Timeline of Learning Theorist

By AlyseB
  • 469 BCE

    469- 322 B.C Aristotle, Socrates, Plato

    Plato established the belief that knowledge and truth can be learned by self-reflection. Socrates also believed s that certain knowledge was only possible through reason. Both helped pilot a teaching strategies that uses reflection and discourse as tools for developing thinking . Aristotle developed the idea of empiricist. He proposed that we use our senses to look for truth and knowledge outside of ourselves, using the world we are living in.
  • 500

    500- 1500 A.D Roman Catholic Church

    Learning in the church was based on rote memorization and recitation of bible scriptures. There was also learning of trades by internship. The purpose of education was to convey information, teacher taught and students learned.
  • 1500

    15th and 16th Century The Renaissance

    Philosophers introduced a new way of learning besides the church. The church was based off developing basic skills and remembering facts, the renaissance philophers pushed the idea of using more thinking in education such as understanding the why behind the facts and basic skills. Philophers that contributed to these ideas were Copernic’s and Martin Luther.

  • 1596-1650 René Descartes

    Descartes believed that the mind and body were separate. He was one of the first to find the ability of the environment and the mind to influence and produce behavior. His focus on the mind helped cognitive scientist who wanted to understand the thinking process itself.

  • 1632-1704 John Locke

    Locke believed that a child’s mind is blank and it develops based on the child own experiences He believed the mind is molded by what it experiences from the outside world.

  • 1712-1778 Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    Jacques describes his views on education, Rousseau’s ideas on the importance early childhood, he introduces the two ideas of nature and nurture having an extremely important influence on a child. He thought that education should develop the nature of a person.

  • (1724–1804) Immunel Kant

    Kant proposed that awareness of knowledge may begin with experience, but much knowledge exists prior to experience (activating prior knowledge). Kant suggested that these ideas must be native and their purpose is to create an organizing structure with data that is already stored in the brain.

  • Horace Mann (1796–1859)

    Horace Mann becomes Secretary of the newly formed Massachusetts State Board of Education. Mann was an advocator for "free" schools, Mann worked for increased funding of public schools and better training for teachers. As the author of The Common School Journal, his belief in the importance of free, universal public education gained a national audience

  • 1809-1882 Charles Darwin

    Darwin’s theory was published on November 24, which introduced his theory that species evolve through the process of natural selection, and setting the stage for the controversy surrounding teaching the theory of evolution in public schools that persists to this day. This was very controversial because before this thing taught in public schools were tied to religion and this theory pushed against what was being taught.

  • John Dewey (1859–1952)

    Dewey the teacher’s goal is to understand both discipline and the needs of the child and to provide learning experiences to enable the student to uncover the curriculum. Dewey also believed in the “hands on” approach to learning.

  • Maria Montessori (1870–1952

    Maria Montessori founder of the first Montessori school in Tarrytown, New York. Montessori schools’ curriculum is based off child center learning. The child does the heavy lifting of using its environment to naturally educate themselves with the teacher there as support and guidance. Maria believed in educating the whole child (the physical, mental, social and emotional parts of a child).

  • Edward Thorndike (1874–1949)

    Thorndike believed that people learned through a trial-and-error approach. Thorndike suggested that learning was based on an association between sense imitations and an impulse to action.

  • Jean Piaget (1896–1980)

    Piaget was the first to say that learning is a developmental cognitive process, that students create their own knowledge rather than obtaining knowledge from the teacher. Piaget believed people went through four stages. His four stages would influence American development of psychology and education; curriculum would start to changed based off were each child was developmentally in Piaget's theory.

  • Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934)

    Vygotsky emphasized the role that culture and language play in developing children’s thinking and the developing the ways teachers and peers can help learners in developing new ideas and skills. He recommended the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) this is the development where teachers and peers push the existing experience that children are having helping filter what children can do or not do independently or with assistance.

  • Jerome Bruner (born 1915-2016)

    Bruner believed that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. Bruner is also known for creating the head start program.