Angela Bond

Hardman
FHS 2600
30 January 2016
Theorist Comparison
When it comes to early childhood education, there are a lot of different theorists
that teachers follow and some that the education is developed around. These said
theorists and theories include Erikson, Maslow, Piaget, Vygotsky, Skinner/Behaviorism,
and the Reggio Emilia Approach. These people and programs have helped the child
education system to become highly successful today and puts somewhat of a standard
on teachers. They give a guide to how to run things and it also give teachers the
opportunity to develop an opinion on what they believe in based off of what the theories
state.
Erik Erikson believed in an eight-stage theory of the personal and social
development of a human throughout their lives. He believes that the development
begins right at birth and continues all the way through adulthood. He believes that the
development of the social parts of human never ceases. Erikson doesnt seem to focus
too much on the cognitive development as much as the social personal development.
Abraham Maslow is a theorist that focuses on the needs of a human, whether they are
basic needs from food and water to growth needs, like the sense of being loved. His
theory is shown in a pyramid that has the basic needs at the base (the biggest portion of
the pyramid) and the growth needs at the top (the smaller portion). This shows how

basic needs need to be met at all times or the human will collapse and the human will
only succeed further in life if the growth needs are met.
Jean Piaget was theorist that developed the cognitive-developmental theory. This
theory states that children dont think like adults and that it is all developmentally
appropriate. Meaning if you ask a child and an adult a question like Where does wind
come from? the childs answer will be a lot different from an adults. This is all because
the childs brain has not developed enough for them to think on a complex level and
able to give an appropriate answer. He also believed in many different types of
knowledge and different stages for these types of knowledge. He believes as a child
gets older they will learn more from thinking with prior knowledge and abstractly from
just learning with their senses. Lev Vygotsky was a theorist that developed the
sociocultural theory. This theory is defined as that children learn from social interaction
within a cultural context. He believes that what and how a child learns is solely on what
culture they grew up in. He also believed that speech is the most important thing to
learning. He believes that when talking to a child, use the appropriate language and not
baby talk to them. This allows the babys speech to develop normally and they wont
have as many problems in language learning.
Behaviorism is a theory in which states that learning is a change in behavior and
is controlled by consequences and rewards. Using this is then defined as operant
conditioning. The theory of operant conditioning was developed by B.F. Skinner. He
developed this through experiments with rats. He believed that the way to get results
was to use positive consequences and negative consequences. This allowed the child
to act as they pleased and they would know what to expect as the outcome to their said

behavior. This helps the child to choose the positive consequences over the negative
ones and to help shape the behavior of the child. The Reggio Emilia Approach is an
approach, but it is not a curriculum or a model. The Reggio Emilia Approach is uses
many different methods and theories in one. It draws all the different information into a
table and divides them into principles to follow.
I believe that all these theorists have good points to them. I think the one that
helps me understand children a little bit more is that of the Erik Erikson. The reason for
this is because he shows the different stages in which a human goes through socially
and personally. I like also how he showed that humans are constantly developing
socially and I think that this is very true being a teenager myself. I am always adjusting
the way I socialize and I think that this will never change. The other theorist that allowed
me to understand children more is that of Piaget. The reason for this is because he
showed how children learn through the different ages and it allowed me to think into the
preschool and why the use of senses and visuals is so important. The theorist that I
didnt really buy in to is that of Behaviorism or Skinner. The reason for this is because I
personally think that this method is somewhat of bribery. I dont believe that you should
bribe a child into behaving well, that behaving well should be portrayed everywhere they
go and that it should be expected. I do believe that consequences should be given, but I
dont think that there should be constant positive consequences as well. I think that this
method all depends on the child and should not be used on everyone.