Each event on the timeline includes information about the psychologist/theorist, the theory they are known for, as well as the theory's impact on education.
Karl Marx, 1818-1883 Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His work was foundational for what we now call as Marxist Theory which is based on society, politics and economics (Engels, 1869). Engels, 1869 describes that Marx laid the foundation for fighting for underprivileged people and that those people should carry out organized revolutionary action to bring about socioeconomic change. Karl Marx is known as one of the most influential figures in human history. His theories can often be tested with the scientific method. Marxism produced a “qualitative change in the history of social thought” (Schwarzschild, 1986). Karl Marx laid the foundation of hundreds of other Marxist Theorists. Although I do not view Paolo Freire is not a Marxist Theorist, he did use Marxist theories along with his current theories and practices in education in the development of his own theories. References Engels, Frederick. (1869). Marx-Engels biography: Karl Marx. Marxists Internet Archive. http://www.marxists.org/ Schwarzschild, Leopold (1986) [1948]. The Red Prussian: Life and legend of Karl Marx. Pickwick Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0948859007.
Kapp was a German high school teacher who first authored andragogy. The premise for andragogy in his mind was based on Plato's theory of education. Self-reflection, education, life experience, educating character are core components of andragogy. Andragogy did not gain much traction until the 1920s with Rosenstock-Huessy.
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist known primarily for his work in classical conditioning. He started church school but was then influenced by D.I. Pisarev and I.M. Sechenov and decided to denote his life to science. He completed his course with an outstanding record and received the Degree of Candidate of Natural Sciences. In 1890 Pavlov was appointed Professor of Pharmacology at the Military Medical Academy and five years later he was appointed to the then vacant Chair of Physiology, which he held till 1925.
Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949) was an American Psychologist who worked with comparative psychology and learning process. His studies led to the theory of connectionism and paved the way for modern educational psychology.
Dr. John Dewey (1859-1952) is an educator, a philosopher, a political activist, and a social criticizer who had great educational theories. He wanted to create a liberal educated community. He wanted to integrate learners in education processes, and considering real experience as education in democracy learning environment (Pragmatism Cybrary, 2012). Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont in 1959. He studied at the university of Vermont in 1879. Dewey studied his graduate program in philosophy at Johns Hopkins University 1882-1884. He worked as a teacher and a professor in different locations during his life (Dewey, 1882-1898). Dewey was a champion of experiential learning, defined as a philosophy that informs many methodologies in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience, which has affected today's problem-based learning models, and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people's capacity to contribute to their communities. Dewey's writings have largely contributed to a new paradigm of known as constructivism, whereas the learner makes meaning via the interaction of their ideas and experiences. Some have equated his impact to that of Aristotle: “Dewey has been to our age what Aristotle was to the later middle ages, not a philosopher, but the philosopher” -Hilda Neatby - So Little for the Mind
Kurt Kokkka (1886- 1941), is a German psychologist who was responsible besides two other german psychologist for the development of Gestalt movement.
He was the first psychology professor in America. Studied “the psychology of individual difference" Believed in Eugenics and stressed the importance of methodology in experimentation. Known for his anti war beliefs.
Griffith is considered to be America’s first Sports Psychologist. He was an experimental psychologist who worked as a teacher in Champaign-Urbana at the University of Illinois. One of the many courses he taught was the psychology of coaching. He spent much of his early time at the University of Illinois working in a sports psychology lab (the first of its kind) to study collegiate football players' personalities, psychomotor skills, and motivations. His sports psychology lab was shut down after six years due to financial reasons. However, this experience led him to a job with the Chicago Cubs starting in 1937 where he analyzed the team. He had two major theories with the first being that players should approach practices just like they would approach a game. The second dealt with their attitudes and willing themselves to win. He published multiple articles on his research both with the Chicago Cubs and collegiate athletes at the University of Illinois. In Griffith's first two seasons with the Cubs, the Cubs improved to 93 and 89 wins respectively, and even made their way to the World Series, but ultimately fell short of a title. Griffith's revolutionary ideas surrounding the team dynamic and approach to playing were met with significant backlash from some of the Cubs' coaching staff. He spent only four years with the Cubs before returning to the University of Illinois. He was promoted to provost and retired in 1962.
Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) focused his research on cognitive development (McLeod, 2009). He particularly attended to the development and maturation of children, but his theories have far-reaching implications on education and adult development.“Piaget saw the child as constantly creating and re-creating his own model of reality, achieving mental growth by integrating simpler concepts into higher-level concepts at each stage. He argued for a “genetic epistemology,” a timetable established by nature for the development of the child’s ability to think, and he traced four stages in that development."
Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist whose work was influential in the theory of social constructivism. His most important theory is that of the Zone of Proximal Development.
B.F. Skinner created the theory of Operant Conditioning and was a leader in Behavoirism. Skinner's philosophy of Radical Behaviorism is still studied to this day.
Maria Montessori was an Italian physician, educator, and innovator, who was known for a her educational method that builds on the way children naturally learn. (American Montessori Society, 2013)
Boyd H Bode American Educational Theorist. He published several books about his educational theory including An Outline of Logic (1910), Fundamentals of Education (1921), Modern Educational Theories (1927), Conflicting Psychologies of Learning (1929), Democracy as a Way of Life (1937), Progressive Education at the Crossroads (1938), and How We Learn (1940) (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013). Submitted by Rosemary Borger
John B. Watson was an American psychologist.He established the school of behaviorism. One of his famous work is the article "Psychology as a Behaviorist Views it".Also, he is well known for "little Albert experiment".
Madeline Hunter (1916-1994) was a psychologist and educator. Hunter instructed and did most of her research work through the lab school at UCLA from the mid-1960’s -1980’s. In addition, she held positions as a school psychologist, principal, director of research and assistant superintendent. Over her lifetime, she wrote 12 books, over 300 articles, and produced 17 videotapes. She is known most famously for her work in Teacher Decision-Making, for her direct instruction program: the Instructional Theory Into Practice teaching model (ITIP, otherwise known as the Madeline Hunter Method) and for her teacher evaluation/observation/ staff development tool: the Teaching Appraisal for Instructional Improvement Instrument (TAIII). Hunter’s research on teacher decision-making led to her classify teacher’s decisions into three categories: content, teaching behavior, and learning behavior. Her ITIP model consists of 7 elements: objectives, standards, anticipatory set, teaching, guided practice, closure, and independent practice. Although she received much criticism with claims that her model was too “prescriptive”, her supporters see her model as more of a framework that can be adjusted to accommodate the teacher, learners, and classroom environment. Hunter was also a major proponent of staff development and teacher training. Her work was revolutionary and can still be seen utilized today.
in 1916 Albert Einstein expanded the Special Theory of Relativity into the General Theory of Relativity that applies to systems in nonuniform motion as well as to systems in uniform motion
Myles Horton was an American educator and socialist. He is well known for his civil rights movements and influence on leaders at the time, including Martin Luther King. One of his famous works is "We Make the Road by Walking" conversations with Paulo Freire, Brenda Bell, John Gaventa, John Peters on education and social change.
Sigmund Freud developed his theory regarding the Id, Ego, and Superego which defined his theory of the human psyche and the battling personalities within each individual.
Abraham Harold Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist who was best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization. He stressed the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people, as opposed to treating them as a "bag of symptoms."
How People Learn is based on his research in cognitive science
The year before his death in 1947, the former Professor of Psychology at Berlin University, Stanford, Cornell and Iowa University, applied his extensive research on social change and group dynamics to conduct a two-week leadership and group-dynamics training program through his Research Center for Group Dynamics at MIT. The intent was to conduct research and observations of the group dynamics during the training to then discuss among the researchers afterward. What happened instead is that Lewin allowed participants to participate in the dialogue about the research his group was conducting and the observations they made. "Thus the discovery was made that learning is best facilitated in an environment where there is dialectic tension and conflict between immediate, concrete experience and analytic detachment. By bringing together the immediate experiences of the trainees and the conceptual models of the staff in an open atmosphere where inputs from each perspective could challenge and stimulate the other, a learning environment occurred with remarkable vitality and creativity" (Kolb, 1984). Lewin has been compared to Dewey for his support of collaborative and experiential training. Lewin is credited with coining the term "action research," which involves identifying problems and conducting research in pursuit of solutions. He developed the model of change that involves channels, gates and gatekeepers, which informed the theory of gatekeeping in media research.
John R Anderson is a Canadian born Psychologist who current works at Carnegie Mellon University; faculty in both the Psychology and Computer Science Department. He and another associate
Edward Tolman was the first purposive behavioralist who helped bridge the gap between cognitive and behavioral learning theories and create the concept of cognitive maps.
Erik H. Erikson is a German-American developmental psychologist known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings (Identity Crisis Theory). He born in Frankfurt, Germany on June 15, 1902. When he finished high school, Erikson was a student and teacher of arts in arts. Also, Erikson studied psychoanalysis and earned a certificate from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. In 1933, Erikson moved to the U.S. and joined at Harvard Medical School. Later, he held teaching positions at the University of California at Berkeley, Yale, the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, Austen Riggs Center, and the Center for Advanced Studies of the Behavioral Sciences. Please visit these links: http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/p109g/erikson.stages.html http://www.businessballs.com/erik_erikson_psychosocial_theory.htm#erikson_psychosocial_theory_summary http://video.about.com/psychology/Erik-Erikson-s-Identity-Crisis-Theory.htm
DOB: August 24, 1913 DOD: November 27, 1997 Father of andragogy in America. Key concepts as related to his work in the field of andragogy: informal adult education, self-directed learning, learning contracts. Upon completion of his MA in 1949 from the University of Chicago, Knowles applied his thesis as the basis for his first published work about informal education,titled Ionformal Adult Education. Among the 18 books Knowles wrote, two of them were co-written by he and his wife, Hulda: How to Develop Better Leaders (1955) and Introduction to Group Dynamics (1959). Malcolm Knowles impacted adult education beyond his published works. From 1946 to 1951, Knowles worked at the Central YMCA in Chicago where he created the first comprehensive adult education program. Knowles was also the Director for adult education training for the National Youth Administration of Massachusetts, Director of adult education for the Boston YMCA and was one of the founders of the Adult Education Association. Additionally, Knowles published over 200 articles. New additional content: Malcolm Knowles was born in August 1913 in Livingston, Montana. When he was young he was an avid Boy Scott. He moved to Florida with his parents and graduated from Palm Beach High School in 1930. Malcolm Knowles received a scholarship to Harvard University and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934 (Smith, 2002). Malcolm Knowles was most well-known for his learning theory of andragogy, the art and science of helping adults learn (Cercone, 2008). Knowles model of Andragogy included five assumptions: 1) Self-concept 2) Experience 3) Readiness to learn 4) Orientation of learning 5) Motivation to learn. He also paved the way for adult learning through both self-directed learning and learning contracts. Although Knowles made significant strides in Andragogy and both of these other areas, others have challenged his views. Please see my portrait of Malcolm S. Knowles on the discussion board for more in depth information and relevant references.
Chomsky challenged the behaviorist explanation on language acquisition. He argued that children are born with a specific innate ability to learn language. This ability was pre-wired into the child's genetic code. Chomsky called this the Language Acquisition Device (LAD). Chomsky also posited that children were also endowed with the ability to discover the underlying rules of language systems. He called this "Universal Grammar".
The American psychologist, George A. Kelly, often called the first cognitive theorist, was born in 1905 and passed away in March of 1967. A charter member of the American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology, George Kelly, became its vice-president and president during his career. He also was a former president of the American Psychological Association (APA), in its Clinical and Consulting divisions (Kelly, 1963). Kelly’s greatest contributions were in the form of two books, The Psychology of Personal Constructs, Volume I and II, when he worked for Ohio State University in 1955. Dr. George Kelly’s contributing theory to the field of psychology is called Personal Construct Theory (PCT) and Constructive Alternativism; which he established in 1955. The heart of Kelly’s theory is that people are very much like scientists, in that they attempt to solve problems by observations, informal research methodologies, formulation of hypotheses, inferred conclusions that will predict future events. According to his theory, learners will test personal theories, and based on results, develop interaction behaviors and constructs to interact with the world around us. This interaction model is what would be called “personal behaviors.” Heffner (2014) explains this plainly by stating, “We act in manner congruent with how we expect the world to be based on our interpretations of past events.”
Benjamin Bloom edited his first volume of "Taxonomy of Educational Objectives" in 1956. This led to the creation of Bloom's Taxonomy.
The man who would become known as the "father of cognitive theory" graduates from Harvard with a Doctorate. He coined the term Cognitive Psychology. Definition: Characterization of people as dynamic information-processing systems whose mental operations might be described in computational terms. In 1967 he published a book that he titled Cognitive Psychology. Perception, pattern recognition, attention, problem solving, and remembering were researched in the book. A picture of Ulric can be found through the following link
Jerome Bruner cofounded the Center for cognitive studies. One of the founding fathers of the constructivists. Focus on the study of cognition. Considered a pioneer of the education reform movement of the 1960’s. Bruner’s theories contributed to education by exploring: cognitive development of children, discovery learning, spiral education, the use of intuition in teaching, and the importance of language. Notable publications from 1956 to 1996. Bruner studied the cognitive development of children and sectioned it into 3 categories; enactive, iconic, symbolic. In the enactive stage it is shown as action based information and storing it to memory. in the iconic stage information is now stored visually using shapes or diagrams. The symbolic stage is when the information is stored in code form such as language.
Jacqueline Jarret Goodnow was born in Born 1924 in Toowoomba, Queensland Australia, a fifth-generation Australian with “convict” ancestry. She received her Ph.D. from Radcliffe in clinical psychology. As a cognitive and developmental psychologist, Jacqueline Goodnow’s work has addressed the importance of recognizing the significant influence of cultural contexts has on human growth and development. Her work has consistently focused on how social and cultural contexts shape theory and action. She co-authored the book, A Study of Thinking, with Jerome Bruner; which focuses on how concepts are constructed and learned. She expanded two-choice learning studies, with her research allowing subjects to pick their strategies with less emphasis on reward. The two main classes of strategies were 1) Focus strategy -a slower process for eliminating attributes and 2) Scanning strategy –a riskier procedure, relying upon memory for eliminating attributes. Determined that people learn concepts through active engagement and intentional problem solving and that people learn and develop concepts by how they categorize and respond to the world around them.Future research and policy recommendations: 1) to consider that development occurs within the social, political, economic, and cultural context, 2) include established patterns of familial, societal, and cultural interactions and customs within practice and, 3) research and practice occurs within the individual, group, and societal contexts, not in isolation, and that observation has consequences.
Siegel completed his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and his post-graduate medical education at UCLA.[1] His training is in pediatrics and child, adolescent and adult psychiatry. Siegel was the recipient of the UCLA psychiatry department's teaching award and several honorary fellowships for his work as director of UCLA's training program in child psychiatry and the Infant and Preschool Service at UCLA. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and is the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute.[2] Siegel is Founding Co-Director of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center.[3] He serves as the Medical Director of the LifeSpan Learning Institute and on the Advisory Board of the Blue School in New York City, which has built its curriculum around Dr. Siegel’s Mindsight approach.[4] Siegel is also on the Board of Trustees at the Garrison Institute. Siegel is the author of several books on parenting and child development including the New York Times Bestseller Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain published by Penguin Random House in 2013. He is co-author, along with Tina Payne Bryson, PhD. of two additional New York Times Bestsellers The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Brain and No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind, both also published by Penguin Random House. The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being published by WW Norton in 2007,[5] The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiology of Interpersonal Experience published by the Guilford Press in 1999 and Parenting from the Inside Out, which he co-wrote with Mary Hartzell in 2003 and was published by Tarcher. Siegel is known as a mindfulness expert[6] and for his work developing the field of Interpersonal Neurobiology,[7] which is an interdisciplinary view of life experience that draws on over a dozen branches of science to create a framework for understanding of our subjective and interpersonal lives.[8] Siegel's most recent work integrates the theories of Interpersonal Neurobiology with the theories of Mindfulness Practice and proposes that mindfulness practice is a highly developed process of both inter and intra personal attunement.[9]
Amos Tversky was born in 1937 in Israel. He was a cognitive and mathematical psychologist intrigued with how human make decisions. He is best known for his work on Prospect Theory is referenced by many economists and psychologists even today.
Nancy Rambusch reintroduced the Montessori method in the US in the 1950s and Montessori teaching remains popular today- Rosemary Borger
Developed stages of moral development based off of Piaget's theories. This American psychologist originally studies 70 boys and in 1963-1970 expanded out to include girls. Taught at Harvard from 1968-1987.
Daniel Kahneman received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work with Amos Tversky on Prospect Theory.
Mary was born in 1913 and died 1999. 1960 she worked at Johns Hopkins working on childhood/mother attachment. She eventually took her research to Uganda where she studied these attachment theories. Brittany Koehler
Eugene Galanter was born in 1924 in Philadelphia and considered one of the founders of cognitive psychology. He helped create a theoretical model that brought together cognitive processes with stimulus-reponse theories developed by psychologists such as B.F. Skinner and John Watson. He also co-authored the book Plans and the Structure of Behavior, Which further solidifies that some level of experience is necessary for stimulus-response this implies that a cognitive process is necessary to obtain a relationship between stimulus and response. An example of this is the monitoring of devices used in experimentation. They named this unit of behavior the T.O.T.E. for "Test - Operate - Test - Exit". Eugene Galanter currentley works as a Professor Emeritus at Columbia University.
In 1961 Bandura and his colleagues he Bobo doll experiment studied 36 girls and 36 boys to see if behaviors, specifically aggression can be observed and learned which in turn imitated. A number of boys and girls watch another person (male or female) be aggressive towards dolls and toys where. The rest of the boys and girls watched another person (male or female) play with toys normally. The results supported the social cognitive theory started by Bandura that behavior such as aggression can be imitated from watching someone else showing the same behavior.
George Siemens is an educational theorist who is the originator of the theory of Connectivism. The basis of this theory is that, with the vast amount of information that there is today and the accelerated rate at which it is multiplying there is too much to know and that it is as important to where to find information that is needed as it is to know information.
Barbara Tversky is a trained cognitive psychologist who received a BS, MS, and PhD from the University of Michigan. She was married to Amos Tversky who passed away in 1996.
Robert Gagne - Psychologist (1916 - 2002). Educational Psychologist known for "Conditions of Learning" published in 1965.
Richard Snow was a former professor of Education at Stanford University. Snow held that the primary role of education was to develop aptitudes. Snow’s research specifically studied the different aptitudes of students and how teachers can account for them.
Dr. Robert E. Haskell is a contemporary theorist of analogical reasoning; learning transfer; unconscious (nonconscious) cognitive processes; cognition and communication in regard to language; and small group interaction and communication. He is a former Professor of Psychology at the University of New England and is co-founder of The New England Institute of Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology. He began writing and theorizing in 1968 as an undergraduate, when he explored analogical reasoning as cognitively significant. This theme is evident in all his research since.
Paulo Freire wrote the foundational book called "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" in 1970. His theories have made a lasting impact on education.
Carl Rogers revolutionizes clinical psychology with "client-centered therapy." He eventually expands his theory to self-actualization and work in groups, and then writes a ground-breaking paper and then 1969 book entitled, Freedom to Learn: A View of What Education Might Become, based on experientialism and student-centered learning.
William G. Perry, Jr. (1913 - 1998). Educational psychologist who studied the cognitive development of college students. He was a professor at the Harvard Grad School of Education. He published his work in 1970, Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in College Years.
Janet Dean Fodor is a notable psychologist in the field of psycholinguistics. She has spent her lengthy career studying the relationship between language, the brain, and the effects of both on our ability to communicate, along with the effects of that communication on human relationships. She has worked with many other theorists in the field to produce theories like the “equilibrium hypothesis” and “filler-gap” psycholinguistics. She continues to shape the field of linguistics as a professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) by providing advisement and education to future theorists of the field.
Professor at Harvard University in the 1970’s. Worked as a developmental psychologist then moved into moral education. He is famous for coming up with the stages of moral development.
In the early 1970 Schank was an assistant professor at Stanford. Then he worked at Yale, funded by the Department of Defense. His initial work was with computers and language - artificial intelligence. In 2012, Schank launched a new venture called XTOL (experiential teaching on line.) XTOL creates learn by doing experiences for universities in any area of expertise. Socratic Arts designs and builds the on line courses which are financed by outside investors. The university partner offers and runs these programs. XTOL is currently focusing on computer science and business degree programs, but will soon move into other areas as well. His focus not is on the question "what is worth learning" and he is working on curriculum change at all levels, graduate work thorugh K-12. I love the quote on his home page. There are only two things wrong with the education system. 1. What we teach 2. How we teach it
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