ABSTRACT
Developmental psychologists have long assumed that pre-school teachers are an eager audience for their research findings. The British nursery tradition has its deepest roots in the work of Froebel, followed by the Macmillans. More recent, and more important, has been the influence of Susan Isaacs, an extraordinary educator and psychologist who wrote about progressive nursery practice with startling insight into the ways children think and feel. She is best known for her role between 1924 and 1927 as Principal and one of the founders of the Malting House School. Many of those who have followed in the footsteps of Isaacs have used J. Piaget's theory as the scientific underpinning of progressive nursery practice. Despite Piaget's pessimisms, there have been numerous attempts to create pre-school programmes based directly on his work. One contemporary American curriculum has quite deliberately taken the Genevan research as the starting point for setting objectives as well as methods.
