1. Influential Theorists and Theories

Early childhood developmental theories go way back to the 1600s. In this post, I shall attempt in describing 3 schools of thought: Behaviourists, Maturationists/Humanists, and Constructivists.

These schools of thought will be analysed according to how children learn, the role of mistakes in development, and the role of the teacher.

During the Colonial Times in the 1600s, children were treated as sinful, and girls were not allowed to study.

During this period, children were seen as weak and needed adults to shape them to the “right” path. The punishment was deemed as necessary, though there are parents who fought against that. It was during this time that Comenius stood out as an advocate for equal education for boys and girls.

Romanticism began in the 1700s, two groups of people emerged: Behaviourists & Humanists/Maturationists.

Behaviourists believed children were blank slates, and that children can only learn from systematic and rote instruction. The teaching style is more nurturing. This practice can still be seen in modern preschools. John Locke, Pavlov, and Skinner were key theorists who supported behaviourism. Also during romanticism, humanists or maturationists emerged. Nature is more prioritised than nurture, and Rousseau and Pestalozzi were key theorists. Two programmes were formed from this school of thought, headed by Froebel and Montesorri. Froebel believed in gifts, and adults should guide children in symbolic learning through play. During the late 1800s, progressivists emerged also. Dewey is a key figure.

Constructivism happened during the 1900s. Children are believed to be curious learners, not passive receivers of knowledge. Piaget, Vygotsky, and Gardner were key theorists. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory also started. Preschool models such as Reggio Emilia, Bankstreet, and High Scope were also introduced.

The 1600s: Colonial Times

The 1700s: Romanticism (Behaviorists, Maturationists/Humanists)

The 1800s: Romanticism (Progressivists)

The 1900s: Constructivism

  

	Behaviourists	Constructivists	Maturationists
Assumptions about how development occurs	Blank slate, passive recipients of knowledge, nurture supersedes nature	Children are viewed as needing to actively explore their learning environments to build their understandings of the world	Development is a biological process that occurs automatically in predictable, sequential stages over time. Development unfolds according to nature’s inner plan or timetable.
Assumptions about how children learn	Development is considered a reaction to rewards, punishments, stimuli and reinforcement	Learning and development occur when young children interact with the environment and people around them	Acquire knowledge naturally and automatically as they grow physically and become older, if they are healthy.
Role of the environment	Key to development		Biologically and genetically predetermined patterns of change have a greater impact on development than environmental influences.
Role of the teacher	The teacher is the dominant person in the classroom and takes complete control of children’s learning	Teacher to scaffold and co-construct knowledge with children- provides experiences which will promote learning
The role of mistakes in development	They don’t tolerate mistakes.	Helps them to construct knowledge, the process of learning.	Mistakes are important, give them time.
Key Theorists	John Locke, Pavlov, Skinner	Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Howard Gardner	Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Pestalozzi, Arnold Gesell, Montessori

I believe in both the behaviourists and constructivists. Children are blank slates, as they are waiting for knowledge to be taught to them and hence they are easily influenced by key adult figures in their lives, but they are also capable to be curious in finding out more, deeper concepts than what is already taught to them. The curriculum should be equally balanced between teacher-directed and child-directed. Jean Piaget is the theorist that impacted me the most, since my diploma days.

References

Chen, D. (2020). ECE102 Children as thinkers and meaning makers (study guide). Singapore: Singapore University of Social Sciences.