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Posts Tagged ‘Early Childhood education’

Most educators and institutions have their own ideas about how young children should be educated. Early Childhood education has its roots in many different theories and philosophies.

Erik Erikson

One of the first theorists involved in Early Childhood Education and its background was Erik Erikson.

Erikson believed that including play that involved real life situations was essential to children’s development as it allowed them to think out the problems they face and begin to understand the functioning of the world around them.

These theories were given more value as educators and parents began to understand that play has a purpose for children.

Jean Piaget

Around the same time, in the early 1900′s to the 1950′s, Jean Piaget was also developing his own theories on how children learn. He determined that children learn through their experiences with their surroundings and adapting to their environment. He also declared play essential for children’s mental and emotional development.

Lee Vygotzky

Lee Vygotzky, another theorist who promoted the movement of Early Childhood Education believed that language guided learning, and that learning is what creates development instead of development through learning.

Although differing in their own ways, Vygotzky, Piaget and Erikson all saw Early Childhood Education as a necessary movement in order to promote the advancement of children.

Maria Montessori

While the philosophers and observers elsewhere battled it out, Maria Montessori in Italy began basing her own theories on her observations of children in action.

She watched them as individuals instead of as a group and drew conclusions from the children’s activities while conducting independent play. Read the rest of this entry »