American Experience of the Dalton Plan in the Dutch Schooling

Abstract This article presents the results of scientific-pedagogical research, which consisted in analyzing the American experience of the Dalton plan in the schooling of the Netherlands, the ranking surveys according to strict criteria, and the implementation of an adapted version of the original American pedagogical model of the Dalton Plan in the schooling of Holland; characterizing the features of the introduction of the Dalton Plan into the Dutch educational systems. While researching the works of M. Montessory, H. Parkhurst and D. Lager, had been examined as the main source of the study. The archival documents of the biggest collection of Helen Parkhurst papers of the Archive of University of Wisconsin Stevens Point had been analyzed. It was studied that American experience of the Dalton Plan is top ranked among private institutions of the country. It is obvious that after the United States, the country of the Dalton Plan origin, the continental Europe and Holland have a dominant position regarding the implementation of the Dalton plan in the educational systems. It is stated that schools implementing the Dalton Plan are united in recognizing the fact that such a pedagogical model ensures the development of the student’s individuality and his social experience. The special advantage the Dalton students obtain is the ability to use different approaches and sources in seeking information that is necessary for the organization and achievement of their own research. The ideas of the Dalton Plan can be justified in the light of modern theory and research. The Dalton Plan was successfully implemented into the primary and secondary schools of the Netherlands ranked the counrty11th in the world education survey. The Dalton Plan philosophy became one of the components of the complicated Dutch educational system.