Give the stages of development according to Quintilian.

1. Birth to 7 years – impulse and only concerned with immediate satisfaction of his needs. I early childhood years are very important therefore parents should select proper nurses or pedagogues to give the child he right influence. The
earliest people the child is exposed to must be good models in all ways to ensure desirable learning takes place. His argument was re-learning is more difficult than learning so initial learning must be correct. Things leant in early life stick. Children will imitate the earliest contacts they come across and so they will learn from them. He disagreed with the popular belief that no intellectual learning can take place before 7 years. If they learnt other things, they could also learn literary education. Encouraged parents not to keep children for long without learning. Quintilian was opposed to private tuition where a teacher taught only one child. He saw this as a waste of time and talent. He argued from his observation, good teachers preferred many students and poor teachers preferred private tuition. Advocated for classes that were manageable so children learn from the teacher and from each other. He advised fathers to have high aspirations for their children even at this age.
These high aspirations, you would prepare for those aspirations for their children even at this age. These high aspirations, you would prepare for those aspirations to be met. Boys do not lack ability to master, but lack care. Faulty pedagogy kills the natural talent, curiosity to be also encouraged in the child.

2. 7- 14 years – child learns from sense experience will develop ideas with interaction from environment. This will develop memory. This is the time children learn to read and write. Advocated the following for this stage. The reading and writing teacher –litterator should be of good character and competent enough to make learning attractive. The syllabus was to be related
to child’s intellectual capacity. It was necessary to look at the child’s characteristics, needs and in order to come up with the right content and the right methods of teaching.

· Quintilian emphasized the use of experience. New experiences are assimilated against the previous ones. Use of background to learn near things. He therefore recommended the following;

a. Teachers should start teaching from point which concedes level of the child b. He endorsed principle of learning readiness – prepare students to be ready

c. Advocated taking learning step by step – building on previous learning – known to unknown

d. Advocated for breaks (short breaks after lessons and long holidays) in order to give learners time to play which encourages motivation to learn and make learning stress free through recreation. It is also a time to relax the mind and redirect energy for the learners. However, they should not be too long – children will forget what
they have learnt.

e. Advocated firm discipline but was against corporal punishment. If the teacher was firm and competent there would be no need for corporal punishment. For him incurring pain and fear lead to shame which would depress the mind and the learner would not
like learning. Beating was only for slaves.

3. 14 – 17 years

Student develops reasoning power by studying liberal arts. All subjects that are not scientific. The students were to study Latin and Greek grammar but separately. In preparation for rhetorical studies, students studied music,
geometry and astronomy. They then went into real rhetoric’s.

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marto answered the question on May 17, 2019 at 07:08