This document summarizes the philosophies of several influential early childhood education thinkers from Plato to Patty Smith-Hill. Key ideas include: - Plato, Comenius, and Froebel emphasized the importance of play, sensory learning, and following children's interests in developing curriculum. - Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Montessori viewed children as inherently good and focused on nurturing their natural development through a child-centered approach. - Dewey promoted experiential, progressive education that draws from children's lives and interests. - Piaget's constructivist theory described cognitive development in distinct stages from sensory to abstract thinking. - Vygotsky emphasized social learning and the

1. PHILOSOPHY OF EARLY
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

3. Plato
427 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.

4. 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.”

5. 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

6. 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.-

7. 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.

8. Comenius
• Play was crucial.
• Children should explore and play
• Real life experiences
• Proposed a system of universal education
open to all children…free

9. John Locke
1632-1704
• Tabula Rasa
– children are viewed as a blank slate
– Environmentalists
• All children are born with the same mental
capacity to learn.
• Sensory Training

10. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1712-1778
• 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.

11. 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

12. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
1746-1827
• 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 person’s moral, intellectual and
physical powers
– Educations will create economically independent individuals

13. Pestalozzi
• believed education should follow the child’s nature.
– Raise his son, Jean-Jacques, using Emile
• no success due to his inability to read by 11
• ECE professionals cannot rely solely on child’s 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.

14. 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.

15. Robert Owen
1771-1858
• 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

16. 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 children’s minds were fatigued
– Children were helped to become familiar with garden production, fields,
wood, animals and natural history

17. 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 Froebel’s Kindergarten
• influenced idea of early education and it’s effect on societal
improvements

18. Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel
1782-1852
• 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

19. 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”

20. 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

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

22. Maria Montessori
1870-1952
• 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. John Dewey
1859-1952
• 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

26. 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

27. 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 child’s interest
– more functional

28. Patty Smith-Hill
1868-1946
• 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

29. Jean Piaget
1896-1980
• 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.

30. Piaget
– Concrete operational-needs manipulatives
– Formal operational-begins to think abstractly

31. Lev Vygotsky
1896-1934
• 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.

32. Abraham Maslow
1890-1970
• Hierarchy of needs
– Life essentials- food, water, air
– Safety and security
– Belongingness and love
– Achievement and prestige
– Aesthetic needs
– Self-actualization

33. Eric Erikson
1902-1994
• 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

34. Howard Gardner
1943-
• Director of Project Zero at Harvard University.
• Multiple Intelligences

35. E.D. Hirsch
1928-
• 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.

36. 5 Minutes Drill
Use a sheet of paper to write
down your answers to this
question:

37. 15 Minutes Drill (cont.)
A PAIR WORK
FRIEND A
LIST ALL THE THEORIES WE JUST LEARNT
FRIEND B
WRITE THEIR CONTRIBUTION.

38. 15 Minutes Drill (cont.)
A PAIR WORK
CHANGE TASK
FRIEND B
LIST ALL THE THEORIES WE JUST LEARNT
FRIEND A
WRITE THEIR CONTRIBUTION.