Pedagogy

Pedagogy is the art or science of being a teacher. This is the modern interpretation. The word comes from the ancient Greek paidagogos, the slave who supervised the education of slave children in the trade into which they were directed. Children who lived under the supervision of Paidagogos were always slaves as no free person took orders from a slave. It was the Paidagogos job to act as a "Drill Sergeant", and ensure that the slaves performed their daily routines as expected by their Master. The word "paidia" (παιδιά) refers to children (rather than the Latin pes meaning a foot), which is why some like to make the distinction between pedagogy (teaching children) and andragogy (teaching adults). The Latin-derived word for pedagogy, education, is much more widely used, and often the two are used interchangeably.

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.

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 speciality in a field (for instance, a Doctor of Music degree "in piano pedagogy").

Andragogy

Andragogy, a term originally used by Alexander Kapp (a German educator) in 1833, was developed into a theory of adult education by the American educator, Malcolm Knowles , (April 24, 1913 — November 27, 1997).

Knowles held that andragogy (from the Greek words meaning "adult-leading") should be distinguished from the more commonly used pedagogy (Greek: "child-leading").

Knowles' theory can be stated as four simple postulates [1]and [2]:

Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction (Self-concept and Motivation to learn).
Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for learning activities (Experience).
Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance to their job or personal life (Readiness to learn).
Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented (Orientation to learning).

Knowles' work (most notably the book Self-Directed Learning: A Guide for Learners and Teachers, published in 1975) has been controversial. To some, his proposed system states the obvious, to others, he has merely proposed an adaptation of existing child-learning theories.

The term has been used by some to allow a discussion of the difference between self directed and 'taught' education. However as the attitudes of society towards young people change, the differences in educational methods will tend to diminish. (Self directed education is encouraged in earlier age groups).

The Learning Plan and the ePortfolio are emerging as important tools that adults can use to manage their own learning.

Learning theory

In psychology and education, learning theories are attempts to describe how people learn, thereby helping us understand the inherently complex process of learning. There are basically three main perspectives in learning theories, Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism.

Behaviorism

Main article: Behaviorism

Behaviorism is an approach to Psychology which purports that learning is the result of Operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is a process both named and investigated by B. F. Skinner. The word ‘operant’ refers to the way in which behavior ‘operates on the environment’. Briefly, a behavior may result either in reinforcement, which increases the likelihood of that behavior occurring again; or punishment,which decreases the likelihood of the same behavior recurring in the future. The issues surrounding are relatively complex. For example, a reinforcer or a punisher is defined within behaviorism by its effect on behavior. Therefore a punisher is not considered to be punishment if it does not result in the reduction of a particular behavior. As a result, behaviorists are particularly interested in measurable changes in behavior, which is itself a basic premise of the scientific method.

Cognitivism

Cognitivism, also known as Cognitive Information Processing (CIP). Cognitivism became the dominant force in psychology in the late-20th century, replacing behaviorism as the most popular paradigm for understanding mental function. Cognitive psychology is not a wholesale refutation of behaviorism, but rather an expansion that accepts that mental states are appropriate to analyze and subject to examination. This was due to the increasing criticism towards the end of the 1950s of behaviorist models. For example, Noam Chomsky argued that language could not be acquired purely through conditioning, and must be at least partly explained by the existence of internal mental states, and that these states can be described and analyzed.

Constructivism

Constructivism views learning as a process in which the learner actively constructs or builds new ideas or concepts based upon current and past knowledge. In other words, "learning involves constructing one's own knowledge from one's own experiences.Constructivist learning, therefore, is a very personal endeavor, whereby internalized concepts, rules, and general principles may consequently be applied in a practical real-world context.The teacher acts as a facilitator who encourages students to discover principles for themselves and to construct knowledge by working to solve realistic problems. This is also known as knowledge construction as a social process. We can work to clarify and organize their ideas so we can voice them to others. It gives us opportunities to elaborate on what they learned. We are exposed to the views of others. It enables us to discover flaws and inconsistencies by learning we can get good results. Constructivism itself has many variations, such as Generative Learning, Discovery Learning, and knowledge building. Regardless of the variety, constructivism promotes a student's free exploration within a given framework or structure.

Informal and Post-Modern theories

Informal theories of education deal with more practical breakdown of the learning process. One of these deals with whether learning should take place as a building of concepts toward an overall idea, or the understanding of the overall idea with the details filled in later. Modern thinkers favour the latter.

Other concerns are the origins of the drive for learning. To this end, many have split off from the mainstream holding that learning is a primarily self taught thing, and that the ideal learning situation is one that is self taught. According to this dogma, learning at its basic level is all self taught, and class rooms should be eliminated since they do not fit the perfect model of self learning.

Informal learning theory also concerns itself with book vs real-world experience learning. Many consider most schools severely lacking in the second.

Teaching method

Template:Cleanup Teaching method or educational method has a long history and relates to the questions, "What is the purpose of education?" and "What are the best ways of achieving these purposes?" For much of human history, educational method was largely unconscious and consisted of children imitating or modelling their behaviour on that of their elders, learning through observation and play, such as, how to make meals, set places for the family, hunt for food, pick berries and how to play-fight and return home with little trophies.

Ancient education

About 3000 B.C.E., with the advent of writing, education became more conscious or self-reflective, with specialized occupations requiring particular skills and knowledge—how to be a scribe, an astronomer, etc.,.

Philosophy in ancient Greece led to questions of educational method entering national discourse. In his Republic, Plato describes a system of instruction that he felt would lead to an ideal state. In his Dialogues, Plato describes the Socratic method—the questions and answers of the great Socrates—who was able to show even an uneducated slave boy how the logic leading to the Pythagorean Theorem was within him.

It has been the intent of the largest-minded among educators since then—such as the Roman educator Quintilian—to find specific, interesting ways to bring out of children the possibilities of intelligence and to encourage them to learn.

Medieval education

Comenius, in what would become Czechoslovakia, wanted all boys and girls to learn. In his famous The World in Pictures he gave the first vivid, illustrated text book which contained much that children would be familiar with in everyday life and use it to teach the academics subjects they needed to know. Rabelais described how the student Gargantua learned about the world and what is in it.

Much later, Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Emile, presented methodology to teach children the elements of science and much more. In this he famously eschewed books, saying the world is one's book. And so Emile was brought out into the woods without breakfast to learn the cardinal directions and the positions of the sun as he found his way home for something to eat.

Then there is Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi of Switzerland, whose methodology during Napoleonic warfare enabled refugee children, of a class believed to be unteachable, to learn—and love to learn. He describes this in his account of the educational experiment at Stanz. He felt the key to have children learn is for them to be loved. But his method, though transmitted later in the school for educators he founded, has been thought too unclear to be taught today. One result was, when he would ask, "Children, do you want to learn more or go to sleep?" they would reply, "Learn more!"

20th century

In the 20th century, the philosopher Eli Siegel, who believed that all children are equally capable of learning regardless of ethnic background or social class, stated: "The purpose of all education is to like the world through knowing it." This is a goal which is implicit in previous educators but in this principle is made conscious. With this principle at basis, teachers, predominantly in New York, have found that students learn the curriculum with the kind of eagerness that Pestalozzi describes for his students at Stanz centuries earlier.

Many current teaching philosophies are aimed at fulfillng the precepts of a curriculum based on Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE). Arguably the qualities of a SDAIE curriculum are as effective if not more so for all 'regular' classroom.

Some critical ideas in today's education evironment include:

Instructional scaffolding
Graphic organizers
Standardized testing

According to Dr. Shaikh Imran, the teaching methodology in Education is a new concept in the teaching learning process. New methods involved in the teaching learning process are television, radio, computer, etc.

Other educators believe that the use of technology, while facilitating learning to some degree, is not a substitute for educational method that brings out critical thinking and a desire to learn.

Instructional theory

Instructional theory is a discipline that focuses on how to structure material for promoting the education of humans, particularly youth. Originating in the United States in the late 1970s, instructional theory is typically divided into two categories: the cognitive and behaviorist schools of thought. Instructional theory was spawned off the 1956 work of Benjamin Bloom, a University of Chicago professor, and the results of his Taxonomy of Education Objectives — one of the first modern codifications of the learning process. One of the first instructional theorists was Robert M. Gagne, who in 1965 published Conditions of Learning for the Florida State University's Department of Educational Research.

Renowned psychologist B. F. Skinner's theories of behavior were highly influential on instructional theorists because their hypotheses can be tested fairly easily with the scientific process. It is more difficult to demonstrate cognitive learning results. Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed (ISBN 0-8264-1276-9) — first published in English in 1968 — had a broad influence over a generation of American educators with his critique of various "banking" models of education and analysis of the teacher-student relationship.

In the context of e-learning, a major discussion in instructional theory is the potential of learning objects to structure and deliver content. A stand-alone educational animation is an example of a learning object that can be re-used as the basis for different learning experiences. There are currently many groups trying to set standards for the development and implementation of learning objects. At the forefront of the standards groups is the Department of Defense's Advanced Distributed Learning initiative with its SCORM standards. SCORM stands for Shareable Content Object Reference Model.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Knowles, M. (1975). Self-Directed Learning. Chicago: Follet. ISBN 0-8428-2215-1
Knowles, M. (1984). The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species (3rd Ed.). Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing. ISBN 0-88415-115-8
Knowles, M. (1984). Andragogy in Action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-608-21794-8

Everett Dean Martin, The Meaning of a Liberal Education, Norton, 1926.
Paul Monroe, A Text-Book in the History of Education, Macmillan, 1915.
Gilbert Highet, The Art of Teaching, Knopf, 1950.
The Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method.

External links

Pedagogy.ir – Iranian Pedagogy Portal
Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, Culture
Pedagogy Blog
Facultad de Pedagogia – Facultad de Pedadogia Veracruz
Rethinkingschools.org – Rethinking Schools Magazine

Learning Theories
Creating Learning Centered Classrooms. What Does Learning Theory Have To Say? ERIC Digest.
How People Learn (and What Technology Might Have To Do with It). ERIC Digest.
Critical-learning wiki
Applied Constructivism
About Learning 12 Learning Theories Described
Theory Into Practice (TIP) database brief summaries of 50 major theories of learning and instruction
[3]Theory of Affirmation Teaching
Folk knowledge and academic learning. In B. J. Ellis & D. F. Bjorklund (Eds.), Origins of the social mind (pp. 493-519). New York: Guilford Publications. A paper from the perspective of evolutionary developmental psychology
Teaching in a Computer Lab
Encyclopaedia of Informal Education

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

History of "Pedagogy"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.