When looking for what pedagogy is, its definition, meaning and concept, it is discovered that it is necessary to have other important definitions, since pedagogy uses various elements to explain itself. But, in general terms, it can be summarized by saying that it is a science that studies the methods and techniques used to teach.
What do you need?
Pedagogy is not an isolated issue, quite the contrary. Being a science that is responsible for analyzing, explaining and implementing educational methodologies, it is necessary to talk a little about education. In order to have an adequate conceptualization of what pedagogy means. So first of all, learn well what education is
What is education?
The transmission of knowledge is known as education, such knowledge can have multiple purposes. Namely:
- Social, fulfills the function of transmitting behaviors, customs, manners, norms, laws, among other social aspects, to the individuals of a certain society.
- Intellectual, refers to the knowledge that is acquired in order to develop the intellectual capacities of individuals. Within this can be located preschool, primary, basic, diversified, specialized and higher education.
- Physics, is related to sports disciplines, understanding that training is a way of implanting knowledge of different techniques in athletes and they apply them to their bodies. In this sense, physical education is recognized as a subject dedicated to the good bodily development of the human being.
- Technical, is responsible for transmitting knowledge that helps develop skills to carry out specific tasks. Normally they are specialized trades, such as goldsmithing, carpentry, among others.
- Special, aimed at all those individuals who have some physical or mental conditioning. Therefore, the transmission of the various types of knowledge must be done in ways other than the traditional ones. As can be seen, education is multifaceted, but regardless of its objective, it has its own characteristics on which it is based:
- Structure: Any type of knowledge transmission can be considered education. But normally, education takes an organized form of steps or levels, this organization is what will be called structure. A clear example is that children are first taught to speak before being taught to read.
- Methodology: if the structure is the form, the methodology is how knowledge is transmitted. In this sense, all the techniques that are used so that knowledge can be transmitted satisfactorily can be included here. An example of this would be the modalities of distance education, videos, tutorials, among others.
- Independence: each of the aforementioned aspects is capable of operating in an individual independently. That is, a person may have little or no intellectual knowledge, but may be a great master craftsman. Which means that at a certain point the types of education are detached from each other. An individual has the freedom to obtain the type of knowledge that he desires and that best suits his needs.
Traditional pedagogy and educational structures
Pedagogy is in charge of carefully analyzing educational structures and methodologies, to then offer conclusions, point out deficiencies, make suggestions and even initiate processes to modify specific educational aspects. This is how it has been detected that in education, there are three marked patterns:
- Rote learning is an approach that deals with the accumulation of information and recall of knowledge.
- Learning by imitation, as its name indicates, is about learning through the replica of a certain behavior, from the moment it is observed. This type of learning is also known as vicarious or social cognitive.
- Learning by modeling, the definition of this pattern can be confused with the previous one since it is also learned by observing. Only that they differ from each other, since learning by imitation repeats an action that has been observed. While in modeling specific behaviors are transmitted through observation. This is how attention and retention are important so that it can be carried out.
Pedagogy and problem solving
The traditional patterns of education, present from primary school to university, have been questioned in various ways. Being the inability to solve real problems one of the most popular.
It is claimed that learning by rote is good up to a point, since structured and organized environments favor the adequate acquisition of knowledge. In this type of learning, the common methodology is to present a series of problems together with a series of steps to follow in order to find the solutions. The contradiction of this approach is that, at the same time that people are taught how to solve different situations, they are conditions for a specific type of solution.
This is how the problems that students receive abandon their real nature to become exercises. What many pedagogues find as the loss of the opportunity to stimulate curiosity, investigation, commitment and motivation.
This is a good example of what pedagogy does when studying teaching methodologies.
Instructions
With everything mentioned so far it is easy to discern that pedagogy is a rather complex term. Taking into account that his field of study is the education, training and development of human beings.
The areas in which it is immersed are innumerable, however, it is possible to classify them depending on the area in which it is used. In this way, various types can be found, among which we can mention:
- Environmental
- Clinic
- Compared
- Criticism
- descriptive
- School
- Special
- Familiar
- Philosophical
- Childish
- Playful
- Normative
- Politics
- Psychological
- Social
- Technological
- Theological
The pedagogy in each one of these subdivisions is in charge of studying the learning processes. Having an active participation in some cases and as an observer in others.
- Initially, pedagogy was considered as a matter that was treated exclusively from the philosophical point of view. With the passage of time, he had the need to migrate towards a scientific approach. Because it was necessary to formulate educational structures that could be verifiable and that would yield measurable results.
- Part of this evolution was due to the disasters caused during the First and Second World Wars.
- After these were over, human beings went through a reflective process in which they wondered where their critical thinking had gone. Likewise, around the world the reconstructions of entire cultures began, education began an updating process, in which it was necessary to include new teachings that would help prevent tragedies like the ones that were being experienced.
- In this way, world organizations were established, which would be in charge of ensuring that education became a right and an obligation. Among its representatives we can mention the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) and the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI). With all these changes occurring in education, pedagogy took its place in the creation of new educational structures, from a new scientific approach. Establishing in this way the modern education systems, which have been and continue to be constantly renewed.
Tips
- Show interest in history and evolutionary processes.
- Take an interest in psychology and sociology.