Pedagogy And Its Development Throughout History

Pedagogy and its development throughout history

As for John Dewey (October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952), we must know that it was a American philosopher and pedagogue born in Burlington, Vermont. He graduated in arts at his local university and then a PhD in Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University in 1884. After that he dedicated himself to studying different educational systems around the world. In 1896 he instituted the Dewey School, where he began to develop his pedagogy, based on the production of reflections on social life that in turn allow the development of full and active citizens of a community. The father of renewed education was called and was also one of the co-founders of the pragmatic current (pragmatism), where the truth is sought through practice and the observable.

Dewey proposes an activism regarding education. His new school focused especially on activity and practice, leaving aside textbooks and memory learning. Dewey claimed that students are not passive beings to which the teacher can easily mold, on the contrary, these are beings that are already intensely active from the beginning and therefore, the mission of the teachers is to take this activity already present andguide it towards the right path. It is not enough to follow the content of school books to the letter, or keep the students sitting. Education should go further, to the formation of social life. Dewey proposed to transform all these contents for action and life, thus offering them a vital experience and knowledge personal to children.

Dewey sought that in the future, students could perform as active citizens of society and democracy, which for Dewey was much more to vote every so often letting the government take care of the rest. He affirmed that it was necessary to participate actively, worry and express himself, intervening in the problems and leaving aside passivity to commit to reality.

Among his most important works are three: "My pedagogical creed" (1867), "School and Society" (1899) and "Democracy and Education" (1916). In the first Dewey exposes its pedagogical principles. A short work, but of great influence at that time, because it considered the child’s psychological and social processes as the basis for initiation of education. The second consists of some pedagogue conferences where he narrates the experience he acquired during his years at the Dewey School and the third that is one of the most complete books about his educational proposal. After finishing this historical tour we can affirm that pedagogy went through different moments, which was constantly changing and acquiring new senses over the years. We can also see that most of these pedagogues did not have studies related to education, but they were still able to propose pedagogies of great depth and importance for our society. Thus solving that a pedagogue is not the one that studies specifically to be, but he who has the necessary experience and passion.

One of the biggest changes that we can find during this path occurred during the Middle Ages, a period in which we find a closed, monitored and punished school. It was the pedagogues of modernity that fought for a different school, open and more freedom. They proposed a pedagogy of nature, based on learning through the surrounding environment. From here, the pedagogues of contemporaneity, in turn focused on the formation of the social man, worrying about the relationship of the students regarding the society and the community to which they belonged, giving special importance to social relations to social relationsBut also taking into account other areas such as psychology, biology, pedagogy and philosophy. Now, in our time, a pedagogy linked to technology begins to forge, because with the arrival of this there are many things that have changed, and likewise, pedagogy will be modified to adapt to adapt.

Also, as a last point, it is feasible to say after examining each of the previous proposals that the ideal pedagogy is one that instructs children and young people through the environment, forging their skills, worrying about their interests, giving them freedom,teaching them love for nature and strengthening in turn their social development in order to achieve good performance in society, in addition to multiple other essential characteristics that we can extract from each of the contributions given by these great characters. Unfortunately, currently in Colombia our educational system is still stagnant in the time of the Middle Ages, maintaining closed and fully monitored schools, on populated, far from nature, focused only on a monotonous methodology that does not take into account the interests of the students or their formto see the world. It is a fairly sad situation, even more knowing that the only ones who can have a more advanced and relevant system regarding the development that has occurred in Europe are the highest people. Hopefully, over time this situation will improve, offering better learning opportunities to new generations and opening the doors to a new world of knowledge that they still do not know, but that is necessary for the progress of this, our society, sodeteriorated and ignorant.