Theorists Part 4

ED 205 Child Development

Dr. Cherrie Lovejoy
NMC

Instructional Models
Noam Chomsky
Marie Montessori
Freidrich Freobel
Benjamin Bloom

NORMS
Be prepared
Be responsible
Be respectful
Have Fun!!!

SLO
Understand the theories of social learning.
Connect the new knowledge with previous

understanding of theories.

Bell Ringer
Think-Pair-Share
Write down a simple 1 sentence list to

describe each theorist covered so far.

Noam Chomsky
Language

Acquisition & Cognitive Theory

The best time to learn a language is within the first 5

years and it becomes the most difficult over age 10.

Universal Grammar: an idea of innate, biological
grammatical categories, such as a noun category and
a verb category that facilitate the entire language
development in children and overall language
processing in adults.
Receptive Language before Expressive
Language: Childrens ability to understand language
develops faster than their ability to speak it. Receptive
language is the ability to understand language, and
expressive language is the ability to use language to
communicate. If a mother tells her fifteen-month-old
child to put the toy back in the toy chest, he may
follow her instructions even though he cant repeat
them himself.

Language Acquisition
Biological Influences on Language Acquisition
The main proponent of the view that biological influences bring about language

development is the well-known linguistNoam Chomsky. Chomsky argues that

human brains have a language acquisition device (LAD), an innate mechanism
or process that allows children to develop language skills. According to this
view, all children are born with a universal grammar, which makes them
receptive to the common features of all languages. Because of this hard-wired
background in grammar, children easily pick up a language when they are
exposed to its particular grammar.
Evidence for an innate human capacity to acquire language skills comes from
the following observations:
The stages of language development occur at about the same ages in most
children, even though different children experience very different
environments.
Childrens language development follows a similar pattern across cultures.
Children generally acquire language skills quickly and effortlessly.
Deaf children who have not been exposed to a language may make up their
own language. These new languages resemble each other in sentence
structure, even when they are created in different cultures.

Marie Montessori
Theory of:
Independence
Observation
Following the child
Correcting the child
Prepare the

environment
Absorbent mind
Multi-age grouping

Montessori Theory
Independence: do things

independently, give children

the opportunity to do things
themselves, choice, and adult
help when needed
Observation: watch and enjoy
the childrens engagement
with the environment &
examine a childs preconceived ideas.
Absorbent Mind: children
learn language without being
taught. Children under 3 do
not need to be taught, they
absorb everything in their
environment through
experience.

Follow: Children show you what they

need for development and their

challenges, provide support
Correcting: Calmly recognize the

mistakes and provide help to learn from

mistakes
Environment: The environment is

important and affects the childs

learning. Place set up for appropriate
learning.

Montessori Classroom

Montessori Materials

Fredrik Froebel
Father of Kindergarten (age 4-6)
Learning begins at birth through

exploring the environment

Play is a mirror of life
Children have unique needs
Philosophical principles
Self-expression
Creativity
Social participation
Motor expression

Froebel's Gifts

Gifts are objects in fixed form.

The child will learn underlying

concepts
Underlying symbolic meaning in

everything.

Benjamin Bloom
Process of learning

(Taxonomy)
Domains of learning:
cognitive(knowledge),
affective (attitude), &
psychomotor (skill)
SOLO Taxonomy:
Prestructural
Unistructural
Multistructural
Relational
Extended Abstract

SOLO Taxonomy
Incompetence: does not understand, failing
One Independent Abstract: Comprehends,

identify and infer

Several relevant independent aspect:
combine, describe, sorts
Integrated into structure: analyze, apply,
combine/compare/contrast, cause/effect
Generalized new domain: build, create,
design, reflect

Blooms Taxonomy

Blooms Taxonomy
Remembering (Knowledge): recall known

information
Understanding (Comprehension): meaning,
interpret instructions & problems in own words
Applying: use the concept to apply to a
situation
Analyzing: Divide concept into components to
organize the structure to be understood.
Evaluating: Make a judgment of value.
Creating (Synthesizing): Put knowledge/skills
together to form a new meaning.

Activity
Montessori & Freobel What do you know?
Compare and contrast the theorists
Why do each theorist have a set of toys for

their designed program?

Homework