Pedagogy is associated with the transmission of knowledge.
The word pedagogy has its origins in the ancient Greek paidagogós . This term was composed of paidos ( "child" ) and gogía ( "drive" or "carry" ). Therefore, the concept referred to the slave who took children to school .
Currently, pedagogy is the set of knowledge that is oriented towards education , understood as a phenomenon that belongs intrinsically to the human species and that develops in a social way.
Pedagogy, therefore, is an applied science with psychosocial characteristics that has education as its main study interest.
Importance of pedagogy
In this aspect, the aforementioned discipline is so important that for some years in all the public educational centers that are part of the Spanish Teaching Network there has been a pedagogue who is not only in charge of supporting the work of the teachers but also Helps students who need it in certain areas.
More specifically, this figure has clearly defined functions in any school or institute, such as the following: guidance and school organization service, programming of specific methodologies, advice to the teacher, development of specific therapies, study techniques, diagnosis of the student...
It is important to highlight that pedagogy draws on the contributions of various sciences and disciplines, such as anthropology, psychology, philosophy, medicine and sociology.
In any case, it is worth noting that there are authors who maintain that pedagogy is not a science, but rather an art or a type of knowledge.
Famous pedagogues
There have been many pedagogues who throughout history have presented their theories about education, however, among all of them, figures such as Paulo Freire stand out. This was an educator of Brazilian origin who has become a reference within this aforementioned science.
Techniques that facilitate learning are part of pedagogy.
Specifically, he established a series of twenty fundamental maxims in the field of Pedagogy from his point of view. We are referring, for example, to the fact that teaching always requires knowing how to listen, that we all always learn, or that studying is not a process through which ideas are consumed but rather studying is creating precisely those aforementioned ideas.
However, along with this figure we should highlight that of many other colleagues who, like him, have presented their theories and visions about this science based on education. This would be the case of Robert Gagné, Jürgen Habermas or Iván Petrovich Pavlov.
Types of pedagogy
Pedagogy can be categorized according to various criteria. We usually talk about general pedagogy (linked to what is broader within the field of education) or specific pedagogies (developed in different knowledge structures according to events perceived throughout history).
It is important to distinguish between pedagogy as the science that studies education and didactics as the discipline or group of techniques that promote learning . Thus it can be said that didactics is just a discipline that is part of a broader dimension such as pedagogy.
Pedagogy has also been linked to andragogy , which is the discipline of education that is dedicated to training human beings permanently, in all stages of development according to their social and cultural experiences.