## Key Ideas > [!abstract] Core Concepts > > - **Minimal educator interference**: Students should discover strengths, interests, and character through natural exploration rather than explicit instruction > - **Romantic philosophy origins**: Based on progressivist ideas mixing romanticism with pseudoscience, advocating play and discovery over structured teaching > - **Idealistic and impractical**: Often championed by those detached from classroom realities, lacking scientific evidence for effectiveness ## Definition **Education as Natural Development**: Educational philosophy emphasising supporting students in discovering their abilities and interests naturally, with minimal interference from educators promoting structured instruction. ## Connected To [[Purpose of School-based Education]] | [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] | [[Non-Explicit Teaching]] | [[Teaching is Not a Profession]] | [[Cognitive Load Theory]] --- ## Origins and philosophical basis Education as natural development holds that children, placed in enriched environments with minimal adult interference, will naturally discover and develop their capabilities through play and exploration. This philosophy traces to 18th and 19th century progressivists like [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] and Herbert Spencer (Spencer, 1860), who merged romantic ideals about childhood innocence with pseudoscientific theories (notably Lamarckism, the discredited belief that acquired characteristics could be inherited) (Dupré, 2008). Rousseau's *Emile* (1762) established the romantic view that children are naturally good and corrupted by systematic instruction. According to proponents, educators should step aside rather than explicitly teach. Instead of placing children [[on the shoulders of giants]] through structured instruction, educators should place them in forest glades where they can play and discover. Children need minimal explicit teaching about facts in a classroom; instead, the educator should ensure the richness of the learning experiences (Dewey, 1938). The natural development of children, free from the influence of modern society, was viewed as essential for the evolutionary ascent of the human species (Spencer, 1860). This evolved through John Dewey's progressivism into contemporary constructivist approaches prioritising process over content, skills over knowledge, and naturalistic development over explicit teaching. E.D. Hirsch's *Why Knowledge Matters* (2016) challenged progressivism's "antiknowledge attitudes," arguing that progressive educators have made pedagogy "an object of near-religious veneration," focusing on "how to learn" rather than "what to learn." Hirsch demonstrates that critical thinking is domain-specific: *you cannot think critically about topics you know nothing about*; contradicting the assumption that generic thinking skills develop naturally through exploration. ## Evidence and implementation Education as natural development is idealistic and impractical. It is often championed by those [[Teaching is Not a Profession|detached from the realities of everyday schooling]], such as keynote speakers at education conferences, university sociology professors, and broadsheet journalists. The [[Non-Explicit Teaching|reforms]] inspired by this philosophy during the 20th century were based on beliefs about what children should learn and how they should learn it. These reforms were not scientifically evaluated but were instead judged subjectively through unreliable means such as surveys of how students and teachers felt about them. The success of such programmes was determined ideologically rather than through data on student outcomes (Kirschner et al., 2006; Alfieri et al., 2011). Implementing this philosophy in real-world classrooms presents challenges. Without structured guidance and explicit instruction, students struggle to acquire essential knowledge and skills (Stockard et al., 2018). The assumption that children will naturally develop the necessary competencies without direct teaching contradicts findings from [[Cognitive Load Theory]] about working memory limitations and the need for explicit instruction when learning biologically secondary knowledge (Sweller et al., 2019; Geary, 2007). ## Why the philosophy persists despite evidence Greg Ashman (Head of Research at Ballarat Clarendon College, Australia) identifies why progressivism persists despite decades of failure: structural insulation ("those in charge...are hidden away in air conditioned offices in a university or bureaucracy somewhere, far away from failed kids"), virtue signalling ("holding Romantic views about children makes you feel virtuous"), conflation with political progressivism, and limited consequences for decision-makers. Teacher education programmes perpetuate progressive ideology, with "a lot of the theory being peddled by universities...not backed by hard evidence" (Ashman, 2018, 2022). Regulatory capture by progressive advocates compounds this. Education systems are often controlled by those committed to progressive philosophy, making resistance require "subverting traditional power structures" (Ashman). The belief that "natural" learning through discovery is superior to "artificial" instruction persists despite contradicting evidence about human cognitive architecture and the distinction between biologically primary and secondary knowledge (Geary, 2007). Tom Bennett (Director of researchED, UK) founded the evidence-based teaching movement in 2013 specifically to "make teachers research-literate and pseudo-science proof." His *Teacher Proof* (2013) catalogues how unproven theories become mainstream practice. UK educator Daisy Christodoulou's *Seven Myths About Education* (2013), described by Dylan Wiliam as "may well be the most important book of the decade on teaching," systematically debunks progressive myths including that facts prevent understanding, that teacher-led instruction is passive, and that projects are the best way to learn. Her core argument: "Governments and educational organisations around the world have let down teachers and pupils by promoting and even mandating evidence-less theory and bad practice." ## References Alfieri, L., Brooks, P. J., Aldrich, N. J., & Tenenbaum, H. R. (2011). Does discovery-based instruction enhance learning? *Journal of Educational Psychology*, 103(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021017 Ashman, G. (2018). Submission to the Australian Government Review of the Australian Curriculum. https://www.education.gov.au/ Ashman, G. (2022). Submission to the Australian Government Review to Inform a Better and Fairer Education System. https://www.education.gov.au/ Bennett, T. (2013). *Teacher proof: Why research in education doesn't always mean what it claims, and what you can do about it*. Routledge. Christodoulou, D. (2013). *Seven myths about education*. Routledge. Dewey, J. (1938). *Experience and education*. Macmillan. Dupré, J. (2008). Lamarck and his legacy. In M. Ruse (Ed.), *The Oxford handbook of philosophy of biology* (pp. 25-43). Oxford University Press. Geary, D. C. (2007). Educating the evolved mind: Conceptual foundations for an evolutionary educational psychology. In J. S. Carlson & J. R. Levin (Eds.), *Psychological perspectives on contemporary educational issues* (pp. 1-99). Information Age Publishing. Hirsch, E. D. (2016). *Why knowledge matters: Rescuing our children from failed educational theories*. Harvard Education Press. Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching. *Educational Psychologist*, 41(2), 75-86. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep4102_1 Rousseau, J.-J. (1979). *Emile, or on education* (A. Bloom, Trans.). Basic Books. (Original work published 1762) Spencer, H. (1860). *Education: Intellectual, moral, and physical*. Manwaring. Stockard, J., Wood, T. W., Coughlin, C., & Rasplica Khoury, C. (2018). The effectiveness of direct instruction curricula: A meta-analysis of a half century of research. *Review of Educational Research*, 88(4), 479-507. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654317751919 Sweller, J., van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Paas, F. (2019). Cognitive architecture and instructional design: 20 years later. *Educational Psychology Review*, 31(2), 261-292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09465-5