History of Education and Educational Thought

Orbis Pictus is by Comenius. It is regarded as the first illustrated textbook and as a forerunner of object-based (intuitive) teaching. Rousseau's main work is Emile, Pestalozzi wrote How Gertrude Teaches Her Children and other works, and Herbart wrote General Pedagogy; none of these is an illustrated textbook.

In the Great Didactic, Comenius proposed school reform so that anyone could be educated regardless of status, teaching "all things to all people". He also argued for a single-track school system not divided by class. He did not promote private tutoring for nobles, separate class-based tracks are the opposite of his view, and he did not argue for teaching nothing at all.

Emile was published in 1762 and was condemned by the Parlement of Paris soon after (The Social Contract appeared the same year). The "gifts" belong to Froebel, deriving aims from ethics and methods from psychology is Herbart, and the letter about caring for war orphans is Pestalozzi's Letter from Stans.

Rousseau's Emile is called the book that discovered the child; he said that people do not know what a child is, and criticised treating children as small adults. Comenius is the father of didactics, Herbart is one of the founders of scientific pedagogy, and Dewey was a 20th-century thinker who stressed experience; none of them is the source of this phrase.

Stans, Burgdorf and Yverdon are where Pestalozzi worked. Froebel visited Pestalozzi at Yverdon to learn from him and later founded the kindergarten. Montessori founded the Children's House in Rome, and Comenius lived in the 17th century, so none of them fits.

Pestalozzi made direct perception (Anschauung) the foundation of knowledge and analysed its basic elements as form, number and language. The five steps belong to the Herbartian Rein, the reconstruction of experience and learning through work and activity belong to Dewey, and learning contracts in subject rooms (laboratories) belong to Parkhurst's Dalton Plan.

The Education of Man (1826) is Froebel's main work. Emile is by Rousseau, the Great Didactic by Comenius, and General Pedagogy by Herbart, so the other three pairings mix up the authors.

Froebel devised the "gifts", educational play materials for young children, in the 1830s, and in 1840 named his institution for young children the Kindergarten ("children's garden"). The Children's House is Montessori's, the person who studied at Oswego was Takamine Hideo, and The Century of the Child is by Ellen Key.

Herbart derived education's aim from ethics and its method from psychology, and is regarded as one of the founders of scientific pedagogy. Goal setting, planning, carrying out and evaluation is Kilpatrick's project method, putting moral training first was Japan's Revised Education Order (改正教育令, 1880), and sensory materials are Montessori's.

Rein's five steps are preparation, presentation, comparison, generalisation and application. Clarity, association, system and method are Herbart's own four stages, not a base for adding "application". Goal setting, planning, carrying out and evaluation are the four stages of Kilpatrick's project method. The option "presentation → preparation → generalisation → comparison → application" uses the right terms in the wrong order.

The Century of the Child is by the Swede Ellen Key; it appeared in 1900, and an English translation followed in 1909. Montessori was Italian, and Parkhurst and Kilpatrick were American; none of them wrote it.

Dewey founded a laboratory school at the University of Chicago in 1896 and published its principles as The School and Society (1899). Dalton in 1920 is Parkhurst, Seijo Elementary School (1917) is Sawayanagi Masataro, and the person who came to Japan in 1887 with Herbartian pedagogy was Hausknecht.

"Reconstruction (reorganisation) of experience" is Dewey's definition of education in Democracy and Education. Herbart built pedagogy on ethics and psychology, Pestalozzi stressed direct perception and "life educates", and Froebel centred on the gifts and play, so none of them matches this definition.

The project method is Kilpatrick's, and it proceeds in four stages: goal setting, planning, carrying out and evaluation. Parkhurst founded the Dalton Plan, and Rein is linked with the five steps (preparation to application). Clarity, association, system and method are Herbart's four stages, so "Kilpatrick: clarity, association, system, method" has the wrong stages.

Montessori was an Italian physician who began with the education of children with intellectual disabilities and applied her methods to other children at the Children's House (Casa dei Bambini) in Rome; she is known for sensory materials. Naming the Kindergarten was Froebel, pragmatism and progressive education are Dewey, and clarity–association–system–method is Herbart.

The Dalton Plan, begun by Parkhurst in 1920, has pupils plan about a month of study, sign a contract with the teacher, and work at their own pace in subject rooms (laboratories) equipped with materials. Its aim was to end lockstep whole-class teaching, so "teaching the same content to the whole class at the same pace" is the opposite. Showing objects with question-and-answer drills is object teaching (庶物指教), and fixed steps are the Herbartian five-step method.

Although it differed by country, the New Education movement shared an emphasis on children's own activity in teaching and discipline, which also made it stress democratic and liberal positions. Teacher-set, fixed lesson steps were what the movement tried to rethink. Loyalty to the state and class-based schools are not features of New Education.

Takamine Hideo learned Pestalozzian methods directly at Oswego and spread developmental teaching at the Tokyo Normal School. Mori Arinori was the Minister of Education who issued the school ordinances of 1886; Sawayanagi Masataro founded Seijo Elementary School in the Taisho era; and Tanaka Fujimaro led the drafting of the Education Order (教育令) of 1879.

According to the Ministry's history 'A Hundred Years of the School System' (学制百年史), the American M. M. Scott was invited to the Tokyo normal school and first introduced class teaching to Japanese schools. Hausknecht came in 1887 and brought Herbartian pedagogy, a different time and content. Parkhurst and Dewey were figures of American New Education and were not invited as normal-school teachers.

Sawayanagi, a former Vice-Minister of Education, founded Seijo Elementary School in 1917 (Taisho 6), promoted New Education that valued children's own activity, and helped introduce the Dalton Plan. The 1886 school ordinances were issued under Minister Mori Arinori, the draft of the Rescript on Education was by Inoue Kowashi, and the 1879 Education Order was drafted mainly by Tanaka Fujimaro.

The Gakusei divided Japan into 8 university districts, each with 32 middle-school districts of 210 elementary-school districts; its overall framework is thought to have been modelled on France. Town/village units and 16 months are the 1879 Education Order, free tuition as a rule is the 1900 revision of the Elementary School Order, and six-year compulsory education dates from 1907. Under the Gakusei, costs fell mainly on residents and fees were charged.

The proclamation aimed that no village would have a household without learning and no household a person without learning, and called learning the capital for getting on in life. "The Imperial Way" is the National School Order (国民学校令) of 1941, "the basics of moral and national education" is the Elementary School Order of 1890, and "the spirit of the Constitution of Japan" is the preamble of the Basic Act on Education (教育基本法).

The Education Order, drafted by Tanaka Fujimaro with reference to American school administration, abolished the district system, made towns and villages the unit for schools and relaxed compulsory attendance to 16 months, so it was called the "Liberal Education Order". Putting moral training first and tightening control was the 1880 Revised Education Order, the two levels with compulsory attendance came with the 1886 Elementary School Order, and National Schools date from 1941.

The Revised Education Order replaced the so-called Liberal Education Order, adopted state control as its basic policy, put moral training (修身) first, and required at least 16 weeks of attendance a year until a three-year course was completed. Free tuition and the four-year unification came in 1900, the 6-3-3 system and co-education in the postwar reforms, and districts with fixed school numbers in the 1872 Gakusei.

In 1886 the Imperial University Order, Normal School Order, Middle School Order and Elementary School Order were issued. The National School Order (国民学校令) dates from 1941 (Showa 16) and was not part of them. The Elementary School Order required attendance until completing the ordinary elementary school, and military-style training was brought into normal schools.

The Rescript was issued on 30 October 1890 (Meiji 23), based mainly on a draft by Inoue Kowashi with help from Motoda Nagazane. After the war, in 1948 (Showa 23), the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors each passed resolutions removing it or confirming it had lost effect. The Gakusei preamble is the 1872 proclamation, the National School Order (1941) is a law rather than a rescript, and the text with a preamble and 11 articles is the 1947 Basic Act on Education.

The 1900 (Meiji 33) revision unified the ordinary elementary school at four years and made free tuition the rule. In 1907 (Meiji 40) the ordinary elementary school was extended by two years to six, and this became compulsory. The 1886 order set attendance duties but not free tuition; the six-year extension was 1907; the district system was abolished by the 1879 Education Order; and the 1903 revision introduced state-compiled textbooks.

The National School Order was promulgated on 1 March 1941 and took effect on 1 April. Article 1 set its aim as elementary general education "in accordance with the Imperial Way" for the basic training of the nation. It had a 6-year primary and 2-year higher course; 8-year compulsory schooling was planned from 1944 but was postponed by wartime emergency measures until the war ended. Four-year ordinary and higher levels are the 1886 order, abolishing districts is the 1879 Education Order, and nine years is the 1947 School Education Act.

The Mission's report recommended the 6-3-3 system, compulsory and tuition-free schooling for the 6+3 years, co-education, and democratic, publicly elected boards of education in prefectures and municipalities. Putting moral training first was the 1880 Revised Education Order, six-year compulsory ordinary elementary school dates from 1907, and National Schools date from 1941.

The School Education Act (Act No. 26 of 31 March 1947) took effect from April, and the new elementary and lower secondary schools started; with the three-year lower secondary school, compulsory education became nine years. The current Act still sets the aims of elementary school (Article 29) and lower secondary school (Article 45) one after the other. Elected boards of education came with the 1948 Board of Education Act (from November), National Schools date from 1941, and the Basic Act on Education was fully revised in 2006.