Learning, Education, and Science Timeline

Learning, Education, and Science Timeline

With Touchstones Related Frames

George Edw. Seymour

/ 3600-3,000
BCE / Trial and Error Learning: This picture shows Ggantija Temples,[1] “the oldest stone structure in the world, predating Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids by hundreds of years. Round in shape and containing statues of full-figured goddesses, the Ggantija temples were dedicated to the Great Earth Mother[2]and probably included an oracle.”
Thales [3] / 625-545 BCE / Thales replaces supernatural explanations of the universe with naturalistic ones and encourages criticism. His views were practically singular.
Socrates[4] / 470 – 399 BCE / Human Behavior and Reasoning: More than anyone before him, Socrates was interested more in life on Earth and exploring the behavior of humans.
/ 384 -322 BCE / Systematic Observation, Deduction & Induction: “Plato and Aristotle articulatedreality as a relationship between form and substance. Their ideas were necessarily alternate and opposite.” Aristotle “wrote on diverse subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry,…logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology.” [5]
Herophilus of
Chalcedon[6] / 335-280 BCE / The Brain: “The first medical teacher at Alexandria corrected Aristotle, placing intelligence in the brain.”
Dark Ages [7]
High Middle Ages [8] / 476 - 1000
1000- 1300 / Deduction: “The rediscovery of the works of Aristotle led Thomas Aquinas and other thinkers to develop the philosophy of Scholasticism.” [9]
Scholasticism[10] / 1100 - 1500 / Was a tool “and method for learning which puts emphasis on dialectical reasoning. The primary purpose of scholasticism was to find the answer to a question or resolve a contradiction. It is most well known in its application in medieval theology.”
Universities / 1200 - / Academics: Oxford and Cambridge are the oldest universities in the English-speaking world. [11]
Gutenberg[12] / 1455 / Books: Without documentation across communities and eras, werely on observation and guilds. “In 1455 Gutenberg published his 42-line Bible, commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible. About 180 were printed, most on paper and some on vellum.”
/ 1543 / Copernicus[13] “The Copernican theory challenged Aristotle's and Ptolemy's commonly accepted geocentric model of the universe endorsed by the Church” which had been taught for close to 12 centuries throughout Europe. Contrary to common observation, the earth did move around the sun. His bookalso challenged the long-standing belief that the earth was the center of the universe.
Francis Bacon [14] / 1561-1626 / Inductive Science: Bacon “argues for an inductive science based on the direct examination of nature and the careful generalization of those observations.”
/ 1564-1642 / Experimentation:“Galileo Galilei pioneered the use of quantitative experiments whose results could be analyzed with mathematical precision.” Also, Galileo’s[15] observation of the phases of Venus produced the first observational evidence for Copernicus' heliocentric theory.
Harvard / 1636 - / “Harvard University, which celebrated its 350th anniversary in 1986, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.”[16] Harvard ended required chapel attendance in the mid-1880s.
Royal Society / 1660 - / Scientific Coterie: The Royal Society formalized science as an enterprise. [17]
New York City / 1788 - / New York City is the Capital of the United States.
/ 1809 - 1882 / Darwin [18] is most noted for his Theory of Natural Selection which changed the world view as few before or since have accomplished. But he was also a careful experimenter, controlling extraneous variables, measuring, and yet he did not have all the tools to answer the questions he asked.
APA / 1892 - / “G. Stanley Hall founds the American Psychological Association (APA) and serves as its first president.” [19]
Triplett / 1898 / Norman Triplett published the first study in Social Psychology. The topic was Social Facilitation. [20]
/ 1925 / Induction, Randomization, and Replication: “R.A. Fisher's extraordinary contributions to statistical theory and methods, experimental design, scientific inference, evolutionary biology and genetics have had far-reaching consequences in many branches of human thought and endeavour.” He invented the analysis of variance, [21] and solved the problem of induction.
Alliant University / 1952 - / “The university that became USIU was founded in 1952 as California Western University.” [22]
Systems Theory / 1954 - / Systems Theory: von Bertalanffy is generally regarded as the founder of systems theory. [23]
Meehl / Statistical Prediction: Paul Meehl publishes a small yet powerful book titled “Clinical Versus Statistical Prediction.” [24]
Meta-analysis / 1976 - / Quantitative Integration of scientific reports begins with the study by Gene Glass titled, “Primary, secondary, and meta-analysis of research.” [25]

Resources:

Glass, G. V. (2000). Meta-analysis at 25:

History of Psychology Highlights Individuals and Events: Pioneers of Psychology:

History of Psychology Timeline:

James, M. (2006). Scientific Method:

Larses, O & El-khoury, J. (2005). Views on General Systems Theory:

Seeley, L. (1899). History of Education. New York: American Book Company.

The Systems Approach to Management (circa 1945-1975):

Wagner, D.L. (1983). The Seven Liberal Arts in the Middle Ages.

Endnotes:

© 2007 George Edw. SeymourPage 1 of 4 pages

[1] Ggantija Temples:

[2] The Great Earth Mother was the Goddess of Fertility.

[3] Thales: “Many regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition, while some also consider him the "father of science".” Source:

[4] Socrates:

[5] Aristotle: Notes: Aristotle has been called “the most profound and comprehensive thinker in the pre-Christian world” (Seeley, 1899, p. 74). Plato's Academy lasted from about 400 BC - 529 AD. See:

[6] Herophilos:

[7] Dark Ages:

[8] High Middle Ages:

[9] It should be noted that the Benedictines, an order of the Catholic Church, was founded near Naples in 529 and survives to this day.

[10] Scholasticism:

[11] Oxford and Cambridge:

[12] “Among Gutenberg's specific contributions were the design of metal movable type, the invention of a process for making such type in quantity (mass production), the use of oil-based ink, and the use of a wooden printing press similar to the screw olive and wine presses of the period. His truly epochal invention was the combination of these elements into a practical system.” See:

[13] Copernicus: See also:

[14] Francis Bacon “was an Englishphilosopher, statesman, and essayist. He is also known as a proponent of the scientific revolution. His works established and popularized an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry.”

[15] “Galileo's championing of Copernicanism, particularly the heliocentric model of the universe, was controversial within his lifetime. The geocentric view had been dominant since the time of Aristotle, and the controversy engendered by Galileo's opposition to this view resulted in the condemnation of heliocentrism in 1616 by the Catholic Church as contrary to Scripture. Galileo was eventually forced to recant his heliocentrism and spent the last years of his life under house arrest on orders of the Inquisition.” See:

[16] Harvard University “Founded 16 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the University has grown from nine students with a single master to having about 2,400 faculty, 6715 undergraduate and 12,424 graduate students. See: and Note: The Mayflower departed for America on September 16th 1620.

[17] The Royal Society:

[18] Darwin: “On 16 Sep 1835, aboard the ship HMS Beagle, British naturalist Charles Darwin arrived at a cluster of islands on the equator 600 miles west of South America. During his five weeks studying the fauna there, he found the giant tortoises there greatly differed from one another according to which island they came from.” See: Also: His plant experiments can be found here:

[19] APA: Hall “later establishes two key journals in the field: American Journal of Psychology (1887) and Journal of Applied Psychology (1917).” See:

[20] “Triplett noticed that cyclists tend to have faster times when riding in the presence of other cyclists than when riding alone. He replicated the effect in a sample of 40 children under controlled, laboratory conditions. As hypothesized, children performed a simple lab task faster in pairs than when performing alone.”

[21] R. A. Fisher See: and

[22] Alliant History: “In 1967, the University's name was changed to United States International University to reflectits expanded commitment to a global perspective.” See:

[23] “Bertalanffy founded the “Society for the Advancement of General Systems Theory” together with Kenneth Boulding in 1954. The founders emphasized their desire to promote the unity of science at the very first meeting which took place in December, 1954 in Berkeley, California. In 1956 the organization was renewed as the “Society for General Systems Research”, with the name later changing to the “International Society for General Systems Research”. The organization is today known as the “International Society for the Systems Sciences” (ISSS) and celebrated theirfiftieth anniversary in 2004.”

[24] The full title of Meehl’s book is, “Clinical Versus Statistical Prediction: A Theoretical Analysis and a Review of the Evidence. It became a citation classic, going through seven printings by its original publisher and brought back into print in 1996 (Meehl, 1954/1996).”

[25] Gene Glass is a statistician and educational psychological researcher. See his report titled, “Meta-analysis at 25” identified in the Resources above. See also: