The “Dalton Plan” is a training system based on the application of an individual approach to students. The technique was developed by Helen Parkhurst in 1919 and was first introduced at a school for the disabled, and then in 1920 at Dalton High School, Massachusetts. This was the reaction of some progressive educators to the shortcomings inherent in the traditional student classification system.
The essence of the technique
The Dalton Plan divides each subject in the school curriculum into monthly assignments. Students are free to plan their own work schedules, but they are responsible for completing one task before starting another. The most acceptable form of training is group work. Although the Dalton Plan has been popular for some time in the United States, Great Britain, Europe, and the Western colonial world, it has been criticized for its pronounced individualistic approach.
Method Author
Helen Parkhurst described training according to Dalton’s plan as follows: “Let's think of the school as a social laboratory, where the students themselves are experimenters, and not victims of an intricate and strict system. Let's think of it as a place where social conditions prevail, such as in real life "(1922). Helen Parkhurst was born on March 8, 1886, in the city of Duran (Wisconsin, USA), died on June 1, 1973 in New Milford (Connecticut). She was an author and teacher who engaged in educational activities and developed the Dalton Plan, and also founded a school in Dalton (NY).
Parkhurst graduated from River Falls College (Wisconsin) in 1907, defended her thesis at Columbia University, and studied at the universities of Rome and Munich, in Italy Parkhurst met and collaborated with another outstanding teacher - Maria Montessori. She later received a master's degree in education from Yale University (1943) and became the first female teacher at Yale University. For the last three decades of her life, she has lectured, helped institutes implement the Dalton Plan system around the world, wrote books, took part in radio programs and television shows for and about young people. Her books:
- "Dalton Plan" - a training system "(1922).
- "Rhythms of work in the field of education" (1935).
- "Study of the children's world" (1951).
Ideas Helen Parkhurst
When Helen was still a schoolgirl, it was difficult for her to just sit, listen, practice and repeat all the time. Having become a teacher in 1905, she wanted to act differently. She believed that it was simply impossible to organize effective training in accordance with established methods. It was a school in which about forty students of different ages and different levels received education. Parkhurst came to a simple and ingenious decision: she postponed the school-set schedules and asked the children to choose for themselves from the proposed educational material that would allow them to study the programs on their own.
The student and teacher began a collaboration in which the child was required to achieve his chosen learning goal within a certain amount of time. Master promised to help if necessary. In 1922, Parkhurst outlined her theory of education in a book about the Dalton Plan, in which she elaborated on the principles of her teaching method :
- freedom;
- responsibility;
- cooperation.
Dalton Philosophy
Inspired by thinkers of the turn of the century, Helen Parkhurst began to apply a new progressive approach to education. She caught the spirit of change and created Dalton’s plan. This is not just a system, it is an influence, a vision of how people learn, this is the teacher’s attitude towards students. The author of the methodology believed that students should be listened to and then challenged to find out what they really are capable of.
Dalton Plan Technology: Principles
The teacher’s task is to provide any student with a structure so that he can study freely as part of the assignment. Freedom means being able to handle responsibility. The starting point is faith in the ability of all children. The student himself evaluates what he needs to complete the task, and in what period of time. Personal experience is actually the best teacher. Students should be given the opportunity to acquire the art of learning.
Signs of the individualized training system "Dalton Plan" are the following:
- Students deal with free learning step by step. Preschoolers start small, they choose tasks that they can do on their own. Children and youth are developing, and tasks are gradually becoming more and more difficult.
- Responsibilities learn in the company of their fellows. This is a kind of adventure where the relationships that are built in school life will then be applicable in real life.
"Freedom and responsibility to work a miracle together"
These are the first two principles of the Dalton technique. Freedom is needed in order to make your own choices, to find your own path. But freedom does not mean that everything is possible and permitted. Ideal freedom is not the will of obligations, and even more is not the absence of discipline. A child who simply does what he wants is not free, on the contrary, he becomes a slave to bad habits, selfishness and is unsuitable for living with other people.
The third principle is cooperation
To be able to subsequently participate in society, you need to learn how to collaborate. Therefore, much attention is paid to games and work in small groups. For example, students from the same class carry out the task together; these can also be groups of different ages. By doing something together, they learn to listen and respect each other.
Value Based Education
For Parkhurst, there was no separation between teaching and raising a child, she had faith in a reasonable school where children study, and they are given the opportunity to show responsibility for the process of their own learning. She customized each student's program to his or her needs, interests, and abilities. She wanted to encourage every child, making him independent and at the same time reliable. The color blind plan was designed to hone social skills and increase children's sense of responsibility towards others.
International recognition
Over the years, Dalton has gained widespread international recognition. Schools in the Netherlands, Australia, England, Korea, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Japan, and Germany have partially or fully adopted the Dalton Plan as an educational technology. This technique is based on the firm belief that whenever children receive responsibility for their education, they instinctively look for the best way to achieve their goal, and perform tasks with special attention and rigor, which leads them to success.
Based on this, the main objectives of the Dalton plan are:
- adaptation of each student's program to his or her needs, interests and inclinations;
- fostering independence and reliability;
- increasing social skills and a sense of responsibility towards others.
To achieve these goals, a model was developed that reorganizes education from focusing on teachers to focusing on children. Thus, important learning responsibilities partially pass from the teacher to his student.