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Nursery School
The first nursery school opened in the United Kingdom. It opened in New Lanark in Scotland for the children of the cotton mill workers. It was established by Robert Owen, who lived from 1771-1858. Early childhood care and education began to come about in England in the late 18th century on a voluntary and philanthropic basis. -
Friedrich Froebel
Friedrich Froebel established his play and activity institute when he moved to Bad Blankenburg. This institute was based on a new educational method and philosophy that was based on structured, activity based learning. Friedrich Froebel tested and developed this radical new method. Three years later, he renamed this institute to Kindergarten. Kindergarten signifies both a garden for children, and a garden of children. -
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American Philosopher whose ideas have influenced education greatly. John Dewey believed that children learn best through ‘hands-on’ learning. Progressive education is basically education that emphasizing the need to learn by doing. This places dewey’s beliefs in the educational philosophy of Pragmatism. -
B.F. Skinner
“B. F. Skinner was one of the most influential of American psychologists. A behaviorist, he developed the theory of operant conditioning -- the idea that behavior is determined by its consequences, be they reinforcements or punishments, which make it more or less likely that the behavior will occur again.” (psychologistanywhereanytime.com) B.F. Skinner believed that learning was all about consequence and reward. For example, positive reinforcement. Giving a child a gold star will want to make th -
Maria Montessori
The thought of Montessori schools was founded. Maria Montessori opened a school named Casa Dei Bambini in Italy. The success of the school was heard throughout the country, and schools began to open in Rome and Milan. Montessori school is a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children from birth to adulthood (amshq.org). I myself went to a montessori school instead of a pre-school, and I loved. I intended to make my classroom based on the teachings of Maria Mo -
NAECY
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) was founded. It is a professional membership organization that promotes high quality learning for young children between the ages of birth and 8 years old. The association has about 70,000 individual members and more than 300 regional affiliate chapters. The NAEYC holds three highly important and well-attended annual events. NAEYC annual conference and expo, the National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development, a -
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities (simplepsychology.org). His theory includes how children develop a schema. For example, if a child is told that dogs have four legs, a tail, and bark, that is what the child associates a dog with. But -
Albert Bandura
Albert Bandura is a psychologist who is the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University. He performed a series of experiment where he watched how children acted with a doll named ‘Bobo’ after seeing adults act certain ways with the doll. When the adult treated Bobo with love and affection, the child then treated Bobo the same way. When the adult did the opposite and treated Bobo with aggression, the child then treated Bobo with aggression. -
Head Start
The Head Start program was founded. This is a program that offers parents opportunity and support as they identify and meet their own goals, nurture their children in the context of their family and culture, and advocate for communities that support children and families of all cultures (headstartprogram.us). They offer programs in all 50 states, some states have as many as 1,000-2,000 programs available. Most states have anywhere from just under 100 to the high hundreds. The program provides fe -
Act 166
Act 166 was introduced and implemented into Vermont's legislature. Act 166 provides publicly funded preschool for children ages 3, 4, and 5. It allows the children to get free education for a minimum of 10 hours a week. In order for schools to get adjusted with this new act, they can choose to implement act 166 in july of 2015. Or they may wait until the act is in full swing and implement it in july of 2016 when the act is put into full implementation.