Transcript for What is Pedagogy?

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What is pedagogy? And why should teachers care?
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Psychologist Lee Shulman said that "If philosophy begins in wonder,
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pedagogy typically begins in frustration."
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Firstly, it's a frustrating but fun word to pronounce.
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Ped-ah-goggy?
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Pedog-ah-jee?
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Pedo-cachee?
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But what makes it most frustrating is how teachers are rarely given the time and training
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to learn more about it.
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In this video, we're going to explore what pedagogy is
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through four of its core ideas or learning theories.
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But first, let's take a closer look at what pedagogy actually means.
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Pedagogy is the theory, method and philosophy of teaching.
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But, strictly speaking, it only refers to the teaching of children.
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In fact, the word 'pedagogy' comes from the ancient Greek word 'paidagōgós',
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*learning Greek*
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Okay, cool.
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The word pedagogy comes from the ancient Greek 'paidagōgós',
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which literally means 'leader of children'.
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The use of the word surged during the 1900s as more emphasis was placed on the
science
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behind learning. But, as you can see, since then, the use of 'pedagogy' has been in
decline.
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Whilst we don't know exactly why that is, one explanation could be the
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rise in teacher workload. As the Teacher Workload Survey discovers every year
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workload is continuously on the rise. This could explain why teachers have
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less time to learn about the academic field studying their methods.
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So, is pedagogy still relevant in the modern classroom or is it a thing of the past?
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To find this out, let's go back to 1898, to the beginning of what is arguably the
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first approach to pedagogy:
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Behaviourism.
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Behaviorism centres around the idea that
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the teacher should be in control of the classroom and that repetition is the
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best way to learn. It all started with a man named Edward Thorndike and a cat in a box.
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As strange as it might sound Thorndike's learning theory began as an
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experiment where he placed a cat in a puzzle box.
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That cat was rewarded with a treat for working out the levers and buttons to
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press in order to free itself. Thorndike found that the cat associated escaping
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from the box with getting a treat and escaped faster each time. This is called:
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operant conditioning
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and it forms the basis of behaviourism.
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But how can we apply this theory to classroom learning?
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Psychologists like BF Skinner began to apply these methods to education, arguing that
teachers need
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need complete control of the lesson for students to learn best. Skinner even
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championed a teaching machine, which allowed students to answer questions and
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immediately find out if they were correct.
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He called this 'reinforcement', where, like Thorndike's cat, the student learns the
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right behavior over time through immediate feedback. Today, behaviorism
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reminds us that giving praise doesn't just encourage students, but guides them
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and give some structure to their learning. But what this fails to take
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into account is individual thinking and giving learners independence. When a
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teacher, or a machine, is given complete control, the student isn't as likely to
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develop critical thinking and self-expression. By only taking into
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account of observable behaviour, not what's going on in students' minds,
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learning can't realistically be tailored to students' needs. However, for the
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purpose of exams and student behaviour, behaviourism still mostly works.
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Repetition and reward is still the basis for revision and having a reward system
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and teacher-led learning is a pillar for today's classroom. This is why pedagogy
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exists. To compare and re-evaluate our ways of teaching, to think how it can be
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done differently and how we can improve. So let's have a look at the next approach:
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Liberationsim.
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On the flip side of behaviourism, the liberationist approach is cented around
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the student rather than the teacher.
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The father of lliberationism, Paulo Freire, was exiled from Brazil in 1964. This is
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partially due to his opposition to traditional pedagogy and what he called
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'emancipation through education'. Freire saw traditional teaching methods
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as oppressive. He believed that students were not empty vessels to be filled with
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knowledge. Instead, they should be treated as creators of knowledge. He wrote in his
book,
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The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, that education can emancipate those in
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poverty and that the main thing preventing this was the school system.
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By letting his students decide how they learn best and which topics they needed
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to learn more about, Freire encouraged them to think critically as independent
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learners beyond the classroom. The key difference here is the view that
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standard teaching fills students' minds with information in the same
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way that you would pour water into a cup. Freire's theory was that if you can give
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the cop arms it can fill itself. -When did you throw that one in there?
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Liberationism is a pedagogy that expels the idea that education is simply about
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learning things and makes it more about the way we learn. Full-blown liberationism
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puts the student front and centre of learning. As Hall of Fame teacher Joe Ruhl
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says "Teachers should be a guide on the side, rather than a sage on the stage."
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By breaking away from the traditional structure of the classroom and having
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cluster groups of students, a classroom can encapsulate more learning styles.
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With liberationism, students decide which task they think is best suited to
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their knowledge gaps. They can then join specific task groups with teachers
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acting as the guide on the side. If you think liberationism is a bit too
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unstructured, but you like the idea of students learning from each other, our
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next approach might just tick all those boxes.
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Social constructivism.
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Social constructivism is an approach to pedagogy that explores whether students
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chatting in the class might actually be learning more. Granted, they might just be
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talking about Love Island, but the idea is that the social interaction could be
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a key component in the learning experience. Social constructivism was
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championed by Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist that
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believed that children learnt best when talking between themselves to solve the
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problems. It was built on an existing theory by another psychologist
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Jean Piaget, who believed that students' capacity for learning increased as their
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academic ability grew. This was called 'cognitive constructivism'. But whilst Piaget
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believed that learning was a deeply personal internal process that took
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place only in students' minds, social constructivists like Vygotsky disagreed.
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Vygotsky believed that learning takes place externally when problems are
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solved together in groups and through the resulting conversations. So can this
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environment be created in class? Constructivism works best when time is
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set aside for students to discuss the topic with each other and with the
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teacher. In class the teacher sets a problem that is to be solved in mixed
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ability groups, this teaches students the importance of communication and learning
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from others' experience. Students that are further ahead benefit from
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solidifying the information for their peers and the students who are slightly
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behind will have a chance to catch up.
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Connectivism
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Connectivism is one of the newest approaches to pedagogy. Coined in 2005 by
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education and technology theorist George Siemens, it considers the impact of
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technology in education and how teachers can adapt to it. This approach can be
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broadly defined as the process of learning via technology and developing the
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skills to navigate vast networks of information, such as the Internet.
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It applies the function of modern technology to all these ideas to create
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a learning theory for the future. In 2008, Siemens ran an online webinar that
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explored and explained connectivism. He created a diverse learning environment,
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completely contained within the internet, but connectivism is more than online
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learning. It's teaching students to be learners in a digital age. It may have
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been a pipe dream in the classroom of old, but with an ever increasing EdTech
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presence in school and at home, connectivism is here to stay. Students
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can learn wherever they log in and, once given the skills to navigate this world
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of information, use it to further their learning and develop autonomously.
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This could be done in a more traditional setting like a teacher led classroom
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with computers or in a classroom where the teacher sets the work that can be
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completed with the help of the internet. Instead of simply teaching knowledge the
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teacher's there to facilitate students' search for knowledge by showing them
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how to extract it. Some teachers have taken to using Twitter with students
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answering questions through tweets. This boosts engagement by applying the
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digital world they're familiar with to the work they might not otherwise want
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to do. It's clear that technology in the classroom isn't going anywhere, so
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preparing for its effects on education is definitely a good move. Well, if this
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video has taught you anything, it's probably that pedagogy is indeed
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frustrating. It can't really be defined as one particular way of thinking and it
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overlaps and intertwines with itself endlessly, making categorising quite
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difficult. But one thing is for sure, its insights continue to change education
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for the better, developing stronger learning techniques
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and giving teachers better tools to teach. Our advice is to experiment with
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all these approaches. Some will work, some won't, but you won't know until you try.
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Try and find time each week to discover a new learning theory. It could change
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the way you teach forever.
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