Pedagogy

by Donald Clark

References

When schools became organized around the 10th century, the writings and methods of the great teachers, such as Socrates and Lao-Tse, were forgotten, and teaching was performed by transmitting content from teacher to students. This methodology maintains that the students are "empty vessels" and that the teacher can "pour" knowledge into them. This approach to learning is called pedagogy and is derived from the Greek words "paid" meaning "child" and agogus meaning "leader of." In a pedagogy classroom, the teacher is responsible for all decisions about learning.

Today, the term has taken on new meaning. Now, with many schools using active inquiry techniques, the term "pedagogy" does not really apply to passive methods. In fact, it now closely resembles the term "andragogy," except it is used to refer to children.

See also

Pedagogy, the art or science of being a teacher, generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction^[1]. The word comes from the Ancient Greek παιδαγωγέω (paidagōgeō; from παῖς (child) and ἄγω (lead)): literally, "to lead the child”. In Ancient Greece, παιδαγωγός was (usually) a slave who supervised the education of his master’s son (girls were not publicly educated). This involved taking him to school (διδασκαλεῖον) or a gym (γυμνάσιον), looking after him and carrying his equipment (e.g. musical instruments).

The Latin-derived word for pedagogy, education, is nowadays more widely used, although both words have roughly the same meaning.

Pedagogy is also sometimes referred to as the correct use of teaching strategies (see instructional theory). For example, Brazilian Paulo Freire, one of the most influential educators of the 20th century, referred to his method of teaching adults as "critical pedagogy". In correlation with those teaching strategies the instructor's own philosophical beliefs of teaching are harbored and governed by the pupil's background knowledge and experiences, personal situations and environment as well as learning goals set by the student as well as the teacher. For example, the Socratic schools of thought^[2]

An academic degree, Ped.D., Doctor of Pedagogy, is awarded honorarily by some American universities to distinguished educators (in the US and UK earned degrees within the education field are classified as an Ed.D., Doctor of Education or a Ph.D. Doctor of Philosophy). The term is also used to denote an emphasis in education as a specialty in a field (for instance, a Doctor of Music degree "in piano pedagogy").

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