So what pedagogy do you adhere to?
Why you and I teach differently, and why that isn't a bad thing
Growing up, my mother was intent on each of her sons learning to play an instrument. I remember having to choose one at a young age before I had expressed any real desire to, and so I came to start learning the violin. This did not go well. Each week I would be shepherded to my lessons having conducted none of the practice, sheepishly attempt to play for my teacher, have it pointed out that I needed to practice more, and then go back home to repeat the cycle. I don’t remember how long this went on, but I vividly remember the dread I would feel approaching every violin lesson. I never did get very far with the violin, fundamentally I just had no motivation for it and when you’re only little, these things count. I’d say they still do later in life too.
Contrastingly to my doomed violin endeavours at fourteen or so, I decided that I wanted to learn the guitar. I never asked for lessons, and I never got any, I simply picked up my dad’s guitar (that he never played) and shifted it from the living room to my bedroom. To this day it hangs on my wall, and has been through countless string changes, knocks and bumps, its lived in two countries and been tuned every way you can imagine.
I have never bothered to learn scales or musical theory, nor can I tell you the names of picking techniques, chord progressions or harmonies. All I know is that, when I want to learn a particular song, I pick it up, look up a tab, give it my best, and enjoy it. I would describe myself now as a campfire guitarist. You won’t be stunned by what you hear, but I’ll hold a basic rhythm and happily sing away. The knowledge I have, I have built myself, based upon my own intrinsic motivations and what I could source on the internet. This knowledge holds no formal structure, it has no sensible order. Does that make it less valid that someone who learned the guitar properly?
And so, we come to the topic at hand, pedagogy, though perhaps the term really should be Didactics. The fantastic Paul A. Kirschner was keen to point this out in his talk at EdFest this year. His argument being that Pedagogy is the combination of the greek “peda” meaning children, and the “ogy” meaning knowledge. His argument is that “knowledge of children” is not the meaning which we use for this word. If you’re interested in etymology like I am, you’ll probably want to note that the word Pedagogy has a multitude of origins but is generally attributed to:
"the science of teaching," 1580s, from French pédagogie (16c.), from Latin paedagogia, from Greek paidagōgia "education, attendance on boys," from paidagōgos "teacher" (see pedagogue).
Checking the term pedagogue you would see:
late 14c., pedagoge, "schoolmaster, teacher of children," from Old French pedagoge "teacher of children" (14c.), from Latin paedagogus, from Greek paidagōgos "slave who escorts boys to school and generally supervises them," later "a teacher or trainer of boys," from pais (genitive paidos) "child" (see pedo-) + agōgos "leader," from agein "to lead" (from PIE root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move").
"[N]ow used, generally with a sense of contempt, for a dogmatic and narrow-minded teacher" [Century Dictionary, 1895]; the hostile implications in the word are from at least the time of Pepys (1650s). Related: Pedagogal.
Checking the Greek, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about being called a “slave who escorts boys to school and generally supervises them.” Disregarding the obvious safeguarding issues with such a role, it is clearly distinct from the teacher. So I may have to disagree with Paul here and say; Pedagogy refers to the science of teaching.
When we discuss personal pedagogy things get a little unsteady. Rarely do the terms science and personal go hand in hand. The scientific method would tell us that objective truth is irrelevant of personal belief, and yet, here we are. Personal pedagogy refers to the beliefs you hold regarding the purpose of these four dimensions of education:
Learners and learning
Teachers and teaching
Knowledge
The purpose of schooling
We each hold strong views here. We must if we are to maintain our sanity in the toughest of classrooms. Each of us relies upon these beliefs to determine how we run our classrooms. When we find ourselves in the staff room after a particularly tough lesson, consoling ourselves with a cup of tea and a biscuit asking, “why on Earth do I do this?” it’s our pedagogy we turn to. Both as a reminder of why and as a method to determine what we will do to change the outcome next time. Pedagogy holds both the methods by which we teach, and the fundamental purposes we see for each ourselves and our students.
In our own classroom we execute our vision, consciously or unconsciously our pedagogy puts into practice everything we know, and wondrous things happen. Especially my classroom, where due to our unique and superior pedagogy, we achieve far more than your ill-chosen and poorly reasoned pedagogy ever could. I jest, of course, this is not a battle-line to be drawn up.
When you’re required to enact some behaviour management, or a child questions “Why are we learning this?” or “Can we do a Kahoot!?” you’re forced to think about the answers, force to reason why you will or won’t do as the child asks. Whether or not you will justify to them the “why” of what they are currently studying. Perhaps you won’t justify it to them, perhaps you believe that learning is for learning’s sake and that they should appreciate the knowledge regardless of individual goals and desires.
Nothing personal, kid. It’s just my personal pedagogy.
Although, I guess it is personal, isn’t it? How you feel about education is built from your experiences of your own schooling, your training, your experience of teaching so far, and your fundamental approach to the world. It is a deeply personal sometimes conscious, sometimes unconscious choice regarding how you believe children should learn.
Now, before I bury us in learning theories, lets establish your baseline. Consider the following statements and remember the number that matches your choice. Each set of statements relates to one of the four domains mentioned earlier. I highly recommend you complete all the statements before you check the table, lest you metagame your statement choices towards one thought pattern! If you want a valid outcome, then hold fast to the process and don’t check the final table until you’ve completed the first four. You’ve been warned.
On Learners and Learning:
The learner is an active problem-solver who constructs knowledge through mental processes. Learning is an individual process that involves mental processes such as attention, perception, and memory. Because it involves significant restructuring of existing cognitive structures, successful learning requires a major personal investment on the part of the learner.
Learners learn through experience and collaboration. Learners construct knowledge from their prior learning, new experiences, and interaction with their peers. Learners build mental models of the world that account for their own thoughts and those of their peers.
The learner is the sole constructor of knowledge and meaning, and their reality is subjective and constantly evolving. Learning is an individual and subjective process that involves constructing meaning from one’s experiences. This might involve reflecting on personal experiences to construct meaning and understanding.
Learning is a change in behaviour in response to stimuli. The learner is a passive recipient of information and their behaviours can be reinforced by repetition.
On teachers and teaching:
Teachers provide the stimuli needed to produce the desired learning outcomes. This is often achieved through structured instruction, repetition, and reinforcement.
Learning is an individual and subjective process that involves constructing meaning from one’s experiences. The learner is the sole constructor of knowledge and meaning, and their reality is subjective and constantly evolving. The teacher only facilitates this subjective interpretation but cannot instruct an objective one.
The role of the teacher is to facilitate discovery by providing the necessary resources and by guiding learners as they attempt to assimilate new knowledge to old and to modify the old to accommodate the new.
The primary responsibility of the teacher is to create a collaborative problem-solving environment where students become active participants in their own learning, a teacher acts as a facilitator of learning rather than an instructor. The teacher must take care to ensure knowledge isn’t already within reach nor beyond the reach of learners.
On knowledge:
Knowledge is constructed socially and is influenced by culture and social interaction. The possible knowledge a learner can construct depends on their own prior experiences and social skills.
Coming to know is a process of dynamic adaptation towards viable interpretations of experience. The knower does not necessarily construct knowledge of a "real" world. Knowledge is therefore a result of a self-organized cognitive process and is the learner’s subjective interpretation of the world.
Knowledge is constructed through mental processes such as attention, perception, and memory. Knowledge comprises active systems of intentional mental representations derived from past learning experiences. Each learner interprets experiences and information in the light of their prior knowledge, their stage of cognitive development, their cultural background, their personal history, and so forth.
Knowledge is a set of learned behaviours, methods, and processes. It is obtained through a process of conditioning, practice, and repetition.
On the purpose of schooling:
To provide an environment where learners are given appropriate guidance and information to construct their own knowledge.
To provide a social environment where learners can construct knowledge through interaction with one another and their teacher. To foster communication skills and develop a learner with a skillset suited to an appropriate community.
To provide a structured environment where desired behaviours can be taught and reinforced until they are embedded.
To promote the learner's construction of their own reality. To provide an environment where the learner can question and construct their knowledge.
Are you all set? Remember your numbers! Results below.
Results table:
So where do you fall? Is it what you expected? What does it all mean? Let me know in the comments how you found the activity. I know that it launched a long and interesting discussion with my colleagues at the time.
You are unlikely to have to selected four statements that entirely match one system. You will have had a mixture of teachers growing up, and then your own experiences will also have shaped your thinking. I’ll lay out the basics of each pedagogical thought process in a little more depth below.
Conditioning and reinforcement can teach desired behaviours.
It was the early 20th century when John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner began research into Behaviourism. Behaviourism focuses on observable behaviours that can be taught to learners through conditioning. The teacher’s role therefore is to provide the stimuli to produce the desire learning outcome. Often this involves carefully structured instruction, repetition, and reinforcement (positive or negative). Knowledge is seen as a set of learned behaviours, and the purpose of school is to teach and reinforce them.
While Behaviourism is in truth a theory of Psychology (Fridlund, 1992), it is considered a form of pedagogy and it is still widely used (knowingly or unknowingly) in marketing and product design. In a later article I will discuss B.F Skinner and his famous Skinner Box in the context of video games that are “designed to be played forever.” This is a topic close to my heart as many parts of the gaming landscape are now plagued with psychologically manipulative design elements. I am concerned that the majority gamers, parents, and likely society is completely unaware of the tactics being used against them.
Learners actively create knowledge and their own mental model.
Those of you who teach, will likely recognise the name Jean Piaget. It rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s but features now on every PGCE course in the land. I distinctly remember first reading of his research and thinking finding it to shatter my idealistic views of “anyone can get university physics with the right teacher and a can-do attitude!” - Oh, how wrong I was.
Piaget put forth the revolutionary idea that learners are participants in their own learning. If you’re thinking that sounds obvious, well, yes; now it does! But prior to this, Behaviourism held centre stage when it came to education thinking. However, I am hesitant to suggest many teachers had learned anything at all of learning theory being that the first Bachelor of Education degree was only introduced in the 1960s and teachers had certainly been around long before then! I am digressing.
Cognitive Constructivism emphasizes the active role of learners in constructing their own understanding and knowledge. It views learning as an active, mental process of acquiring, remembering, and using knowledge. Teachers facilitate and guide the learning process, providing tools and methods that aid in constructing knowledge. The purpose of schooling is to provide an environment where learners can construct their own understanding and knowledge.
Knowledge is socially constructedfrom interaction with others.
Building on the work of Piaget, and indeed collaborating with him; talk about putting your money where your mouth is. We have another name that teachers should remember, Lev Vygostky. Vygotsky is often credited with the development of Social Constructivism. His work, which was largely conducted in the early 20th century, focused on the social context of learning and development.
Vygotsky's theory of Social Constructivism holds that learning is a social process, and that knowledge is constructed through interaction and dialogue with others. He emphasized the role of language and culture in cognitive development and argued that learning occurs within the zone of proximal development, which is the gap between what a learner can do independently and what they can do with guidance and support from a more knowledgeable other (Amineh & Asl, 2015; Brau, 2020; Pass, 2004). Teachers may use cooperative learning strategies to encourage students to work together to solve problems or complete tasks. They may also use scaffolding techniques to provide students with the support they need to complete tasks that are just beyond their current level of ability. The goal of these strategies is to facilitate students' active participation in the learning process and to help them construct their own understanding of the material.
Work in this area continues to this day with recently released research on topics such as Core Knowledge (Grissmer, 2023) showing clearly that access to new learning depends significantly upon prior understanding, social context and social understanding.
A fun fact about Vygotsky’s work is it was unavailable to Western academics until it was translated in the 1960s.
Finally, we come to Radical Constructivism, strap in, it has Radical in the name for a reason.
All knowledge is entirely subjective and unique.
I did warn you to strap in. Radical constructivism puts forward the idea that we cannot know what another person’s knowledge is. It was originally suggested by Ernst von Glaserfeld in the mid-20th century to emphasize a radical perspective on constructivist thinking. He argued that if learners are constructing knowledge from their own experiences and social interactions then the knowledge they construct is subjective to their experience rather than being objective and perceived through the senses. (Cheli, 2018)
In summary, Radical Constructivism posits that knowledge is actively constructed by the learner, not passively received from the world. It holds that reality is subjective, based on the individual's construction of knowledge. Teachers act as guides and facilitators, helping learners to construct their own understanding. The purpose of schooling is to provide a context where learners can construct their own understanding and reality.
Yes, that does say “reality is subjective”. For me, this is a touch too far. Constructing knowledge, yes! Built on prior experiences, yes! Knowledge is not objective… Hold on a minute. I think you can see why the word Radical is in the title of this one. I’d love to know anyone else’s thoughts in the comments below. I fundamentally disagree regarding knowledge being subjective, but then I would. I hold to the scientific method as my baseline of understanding the world. The scientific method where, famously, objectivity is paramount.
So, I’m <insert pedagogy here>, what does it all mean?
These are not the only learning theories, there are myriad offshoots in many directions and indeed you are not forced to commit fully to one system, or any! I can say that I believe some principles of Behaviourism, but for me the dominating thought process is Cognitive Constructivism. This is likely why I often choose the following two lesson activities.
Activity 1:
Self-reflective metacognition-style questions such as, “Where do you think you are a most likely to slip up in the exam question? How would you figure that out? What can you do to avoid this mistake?”
Notice them emphasis is on the individual reflecting on their own knowledge and finding their own weaknesses. With a growth mindset this has been shown to improve outcomes (Letty, 2022) and in my experience the much more difficult aspect is establishing the growth mindset in the first place.
Activity 2:
Whole-class quick-answer multiple-choice diagnostic quizzes (what a mouthful, I need a snappier catchphrase): I love tools like Socrative for quickfire Assessment-AS-learning (Still, 2023). I have found that so long as they are aware it is a “diagnostic” activity, and that it “doesn’t count” towards any set or grade outcomes, they engage very well and have no worries about making mistakes.
Shown here are the results from a circular motion introductory multiple-choice using Socrative. I wanted to identify common misconceptions or lack of prior knowledge in my Year 12 students. Every learner has individual knowledge, with individual mistakes and misconceptions. Some will be common, some won’t, and I want to know who, how many, and specifically what misunderstandings there are. This tool is perfect for it.
What if I was a social constructivist instead?
It might surprise you to find that I am not dogmatic in my approach, nor if I’m honest was I particularly reflective of it so far in my career. I chose my activities more based on what research told me worked, and how I instinctively felt about an activity, rather than how I consciously thought it aligned with my personal beliefs. Here is an example where we socially constructed the best response to my open-ended question:
As you can see. My students had a variety of ideas to suggest. Having shown the students their full list of answers, I then removed answers that were “ very similar”, and then asked them to vote for the remaining best answer. I took that answer, and wrote it up in formalised language and we used that as our definition for our notes. This is social constructivism at it purest.
What to do with all this new knowledge?
I hope this article encourages you to reflect on your own practice, or provided you some new knowledge. You will remember from the first article that, how well you match your EdTech to your Pedagogical intent is key to improving its impact. Don’t just use tech for the sake of using it, tune it to your personal pedagogy!
What activity immediately jumps to mind when you think of your practice? Does it align with your pedagogical thinking? What might you do different the next time you teach? Let me know in the comments.
As always, thanks for reading.
References
Fridlund, A. J. (1992). The new history of psychology. In I. B. Weiner (Ed.), Handbook of psychology, Vol. 1: History of psychology.
Grissmer. D, Buddin. R, Berends. M, Willingham. D, DeCoster. J, Duran. C, Hulleman. C, Murrah. W, and Evans. T. (2023). A Kindergarten Lottery Evaluation of Core Knowledge Charter Schools: Should Building General Knowledge Have a Central Role in Educational and Social Science Research and Policy?. (EdWorkingPaper: 23-755). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/nsbq-hb21
Amineh, R. J., & Asl, H. D. (2015). Review of Constructivism and Social Constructivism. Journal of Social Sciences, Literature and Languages, 1(1), 9-16.
Cheli, S. (2018). Radical Constructivism: Historical Roots and Contemporary Debate, University of Florence, Link
Still. K. (2023) Test-enhanced Learning: Apractical guide to improving academic outcomes for all students. Crown House Publishing. Link
Letty Y. -Y. Kwan, Yu Sheng Hung, and Lam Lam. (2022). Mindset Matters: The Role of Self-Reflection and Self-Compassion in Enhancing Learning Outcomes. Frontiers in Education, 7, 80053. Link