Authentic Pedagogy

This is based on a lecture entitled “Origins of Authentic Pedagogy” provided by the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. The word “Authentic” is used to mean that there is learning occurring that is motivated by genuine student interest. This is in contrast to Didactic Pedagogy model popular in the early 16th century and even through the early 19th century, where the instructional environment was led by a controlling, authoritative instructor and submissive student engagement was the expectation.

The notion of Authentic Pedagogy was birthed out of progressivist movement. It is fueled by the underlying notion that students direct their learning experience. They determine their readiness, interests, levels, and lengths. Teachers in this model don’t engage in a traditional instructional but rather focus on providing the environment, tools and conditions necessary for the student to engage in an exploratory-style learning.

This is not a new concept. One of the earliest proponents of this non-didactic, student-led style learning model was “French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the inventors of modern ideas of equality and democracy.” He felt that student engagement was best motivated by student interest. There were other individuals around the world that had similar leanings when it came to student-led approaches to learning. One who emerged in the 20th century who still has educational facilities that operate under her premise is Miss Maria Montessori and her now famous Montessori Schools. Montessori education believes in the “philosophy and practice that fosters rigorous, self-motivated growth for children and adolescents in all areas of their development, with a goal of nurturing each child’s natural desire for knowledge, understanding, and respect.”

Montessori Learning

John Dewey was another educational philosopher who believed learning was best experienced rather than imposing external discipline to motivate student learning. He developed classrooms where (older students) would engage in more hands-on skills learning such as sewing or electrical work. I believe we see this move with the ever-increasing popularity of technology related fields such as learning computer programming languages. This is a fascinating area which I feel is only going to become more sophisticated as our educational world continues to change.

References

Video-“The Origins of Authentic Pedagogy”

 By Doctors Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope

University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana

https://www.coursera.org/lecture/newlearning/the-origins-of-authentic-pedagogy-WvNXY?utm_source=link&utm_medium=page_share&utm_content=vlp&utm_campaign=top_button

The American Montessori Society is a New York City

https://amshq.org/About-Montessori

Authentic Pedagogy