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400 BCE
Plato & Socrates
The Socratic Method is a process of asking students a series of questions to let them draw their own conclusion on a subject. These questions are typically open-ended questions that relate back to idealism. -
Johann Amos Comenieus
Comenius promoted education for career preparation and he believed that should not be punished for failing, but rather be helped and encouraged. Comenius promoted education rights for all and emphasized the importance of extracurricular classes/activities. He also felt that learning needed to be adapted to each students needs along with starting with the easiest material then progress to harder material when teaching in the classroom. -
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
Pestalozzi was a very big advocate for hands-on-learning as well as making students feel comfortable in the classroom. He is also known as the "Father of Modern Education" and he wanted to balance: hands, heart, and head. -
John Dewey
Dewey believed in the importance and value of vocational education along with believing students "learn by doing." Dewey also believed that the teaching curriculum should be relevant to a student's life and could be made relevant by using the scientific method to help create your teaching curriculum. -
Charles Sanders Peirce
Pierce was very a big advocator for pragmatism which is being able to see the success of a practical application that reveals truth behind theories and beliefs. Pierce was also into hands-on-learning and he also conducted an experiment on teaching with and without hands-on-learning where he saw big results of where students learned better through hands-on-learning activities. -
Smith and Hughes Act
The Smith & Hughes Act established funding and a place similar to a trade school facility. Creators of the Smith & Hughes Act believed that some of the agricultural classes were not relevant for students because they primarily did not discuss local agriculture, but rather schools discussed agriculture all around the world. It is a myth that the Smith Hughes Act started school-based agriculture classes and at first the Smith & Hughes Act was only for students not planning on attending college. -
Dr. David A. Kolb
Dr. Kolb has a learning style that was experimental and let students perform many hands-on-activities which he felt boosted confidence within students. Dr. Kolb firmly believed in trial and error for students and when they failed he wanted them to keep trying until they were able to figure it out and gain the experience. -
Howard Gardner
Gardner had a theory of multiple intelligences that students learned by in the classroom. The intelligences are as follows: bodily, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, logical, mathematical, musical, spatial, and naturalistic. Gardner felt that you needed to plan activities that fit with each style within your teaching curriculum to help students better relate to the curriculum being taught.