Curriculum Vitae

Born in Zurich on August 6 1923
Primary and lower secondary school in Zurich

Attending Baccalaureate school (upper-secondary school) at the cantonal "Unterseminar" in Küsnacht near Zurich
Graduation from the cantonal "Oberseminar" (Advanced teacher training school) Zurich with a primary school teacher diploma

Military training school and active service; teaching activities on the side.

Studies in psychology under Dr. Jean Piaget, Professor of Psychology at the University of Geneva

Second course of studies in Psychology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, USA, where he obtained the degree of a Magister Artium (MA)

Lecturer in Psychology, General pedagogy and didactics and field experiences, as well as in History of Pedagogics at the cantonal "Oberseminar" in Zurich

Doctorate at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, under PhD supervisor
Prof. Dr. Jean Piaget, Developmental Psychologist and Epistemologist
Title of the doctoral thesis: Didactique psychologique. Application à la didactique de la psychologie de Jean Piaget

Acting Professorship in Psychology at the University of Saarbrücken, Germany

Lecturer in Psychology, General pedagogy and didactics and field experiences, as well as in History of Pedagogics at the cantonal "Oberseminar" in Zurich

Habilitation at the University of Zurich with the postdoctoral thesis: Über die geistige Entwicklung des Kindes

Publication of the book

Grundformen des Lehrens

Habilitated lecturer (Privatdozent) at the University of Zurich

Marriage with Verena Näf
Children: Gabriele, Susanne, Hans Kaspar, Christine

Professor of Psychology and Director of the Institute of Psychology (alternating with Prof. Dr. Hans Hörmann) at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

Publication of Über die geistige Entwicklung des Kindes as a book
Klett Verlag, Stuttgart, 1963

Move to Kreuzlingen, Canton of Thurgau, Switzerland
Participation at the International Conference for Psychology in Moscow, Russia

Professor of Psychology at the University of Constance, Germany
Founding and establishing the Institute of Psychology, Head of a special center of Educational research of the German Science Foudation (DFG)

Publication of Über den Egozentrismus des Kindes (together with Leo Montada and Ute Schneider)

Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Constance, Germany

Move to Grosshöchstetten, canton of Bern, Switzerland

Professor of Pedagogical Psychology at the University of Berne; founding and establishing the Department of Pedagogical Psychology; educating teachers and experts in educational science and didactics (Ausbildung von Lehrern und Sachverständigen der Erziehungs- und Bildungswissenschaften (LSEB), also called "Berner Seminarlehrerstudium")

Member of the national commission "Lehrerbildung von morgen" and co-author of its planning report

Complemented and reworked new edition of Grundformen des Lehrens

Move to Burgdorf, canton of Bern, Switzerland

Denken; das Ordnen des Tuns Band 1: Kognitive Aspekte der Handlungstheorie. Handlungen planen und ausführen. Situationen deuten. Texte verstehen. Operieren.

Denken; das Ordnen des Tuns Band 2: Problemlösen und Begriffsbildung. Die Organisation des Wissens. Medien des Denkens. Bild und Sprache. Lernen und Entwicklung. Philosophische Aspekte.

Zwölf Grundformen des Lehrens

Lecture tour through Argentina (1984)

Honorary doctorate from Turku University, Finland

Honorary doctorate from the Kiel University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Publication of Grundlagen des Lehrens

Emeritus professor

Hiking tour along the Camino de Santiago through France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela together with his wife Verena Aebli-Näf

Santiago, Santiago ... Auf dem Jakobsweg zu Fuss durch Frankreich und Spanien

Research stay at the Australian Council for Educational Research in Melbourne, Australia
Premature return because of grave illness

Deceased on 26 July in Burgdorf, Switzerland

Activities in Scientific Societies

Member of the "Forschungskommission der Schweizerischen Akademie der Geisteswissenschaften" (Research Commission of the Swiss Academy of the Humanities) which he presided from 1983 to 1988

Member of the advisory board of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin

Member of the advisory board of the Max Planck Institute for Psychology in Munich (today: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences)