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Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi a Swiss educator believed in order to encourage growth in reading, the student should be supported by the right environment. The strengths of his approach were grouping students by ability and not age and encouraging teacher training. Interesting fact, he believed in sensory experiences so he created objects in lessons and called them "gifts" -
Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Natural approach
Rousseau believed that children should learn naturally with little adult involvement. He believed that children would naturally learn things when they are developmentally ready. He thought children learned through natural curiosity which is why adults should take the role of support only rather than structured learning. -
Lev Vygotsky - Socio-Cultural Theory
Socio-Cultural Theory states that a mix of experiences at home, at school, and in the student's communities can influence their reading development. The idea of involving others around reading and learning is said to improve their reading as they make connections to their home, culture and environment. According to the Socio-Cultural Theory encouraging students to read in social settings of home, school and other areas of life helps students stay engaged. -
Jean Piaget - Schema Theory
The Schema Theory expresses that one will better understand what they are reading based on the amount of knowledge they know about the topic. The idea is when one can make connections from text to real life they will have a better understanding of what they're reading. Such as connections to characters, environment, location and ideas. By this theory, if a student is less likely to comprehend the reading material if they're unable to make connections to the information in the text. -
B.K Skinner - Behaviorism
B.K Skinner's theory was based on the idea that we tend to repeat behaviour through positive reinforcement. When it comes to reading, the best approach following this theory would be to break up the learning into small sections learning each skill at a time. Encouraging positive reinforcement during learning and teacher-centered instruction. We see much of this style of teaching in classrooms today with teachers teaching in sections of phonics awareness, consonant and vowels.
