History of Early Childhood Education

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History of Early Childhood Education

• ECE 364
• Wednesday, September 17, 2003

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3 Historical Influences of ECE

• Publics general feeling that we werent teaching
  reading and writing
• Launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957
• Black Boycotts in Montgomery, AL 1955
• led to desegration

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Plato427 B.C.- 347 B.C.

• Believed play was an important way to help
  children understand their thinking.
• Believed mathematics should be introduced through
  games and puzzles
• Recommended the establishment of supervised
  playgrounds.
• Believed observation is at the core of all
  childhood programs. Told you what children were
  interested in and curriculum could be planned
  accordingly.

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Plato

• The young of all creatures cannot be quiet in
  their bodies or in their voices they are always
  wanting to move and cry out.

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Martin Luther 1483-1546

• Replaced the authority of the Catholic Church
  with the Authority of the bible
• Formal schooling to teach children to read,
  especially boys.
• People could work out what the scriptures meant
  for themselves
• Family was the most important institution in the
  education of children.
• Religious education

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John Amos Comenius 1592-1670

• Czech Republic
• Watched his parents and two sisters die in war.
• Raised by an aunt
• Czech Minister and Bishop
• Taught school and wrote textbooks- The Great
  Didactic
• Came up with 2 important concepts
• A revolution in teaching methods was essential to
  allow learning to become rapid, pleasant and
  thorough-follow nature to help children learn
• European culture needed to be made more
  accessible to all children.-

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Comenius

• Wrote Orbis Pictus 1658
• first picture book
• Born in the image of God so we should be educated
  to the fullest extent
• He believed strongly in DAP
• Suggested pre-natal care for mothers was the
  beginning of a healthy start for children
• Sensory education
• children should not be taught names of things
  without objects.

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Comenius

• Play was crucial.
• Children should explore and play
• Real life experiences
• Proposed a system of universal education open to
  all childrenfree

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John Locke1632-1704

• Tabula Rasa
• children are viewed as a blank slate
• Environmentalists
• All children are born with the same mental
  capacity to learn.
• Sensory Training

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712-1778

• Born in Geneva, Switzerland
• Mother died when he was 9 days old
• Father took over role later became abusive
• Wrote Emile- a book about child rearing and
  education according to nature
• raised a hypothetical child from birth to
  adolescence
• God makes all things good, man meddles with them
  and they become evil
• Laissez-faire approach
• Believed the knowledge could be drawn out of the
  child if separated from corrupt society.

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Rousseau

• Developed the child case study
• Child was the center of education
• Stages of development
• Believed children were born good and free
• Believed women should be educated to please and
  be dominated.
• First addressed the Hurried Child.
• Meaningful experiences
• divided the historical and modern periods

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Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi1746-1827

• Born in Zurich, Switzerland
• Influenced by Rousseau
• 1774 started school called Neuhof
• Wrote Leonard and Gertrude
• Distorted environment creates sources of evil
• Humans may be poor and uneducated but capable of
  regeneration
• Education is the true path to social reform
• Human development begins at home with the mother
• Natural educations fosters a persons moral,
  intellectual and physical powers
• Educations will create economically independent
  individuals

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Pestalozzi

• believed education should follow the childs
  nature.
• Raise his son, Jean-Jacques, using Emile
• no success due to his inability to read by 11
• ECE professionals cannot rely solely on childs
  initiatives and expect them to learn all they
  need to know.
• Punishment, fears and or rivalry are external and
  therefore dangerous.
• Teacher is like a gardener.
• Learning at each stage must be complete before
  moving to the next stage.

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Pestalozzi

• Knowledge came through the senses.
• Developed object lessons- manipulatives
• Mathematics must start with real objects, move to
  substitute objects and final to abstract ideas.
• Best teachers taught children not subjects
• Mixed-age groupings
• Art and music were integral parts of the
  curriculum
• Founded a school to train teachers to work with
  poor children.

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Robert Owen1771-1858

• During industrial revolution, 5 and 6 year old
  boys and girls were cheap labor-16 hour days.
• Physical and sexual abuse was prevalent
• Life expectancy was 30
• Bought a mill in New Lanark, Scotland
• 2000 employees, 500 were children between 5-6.
• Offered after work education programs

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Owen

• Set up quality based system of child care and a
  school for children whose parents worked in the
  mill. 1816
• First workplace child care
• Believed society could be changed by educating
  the people.
• 7 key approaches
• Children were not punished
• Teachers must be kind
• Instruction was based on experiences
• Dance, rhyme and music were a large part of the
  program
• Questions of children were to be answered in kind
  rational ways
• Outdoor time was used when childrens minds were
  fatigued
• Children were helped to become familiar with
  garden production, fields, wood, animals and
  natural history

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Owen

• Blocks and manipulatives to learn math
• Visual aides
• Utopian
• controlling the circumstances and outcomes of
  child rearing could bring about a more perfect
  society
• Influenced by Rousseau and Locke
• Led to opening of first infant school in London.
• Purpose was to get children away from uneducated
  parents. Trained and educated children without
  punishment and without fear of punishment.
• Infant school preceeded Froebels Kindergarten
• influenced idea of early education and its
  effect on societal improvements

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Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel1782-1852

• Born in Germany
• Father of Kindergarten
• Kindergarten was based on spiritual beliefs
• founded school for children between 3-8
• old ones called klein kinderbes chaft
  igungangtalt or institution for the occupation
  of little children
• Disciple of Pestelozzi

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Froebel

• Wrote The Education of Man
• Child is not a piece of wax or clump of clay but
  a central force
• Children blossom like a flower
• Teach from the inside out
• Curriculum should be child-centered
• Best remembered for free play and gifts and
  occupations

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Froebel

• Gifts- concrete objects
• Occupations- activities used with the gifts
• Children provided with indoor and outdoor
  activities and teaching was a extension of the
  home
• Developed idea of circle time
• helped children socially
• spiritual

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Froebel

• Called a mystic due to spirituality
• wanted Kindergarten to be a free and happy place

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Maria Montessori1870-1952

• Became first woman in Italy to earn a medical
  degree
• Became interested in mental retardation felt
  they were not taught properly
• Felt schools should be established for these
  children
• Began an intimate relationship and had a child
  out of wedlock-
• Did not have anything to do with him until age 15

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Montessori

• Focused on fulfilling the needs of the child to
  their fullest potential
• Rewards were intrinsic
• Teachers role
• Prepare the environment
• Observe the child
• Show the child how to use the materials correctly
  through specific one to one demonstrations
• Leave the child to use the materials without
  interference

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Montessori

• 1910 began setting up schools in US
• Program elements
• Respect for the child
• Sensitive periods
• Absorbent mind
• Prepared environment
• Auto-education
• Mixed age grouping
• Self-paced activities

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John Dewey1859-1952

• Had more influence on education than anyone
• Symbol for modern education
• 4 important ideas
• experiences we have now are important
• education is not the preparation for life, it is
  life
• interest is the motivating factor in learning
• knowledge must be useful and come from life

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Dewey

• Founded a lab school in 1896 called a sub-primary
• home study science drawing
• gardening music block play
• play practical life experiences
• Wrote My Pedagogical Creed
• school is a social setting give children the
  ability to think and know how to learn

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Dewey

• School life should grow out of home life
• Believed reading and writing was introduced too
  early
• Father of Progressivism
• did not like Froebel
• child has potential and shaped by environment
• materials and themes came from childs interest
• more functional

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Patty Smith-Hill1868-1946

• Wrote Good Morning to You with her sister
  Mildred.
• Big on music and poetry
• Development the National Association for the
  Education of Young Children and Association of
  Childhood Education International

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Jean Piaget1896-1980

• Intelligence develops over time
• Constructivism-constructs own knowledge
• Learning is active
• Genetic Epistemology
• Assimilation and Accomodation
• Children must do both to learn
• Conflict must occur for learning to occur
• Stages of Development
• sensory motor
• Preoperational-everyone believes and acts as
  children do.

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Piaget

• Concrete operational-needs manipulatives
• Formal operational-begins to think abstractly

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Lev Vygotsky1896-1934

• Born in USSR Jewish work was burned because it
  went against the government
• Mental language and social development is
  enhanced by others-cultural embeddedness
• ZPD- Zone of Proximal Development
• difference between what a child cannot do alone
  but can do with help
• scaffolding
• creating zone by teaching with others
• Intersubjectivity-
• Through discussion, may come up with mutual
  agreement.

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Abraham Maslow1890-1970

• Hierarchy of needs
• Life essentials- food, water, air
• Safety and security
• Belongingness and love
• Achievement and prestige
• Aesthetic needs
• Self-actualization

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Eric Erikson1902-1994

• Psychosocial Stages of Development- Polar
• Trust vs mistrust
• Autonomy vs shame and doubt
• Initiative vs guilt
• Industry vs inferiority
• Identity vs identitiy confusion
• Intimacy vs isolation
• Generativity vs stagnation
• Integrity vs despair

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Howard Gardner1943-

• Director of Project Zero at Harvard University.
• Multiple Intelligences

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E.D. Hirsch1928-

• Wrote Cultural Literacy What Every American
  Needs to Know.
• Common core of literate citizens
• lack of cultural literacy contributes to general
  failure of children in school.