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Essay / The importance and theories of the education of young children
According to the philosophy of John Locke, a newborn is born with a “tabula rasa” which in Latin means “blank slate”. From birth, the child imbues knowledge with his experiences to extend his “clean slate”. Children continue to learn through their experiences with friends, family and teachers, whether inside or outside of the school environment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay Many philosophers of child development, including Dewey (1859-1952) and Montessori (1870-1952), shared the belief of the importance of educating young children. . Rousseau (1712-1778) emphasized that the education provided should follow the natural growth of the child rather than the demands imposed by society. Philosophers have emphasized that education should be child-centered, active and interactive. They also emphasized that the child's social world and community must also play a role in their education. Dewey is very associated with child-centered education. There is regular confusion with its philosophy, with many believing it to mean supported, free, student-led education. He still believed that raising children still needed clear structure, support and direction to be successful. Along with many other philosophers, Dewey recognized that educators must recognize the differences of each child. Dewey believed that the uniqueness of each child resulted from both genetics and experience. He stressed that the school curriculum should allow for and take these differences into account. Jean Piaget (1896-1980), who is a very famous philosopher in the field of child development, has a different approach to how children learn and develop. According to Piaget, our knowledge is constructed within our mental activity through accommodation, assimilation, patterns and balance. These terms help explain how we retrieve information, process it and store it. This process happened much more with children. Schemas are mental categories of information that develop when new information is collected. Accommodation involves changing and adapting the schema. Assimilation involves adding new information to the pattern and balancing involves balancing external processes with internal thought processes. As a child learns new things from experiences, more schemas are developed and expanded. Piaget also created stages of a child's cognitive development. These include: sensorimotor (0-2 years), pre-operational (2-7 years), concrete operational (7-11 years) and formal operational (11-15 years). Piaget believes that each child must go through each stage in order, it is not possible to skip stages. Lev Semyonovitch Vygotsky (1896-1934) was another philosopher who proposed a theory of how children learn. Vygotsky had a central concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) which explains how children learn with the help of others around them and build their understanding of events in their community and the world. His theory is different from Piaget's, because Vygotsky does not wait until the child reaches a certain age to then be "ready", he believes that children learn from other knowledgeable people through different experiences. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now.Get a custom essayIn conclusion, there are?