Play hard learn harder: The Serious Business of Play
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PEDAGOGY
1.
Throughout the passage of time, it has always been
necessary to educate children. And there have
always been pedagogues – that is, people developing
pedagogical programs through the rethinking of
their own experience. Practitioners and theorists of
the educational process, as they’re now referred to
today. Due to the absence of written language, their
traces were lost to the mists of time even before the
advent of antiquity.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
OF PEDAGOGY
2.
In order to trace the history of pedagogy, it’s
important to first define the concept of “pedagogy”
itself, whose meaning has undergone numerous
iterations over the centuries. The concept has always
been associated with the history of the development
of thought, instructional institutions and the
advancement of knowledge, on which thinkers –
educators – have always relied.
Art, science or applied
science?
3.
Right from the beginning, education was assigned
the status of an art – the art of teaching, of leading
children to knowledge. This concept reminds us that
the profession of educator first emerged in Ancient
Greece. Back then, the role of educator was
performed by slaves, who were given the noble task
of walking the master’s children to school, taking
care of their physical appearance, and accompanying
them during their chores and play. The founding
father of education is widely considered to be
Socrates (5th century BC).
Pedagogy is an art
4.
At the end of the 19th century, the development of
such scientific fields as sociology and psychology is
accompanied by the emergence of pedagogy as an
applied science,” that is, it starts to be viewed as a
true science. Pedagogy is now treated as a science
with the understanding that its ultimate objective, as
in the other cases, is not so much to describe or
explain but instead to guide the process of teaching
and learning. That is, it’s a field of science that just
might to teach us how to teach.
Pedagogy is a science
5.
Today, we no longer debate whether pedagogy is an art
or a science. We live at a time when pedagogy – just as
medicine or politics – is viewed as an “applied science,”
that is, as a discipline geared towards the practical
application of acquired knowledge.
Today, it’s extremely important to provide a precise
definition of “pedagogy.” It’s essential to avoid the
overlapping of ideas, imprecision, and demonstrate that
education has its own raison d’etre, since lurking behind
its status the battle rages on. Finally, it’s vital to establish
the rightful place education should occupy in today’s
structure of modern science.
Pedagogy is an applied
science
6.
There are numerous pedagogical streams and means
of their classification. Comparing the different
pedagogical streams is the same as trying to solve a
challenging brain-teaser! Yet, it’s still possible to
conduct a classification by comparing the ultimate
objectives set by the respective educators, or by
contrasting the various educational concepts against
the practical teaching methods involved.
Prominent pedagogical
streams
7.
In Ancient Egypt: This was a society-based caste system passed
down from father to son. The “people” received professional
training as well as some notions of reading and writing of
hieroglyphics, used in administrative work, as well as simple
mathematics and geometry.
Ancient India: This was also a caste system based on a hierarchy from
the Untouchables to the Brahmins, with only the Brahmins having access
to higher education. This higher education was based on sacred texts
written in Sanscrit and included grammar, literature, law, astronomy,
medicine and mathematics.
In Persia: Education was regulated by the state and was military
and moral in nature.
In Ancient China: The rare students who were allowed access to
the Imperial Academy learnt literature, dynastic history, arithmetic
and rhetoric.
Education in Antiquity: An education
designed to maintain social systems
8.
These are the pedagogues and educators who, relying on
their own experience, developed methods of instruction
that combined both theoretical fundamentals and
practical skills. They are referred to as “the greats”
because they had an undisputed impact on the
development of educational studies for centuries to come.
Their names are given in order of the great ages in which
they lived:
- Educators of Antiquity. Middle Ages. The Renaissance
- Educators of Modernity (18th – 19th – 20th century to
1960)
- Educators of the New Era (from 1960 to today).
The great pedagogues
9.
Many historical events and socio-economical situations in our
world have influenced the subjects being taught in schools, the
nature of the teacher-student relationship, as well as the roles
of discipline and authority in the classroom compared with the
role of the student and their participation, in an active manner
or not, in the learning process.
We will look at the most significant characteristics of different
historical periods with regards to curricula, the teachers and
their teaching methods, and other key players.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION
10.
• Learning contents: Education was practical. The young were taught
how to manipulate tools, how to hunt and gather, how to fish, how to
cultivate crops and how to build and maintain a house.
• Teachers: Adults served as examples, instructing and demonstrating
skills.
• Teaching methods: The young learned through observation and
imitation, through games and through their participation in initiation
ceremonies and other aspects of their communal life.
• School organization: The classroom was outdoors.
• Specificities: The learning took place naturally with little constraint
and continued throughout life. This education allowed the young to
be integrated into their community throughout the education
process, which demonstrated a broader education than nowadays.
Education in pre-historic times:
Informal yet lasting
11.
Education in the Judea-Christian
and Greco-Roman traditions:
From family-centred education to the teacher-slaves
12.
Amon the Hebrew: Teachers were well regarded because
the Talmud placed them above the father.
In Athens: Until the age of 5 or 6 children were educated by
women. When they reached 7 years of age, their education
was provided by teacher-slaves. The slave would accompany
the children to their lessons and insure that they behaved.
A grammarian taught reading, writing, mythology, calculus as
well as drawing and geometry.
In Rome: Military and religious education was given in the
family. From the age of 12, a grammarian taught , grammar and
literature in Greek, followed by in Latin. From 17 years of age,
a rhetorical orator prepared them for public speaking.
TEACHERS
13.
Among the Hebrews: Study of sacred texts with teaching based on
discipline, rituals, music and dance.
In Sparta: Physical blows and suffering aimed to harden children.
In Athens: Children memorised and recited excerpts from Aesop and
Homer. Rituals, dances, singing, theatre, games and parades were
also a part of their education.
In Rome: Discipline, respect for power and imitation were important
aspects of education.
Teaching methods:
14.
Among the Hebrews: Poor children helped their parents with
their work and girls helped with household chores. Higher
education was given by priests and scribes in the prophets’
schools. The first elementary schools and the idea of free and
obligatory schooling are introduced.
In Athens: Schools for grammar and music are private with
teachers competing for students. Schools run by rhetorical
orators and sophists taught public speaking and philosophy.
In Rome: Those with enough money called on slave-tutors and
on private schools.
School organization
15.
In Sparta: Girls and boys received similar education which was aimed
at preparing them for being of service to the community. Children
belonged to the state.
In Athens: Education aimed at giving both a sense of order and of
beauty. Professional education was limited since most needs were
fulfilled by the large number of slaves. Manual labour was scorned
and only girls with a high-born background were taught to read and
write.
In Rome: Girls were limited to being educated within their families.
Greek was progressively replaced by Latin.
Specificities
16.
First stream: Empirical concept of teaching -Instructional methods that
presuppose the gradual mastery and memorization of material.
- Second stream: Behavioral concept of teaching Instructional methods that
entail training through psychological influence and the subsequent
reinforcement of newly-acquired skills.
- Third stream: Constructive and socio-constructive theory of teaching >
Instructional methods presupposing an active process whereby the student
constructs new ideas and concepts based on previously-acquired knowledge
through interaction with the surrounding world.
- Fourth stream: Cognitive and socio-cognitive theory of teaching.
Instructional methods entailing the processing of information, drawing on
the unseen part of learning in the educational process.Such teaching methods
constantly employ the data found in cognitive and affective neuroscience.
- Fifth stream: Holistic theory of teaching Holistic methods of instruction that
presuppose a creative approach to learning.
Streams classified according to
theoretical teaching model