The History of Early Childhood Education

1. The History of Early Childhood Education Early Childhood Services 120, Unit One

2. INTRODUCTION Child Development includes the a) physical, b)intellectual, c) social, and d) emotional changes that occur from birth to adolescence. Although people change throughout their lives, developmental changes are especially dramatic in childhood. During this period, a dependent, vulnerable newborn grows into a capable young person who has mastered language, is self-aware, can think and reason with sophistication, has a distinctive personality, and socializes (effortlessly) with others. Many abilities and characteristics developed in childhood last a lifetime.

3. A variety of factors influence child development: Heredity guides every aspect of physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and personality development. Family members, Peer groups, the School environment, and the Community influence how children think, socialize, and become self-aware.

4. Biological factors such as nutrition, medical care, and Environmental hazards in the air and water affect the growth of the body and mind. Economic and Political institutions, the Media, and Cultural values all guide how children live their lives.

5. Critical life events, such as a family crisis or a national emergency, can alter the growth of personality and identity. Most important of all, CHILDREN contribute significantly to their own development. This occurs as they strive to understand their experiences, respond in individual ways to the people around them, and choose activities, friends, and interests. Thus, the factors that guide development arise from both outside and within the person.

6. Does this Make Sense? On your own, put this list in order (most important to least important), in terms of which factors YOU think most affect kids’ development): Heredity, Family, Peers, Media, School, Community, Biological Factors, Environmental Factors, Economic Factors, Political Factors, Cultural Factors, Critical Life Events Now, join two or three others and share your lists, discussing your opinion, and see if you can revise your lists to come to an agreement. Quick Activity: Go back to the list, privately; can you pick the five influences that most affected you, as a child? You might consider writing about this, as part of next week’s journal (share only what you are comfortable sharing).

7. For each of the following scenarios, decide which category to put it in. • Loving grandmother • Effects of a hurricane • Gov’t changes to child benefit funding • Father loses job • BPA (chemical) widely reported in plastic products, including toys and bottles • Mother and brother have ADHD • Common parenting practice to let babies “cry it out” • TV campaign educating public about the benefits of breast milk • Extended family – parents, 3 siblings, an aunt and grandmother all live in the home with child • Gov’t increases funding to daycares • Kindergarten readiness program designed and implemented • Neighborhood kids all involved in 4H club • Parent dies

8. Why is the study of child development important? • One reason is that it provides practical guidance for parents, teachers, child-care providers, and others who care for children.

9. Why is the study of child development important? • A second reason is that it helps society to support healthy growth. Understanding early brain development, for example, means that parents can provide better opportunities for intellectual stimulation, and society can reduce or eliminate obstacles to healthy brain growth.

10. Why is the study of child development important? 3. Third, the study of child development helps therapists and educators better assist children with special needs, such as those with emotional or learning difficulties.

11. Why is the study of child development important? 4.Finally, understanding child development contributes to self-understanding. We know ourselves better by recognizing the influences that have made us into the people we are today.

12. Building Professional Skills Activity Refer to the list. These are 30 personal qualities that are important to have when working with children, as a parent, or as a childcare worker. Highlight the ones you feel you already have. In a different color, highlight the ones you know you need to work on. Make a list of the 10 that you feel are most important. Put a question mark beside those that you are unsure of – you are not sure what they really mean and / or what they have to do with working with children.

13. A Look Back---Children Through Time • The concept of childhood and treatment of children through history has always been tied to economic, religious, and social factors. • During the 20th century, the view of early childhood as an important part of human development was valued.

14. John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) • Was a bishop in Czechoslovakia • Supported the idea of universal education. • He understood and stressed the importance of the early years. • Emphasized the value of active learning, hands-on experiences, and the involvement of parents in their children’s education • His 1658 publication“The World of Pictures” is viewed as the first picture book for children • TEACHERS SHOULD WORK WITH THE NATURAL ORDER OF A CHILD’S DEVELOPMENT. • 1997 Life magazine “The Invention of Childhood” • #55 http://www.tostepharmd.net/hissoc/top100events.html

15. Influential People in the History of Early Childhood Education • John Locke (1632-1704) • English doctor and philosopher. • Children were born tabla rasa (blank slate). • Experience would determine what a child would become. • Education should be pleasant; get rid of harsh discipline and restrictive practices (like swaddling). • Children are gradually filled with ideas, concepts, and knowledge from experiences in the world. • He concluded that the quality of early experiences, particularly how children are raised and educated, shapes the direction of a child’s life.

16. French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778) • Claimed that children at birth are innately good, • not evil (which some people were suggesting) • Their natural tendencies should be protected • against the corrupting influences of society. • Recognized that children’s way of thinking and • learning is different than that of adults

17. Johann Pestalozzi (1746-1827) • All people, even the poorest, had the right to an education as a way of helping them develop their moral and intellectual potential. • Stressed education according to nature, tied to experience and observation. • Stressed the importance of the mother in children’s earliest experiences • He actually worked with children (unlike Rousseau), developing educational methods that we still use today. • The first to actually teach young children, so the first kindergarten.

18. Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) • Stressed that nature and the child’s developing mind were connected • Children are at different stages at different times. • Stressed the importance of play in young children’s development – play was a pure and natural mode of learning. • Note: This has become the new focus of NB’s Early Childhood Education.

19. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) • Developed the theory and techniques of psychoanalysis. In the psychoanalytic view, early experiences shape one’s personality for an entire lifetime, and psychological problems in adulthood may have their origins in difficult or traumatic childhood experiences. • Handout: Exhibit 2-2

20. John Dewey (1859-1952) • The father of progressive education • American attack on traditional forms of public schools. • In the late 1800’s, schools were very teacher-centered and subject-centered, not child-centered • There were harsh punishments and rote learning was the norm (memorization through repetition (how you learned your alphabet). • He developed a child-centered approach • Lots of his principles are still having an influence: nursery school, emphasis on play and parent education

21. John B. Watson (1878-1958) • Believed that all human behaviors could be explained as learned responses to stimuli in the environment, an approach known as behaviorism.

22. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) • True feminist of her time; first female doctor in Italy • Worked with children with cognitive disabilities • Thought their problems were more educational than medical • Government asked her to take charge of a children’s day nursery • Very impressed with the great capacity of children to learn so much during the first years of life: absorbent mind (sponge) • If you expose their minds to appropriate learning experiences at appropriate developmental times, their minds will grow. • Used the term prepared environment to describe the match of the right materials to the child’s stages of development • Some of these are related to sensory discrimination (sorting by size, sound, shape, smell, etc) and some children learn through practical skills (polishing shoes, setting a table, etc) • More advanced materials for teaching reading, math, etc. Sandpaper letters, for example. http://www.monctonmontessori.com/

23. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) • Claimed that children construct new knowledge by applying their current knowledge structures to new experiences and modifying them accordingly. His perspective was called constructivism. • He thought children were like other organisms in that they adapted to the environment around them (he was a biologist) • Ex: if the temp becomes too warm or too cold, we shiver or sweat in attempt to adapt. In the same way, we adapt mentally to challenges in the environment. • When something new presents itself, it doesn’t fit the old structure, so in order to return to equilibrium, adaptation takes place. • He called cognitive structures schemata. Babies are only born with a few (think index cards), but with experience, they create new cards and dividers to store their information. • “A Closer Look” handout and Exhibit 2-4

24. Erik Erikson (1902-1994) • His psychological theory, which spans childhood and adulthood, focuses on specific social tasks that need to emerge for healthy development in each of the eight stages. • Like Freud, he saw each stage defined by conflict, but he thought conflict was healthy and resulted in opportunity for personal growth. • See handout that was used with Freud for Erikson’s eight stages

25. B.F Skinner • The most famous of Watson’s followers • Has had an enormous effect on all aspects of education • Behavioral modification: behavior can be changed or modified by manipulating the environment (socially and physically) • Emphasized that almost all behaviors are learned through experience and can be increased or decreased based on what “happens next” • Ex: if something pleasant consistently happens after a child engages in a specific behavior, he is likely to repeat the behavior.

26. videos • http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkin1FhojCo&feature=related • Freud’s Id, Ego and SuperEgo • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLLVYx0IPPU • Piaget • http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/09/15/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-experiments-with-kids/ • Gardner • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEFpaY3GI-I&feature=related • Skinner • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepqpTtKbwo&feature=related • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPHcw2vz9H0&feature=related

27. Influential Events in Early Childhood Education • Little change from the 1920s – 1940s. • Dewey’s emphasis on child-centered programs became popular. • Froebel and Montessori were out-of-favor for a while because they were attacked by William Kilpatrick, who was a lecturer at the Teacher’s College in NYC where he was known as “the million dollar professor”. • He was more a great supporter of Dewey, so Dewey’s ideas replaced Froebel and Montessori. • Kilpatrick’s work influenced teachers and parents until the 1960’s, when the Montessori program made a come back.

28. “A Focus on Maturation” seemed to take over until the 1960s: there was little to do with young children other than to wait for them to mature. • You could influence social growth, though, so the focus for years was on social growth (and they didn’t worry about cognitive (learning) growth. • Day care centers were available, but not used a lot, and had a bit of a “welfare orientation.”

29. 1940s -1950s • Strong pressure on families to have the mother stay at home with the children, until they were at least 3. • Lots of research had been done on orphans who had had little human contact and stimulation, so big push on moms at home to help with development. • “Maternal Care & Mental Health” became a classic (1951) and was about the mental problems that many orphans had when they became teenagers. • The best place for children was with their mothers. This idea was debunked somewhat in the 1960s.

30. Sputnik & Educational Upheaval • In 1957, the Russians launched the first space missile, Sputnik. • The failure of the Americans became a big social and political focus. • School systems were attacked (why weren’t Americans and Canadians as advanced as the Russians?). • Outmoded teaching methods, dull curriculum, too little emphasis on science. • Poor kids did worse than rich kids; black kids did worse than white kids (politically this was the time of the Civil Rights Movement and everything was being challenged with respect to equal rights for girls, ethic minorities, the poor.

31. Early Childhood Becomes a Focus • A number of advances in psychological knowledge took place around this same time. • In tune with political and educational pressures of the time. • The biggest change was the replacement of the “Maturation View” of development with the “Interactional View” of development.

32. Interactional View • Development is determined by both environment and genetic factors. • Lots of studies showed the relationship between experience & development in humans and animals. • “The assumption that intelligence is fixed and its development is predetermined by the genes in no longer tenable.” • The early childhood years were a focus again: intelligence was most affected by experience.

33. Rediscovery of Piaget • Piaget’s work had been ignored, now it was a focus. • “If we pay little attention to the events occurring in the first years of life, much of the story may be over by the time we begin to educate the child, even if we start as early as age 3, let alone 6.” • Social class also became a focus in these years: social class had a great effect on the kind of language a child developed and on the learning style a child developed. • So, get kids out of the home and focus on the early years.

34. Howard Gardner (1943 -- ) • His parents fled Nazi Germany with their first son who died in an accident before Howard was born. • He was not allowed to play sports • He was an excellent pianist • Attended Harvard University • Influenced by Erikson • Continued to work at Harvard

35. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences • Each person has various levels of different intelligences • Unique “cognitive profile” • 7 Intelligences: • Verbal linguistic • Logical Mathematics • Musical • Visual Spatial • Bodily Kinesthetic • Interpersonal • Intrapersonal

36. NB Education Video -- Favorites

37. Activity / Summary • With a partner, write one sentence for each individual that you feel captures the essence of that person and his / her philosophy. • Ex: Froebel, who is credited with organizing kindergarten, put great emphasis on the importance of play.

38. Written Assignment • Now that you have had a general overview of some of the main influential theorists, it’s time to reflect on which ones make sense to you. • Write a reflection paper (2-3 pages double spaced). • Choose two theorists: one that you MOST agree with and one that you MOST DISAGREE with. • In your introduction, tell me of your two choices. • Then, in the first half of the paper, write about the one you most like. A) briefly summarize what he or she believed in B) What do you like about the theory and why? C) What do you not like about the theory and why? • Now, in the second half of the paper, write about the one you most disagree with and repeat the steps (above – a, b and c).