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Teaching Philosophy for Children: Inspiration from Winnetka Plan

Jason Cong Lin 1 2, YI Huang Shih 3 *
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1 Department of International Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China2 Department of International Education, The Education University of Hong Kon3 Center of Teacher Education, Minghsin University of Science and Technology, Hsinchu 30401, Taiwan* Corresponding Author
International Journal of Social Sciences and Artistic Innovations, 5(4), December 2025, 8-15, https://doi.org/10.35745/ijssai2025v05.04.0017
Submitted: 26 August 2024, Published: 23 November 2025
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ABSTRACT

Children need to be encouraged to create and learn based on their interests and abilities. In particular, children from different backgrounds must have access to learning methods that are tailored to their distinct cultural, socioeconomic, and developmental environments. This necessity underscores the importance of adaptive teaching for children’s learning. Through theoretical analysis, we examined the teaching philosophy of the Winnetka Plan to enhance the quality of adaptive teaching for children’s learning. The findings indicate that the development of Winnetka’s teaching philosophy was influenced by Carleton Wolsey Washburne’s life experiences. This approach posits that every child is capable of autonomously engaging in adaptive teaching. This emphasizes the assessment of students’ readiness to learn and supports the examination of children’s learning interests through the design of personalized record cards. The principles of the Winnetka Plan underscore its adaptive teaching philosophy and offer insights for teachers implementing teaching strategies for children’s learning. Hence, democratic education is essential for children.
Keywords: Adaptive learning, Carleton Wolsey Washburne, Children, Teaching philosophy, Winnetka plan

CITATION (APA)

Lin, J. C., & Shih, Y. H. (2025). Teaching Philosophy for Children: Inspiration from Winnetka Plan. International Journal of Social Sciences and Artistic Innovations, 5(4), 8-15. https://doi.org/10.35745/ijssai2025v05.04.0017

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