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Rousseau (1712-1778)
- Rousseau’s approach to learning was based off of a child’s developmental appropriate age.
- Rousseau believed that children learned through curiosity and believed formal instruction would interfere with their cognitive development.
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Pestalozzi (1746-1827)
- Pestalozzi believed in natural learning with informal instruction. He knew it was not possible for children to learn to read on their own.
- He suggested that students learn through their sensory motor function and called it “gifts,” such as touch, language, smell, size, and shape.
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Froebel (1782-1852)
- Froebel incorporated Pestalozzi’s ideas into his own. He also believed in planning instruction but really emphasized play into learning.
- Froebel came up with instruction that involved materials and objects for learning.
- He also came up with the term, “Kindergarden” because metaphorically, children are seeds and need to be watered by their educators who will help them grow.
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Morphett and Washburne
- Children were not mature enough to read in the preschool-kindergarden ages. But once the child was 6 years and 6 months they were old enough for instruction.
- Reading Readiness: Educators focused on nurturing through instruction of skills as a prerequisite while the child matured.
- Skills in reading readiness include:
- Auditory Discrimination
- Visual Discrimination
- Visual Motor Skills
- Large Motor Skills
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Research Era (1960's-1980's)
- During this era, cognitive development was closely looked at through various research methods including, research, interviews, observations, video tapes, case studies, etc.
- These studies were done throughout diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to get a better understanding of a child's home life, vs in a lab. They used the child's family as surroundings to determine how literate and developed the child is.
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Montessori
- Maria Montessori's curriculum is based through a behaviorist theory. She believed that children must learn through an environment with materials pertinent to the subject matter.
- She believed that the teacher must create an environment in which she supplies the materials in which the children will learn through their own mistakes.
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Marie Clay
- Clay coined the term, "emergent literacy" which means that a child must have some sort of knowledge about language, reading and writing before entering school.
- The relationship between communication skills that help build a child's literacy.
- To give meaning purpose, literacy activities have rich content used in art, music, science, play. etc.
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Dewey
- Dewey's philosophy of learning was based off of "progressive education". This was the idea of children learning through their interests and what happens around them in real life.
- Dewey encouraged social interactions in learning and felt as though children learn best through integrating content area.
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Piaget
- Piaget came up with the stages of cognitive development
- Sensorimotor: (0-2)
- Preoperational: (2-7)
- Concrete Operational: (7-11)
- Formal Operational: (11- adulthood)
- Piaget focused heavily on assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation means a child incorporates new information into existing schemes. Accommodation means changing existing schemes to create new information.
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Vygotsky
- Vygotsky came up with the idea that children learn when new concepts are acquired, called schemas. Schemas are mental structures in which people store information.
- Children learn when new activities and language are brought to their attention. This brings on the idea of scaffolding which children grasp when they need to know what to do and when.
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Constructivism and Whole-Language Instruction (1980's-ish)
- Whole Language Instruction: Children who are reading conventionally. Literacy learning is child centered because it is meant to be meaningful, relevant and functional.
- Literacy activities are developed into content areas such as science and social studies.
- Classrooms that are based using holistic strategies place emphasis on learning more-so than teaching. Learning is self regulated and teachers should provide experiences that guide children into to engage in learning activities.
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Explicit Instruction and Phonics or Sound-Symbol Relationships (1980's-1990's-ish)
- Whole language began to be criticized because of its lack of high test scores, and children were not acquiring the proper literacy skill set.
- Teachers misunderstood the Whole-Language Instruction and thought it did not involve teaching Phonics.
- Children needed the ability to rhyme words, hear syllables and parts of words, etc.
- Sound symbol relationships is necessary in order to read and write.
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Balanced Comprehensive Approach
- The International Reading Association wrote a position statement generalizing that no specific teaching method is accurate, nor will one work better than another.
- Teachers must follow each students overall needs and their intellectual status.
- BCA states that only the teacher can determine a plan for their students and what instruction they will or will not use.
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Citation
Morrow, L. M. (2020). Literacy development in the early years: Helping children read and write. Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Education.
