The Role of Notebook Work in the First Eight Years of the Waldorf school

Abstract

The peculiarity of Waldorf pedagogy’s epochal education requires that children prepare to create an epochal booklet that also serves as their textbook. The purpose of notebook work accompanied by drawing is to record, deepen, and experience the teaching material, and to internalize newly acquired knowledge through artistic experience. In my study, I present and analyze notebooks produced by a Waldorf school class over eight years, focusing on visual education. I was a Waldorf teacher between 2015 and 2023 at the Vác Waldorf Elementary School. During these eight years, I took photos of the notebooks made by the children in my class (writing, reading, arithmetic, literature, grammar, history, mathematics, geometry, biology, chemistry, physics, and geography). By analyzing the children’s artwork, I attempt to demonstrate the possibilities presented by the act of drawing as a learning tool, if incorporated into the teaching-learning process. The longitudinal study also explains how the teaching-learning methodology changes with age. As the children get older, their drawing skills develop, and the dimension of their visual communication expands. Expressive works of art, study drawings, maps, explanatory drawings, decorative motifs, and texts form a whole, in the service of learning.