ABSTRACT
A more recent perspective in theories informing educational alternatives is primarily concerned with the nature and developmental needs of the individual child, a tradition of educational thinking exemplified by the influential ideas of Montessori, Isaacs and followers
of Piaget. This emphasis was undoubtedly encouraged by the merger of two distinct twentieth-century developments: the consolidation of universal, compulsory schooling and the growth of the discipline of psychology which heightened sensitivities to the impact of early childhood experience in the maturation of personality.
