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John Comenius
John Comenius wrote many books, most notably "Orbis Pictus", concidered the first picture book for children. He believed children should be educated through their senses. -
Jean-Jacques Rousseua
Rousseau developed the theory "tabula rasa", or blank tablet. Inferring that the mind is a blank tablet formed by a child’s environment and experiences. Stated children go through 3 distinct developmental stages that should guild how we teach them. Rousseau believed that as children matured they would “unfold” and reveals who or what they will be. -
Johann Heirich Pestalozzi
Pestalozzi is known for his educational moto of “Learn by hand, head and heart.” Believed children learn through sensory experiences. Pestalozzi wrote books advocating for mothers to teach their children. -
Robert Owen
Owen believed children’s beliefs, behaviors and achievements are shaped by their environment. He also believed we could reshape society through education. He opened a school for children of employees of his cotton mill factory. He opened the school in hopes of realising his dream of a utopian socity, through his educational theroy. -
Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel
Froebel founded the first kindergarten. He believed that teachers should observer the child and provide him with appropriate materials to learn what it is he is ready to learn, when he is ready for it. His two biggest contributions to the field of early childhood education are: the concept of “unfolding” and "learning through play". He also developed “gifts” and “occupations” for the children, material used to learn with and jobs to develop skills through, respectively. -
Rudolf Steiner
Stiner developed his theory on child development and education in the light of anthroposophy. He believed that children go through 3 distinct developmental phases. Steiner believed education should be holistic. He also believed that children in early childhood learn best through imagination, imitation and sensory experience’s. In 1919 he founded the first Waldorf school for the children of factory workers in the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany. -
Maria Montessori
Maria was the first Italian female physician, known for starting the Montessori method, and later schools. She believed that children gained knowledge “intrinsically” through sensory experiences. Maria believed the environment needed to be well prepared for the child and provide particle work. Montessori schools are known worldwide. -
Jean Piaget
Piaget’s cognitive theory states that children learn through their environment, by using the constructivist process of organizing, construction and adapting new knowledge to what they already know. He states that the quality of the environment impacts the development of intelligence. Piaget also believed children go through three distinct developmental phases. -
Erik Erikson
Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development states that a child’s social and cognitive development occurs simultaneously. A child’s personality, social skills and cognitive growth are a direct response to their environments, such as family values and social expectations. -
Abraham Maslow
Maslow developed the theory of Self-Actualization, which states that a need motivate a child to learn. A child can only self-motivate if all her basic needs are meet, including food, shelter and safety. This means a teacher needs to meet a child’s basic needs in order for them to reach their full potential. -
National Defense Education Act
NDEA was enacted in response to sputnik, and a fear that America would fall out of power. It provided federal funding for programs in math, science, technology, engineering and foreign langue. -
The Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, This included public education, and ended segregation. -
Economic Opportunity Act
The EOA was enacted as part of the war on poverty. It provided funds for many social programs for people of low socioeconomic status. It helped state the Head Start program. -
No Child Left Behind
NCLB was enacted to continue the National Defense Education Act. It also added an emphasize on testing, correlating test score with teacher effectiveness and fund distribution.
