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Period: Jan 1, 1483 to Dec 31, 1546
Martin Luther talked on how important it was for children to learn how to read.
Martin Luther took out the Catholic church and instead brought in the Bible and thought people should learn how to read the Bible in their own language and started by translating the Bible into German. This started the movement for people to learn how to read. -
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John Locke created his theory on "tablua rasa."
John Locke believed children's minds started as a blank tablet, or a "tabula rasa," meaning their environment and experience helped to form their minds. He believed that their development came from how their parents and caregivers treated them and what they experienced in their environment. This helps us to understand children's different backgrounds when we teach them. -
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Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi talked about sensory influences in education.
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi believed sensory influences impacted education and children can reach their natural potential through correct sensory experiences. Pestalozzi created "object lessons" such as measuring, touching and counting to achieve this goal. He also wrote the books "How Gertrude Teaches Her Children" and "Book for Mothers" to teach parents on helping their children at home, which sparked the movement on writing books to help parents with teaching their children. -
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Friedrich Willhelm Froebel became the "father of Kindergarten."
Friedrich Willhelm Froebel created a concept of children and learning based on unfolding meaning the role of the teacher is to watch how children naturally unfold and provide them with activities that help them to learn what they're ready to learn when they're ready to learn it. He saw himself as the children's "gardener," and wanted his children to unfold like flowers in his "kindergarten" or garden of children, where he promoted learning through play. -
Robert Owen opened an infant school
Robert Owen opened an infant school in New Lanark, Scotland, made to care for about 100 children, ages 18 months to 10 years old, so their parents could work in the cotton mills he owned. This led to the first infant school in London to be opened in 1818. Owen's ideas influenced how important early education and the relationship between educational and societal improvements was. -
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John Dewey created his theory on "progressivism."
John Dewey's theory emphasizes children's interests, rather than their subject matter, creating the terms "child-centered-curriculum" or "child-centered-school," which are very important in today's education. Dewey believed education to be "a process of living and not a preparation for future living" and daily life should contain activities where children learn about life and the skills that are necessary for living. He had classroom work as an extension of children's home. -
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Maria Montessori created the Montessori Method.
Maria Montessori created a system to educate young children that has impacted early childhood education greatly. She was the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree which interested her in educational solutions for problems such as deafness, paralysis and mental retardation. In her first school named "Casa dei Bambini" or "Children's House" she tested her ideas and perfected her system and now her Montessori Method is used in over 4,000 early childhood programs today. -
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Jean Piaget created his Constructivist Learning Theory.
Jean Piaget spent his life experimenting and observing children to constructivist theory, meaning it believes children actively seek knowledge, explains their cognitive development, gives guidance for what to teach and how to teach them, and shows them how to create the environments they learn in. He saw that children learned through their direct experiences in life. -
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Erik Erikson created his Pychosocial Theory.
Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development saw that cognitive and social development work together and can't be separated. Erikson saw that children's personalities and social skills grow with society and it's demands, values, what it expects, and social establishments, like families, schools, and childcare facilities. He saw that children are greatly influenced by the adults in their life.