PIONEERS IN EDUCATION

PRESENTED BY: AREEBA ISLAM

AQSA ZAHID
NIMRA AMANAT ALI
PIONEERS IN EDUCATION:
• A person who begins or helps develop something new and prepares the way for others to follow.
• These following pioneers in education have explored much rougher terrain to shape modern learning.

• Horace Mann (1796-1859) – American Public School Education

• Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) – Early Childhood Education
• Jean Piaget (1896-1980) – How Children Learn

• John Dewey (1859-1952) – Progressive Education

• Maria Montessori (1870-1952) – Individualized Education

• John Holt (1923-1985) – Home Education
HORACE MANN (1796-1859) – AMERICAN
PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION:
• Horace Mann grew up in a time when education was not easily obtained for those that lived in the poor
rural areas of America.
• Though his own early education was limited, he attended Brown University,
studied law, and later enjoyed a highly successful political career.
• It was during his time serving as a representative and senator in the legislature
of Massachusetts and lastly Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education
that he used his influence to advance change in the American educational system.
• We can thank Horace Mann for teacher training colleges, free libraries, and free
public education to all children through taxation.
WHAT DID HORACE MANN DO FOR EDUCATION?
• Horace Mann, often called the Father of the Common School, began his career as a
lawyer and legislator.

• When he was elected to act as Secretary of the newly-created Massachusetts Board of

Education in 1837, he used his position to enact major educational reform.

• He spearheaded the Common School Movement, ensuring that every child could receive
a basic education funded by local taxes.

• His influence soon spread beyond Massachusetts as more states took up the idea of
universal schooling.
 FRIEDRICH FROEBEL (1782-1852) – EARLY
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

• Friedrich Froebel was a German educator whose philosophy of education

influenced such people as Horace Mann and Maria Montessori.
• Based on the belief that a young child possessed innate qualities that would unfold
gradually within a natural setting,
• He established kindergartens where free expression, creativity, social interaction,
motor activity and learning by doing were the focus. 
WHAT DID FRIEDRICH FROEBEL CONTRIBUTION
TO EDUCATION?
• His most important contribution to educational theory was his belief in “self-activity” and play as
essential factors in child education.
• The teacher's role was not to drill or indoctrinate the children but rather to encourage their self-
expression through play, both individually and in group activities.
• Froebel devised circles, spheres, and other toys—all of which he referred to as “gifts” or
“occupations”—that were designed to stimulate learning through play activities accompanied by
songs and music.
• Modern educational techniques in kindergarten and preschool are much indebted to him.
 JEAN PIAGET (1896-1980) – HOW
CHILDREN LEARN:
• Anyone who has taken a child psychology class will have studied the developmental and
learning theories of Jean Piaget, the Swiss psychologist.
• Fascinated with how children reasoned, he began researching and writing books on the
subject of child psychology.
• When he later married and fathered three children, he was supplied with enough data to
write three more books!
• His research and subsequent theories have become the basis and foundation of our
understanding of normal child cognitive development.
HOW DID JEAN PIAGET CONTRIBUTE TO
EDUCATION?

• Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive

development.
• His contributions include a stage theory of child cognitive development, detailed
observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests
to reveal different cognitive abilities.
CONT:
• Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that intelligence changes as children grow. A child's
cognitive development is not just about acquiring knowledge, the child has to develop or construct a mental
model of the world.
• Cognitive development occurs through the interaction of innate capacities and environmental events, and
children pass through a series of stages. Piaget's stages are:
• Sensorimotor stage: birth to 18-24 months
• Preoperational stage: 2 to 7 years
• Concrete operational stage: 7 to 11 years
• Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up
• The sequence of the stages is universal across cultures and follow the same invariant (unchanging) order. All
children go through the same stages in the same order (but not all at the same rate).
JOHN DEWEY (1859-1952) – PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION:

• It was while he was a professor of philosophy and the head of the University of Chicago’s teacher college that
John Dewey exerted his greatest influence in education and promoted many educational
reforms through his experimental schools.
• It was his view that children should be encouraged to develop “free personalities” and
that they should be taught how to think and to make judgments rather than to simply
have their heads filled with knowledge.
• He also believed that schools were places where children should learn to live cooperatively.
• A member of the first teachers’ union, he was concerned for teachers’ rights and their

academic freedom.
 WHAT IS THE DEWEY THEORY OF PROGRESSIVE
EDUCATION?
• John Dewey is probably most famous for his role in what is called progressive education. 
• Progressive education is essentially a view of education that emphasizes the need to
learn by doing. Dewey believed that human beings learn through a 'hands-on' approach.
• This places Dewey in the educational philosophy of pragmatism.
• Pragmatists believe that reality must be experienced. From Dewey's educational point of
view, this means that students must interact with their environment in order to adapt
and learn.
 MARIA MONTESSORI (1870-1952) – INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION:

•Montessori methods remain the popular choice for many parents who seek an alternative education
for their children, especially for the early childhood through the primary years.
• Before she took an interest in education, Montessori was the first woman in Italy to obtain the training to
become a doctor.
•She was assigned the post of medical care to the patients of a mental institution, and it was there that
she encountered “backward” children igniting her passion for education.
•Beginning with a daycare facility in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Rome, Montessori put her theories
into practice.
• Her methods were influenced by her previous training in medicine, education, and anthropology.
•The results were extraordinary and soon drew much attention from many parts of the world, including
America. The rest, as they say, is history.
MONTESSORI'S CONTRIBUTIONS OF
EDUCATION:
• She developed a unique system of early childhood education named Montessori system which has been used
effectively with mentally retarded, physically handicapped , normal and gifted children.

• children’s house that initiates & facilitates auto education .

• Montessori developed a series of standardized sensorial materials called didactic apparatus.

• She discovered that children have basic needs and natural tendencies & when these are met the children
progress rapidly.

• She observed that young children learn best through the use of their senses .

• They need to touch, feel, move, see, hear, smell & taste.

• This discovery opened the new era of sensory learning in the field of pre primary school education.

• She replaced the word ‘teacher’ as the word ‘directress’ as she thinks that the function of the teacher is to
direct & not to teach
 JOHN HOLT (1923-1985) – HOME EDUCATION:

• Talk about going full circle. Whereas Horace Mann fought for the free public education of all children, Holt raised awareness of
the need for reform in America’s public schools.
• As an educator, he became convinced that the present system stifled the learning of most children
mainly because of fear. Disillusioned by the inability to bring reform and improvement to public schools.
• Holt left teaching and devoted his time to the promotion of his ideas.
• He believed that children learn best when allowed to follow their own interests rather than having learning
imposed upon them.
• His exposure to proponents of home education lead him to later conclude that the best place to set up
natural environment for learning was within a child’s home.
• His books had a profound impact on the growth of the home schooling sector.