Part 1
|
Theory |
Theorist(s) |
Description |
Effect on Early Childhood Education |
Sources |
| Maturational Theory | Dr Arnold Gesell | It mainly describes the mental and physical growth and development of children by focusing on genetics. The theory states that the maturational development of children takes place by following specific stages stimulated by genes. The developmental stages discussed by this theory include cognitive, emotional, social, motor, and verbal. | This theory shows that the development of a child determines how the brain works. |
Johnson, 2017 |
| Constructivist Theory | Jean Piaget | This theory describes that instead of taking information passively, learners take in information based on their different experiences. | It is significant in children's education as it helps them learn how to develop knowledge internally rather than retrieving it from the surrounding environment. | Arsalidou & Pascual-Leone, 2016 |
| Cognitivist Theory | Jean Piaget | It is a comprehensive theory that focuses on the development of mental processes. The approach shows that an individual's learning capability is affected by internal and external factors that impact his/her cognitive processes. This developmental theory's four main milestones include formal operational thinking, concrete operational thinking, pre-operational thinking, and sensorimotor intelligence. | It is an important aspect in early childhood that promotes the development of intelligence as children grow. | Babakr, Mohamedamin and Kakamad, 2019 |
| Moral and Developmental Theory | Lawrence Kohlberg | This theory states that an individual's ability to make a moral judgment concerning a situation is based on rational thinking. Kohlberg also assumed that the emotional process is partly involved in the assessment. This theory suggests three developmental milestones, which include the pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional stages. | In early childhood education, this theory is essential as it helps develop moral identity and judgment, which are crucial in future years. | Turiel, 2018 |
| Sociocultural Theory | Lev Vygotsky | It states that the social environment determines human behavior development, which comprises the caregivers, parents, peers, and the cultural environment. Vygotsky mainly focuses on language as a basis for social interaction, showing three developmental stages: external speech, egocentric speech, and internal speech. | In early childhood education, exposing the child to suitable social and cultural environments would allow them to have better behavioral development. | Newman, 2018 |
| Ecological Theory | Urie Bronfenbrenner | This theory suggests that a child's development is highly dependent on the environment. Also, the more a child develops, the more he/she interacts with the environment, therefore, impacting his/her physical and cognitive growth and development. Four environmental stages describe a child's development in this theory: the exosystem, mesosystem, microsystem, and macrosystem. | In early childhood education, this theory helps educators establish a suitable environment that promotes their developmental processes. | Tudge, Merçon-Vargas, Liang & Payir, 2017 |
| Psychosocial Theory | Erik Erikson | This theory mainly focuses on the social nature of human development. Erikson emphasized that humans' interaction with each other determines their ego identity, which refers to self-sense. This theory shows that psychosocial development goes through 8 stages: infancy, early childhood, play age, school age, adolescence, early adulthood, adulthood, and old age. | In early childhood, there is the initial formation of a child's self-concept, which helps the child's growth for the rest of the other developmental stages. | Orenstein & Lewis, 2020 |
| Behaviorist Theory | John B. Watson | This theory mainly focused on human behaviors that could be observed. The idea stated that human beings' behaviors result from reacting to a specific stimulus presented by environmental interactions. This theory provides three behaviorism developmental stages, which include Watsonian, nonbehavioralism, and sociobehavioralism. | In early childhood education, this theory modifies behavioral development by using strategies such as punishments and reinforcements. | Boldt, 2017 |
| Multiple Intelligence Theory | Howard Gardner | This theory says that human intelligence develops as a person grows. Also, it states that people's learning capabilities are different due to their different levels of brightness. This theory presents eight developmental stages. They include naturalist, intrapersonal, interpersonal, musical, bodily, spatial, logical, and linguistic. | In the early years, a child's multiple intelligence capability can be easily molded, which would be a basis for the child's development throughout his/her life. | Shearer, 2018 |
| Self-Actualization Theory | Abraham Maslow | Maslow stated that self-actualization is where humans desire to achieve their potential by first satisfying their basic needs fully. This developmental theory has five stages of needs: psychological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. | This theory affects early childhood education in that it equips children with various values, characteristics, and skills that enable them to develop towards being self-actualized adults. | Bland & DeRobertis, 2020 |
Part 2
Developmental theories are important when it comes to the comprehension of students' learning and teaching by educators. It is the role of teachers to ensure children's holistic development through the use of proper practices of education (Londoño et al., 2019). The two theories that I am most familiar with are behaviorist and psychosocial theories.
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In teaching, I can apply the behaviorist theory to enhance my student's good behavior. For instance, when a student portrays terrible behavior, I will use punishment to ensure the behavior is suppressed and eliminated. When students display good behavior, I will use affirmation and rewards to encourage them to behave. I will also use the psychosocial theory on my students by fostering an environment that supports their psychological growth by using strategies that enhance their sense of self. For instance, I would ensure that I encourage proper communication amongst the students and also between them and me. This method would enable them to know how to treat each other and be transparent about their feelings and emotions.
These theories would also help students with exceptionalities, such as those highly skilled than the others. The behaviorism theory, for instance, can be applied in teaching such students by encouraging them to share the knowledge and information they have with other students while interacting with them. The psychoanalytical theory can also be applied by emphasizing equality amongst all the students ensuring that they develop at their own pace and not feel demeaned by the fast learners.
References
Arsalidou, M., & Pascual-Leone, J. (2016). Constructivist developmental theory is needed in developmental neuroscience. Npj Science of Learning , 1 (1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/npjscilearn.2016.16
Babakr, Z. H., Mohamedamin, P., & Kakamad, K. (2019). Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory: Critical Review. Education Quarterly Reviews , 2 (3), 517-524. https://doi.org/10.31014/aior.1993.02.03.84
Bland, A. M., & DeRobertis, E. M. (2020). Maslow's unacknowledged contributions to developmental psychology. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 60 (6), 934–958. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167817739732
Boldt, G. (2017). Working with Deleuze and Guattari in early childhood research and education. In Theories of Early Childhood Education: Developmental, Behaviorist, and Critical (pp. 180-189). Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315641560
Johnson, M. E. (2017). Design and validation of a scale for preschoolers: Measuring nutrition knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors. Electronic Theses and Dissertations . Paper 3332. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3332
Londoño, S. P. V., De Soria, A. B. M., & Rivas, S. (2019). Early childhood development and education: Theoretical convergences and divergences. International Education Studies , 12 (7), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v12n7p1
Newman, S. (2018). Vygotsky, Wittgenstein, and sociocultural theory. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour , 48 (3), 350–368. https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12174
Orenstein, G. A., & Lewis, L. (2020, November 22). Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development . StatPearls [Internet]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556096/.
Shearer, B. (2018). Multiple intelligences in teaching and education: Lessons learned from neuroscience. Journal of Intelligence , 6 (3), 38. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence6030038
Tudge, J. R. H., Merçon-Vargas, E. A., Liang, Y., & Payir, A. (2017). The importance of Urie Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory for early childhood educators and early childhood education. In L. Cohen & S. Stupiansky (Eds.), Theories of early childhood education: Developmental, behaviorist, and critical (45–57). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315641560
Turiel, E. (2018). Moral development in the early years: When and how. Human Development , 61 (4-5), 297–308. https://doi.org/10.1159/000492805
