The most prominent people to remember are: Dewey, Piaget and Vygotsky.

Key principles: Discovery Learning, Reception learning, Scaffolding, Cooperative Scripting, PQ4R

John Dewey 1859-1952 (American)
* Progressive Movement
* Student-centered, Project-based
* Interested in epistemology, or the theory of knowledge.
* Looked at the big picture of what is needed in school curriculum and how it benefits society and the individual.
* Education is a product of society and develops as society develops

Jean Piaget 1896 - 1980 (Swiss)
* Asked "how does knowledge grow?"
* Cognitive change takes place when previous conceptions go through a process of disequilibration in light of new information.
* Learning is rooted in experience. it is interactive. Each individual should create their knowledge.
* Stages of Cognitive Development:
   0 -2   Sensory-motor (non-verbal)
   3-7   Pre-operational (ego-centric)
   7-11   Concrete Operational (working with symbols)
   12 and beyond   Formal Operational (able to work with the abstract)

Lev Vygotsky - 1896 - 1934 (Russian)
* Social Cognition learning model - culture is the prime determinant of individual development: - provides a child with the "tools of intellectual adaptation", the processes or means of their thinking. - teaches children both what to think and how to think.
* Cognitive development results from a dialectical process whereby a child learns through shared problem-solving experiences.
published: "Thought and Language" (1962)

*** The following lesson will expose you to a constructivist perspective on learning. click here