Essay On Didactic Pedagogy

Authentic pedagogy was first created as a direct counterpoint to didactic pedagogy and became well known and influential in the 20th century, largely through John Dewey and Maria Montessori, who both passionately denounced the approach of didactic pedagogy (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012).  Dewey, in particular, believed that children should be educated on the grounds of experience, rather than have teachers impose rigid abstract facts and theories (Vialle, Lysaght & Verenikina, 2008).  Maria Montessori also believed that learning needed to offer students freedom (Kalantzis & Cope, 2015).  Both Dewey and Montessori were part of the progressive education movement, that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms until today (Kalantzis &

Cope, 2015). Authentic pedagogy finds its roots in progressive education, where it values internalised understandings through doing, rather than using formal, memorised repetitions commonly used in didactic pedagogy (Vialle et al., 2008).  A feature of authentic pedagogy is constructivism, whereby Piaget argued that children needed to incorporate new experiences through processes of assimiliation and accommodate these experiences by framing them into mental representation (Kalantzis & Cope, 2015).  Translated into an authentic pedagogical framework, constructivism is the process where teachers immerse learners in multiple experiences and help them build mental models that make sense of these experiences.

When it comes to literacy, authentic pedagogies recommends an immersion in meaningful reading and writing experiences, rather than focusing on the protocols of rules and adherence to conventions (Parsons & Ward, 2011).  For example, if a student reads and enjoys a book by their favourite author, and he feels that his peers might also enjoy reading it too, rather than writing a book report he can create a book review for the class that models the format for book reviews found in newspapers or magazines.  This experience is just like a real literacy experience they have in life - reading for fun, reading to find out, and by having authentic literacy experiences in the classroom, students will be better able to transfer their classroom learning to real life (Kalantzis, 2005).  One limitation of authentic pedagogy is its strict adherence to the natural process of learning through immersion rather than being explicitly told information.  However having many opportunities to hear and read authentic literature and to respond to literature in a variety of ways, it will enable students to develop their abilities to use letter-sound correspondence or phonics becoming more effective constructors of meaning (Kalantzis &

Cope, 2012).  As the 20th century moved on, progressive education developed a new strand, under the banner of critical pedagogy.