Space division method
Raumteilverfahren is a socio-educational method of game management within Schörl pedagogy .
history
The spatial division method was developed by Margarete Schörl and Margarete Schmaus in Austrian kindergartens after 1945 and scientifically supported by Sylvia Bayr-Klimpfinger . The socio-educational method of playing games became established in German kindergartens from the 1950s onwards. To this day, it determines most of the preschool facilities in German-speaking countries.
As early as the 1920s, the image that we are familiar with today of relaxed room design in kindergartens / daycare centers developed. Following the example of the Pestalozzi-Froebel House and Montessori pedagogy , a family-like design of the group room was sought and so-called “functional corners” were set up (cf. Berger 2012a, p. 17). The importance of space, the spatial-cultural environment, is the focus of all early childhood education concepts today.
Method: space division method
In Schörl pedagogy, the space only has significance as a pedagogically lived space, ie in personal encounters between the child and children and their kindergarten teacher in an educational context. Since the room is a “secret co-educator” and it always has a psychological effect, its design undoubtedly exerts “an influence on the quality of the educational processes” (Wilk 2016, p. 100) as well as “on play opportunities and educational experiences” (Franz 2016, P. 89).
The room as a prepared environment fulfills two tasks: security and stimulation. The children have to feel comfortable in their group room. A “feel-good room” meets the child's emotional needs; it invites you to learn, research and discover. The room design shows how children's needs are perceived. They are used to convey “indirect cultural values…. Adults design rooms which they consider suitable for children according to their (professional) standards. Inevitably, this familiarizes children with the zeitgeist and culture. They acquire a section of the historical, cultural and social world through the room design ”(Wilk / Jasmund 2015, p. 60). Mater Schörl observed in the two-group kindergarten she directed at the institute of the English Misses in Krems, which at the time was attended by 80 children and more, "that the large crowd of children loosens itself into small interest groups" (Schörl 1953, p. 21) , the children were looking for retreats or places for their various activities. Schörl reports:
- “Based on these observations, I now offered the children the opportunity to create and develop realistic game situations themselves. For example, I ask before breakfast so that there is enough time to plan: 'Who wants to be a builder today?' Or: 'You can set up a laundry room, a market stall and a dolls room today.' At other times there is a kitchen, a workshop and a sewing room ”(Schörl 1950, p. 81 ff.).
Based on their practical experience and unfavorable spatial conditions, Schörl and Schmaus developed and tested the spatial division method in their kindergartens. This was scientifically accompanied by Sylvia Bayr-Klimpfinger, who at the time dealt with the biological principles of living space design:
- “Klimpfinger pointed out the problem of transferring the given conditions in animals to humans, but said that humans are much closer to animals in terms of their active reactions to given living conditions than, for example, in their intellectual coping with situations. People's need for protection and security, for manageability and demarcation, for 'territorial development' and orientation is an elementary requirement for the design of their living space. So the corner and cave, the hollow and niche - in short, every pleasantly tangible space - a prerequisite for every meaningful activity ”(ibid.).
The idea of the spatial division method was immediately taken up in Austria. The City of Vienna had this for example in the early 1950s for the newly built "Friedrich Wilhelm Fröbel Kindergarten", XX. City district, Kapaunplatz, which became a model for other kindergarten buildings, implemented in an architecturally innovative way. The individual group rooms (playrooms) were equipped with three fixed and low “employment niches” (resting, housekeeping and reading niches), “in which even individual children can isolate themselves, because these little ones also need undisturbed concentration at times” (Stadtbauamt der City of Vienna 1952, p. 14). An original idea that was only restricted to Austria. Schörl pedagogy understands the spatial division process to be an (indirect) socio-pedagogical method of leadership work and game management. It divides or subdivides the group room of the kindergarten into individual small play / activity areas, "seen from the outside, to room parts" (Schmaus / Schörl 1978, p. 30):
- “The main thing about the spatial division process is that it predominantly influences the social life of the children: It makes use of 'socio-educational teaching processes' and primarily promotes 'social learning' for children - and that within play; In particular, it promotes the age-appropriate socialization of children in small play groups that form spontaneously ”(ibid., p. 17).
Elsewhere, Schörl writes about the educational importance of the spatial division method:
- “By this I mean a process that enables the children to divide the space according to their need for action. This results in the division of the children's group into small interest groups and into children who play individually. The spatial division process results in important pedagogical situations. Just getting the children together in a group requires an opinion and a free decision. There are voting files that are possible where the kindergarten teacher determines the process. In addition, moral attitudes are laid down which can be decisive for the whole of later life. The important thing is not that the child 'works' by playing, but how it works and how it adapts to work as a self-chosen task ... The toddler's actions are more important than the goal of his actions. That is why the children should always be able to experiment with play space, toys and play ideas. Therefore fixed niches and built-in furniture are not beneficial to the child ”(Schörl 1956, p. 22 f).
In her dissertation published in 1969, Gisela Hundertmarck emphasizes the social component that is brought about by the breakdown and differentiation of the group space in the sense of Schörl pedagogy:
- “The children have much better opportunities to establish and maintain social relationships. They can get together in smaller and larger playgroups that remain largely undisturbed, and they can devote themselves to their game with greater intensity, for example if there is a building corner in which they can plan and carry out a larger project, or if there is a child can delve into a book in the reading corner ”(Hundertmarck 1969, p. 71).
There are immobile and mobile parts of the room. The former are set up by the kindergarten teacher and are “firmly protected places” from the outset (Berger 2012, p. 53), which are equipped with certain play, learning and activity material. Such fixed parts of the room are the building site, the doll's apartment, the picture book space, the household corner, among others: “In this way, the kindergarten teacher supports the child's tendency to prefer certain activities in certain places, but she also concretises this tendency to a certain extent content. By allowing the stimulating character of such sub-areas and the play and activity material in the respective part of the room to come fully into play, it suggests topics for the child to be active without, however, determining it in the further development of his play ideas "(Neuwirth o. J ., P. 2). The immobile parts of the room give the child a sense of security in spatial orientation, especially at the beginning of the kindergarten year, when a lot is still unknown to the newcomers. Depending on the individual areas, the associated, manageable play / activity material is exchanged, supplemented and expanded as required in order to initiate new impulses and suggestions, because educational work essentially takes place “through the child’s handling of material” (Schmaus 1964, p. 9) . Since children have the right to actively appropriate and (re) design space themselves, the room division process also includes mobile room parts. These are interchangeable and changeable play / activity areas that are set up and expanded by parents with children or by children alone. They give the children the opportunity to form smaller play / activity groups:
- “The reason for setting up such movable places are situations that arise from a special interest of the children or current children's experiences. To do this, of course, there is a need for enough free space and appropriate room dividers that are accessible to the children at any time: tables, chairs, boxes, towels, boards, etc. ”(Berger 2012, p. 37).
In summary: The group room as the child's living space, as an educationally lived space (i.e. in real personal encounters between the child and the children and the kindergarten teacher) is structured
- specified parts of the room
- Parts of the room that are set up by children themselves through certain play / activity projects (post office, shop, airfield, train game ...)
- certain play / activity spaces that result from playing alone / being active alone or from playing / working together. This requires variable furniture parts, curtains, partitions, mats, blankets, boards, easels, etc., which can be used again and again.
Within the Schörl pedagogy, the room includes more than just the group room. The educational space also includes the kindergarten environment that children can access: streets, squares, public buildings, gardens, parks, the nearby forest, etc. like m. Accordingly, an essential task of the kindergarten teacher is to create certain occasions, for example by "going out" with the children into the open air, into nature or into the community / city (cf. Schmaus / Schörl 1964, p. 149). The deliberately designed exits are “the necessary substructure for almost every other educational work in the kindergarten ... From this it should be clear to every kindergarten teacher how necessary it is to lead the children out of the kindergarten so that they can see and hear something ... But apart from the observation walks in nature should often be undertaken on construction sites of all kinds, on houses, roads, cables, canals and similar structures ”(Schmaus 1964, p. 13 ff.). In addition, there are visits to a car workshop, a bakery, glazier, gardening shop, etc. like m. (ibid., p. 15 f).
An important part of the room is the garden surrounding the facility, as part of the children's play world:
- "The doll's apartment under the canopy of a tree or bush is ... very attractive ... The work corner, on the other hand, is near old tree stumps, connected with sawn-off tree plates ... The two small garden beds also require a protected place, radishes, beans, strawberries, etc. . should be carefully looked after and protected. This insight into the workshops of nature requires patient waiting and is of great value, especially for city children ”(Neuwirth n.d., p. 49).
Since Schmaus / Schörl pleaded for the kindergarten to be opened up to the neighborhood, they are seen today as pioneers of the “open kindergarten” (cf. Kapfer-Weixelbaumer 2005, p. 92, Regel / Wieland 1993, p. 143 ff. ). For Margit Franz, the “Open Kindergarten” is the logical continuation of “Schmaus-Schörl's spatial subdivision process ... in the 21st century”, which has been successfully lived there for “more than twenty-five years” (Franz 2016, p. 93).
Criticism of the spatial division method
The room division method according to Schörl / Schmaus was / is seen as outdated, and it is time to say goodbye: "Why do we stay in one room when we have the whole house?" Ingeborg Becker-Textor criticizes the rigidly structured room division process, which ultimately led to a certain degree of uniformity in the kindergartens: “Building site, dolls' corner, picture book corner, dining area, painting table, handicraft corner, etc. The areas were separated from each other by cupboards, rectangular rooms were divided into small rectangular rooms, a uniformity was created paired with 'specifications' for certain activities at certain places, equipped with the necessary materials "(Becker-Textor o. J. , P. 19). Such a rigid system of furnishings meant that the “kindergartens all looked the same or, once they were established, were hardly changed” (ibid.). Bernd Rudow also complains about the “uniformity of many daycare centers in Germany”, which can be traced back to the spatial division procedure. The “characteristic feature is not the division of the room, but the division of the area for the purpose of dividing it into group rooms” (Rudow 2017, p. 197). Wolfgang Mahlke complains about the spatial division method, which is only oriented on a horizontal level (cf. Mahlke 1985, p. 33 ff.), Which “creates different play areas and leeway by dividing the areas, but through the half-height furniture and room dividers” the educator “provides an overview the happening in the group room "is allowed and thus the child cannot" escape their gaze "(Krieg / Krieg 2008, p. 90), it always remains under control.
literature
- S. Bayr-Klimpfinger: Introduction to the subject of “built pedagogy”. In: W. Neuwirth: The group room - tools - the kindergarten teacher. Linz undated, pp. 1-3.
- I. Becker-Textor: Different times, different ideas, different furniture. Rodach no year
- M. Berger : Schörl, Mater Margarethe (Margarete). In: T. Bautz (Hrsg.): Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon. Volume XXIII, Nordhausen 2004, Col. 1306-1311.
- M. Berger: Margarete Schörl. In: kindergarten today. H. 9, 2012, pp. 34-39.
- M. Berger: The child is the focus. Mater Margarte Schörl's life and work for the kindergarten. In: Pastoral Services, Family Division of the Diocese of St. Pölten (Ed.): Thinking for yourself makes you smart. Schörl pedagogy today. Festschrift for the 100th birthday of M. Margarete Schörl. St. Pölten 2012a, pp. 8–26.
- M. Berger: Schörl pedagogy. Introduction to a classic kindergarten concept , Göttingen 2019
- F. Franz: “Just played again today” - and learned a lot in the process. Convincingly demonstrate the importance of children's play. Munich 2016.
- M. Groh: Development of a room concept. In: C. Niederle (ed.): Methods of the kindergarten. Volume 1, Linz 2002, pp. 7-13.
- G. Hundertmarck: Social education in kindergarten. Stuttgart 1969
- A. Kapfer-Weixelbaumer: Children's life and children's play in the children's house. In: KH Braun, K. Wetzel, B. Dobesberger, A. Fraundorfer (eds.): Handbook of child and youth work. Vienna 2005, pp. 77-106.
- E. Krieg, H. Krieg: Promoting and shaping education in day-care centers. Results of the STEP project, Münster 2008.
- W. Mahlke: Room structure in the kindergarten. In: C. Hontschick (Ed.): Room design and educational concept in kindergarten. Frankfurt am Main 1985, pp. 33-36.
- W. Neuwirth: The group room - tools of the kindergarten teacher. Linz no year
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- B. Rudow: Profession of educator - more than games and handicrafts. Münster 2017.
- M. Schmaus: The educational work of the kindergarten teacher. Vienna 1964.
- M. Schmaus, M. Schörl: The socio-educational work of the kindergarten teacher. Munich 1964.
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- M. Schmaus, M. Schörl: Socio- educational work in kindergarten. Munich 1978.
- M. Schörl: From my kindergarten. In: A. Niegl (Ed.): Contemporary questions in kindergarten education. Vienna 1950.
- M. Schörl: Pictures from kindergarten. In: Institut BMV der Englischen Fräulein (Hrsg.): Festschrift for the 60th anniversary of the private teacher training institute. Krems 1953, pp. 20-24.
- M. Schörl: Some aspects of kindergarten education. In: Institut BMV (Ed.): Annual report 1975/76. 250 years. Krems 1976, pp. 26-30.
- M. Schörl: The teachings of Froebel and Montessori in the educational situation of our time. In: Children's home. 1956, pp. 214-223.
- Stadtbauamt der Stadt Wien (Ed.): The 150th Kindergarten of the City of Vienna "Friedrich Wilhelm Fröbel" XX, Kapaunplatz. Vienna 1952.
- M. Wilk, Ch. Jasmund: Educational design of day care rooms. Use the space as an educator. Weinheim / Basel 2015.
- M. Wilk: The room as an educator. The importance of space for child education and development. Marburg 2016.