NAME: Arbues, Bianca Lorelle A.

SECTION: 3CED PSE

PROF: DR. Luningning B. De Castro

Important Personalities and Pioneers of Early

Childhood Education
REFLECTION PAPER

In educational pioneers believed that the early childhood curriculum was

inappropriate for most of the children. It needed to be modified to meet each child’s
maturing needs, abilities, and interests. The pioneers advocated that education
should be more hands-on and assist children to function successfully in society. They
recommended the initiation of project learning, which would be a preparation for
the children’s roles in life and creation of kindergartens. The practices in early
childhood education have changed gradually. Numerous practices reemerge with
novel materials that appear to indicate they are actually original. When present-day
practices surface, early childhood professionals respond by generating other
practices. Therefore, current practices in early childhood education appear to be
associated to past early childhood educators, which are the pioneers.

Froebel, Montessori, Steiner, Malaguzzi and Vygotsky are these people who have
had a huge influenced on early childhood education. If you are checking out
preschools for your child, it is most likely the kindergarten will draw on multiple
educational approaches and not just one. For example, a kindergarten teacher may
use some ideas from Steiner and combine this with the Reggio Emilia approach.
However, specialist Steiner, Froebel and Montessori schools do exist. For example,
there are four Froebel preschools in Australia and numerous private Steiner schools
in England.

If you are wondering which education approach is ‘the best,’ I personally would be
looking for a good kindergarten teacher who is intelligent, creative, patient and kind.
This is opposed to selecting a pre-school based on a particular education model. In
my opinion, a good educator will combine and tailor different theories and practices
based on children’s unique needs and interests. They will also keep up to date with
new research, ideas and practices and experiment with these in the classroom.