Time LineA Scientific Perspectiveon Early Childhood Education

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT:Prologue to the Future

Definitions:

A theory is a set of explanations for how children develop and learn.

Scientific theory is a structured set of ideas that attempts to organize and explain facts.

Enlightenment

1632-1704 1762 1746-1827

John LockeEmphasized naturaleducation -tabula rasa - a child is an empty slate.

Jean RousseauWrote “Emile” about a childreared and taught apart from other children. Childhood is a unique experience.

Johann PestalozziMust raise and teachchildren in a naturalistic way.

Evolution in Biology

1809-1882

Charles DarwinNaturalist

On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life or "The Origin of Species" for short (1859). Darwin's work had a tremendous impact on religious thought. Many people strongly opposed the idea of evolution because it conflicted with their religious convictions. Darwin avoided talking about the theological and sociological aspects of his work.

From Rousseau to Gesell• Child’s capacity to reason

develops from birth and how we dealt with it that fact would determine its realization and thus the achievements of happiness, freedom and equality

• Educators must follow nature’s pattern with young children and emphasize observation that influences educators’ practices and decision-making

• Twentieth century maturationists used scientific methods to map nature’s patterns very precisely

• In the 1920s, child psychology emerged as a scientific discipline in its own right. Its task was to study child and human development using scientific methods. Trained psychologist, for the first time, observe larger number of children under laboratory conditions

• Scientific researches gathered facts about children and used them to generate theories about the child that predict how young children develop at all times and in all places

• Universal approach to child development emerged

MaturationismAmerican School of Psychology

1870 -1952 1880-1961

G. Stanley HallA child psychologist whodeveloped the Recapitulation Theory. It says that children pass through stages that the whole human race has passed through

Arnold GesellFormed the Child Guidance Clinic at Yale. Stated that children grow intrinsically in an automatic unfolding. He was the first to film children and to use the films to identify sequences in when, what, how children do

Behaviourism

1849-1936 1878-1958

Ivan Pavlov

Discovery of the conditioned reflex (classical conditioning) The study of classical conditioning showed psychologists that there might be a relationship between classical conditioning and the development of emotional disorders.

"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select--doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors" –John Watson, Behaviorism, 1930“Little Albert” experiment

John Watson

Behaviourism & its influenceBehaviourism has had a powerful influence on many early

childhood educators’ views on young children’s behaviour & learning:

It stated:• We can determine our future, irrespective of where and to whom we are born;• Our physical and social environments influence our learning;• People of all socio-cultural groups learn in the same way;• Positive reinforcement such as praise can motivate learning;• Learning can be controlled;• With the right reinforcement, we can learn anything.

Psychoanalytic

1856-1939

Sigmund FreudAustrian neurologist

Feud’s psychoanalysis is a foundation for what later known as psychodynamics. He believed that unconscious and conscious minds (psyche) were significant force (dynamic) in humans personality developmentStages:Oral (first year) Phallic (3-5)Anal (1-3) Latency (middle childhood)Genital (adolescence)

Psychodynamic Theorists

1895-1982 1902 - 1994

Erik EriksonAmerican psychoanalyst, born in GermanyTheory of Socio-Emotional Development

She worked with young children from emotionally deprived and socially disadvantageous families.During WWII she established Hampstead War Nursery in London

Abraham Maslow

• Believed that the “body desires to maintain balance” which “explains how these needs motivate us”

• Believed that you cannot go to the next need if you have not fulfilled the previous- may repress

(Santrock, Mackensie, Leung, & Malcomson, 2008, p.53)

1908 - 1970

Constructivism

1896 -1934 1896 - 1980

Lev Vygotsky Russian psychologist

Activity Theory ZPD/Scaffolding Thought and Language

Jean Piaget Swiss psychologist

Research in Developmental Psychology Stages of a child’s development

1915 - Current 1917 - 2005 1943 - Current

Jerome Bruner Active Learning Scaffolding

Urie Bronfenbrenner Ecological System Theory 1979

Howard Gardner Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI)

Constructivism OverviewCentral ideas• Human learning is constructed• Learners build new knowledge upon the foundations

of previous learning• We all are born with some internal ‘maps’ or

‘structures’ in our mind that make it possible for us to take in & then to rework information into a new knowledge

1907-1990 1913- 1999

John Bowlby

Mary Ainsworth

Bowlby believed that the earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers have a tremendous impact that continues throughout life.

Her groundbreaking "Strange Situation" study revealed the profound effects of attachment on behavior. In the study, researchers observed children between the ages of 12 and 18 months as they responded to a situation in which they were briefly left alone and then reunited with their mothers (Ainsworth, 1978).

Neuroscience

Current

The scientific study of nerve systems, especially in the brainFraser Mustard

• MD in Toronto in 1953 • PhD. studies at Cambridge

•In 1982 Fraser Mustard changed his career path and took on the challenge of establishing the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research [CIAR], serving as its president for 14 years. “How our neuron pathways form in these early years can influence later development in areas such as our capacity to learn, control emotions and be desease free” (McCain & Mustard, 1999, National Research Council and Institute of Medicine as cited in McNaughton, 2003, p. 60).

For a long period of time ECEs rely only on the knowledge in Developmental

Psychology to inform and explain their practices.

This knowledge is still the key to understanding child development.

Then how to understand Curriculum? Is there any other names that ECEs should

be aware of?