Sonimul
Nowadays, I think that the Pestalozzi Method is a good technique one in this world in order to teach
children by let them to experience themselves with the objects. Because I believe that the way of learning
through experiences will not blank it out easily.