PEDAGOGY AS A SCIENCE

PEDAGOGY AS A SCIENCE

Pedagogy - study of teaching methods, including the aims of education and the ways in which such goals may be achieved. The field relies heavily on educational psychology, which encompases scientific theories of learning, and to some extent on the philosophy of education, which considers the aims and value of education from a philosophical perspective.

The scientificity of pedagogy has been bothering pedagogy scholars since its beginning. The reason of debate about scientificity or nonscientificity for more than two hundred years exists in the different understandings of science. The development of science is historical and dynamic. It goes through four complicated transformations: knowledge hierarchy, social activities, community organization and modern system science, which demonstrates the breadth and depth of its changes. It goes without saying that pedagogy is a science from the perspective of traditional science. At the same time, pedagogy owns the features of system science under the perspective of modern science: globality, nonlinearity, randomness, self-organization, and feedback. Introducing system science into pedagogy will form a huge pedagogical view and complex thinking. However, the recognition to system science is at the superficial and primary stage, regardless of theory and practice as in the unsystematic study of contents and methods, low quality of study and superficial level of application. Therefore, in the sense, pedagogy is an immature science.

Pedagogy is a system because “macro education should be a multiple, open, comprehensive system. Educational science is a huge system.”* Hence, education possesses all the traits of the system.1 Globality. The entirety of an educational system is that all of its subsystems interconnect, forming a whole structure, and bringing entirety into play. For example, in the aim of education, the human’s all-around development is an ensemble concept. Its manifestations are as follows: the different qualities such as virtue, wit, PE, beauteousness, technique (labor) displays their unity in each character, and forms a “system architecture”. In addition, promoting the development in an all-around way of all that is civil is also “target architecture” of a national education system. It goes without saying that teaching is a system, in that teaching should provide students considerable broadcast knowledge in social science, natural science and the humanities. Just for mastering knowledge, it is provided with globality.2Nonlinearity. The elements of the inner education system are not simple overlying, but forming a new group effect which is quite different from each section through interaction and interconnection. The interaction of nonlinearity in the education system can make each element produce synergistic effect and coherent effect, and they take mutagenesis and reach order through synergy, competence, adjust and growth and decline. Education system consists of all varieties of factors which are hierarchy, polycell, multifunction and multiple targets; they are cooperating with each other as well as contending. At the same time, educational policy and structure, community and environment, the population and quality, economic system and developmental level, political structure and great political activities, can play complicated influence.

The pedagogy adopted by teachers shape their actions, judgments, and teaching strategies by taking into consideration theories of learning, understandings of students and their needs, and the backgrounds and interests of individual students. Its aims may include furthering liberal education (the general development of human potential) to the narrower specifics of vocational education (the imparting and acquisition of specific skills).

In the act of teaching there are two parties (the teacher and the taught) who work together in some program (the subject matter) designed to modify the learners’ experience and understanding in some way. It is necessary to begin, therefore, with observations about the learner, the teacher, and the subject matter and then to consider the significance of group life and the school. It will then be possible to consider the factors and theories involved in modifying a person’s experience and understanding. They include theories of learning in education, of school and class organization, and of instructional media.

What is required of teachers is that they enjoy and be capable of sharing with children work programs designed to modify their experience and understanding. That means making relevant experience available to the student at the right time. The teacher must be mature, have humour with a sense of status, be firm yet unruffled, and be sympathetic but not overpersonal. With large classes, the teacher becomes a leader of a group, providing stimulating learning situations.

In conclusion, educational system possesses whatever features the system science has. In order to promote the relevant development of “education and system science”, “World Organization of System and Cybernetics(WOSC) found its subordinate ‘Education System Society(ESS)’ in 1990.”‡ The educational researchers in China have kept a watchful eye on the important significance of system science to pedagogy in recent years. Some relevant articles and dissertations have emerged under the influence of organizations at home and abroad. However, system science applies on the pedagogy is insufficient regardless of the tier of theory or the tier of practice due to the limit of background of times and knowledge.