-
Friedrich Froebel
Also known as the founder of kindergarten. "Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it is the free expression of what is in a childs' soul." He believe children should learn through play involving what he called "gifts". These "gifts" consisted of objects the children could count, built, or sort while keep their interest in playing. -
Sigmund Freud
He was the first to discuss the unconscious mind and its role in behavior. He developed the Freudian psychosexual theory of development. -
John Dewey
Dewey believed that human beings learn through a 'hands-on' approach. Students must interact with their environment to adapt and learn. -
Maria Montessori
Developed the Montessori Method based on the idea that children learn best when the environment supports their natural desire to acquire skills and knowledge. The teachers would manipulate materials such as puzzles so the child learns and stays engaged though play. -
Jean Piaget
He believed children were "active builders of knowledge". He developed a cognitive theory taught in four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations. Teachers should serve as a guide not an instructor and encourage mistakes and questions to aid learning and growth. -
John B. Watson
He is known as the founder and father of behaviourism. He studied a behaviorist theory that focused on external and outward behaviors. -
Rudolf Steiner
Created the "Waldorf" approach to education. He believed that art, science and spirituality needed to be brought together in order to educate children as holistic beings. He called this approach "anthropology." Children determine the curriculum usual including imaginative play, visual art, cooking, cleaning, etc. -
Arnold Gesell
He studied the mental and physical development of infants and children. He found new methods for observing and measuring behaviour by using controlled environments and precise stimuli. -
Mildred Parten
focused on play and its development. She discovered children of different ages play differently which led to Parten's stages of play. These stages are unoccupied play, solitary play, onlooker play, parallel, associative, cooperative, and competitive play. -
Lev Vygostsky
He is famous for two key ideas on children’s learning: Scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). He focuses on the cognitive development in social settings. Children use their creativity and imagination when learning. -
Loris Malaguzzi
Developed the Reggio Emilia approach emphasizing the importance of relationships in learning. Children's' ideas and opinions need to be made aware and responded to by adults. Teachers' record children's' learning through photos and notes and then determine what activities can be done to further a childs development. -
John Bowlby
He studied the attachment relationship between parents and children. From birth babies have behaviors seeking proximity to attach to an adult. Children bond with familiar faces to gain a sense of security. -
Benjamin Bloom
He created Blooms Taxonomy promote mastery learning and higher level thinking rather than just remembering facts. -
B.F. Skinner
Hid theory is based upon learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Development consists of the pattern of behavioral changes that are brought about by rewards and punishments -
Erik Erikson
He built on Fred's work building eight stages of lifespan. Each stage has a positive or negative outcome that is determined by our environment and caregiving stragies or experiences we face. -
Lawrence Kohlberg
He is best known for his influential work in moral development. He based a lot of his work off Jean Piaget studies on the cognitive development of children. There are 3 levels: pre-conventional, convention, and post-conventional. -
Stanley Schachter
He worked along with Jerome E. Singer in developing the two-factor theory of emotion. He focused on how attribution processes influences people in both social life and self perception. -
Mary Ainsworth
Developed on the attachment theory between children and their caretakers. Researched on the secure, avoidant, anxious attachment. She designed the strange situation procedure to observe attachment in children and their caretakers. -
Norm Chomsky
Some know him as the father of modern linguistics. His approach believed we have an inbuilt "language acquisition device" LAD which helps us learn language. Language is a basic instinct. -
Jerome Singer
He is best known for his contributions to the two factor theory of emotion that states emotion is based on two factors: physiological arousal and cognitive label. His theory highlights the importance of children's imagination and curiosity can be developed through dramatic and socio dramatic play. -
Urine Bronfenbrenner
He developed the Ecological systems. He emphasized nurture and nature. He breaks it into four sections: Microsystem, Mesosystem, Ecosystem, and macrosystem. He sees the world in which a child grows up will greatly impact development, -
Jerome Bruner
He states learning is an active process in which learners conduct new ideas based on current and past knowledge. Jerome Bruner proposed three modes of representation: enactive representation, iconic representation, and symbolic representation -
Kenneth Rubin
He worked with the development of children's social, dramatic, and cognitive play. He identifies how children play and the correlation with Partens stages of play. Rubin breaks these into 3 stages: functional, constructive, and dramatic. -
Albert Bandura
He is a behaviourist theorist that believed learning is gradual and continuous. He focuses on the imitation of behaviours by children. Children will imitate what they see in their environments. -
Howard Gardner
He proposed multiple intelligences suggest there is more than one intelligence. Children learn at their own pace. Early education should not be one size fits all. All children have the ability to learn and educators should provide learning opportunities that reflects the child's intelligence and learning style.
