William James

(1842-1910)

• 1890-Harvard University
• founded the field of psychology in America
• developed a lecture series for teachers called "Talks to Teachers about Psychology" 

G. Stanley Hall

(1844-1924)

• James' student that founded the American Psychological Association
• His dissertion was about children understanding the world
• Hall encouraged teachers to make detailed observations to study their students' development 

John Dewey

(1859-1952)

• Halls' student
• founded the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago
• considered the father of "The Progressive Education Movement" 

E.L. Thorndike

(1874-1949)

• wrote the first educational psychology  textbook in 1903
• founded the "Journal of Educational Psychology" in 1910
• shifted from the classroom to the laboratory to study learning; but his view proved to be too narrow
• It took 50 years to bring the study of educational psychology back to the classroom  

Jean Piaget

(1896-1980)

• Swiss psychologist that created the four stages of cognitive development 

Assimilation

(Piaget)

Schemes

(Piaget)

Accommodations

(Piaget)

1. Sensorimotor: 0-2 years; begins to make the use of imitation, memory, and thought
2. Preoperational: 2-7 years; has difficulty seeing another person's point of view
3. Concrete Operational: 7-11 years; understands laws of conversation and is able to classify and seriate
4. Formal Operational: 11-adult; develops concerns about social issues, identity.  Also, mental tasks involving abstract thinking and coordinating a number of variables 

Sigmund Freud

(1856-1939)

• was criticized because his 5 syages of psychosexual development were based upon memories of wealthy European women with specific mental problems, without ever studying children and for not collecting experimental data that might support his theories 

Sigmund Freud

(1856-1939)

• many earlier psychologists influenced by him believed that early childhood experiences were critical, especially for emotional/social and cognitive development
• many psychologists today talk about sensitive periods-not critical periods 

Albert Bandura

(1925-)

• developed social cognitive theory 

Social Cognitive Theory

(Albert Bandura)

• The interactions among behavior, environment, and personal characteristics
• Today it retains an emphasis on the role of other people serving as models and teachers (the social part) but includes thinking, believing, anticipating, and judgments (the cognitive part) 

Lev Vygotsky

(1896-1934)

• developed the sociocultural theory 

Sociocultural Theory

(Lev Vygotski)

• Human activities take place in cultural settings and cannot be understood apart from these settings
• Our specifc mental structures and processes can be traces to interactions with others 

Zone of Proximal Development

(Lev Vygotski)

• At any given point in development children are on the verge of solving certain problems
• *The area between student's current level and he/she could achieve with "adult" help
• Magic Circle-The area where instruction can succeed 

Urie Bronfenbrenner

(1917-2005)

• His theory takes into account that each person lives within a microsystem, inside a mesosystem, embedded in an exosystem, all of which are a part of a macrosystem 

1. Microsystem
2. Mesosystem
3. Exosystem
4. Macrosystem 

Microsystem

(1; Bronfenbrenner)

• child affects the parents and the parents influence the child
• relationships are reciprocal-they flow in both directions
• students' immediate relationships and activities 

Mesosytem

(2; Bronfenbrenner)

• The set of interactions and relationships amoung all the elements of the microsystem-the family members interacting with each other and with the teacher
• Teacher influences the parents and the parents affect the teacher, and those interactions affect the child
• All relationships are reciprocal 

Exosystem

(3; Bronfenbrenner)

• Includes all the social settings that affect the child, even though the child is not a direct member of these systems
• Examples: teachers' relationships with administrators, school board, parents, etc. 

Macrosystem

(4; Bronfenbrenner)

• The larger society-its values, laws, conventions, and traditions
• This is culture! 

• Proposes (2000) that as children grow older, they develop progressively better rules and strategies for solving problems and thinking logically
• Teachers can help students develop their capacities for formal thinking by putting them in situations that challenged their thinking
• Approach is called rules assessment 

Rules Assessment

(R.S. Siegler)

• Focuses on understanding, challenging, and challenging the rules that students use for thinking 

Erik Erikson

(1902-1994)

• His theory connects personal development (psycho) to the social environment (social)
• Individuals go through 8 life stages, each of which involves a central crisis.  Resolution to each crisis leads to a stronger foundation for solving future crises. 

1. Stage 1 (birth to 12-18 months) Important event-feeding; trust vs. mistrust
2. Stage 2 (18 months to 3 years) Important event-toliet training; autonomy vs. shame/doubt
3. Stage 3 (3-6 years) Important event-independence; initiative vs. guilt
4. Stage 4 (6-12 years) Important event-school; industry vs. inferiority

1. Stage 5 (adolescence) Important event-peer relationships; identity vs. role confusion
2. Stage 6 (young adulthood) Important event-love realtionships; intimacy vs. isolation
3. Stage 7 (middle adulthood) Important event-parenting/mentoring/generativity vs. stagnation
4. Stage 8 (late adulthood) Important event-reflection on acceptance of one's life; ego integrity vs. despair

• developed the four identity alternatives for adolescents 

The 4 Identity Alternatives for Adolescents

(James Marcia)

1. Identity Diffusion
2. Identity Forclosure
3. Moratorium
4. Identity Achievement  

Identity Diffusion;

1st of the 4 Identity Alternatives for Adolescents

(James Marcia)

Identity Foreclosure;

2nd of the 4 Identity Alternatives for Adolescents

(James Marcia)

Moratorium;

3rd of the 4 Identity Alternatives for Adolescents

(James Marcia)

Identity Achievement;

4th of the 4 Identity Alternatives for Adolescents

(James Marcia)

Lawrence Kohlberg

(1981-)

Three levels of moral reasoning

(Lawrence Kohlberg)

1. Preconventional
2. Conventional
3. Postconventional  

Preconventional;

1st of the three levels of moral reasoning

(Lawrence Kohlberg)

• Judgement is based on personal needs and others' rules
• Stage 1: Rules are obeyed to avoid punishment.  Good/bad action is determined by its physical consequences
• Stage 2: Personal needs determine right and wrong.  You scratch my back... 

Conventional;

2nd of the three levels of moral reasoning

(Lawrence Kohlberg)

• Conventional judgment is based on others' approval, family expectations, traditional values, laws of society
• Stage 3: Good boy/girl orientation
• Stage 4: Laws and Order Orientation (Laws are absolute and authority must be respected and the social order maintained) 

Postconventional;

3rd of the three levels of moral reasoning

(Lawrence Kohlberg)

• Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation; Good is determined by socially agreed opon standards of individual rights.  Similar to the U.S. Constitution
• Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principle; Good and right are matter of individual consciences (justice, humanity, and equality)

• Developed the theory of multiple intelligences
• These suggest that there are 8 kinds of human abilities
• An individual might have strengths or weaknesses in one or several areas
• He stresses that his theory is not an educational intervention
• Believes learning is still hard work, even if there are multiple paths to knowledge

Ivan Pavlov

(1849-1936)

Classical Conditioning

(Ivan Pavlov)

• Focuses on the learning of involuntary emotional or psychological responses to such as fear, increases muscle tentions, salivation, or sweating
• Association of automatic reponses with new stimuli

B.F. Skinner

(1904-1990)

• Discovered operant conditioning
• Began with the belief that the principles of classical conditioning account for only a small portion of learned behavior

Operant Conditioning

(B.F. Skinner)

• We learn to behave in certain ways as we operate on the environment
• Research shows that it can be altered by changes in the antecedents, the consequences, or both
• Antecedent-Behavior-Consequences (A-B-C)

Abraham Maslow

(1908-1970)

• His theory suggested that humans have a hierarchy of needs ranging from lower-level needs for survival to higher level needs for intellectual achievement and finally self-actualization  

Self-actualization

(Abraham Maslow)

1. Survival  
2. Safety
3. Belonging
4. Self-Esteem

• When these needs are satisfied the motivation for fulfilling them decrease

1. Intellectual achievement
2. Aesthetic appreciation
3. Self-actualization

• When these needs are met a person's motivation does not cease, instead it increases to seek further fulfillment