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Jean- Jaques Rousseau
Rousseau believed that a child's early education should be as natural as possible. He believed children should only be asked to learn things that they were "developmentally ready" to learn. -
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
Pestalozzi was strongly influenced by the ideas of Rousseau, in that he believed in the natural learning ideas, but he added on to that theory. He combined formal instruction with the natural elements because he felt it was necessary for parents and teachers to aid in the learning process. -
Friedrich Froebel
Froebel agreed with Rousseau and Pestalozzi in the fact that he believed in the natural teachings of a child. He did stand out from the rest by emphasizing the benefits of play in learning. -
Reading Readiness 1900-1950
This was the time when teachers/ instructors began to analyze who was ready to begin reading and when. They found that children at the average age of 6 and a half made better progress in reading than children of a younger age. -
Literacy Research
The investigation of early childhood literacy development made many changes in its practices during this time.
They began using Emergent literacy- which was where the teacher was under the assumption that before coming to school, the child acquires some sort of knowledge of reading, writing and some language.
Defining whole language instruction- in this approach the literacy learning is focused around the child, because they want it to be meaningful, relevant and functional to the childs needs -
B. F Skinner and Behaviorism
Skinner was a behaviorist who discovered that human learning was not automatic, it was strongly influenced by their environment in which to achieve a learning outcome. He believed that learning required time on task, structure, routines and practice. -
Voting rights act
This act was signed in August of 1965. It banned use of The Literacy test, which was originally used to determine if you were educated or literate enough to be a valid voter. -
Maria Montessori
Montessori created a way of learning that encouraged children to use their senses to make for better learning. -
John Dewey
John Dewey was responsible for creating the curriculum known as "progressive education" or "child-centered curriculum". -
Jean Piaget
Piaget's theory was one in which he identified the different stages of cognitive development and the intellectual capabilities of children. -
Lev S. Vygotsky
Vygotsky created a theory in which he believed that learning occurs as children acquire new concepts and schema. -
Explicit instruction and Constructivist Approaches
Whole language instruction began to be scrutinized in the 80's and early 90's because just based on test scores, it seemed that children were not gaining skills and knowledge in literacy. -
National Reading Panel Report
This report, after going through over 100,000 studies to comes up with these results, was able to reveal information about the most effective strategies that teachers had found to teach children to read. -
LEARN act
The LEARN (Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation) Act was a literacy act created on a state and local level to ensure that children
from birth to grade twelve have the reading and writing skills necessary for success both in school and out of school.
