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Period: Oct 1, 1483 to
Historical Overview
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Oct 18, 1483
Martin Luther
Translated the Bible from Latin to vernacular language, allowing people to be educated in their own language. Advocated establishing schools to teach children how to read. The translation work of Luther is so important because he set the way for universal education--obviously if the people cannot read, they cannot learn. -
John Comenius
John Comenius worked to create the first picture book for children, and he also reformed the educational system. He promoted that early learning helps determine school and life success, and also stated that teachers ought to pay attention to the mind of the child and to the way the student learned. -
John Locke
John Locke's beliefs that children are blank tablets and that it is possible to rear children to think and act as society wants them to are very true statements. For centuries, it has been the educator's job to teach and mold the child into what society has expected of the next generation. -
Robert Owen
Robert Owen believed that society can shape children's character, that environment can determine children's beliefs, behavior and achievements, and he taught that education can help build and reform a new society. He advocated that education can counteract a child's poor environment. His advocations encourage the early child educator to set up the next generation for success. -
John Dewey
The theory of John Dewey was that children are "more important than the subject", that education "is a process of living and not a preparation for future living". I agree with his child-based curriculum ideals; I think that children learn very well from discovery and learn even better when they are interested in a certain subject. -
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget had a cognitive theory of developmental appropriateness--cognitive development based on ages and stages, and also proposed the idea that children develop intelligence through direct experiences through the physical world and construct knowledge through what they do. -
Abraham Maslow
I particularly like Abraham Maslow's ideals: human development is a process of meeting basic needs throughout life by providing safety, security, love, and affection for all children before cognitive learning can occur. This ideal is called "self-actualization" and in turn snowballs into many positive outcomes such as aesthetic needs, which calls to realizations of beauty, order and symmetry of self or the classroom. -
Howard Gardner
Howard Gardner implemented the theory that there are multiple intelligences, which means people can be "smart" in different ways. In turn teachers can develop programs and curriculum to match a child's specific intelligence. There are nine intelligences identified by Garner: visual/spatial, verbal/linguistic, mathematical/logical, bodily/kinesthetic, musical/rhythmic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and existentialist. These are all relevent catergories to consider in today's educational system.