Empirical Research on Waldorf Education

Waldorf education began in 1919 with the first Waldorf School in Stuttgart and nowadays is widespread in many countries all over the world. Empirical research, however, has been rare until the early nineties and Waldorf education has not been discussed within educational science so far. This has changed during the last decades. This article reviews the results of surveys during the last 20 years and is mainly focused on German Waldorf Schools, because most investigations have been done in this field. Findings are reported with respect to the following central aspects of Waldorf education: the holistic and integrative approach, the self-governance in the organization of the Waldorf schools, the Waldorf curriculum, and the principle of class teachers from 1st to 8th grade. Furthermore, Waldorf education also provides its own unique teacher training. All of these aspects have been explored and evaluated from different points of view and with different methods. The results show strengths as well as weaknesses of Waldorf education in the daily practice in schools, which indicates the kinds of challenges Waldorf education will have to face in the upcoming decades. The authors themselves have contributed in several investigations to the field of Waldorf education.Keywords: Waldorf Education; Waldorf teacher training.

Schule im Urteil deutscher und griechischer Oberstufenschueler(innen) Eine vergleichende Betrachtung

Ergebnisse aus zwei empirischen Studien zur Wahrnehmung von Schule (gymnasiale Oberstufe) aus der Perspektive von Schuelern. Es wurden im Schuljahr 1993/94 insgesamt 761 Abiturienten aus 19 grossstaedtischen Gymnasien in Deutschland und 761 Schueler aus 10 grossstaedtischen staatlichen Lyceen in Griechenland befragt. Die Ergebnisse zu folgenden Themen werden dargestellt: Urteile ueber Schule, Sinn und Funktion der Schule, Lehrereinfluss auf Schueler, Schuelerurteile ueber Lehrer, Schuelerurteile ueber Mitschueler, geschaetzter und gewuenschter erzieherischer Einfluss von wichtigen Bezugspersonen auf die Schueler. (DIPF/Bi.)SIGLEAvailable from DIPF, Frankfurt am Main-DXX A 34034 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman