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427 BCE
Plato
Plato, an aristocratic Greek, wanted to go into politics from a very young age. His intake on children's education was important to him. He wanted the children to learn how to be "perfect citizens" rather than just a child. He also believed that the child, even before birth, needed to be taken care of.
http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Pa-Re/Plato-427-348-B-C-E.html -
John Locke
As one of the most popular theorists of the 17th century, John Locke payed attention to mostly personal identity. He believed that a child was born as a blank slate therefore payed close attention to the child's birth to adulthood, and he was the first person to really pay attention to that part of child development.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/locke/ -
Friedrich Froebel
Friedrich Froebel, a German educator, was the founder of kindergarten. With the idea of child play being so important, he founded kindergarten, a grade where kids could play and also learn the basic principles that were needed throughout education.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Friedrich-Froebel -
Sigmund Freud
Considered the father of psychology, Sigmund Freud was a psychosocialdevelopmentalist. He was the creator of the "ice burg" which promoted the idea of the id, ego, and superego. His theories were somewhat correct but others were incorrect. The people were always contradicted whether or not he was reliable. -
Alfred Binet
Alfred Binet invented the first usable intelligence test. His test is the basis of all the IQ tests that we have today. His objective in using this test was to tell which kids needed more help in the school curriculum than others. -
Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori was a true believer in self pace learning. She liked to let the child catch on to what was taught by using their senses to comprehend the materials given. She also believed in teaching the child about practical skills like cleaning and caring for yourself. -
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget, a theorist who solely believed in a theory such as how children develop through stages. The child starts at the Sensorimotor stage which is infancy. Next follows the pre-operational stage which is toddler and early childhood. Then, concrete operational stage which is elementary and early adolescence. Finally, the Formal operational stage which is adolescence and adulthood. Piaget was a true believer in this system. -
Lev Vygotsky
Lev Vygotsky believed in the Zone of Proximal Development; a theory that involves what children can and can't do in their conscious, precocious and unconscious mind. He believed that one of the biggest influences of the children's development was their cultural background because different cultures have different social environments. -
Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson was influenced by Sigmund Freud and his wife Anna who taught him the principles of the Freudian theory. He developed the Stages of Psychological Development. He claims that people's personalities develop according to how they respond to psychological crises in their lives. -
B.F. Skinner
Most theorists studied how the child developed, but B.F. Skinner focused more towards behavior. He studied the behavior modification using positive and negative reinforcement. After studying the behavior, Skinner came up with the reward and punishment system. -
Benjamin Bloom
Benjamin Bloom was a theorist who studied on the child in an educational environment. He believed in "mastery-learning". Mastery-leaning was Bloom's way of talent development, and his Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in the cognitive domain. -
Lawrence Kohlberg
Lawrence Kohlberg, a Jean Piaget influenced theorist, was fascinated with a child's reaction to moral dilemmas. Kohlberg was a firm believer in children wanting to avoid punishment. He continued to look at the development of ethical principles.