theorists Flashcards
John Amos Comenius
-He believed in three key ideas: teaching ideas needed to be changed, teachers should engage children with nature, and children should learn their own language
-Allowing all children to receive an education. He was opposed to physical punishment
Friedrich Froebel
-He built on pestalozzi’s theory but extended them to develop education materials.Hes called “ The Father Of Kindergarten.”
-He invented special education materials called “gifts” . They were concrete materials for children to manipulate in specific ways.
Maria Montessori
-She believed that children developed naturally in an organized environment. She thinks kids actively learn from sensory experiences. She dismissed play as a waste of time. She considered her materials to not be toys instead she considered them to be educational tools.
-Her classrooms are specially designed environments in which children learn by interacting with the materials.
Susan Blow
-She fought to keep it true in froebel’s original vision.
-She founded the first public school kindergarten
Erik Erikson
-Identified how children might typically negotiate personal challenges and resolve them dependent on their age and stage of life.
-Emphasizes the role of the sociocultural context on children’s personal and social lives along with providing useful observations of development patterns.
Abraham Maslow
-Identified a hierarchy of needs that motivate people’s behavior and their ability to reach a hierarchy of personal goals.
-The foundations for self-actualization of goals are laid early in life. Teachers may need to ensure that basic needs are met to assist in helping children to develop a sense of community and belonging, self-esteem, and respect for others.
Jean Piaget
-Identified that children learn by constructing their own understanding based on their direct experiences with people and objects.
-Physical, logico-mathematical, and socio-conventional knowledge
-Children are viewed as competent actors in constructing their own understanding. Teachers need to provide an enriching environment and hands-on materials for children to explore and investigate.
Lev Vygotsky
-Identified the zone of proximal development (ZPD)–the distance between the actual development level a child has achieved and the level of potential development they could achieve with adult guidance.
-What children learn is determined by the needs of the culture in which they live. Teachers use many strategies to scaffold learning–gradually providing less assistance as children become more capable of performing on their own.
-Teaching in the zone of proximal development requires that children experience a challenging curriculum.
B.F. Skinner
-Developed a theory of operant conditioning that defines learning as a change in behavior that is controlled by the consequences that follow the behavior.
-The most important principle of operant conditioning is that behavior changes as a result of its immediate consequences. Positive consequences strengthen the frequency of specific behaviors; unpleasant consequences decrease the frequency.
-Teachers use reinforcement to increase children’s positive behavior and decrease their challenging behavior.
Albert Bandura
-Demonstrated that people can learn more efficiently from observing the consequences of another person’s behavior rather than having to directly experience them by bridging behaviorism and cognitive theory.
-Phases of observational learning:
-Attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.
-Teachers model and demonstrate the kinds of behaviors they want children to perform. They draw children’s attention to other children’s behaviors and its positive consequences.
-Celebrate their successes
