Rosemary Grant
An evolutionary biologist who picked up where Darwin left off in natural selection, and finished his work
Jane Goodall
Worked with chimpanzees
Hopi Hoekestra
Biologist - studies how organisms adapt to their environments
Maria Montessori
Learner-centered approach
Promotes independence and natural curiosity
Mixed-age classrooms
Community and collaboration
John Dewey
Learning by Doing
Education not separate from life
Progressive education, social engagement, developmentally matched, hands on
Responsive Classroom Approach (build positive social relationships)
Vygotsky
Social-cultural theory of learning
Cognitive development is influenced by society and cultural norms
Collaborative and culturally relevant teaching
Mentoring relationships
What a child can learn on their own vs. what they can achieve with help
Zone of Proximal Development
Rousseau
Stages of development
Child-centered discovery
Jean Piaget
Studied how children think and solve problems as they age
We are born with certain mental structures, and experiences reinforce our ideas
Match cognitive abilities at different ages
B.F. Skinner
Studied factors that influence the rate of learning
Created automated devices to record behavioural data
The Operant Conditioning Chamber ensured objective measurements
Immanuel Kant
Bridged the gap between rationalism and empiricism
Nature - genetic predisposition
Nurture - the environment and experiences
Genes influence behaviour, and experiences impact gene expression
Jean-Jaques Rousseau
Wanted to remove the ridged education in his novel ““Emile, or On Education””
Wanted to align teaching strategies with the stages of children’s physical, emotional, and intellectual development
John Locke
Empiricist, advocated for worldly experience
Compared a child’s mind to a blank slate
Rene Descartes
Acknowledged the role of sensory experience and believed that innate thinking was equally important
The Renaissance period
Merged discrete disciplines into shared interdisciplinary fields
Roman Catholic Church
Rote memorization for scripture
An apprentice-teacher model for the trades
The two-system approach preserved religion and developed infrastructure
Aristotle
Developed the philosophy of empiricism
Empiricism - assumes that knowledge is gained through experience
Supported debate, conversation, reflection, and active engagement using the dialectic method
Socrates
Developed the dialectic method of discovering truth through conversation
Open-ended questions and reflection
Plato
Rationalist - believed in innate or born knowledge
Founded the first Western institution of higher learning and it was free
Thorndike
Learning theory
Applied the scientific approach to the study of learning using cats
Learning occurred when the cats took less time to complete a task
He was able to plot learning over time
