Step 1
1.) Piaget: Cognitive development
1.) Reggio Emilia
2.) Gardner: Theory of multiple intelligence
2.) High Scope
3.) Vygotsky: Social cultural theory of development
3.) Montessori
4.) Skinner: Operant conditioning
4.) Waldorf
5.) Bandura: Social learning theory
5.) Bank street
6.) Freud: Psychosexual theory of development
6.) Cooperative
7.) Erikson: Theory of psychosocial development
7.) Creative curriculum
8.) Kohlberg: Theory of moral development
8.) Play based learning
Step 2
Learning is said to be a relatively permanent process that results in a behavioral change. Though various theorists and learning approaches have been proposed, there is one thing all psychologists and people in the field of education believe in, that is that people’s experiences and surroundings play a part in their learning, and nature too has a role to play in learning.
Behaviorists believe that people are born as a blank slate and they pick up information as they continue to live. Piaget believed that there were certain systematic stages of development that people go through, which could shape what they are learning and how fast they are learning. There are four stages in his theory of cognitive development, starting from sensory motor, preoperational stage, concrete stage, all the way to formal development stage. Invariance in cognitive development means that these stages remain similar and sequential. A child will be able to grasp certain concepts at different levels, at the concrete and formal stage, children are able to start thinking thoughts that are more abstract, and they are able to learn from a perspective that is less egocentric. The knowledge of invariance can be used in various areas especially in structuring time tables for school curriculum, in designing television shows for children of different ages and structuring the content and material that is used for aligning modules.
Different people define intelligence in various ways. The most common definition is the ability or capacity to adapt to a specific situation using the cognitive skills, social skills or certain physical prowess. Einstein once said that if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it would definitely spend a lifetime thinking it’s stupid. This concept definitely resonates with that of Gardner who came up with eight different types of intelligence, which include but are not limited to musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, mathematical intelligence, linguistic intelligence and interpersonal intelligence. He asserted that there were various domains under which one could be said to be adequately intelligent to qualify to be in these categories (Gardner, 1999). This idea is great because it creates an all rounded type of system where one doesn’t necessarily have to be considered “dumb” because they are not proficient in a certain area. This theory is important especially when it comes to relating it with learning approaches; its concept also resonates well with the aforementioned Piaget theory of cognitive development. Children and people generally have different paces of learning and understanding, and despite the knowledge of invariance, learners aren’t expected to have similar academic performance.
This is precisely why there are various techniques and learning approaches that help cater for different learning needs. These learning approaches are founded on certain philosophies most of which agree that the conventional method of teaching and learning doesn’t necessarily work for everyone.
One of these learning approaches is Reggio Emilia approach. Such schools are known for their project-based style. This type of learning is definitely self-driven and motivation is usually intrinsic. A lot of cooperation goes with this technique since students learn to explore concepts together rather than compete each other. For instance if students playing outside during recess come across a certain plant, they would be expected to explore it on their own an eventually they discuss the learnt information together with their teacher’s guidance (Gandini, 1993).
High Scope learning is not much different from the Reggio Emilia; its main concept revolves around the fact that students are engaged in active and participatory learning. Learners are said to learn better through hands-on experience with people, occasions, tools, and ideas.
References
Gandini, L. (1993). Fundamentals of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. Young Children, 49(1), 4–8.
Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed. multiple intelligences for the 21st century.
