Publish at April 02 2024 Updated April 03 2024
On the topic of learning methods, I asked Chat GPT:
"To promote learning in a transversal way, i.e. applicable to various fields and disciplines, here are some effective general methods:
- Active method: Encourage learners' active participation through discussions, projects, role-playing or hands-on activities to reinforce engagement.
- Interconnecting knowledge: Link new concepts to existing knowledge. Show how new material fits into a broader context for better understanding.
- Use of technology: Integrate technological tools and online resources to diversify learning methods, provide interactive experiences and stimulate interest.
- Personalized learning: Adapt pedagogical approaches to suit individual learning styles, allowing learners to choose methods that suit them.
- Problem-solving approach: Encourage problem-solving by presenting real or fictional challenges. This encourages critical thinking and the application of knowledge.
- Constructive feedback: Provide regular, constructive feedback to guide learners' progress and boost their confidence.
- Collaboration and teamwork: Encourage collaboration between learners, promoting social learning and knowledge sharing.
- Multidisciplinary approach: Tackle topics from different angles, integrating perspectives from different disciplines to enrich understanding.
- Competency-based approach: Emphasize the development of practical, real-life skills, enabling learners to see the relevance of what they are studying.
- Formative assessment: Use regular formative assessments to identify gaps in understanding and adjust teaching methods accordingly.
By combining these approaches, educators can create a dynamic learning environment, suitable for a variety of subjects and beneficial for learners."
Source: GPT Chat
An interesting catch-all. But who in education is actually working with these tools? They're not often integrated into education systems.
Célestin Freinet (1896-1966) was a French teacher who developed his pedagogy from his own experience. Freinet's pedagogy focuses on the group, the collective, and encourages collaboration and cooperation between pupils (multi-level classes are often found, with older pupils helping younger ones, creating positive emulation).
For Freinet, the collective dimension is essential. And with it, the development of joint projects that are then exhibited outside the group (such as a play, a presentation...). Célestin Freinet thought above all in terms of work organization and cooperation. He wanted a school centered on the child, whereas traditional schools were based on curricula that defined, specified and prioritized subject matter.
With Freinet, there was no competition, but constant emulation and enriching collaboration. There are no grades either, but rather genuine assessment dialogues.
Freinet's pedagogy is also based on children's free expression: text, drawing, inter-school correspondence, printing, student newspaper... Self-confidence is a key principle. This self-confidence, the fruit of valuing both adults and one's own work, becomes the driving force behind a child's success.
Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was an Italian physician who developed a teaching method based on the child's individual rhythm. This is the so-called "open" method, which assumes that the child goes through stages, sensitive periods during which he or she is better able to develop certain skills.
Montessori's pedagogy therefore focuses on the child's sensory and kinaesthetic development, and works to empower him or her. The adult is a companion who must do everything possible to provide a positive environment in which the child can develop his or her talents and become autonomous.
In class, children are free to choose the activity they wish to do, on the sole condition that they have already "seen" the activity with the educational supervisor. They can spend as much time as they like, and are allowed to talk (in a low voice) and move around the classroom as they please, as long as the working atmosphere is respected.
Here, children's self-learning and self-discipline go hand in hand with the freedom they are given. To grasp concepts, children need to manipulate them in a tangible, concrete way, using their five senses. It doesn't matter whether the child is fast or slow, as long as he or she is focused, concerned and receptive.
Ovide Decroly (1871-1932) was a Belgian physician and psychologist. He fought hard for recognition of the global method of learning to read and write.
The foundations of Decroly's thinking on pedagogy lay in his work with so-called "irregular" children (abnormal children whom Decroly preferred to call "irregulars", as he refused to refer to them as abnormal or handicapped children). Observing that traditional education was reserved for an elite (in the social context of the early 20th century), Decroly wanted to create a new school adapted to all children, including "irregulars". To achieve this, he developed a pedagogy based on observation and a holistic approach to the child. The child's interests serve as the basis for the acquisition of knowledge.
In this approach, the role of the teacher is decisive. He or she becomes the child's benevolent guide and guarantor of his or her learning. Decroly's pedagogy is based on 4 major principles: globalization (the child must be seen as a whole), the child's interests, the environment as a source of discovery and knowledge and, lastly, the idea of the laboratory classroom or workshop school, where the child lives, acts and discovers.
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was an Austrian philosopher.
Steiner developed a pedagogy based on his philosophical concepts of anthroposophy ("wisdom of the human"). It is essentially based on the child's artistic creativity and openness to the world, addressing the head, body and heart. It is founded on the idea of human freedom, and is convinced that love, trust and enthusiasm, rather than ambition, fear and competition, provide children with the serenity and strength they need to move forward in an uncertain world, to realize their life plans, and to contribute to human progress. For him, welcoming children to school means recognizing their uniqueness and establishing a relationship of trust and responsibility with them. In his conception of education, the child is an autonomous being capable of thinking, acting and feeling on his own.
In Steiner schools, children are offered artistic and practical activities, supplemented by more academic subjects. The talents and aptitudes of each child are valued without hierarchy. The teacher's task is to help each child in his or her care to blossom, to accompany them towards the discovery of their own original path."
Source : Freinet, Montessori, Decroly... great teachers, a different approach to teaching
https://ligue-enseignement.be/freinet-montessori-steiner-decroly-de-grands-pedagogues-une-autre-conception-de-lenseignement
To sum up:
These 4 teaching methods are now called "new pedagogies", even though they were created by people who died between 1925 and 1966. They have by no means been democratized over time, and remain marginal pedagogies.
They are the precursors of today's collective intelligence, with its fundamental notions of trust, benevolence and collaboration, empowerment... This collective intelligence is starting to become the standard in many companies and the dream of new employees.
A few years ago, with Denis Cristol and Jocelyne Turin, the three of us initiated a project that will reach around 1000 participants, with the aim of laying the foundations of a new group intelligence. The first thing that was important to put in place was to help our participants unlearn what they knew.
They had learned about hierarchy, individualism and competition at school, in their companies and institutions, and had never learned other methods or put words to other ways of doing things. What followed was an intense two-year collective adventure, of which the first week was entitled:
"Week 1
The aim of this first week is to consolidate your peer group, and practice the key postures essential to learning together throughout the learning circle:
- Empathy
- Otherness
- Reciprocity
These postures will be at the heart of the learning circle, and will be the subject of online exchanges via the Linkedin social module, as well as exchanges in small peer groups. The group you create yourself".
Source: Cercle APE, Learning to learn together
http://apprendreensemble.weebly.com/semaine-1.html
"We hear a lot about alternative pedagogies, with their schools mostly stemming from the current of new pedagogies born at the end of the 19th century. They are based on the theories of various pedagogues such as Maria Montessori, Rudolph Steiner, Augustin Freinet... They are much in demand by parents, in search of meaning for their child. Innovative pedagogy is a form of alternative pedagogy that is not based on a specific movement. Rather, it is a pedagogical action that places the pupil at the center of learning, to help him or her develop well-being, and uses innovative techniques to improve the quality of learning.
It is characterized by novelty, change, improvement and sustainability. In fact, the term "innovation" refers to the act of introducing something new into a particular field. So when you introduce a Freinet teaching method into a course, you're already innovating. The challenge is to improve the educational experience and student learning."
Source : https://www.innovation-en-education.fr/pedagogie-innovante/
It's not a question of identifying with one trend or another, but rather of taking or developing what is important or useful for tomorrow's school from all these alternative experiments that have been in action for over a century. And, above all, it's a need that's going to be increasingly pressing on the part of the world of work.
"Here are the key principles of new pedagogy:
- Each student is unique.
Recognizing and identifying each student's unique abilities is an important first step in developing his or her own strengths and helping him or her realize his or her dreams.
This new philosophy asserts that every student possesses a unique set of intellectual and academic skills. Recognizing and successfully nurturing these skills is an excellent way to enhance their success.
- The importance of childhood
The new pedagogy has shown that childhood needs to be rethought as a necessary stage in the process of reaching adulthood, rather than just a temporary phase.
It sees childhood not simply as a gateway to adulthood, but as a necessary stage in its development. This can be seen in the way children are now seen as agents who create their own knowledge, right up to the moment when education is conceived with this new perspective in mind.
- Active pedagogy
It's an active pedagogy that focuses on stimulating teacher creativity and student learning.
What's more, it focuses on the learner and his or her active participation in the learning process.
Indeed, in this New World of Learning, students have a say in what they learn. They no longer simply watch or listen to lectures or read textbooks, but actively participate in the learning process.
It's student participation with opportunities for individualized and collaborative activities that will lead to a more flexible and personalized education.
An active school is one that enables people to acquire new skills by doing the work themselves. It contains individualized and collaborative activities that lead to a more flexible and personalized education.
- Open pedagogy
The new pedagogy is an open pedagogy where education and life are strongly linked. It is a learning process based on experiences and participation rather than information or knowledge. It starts with children's emerging desires and needs, bringing them closer to their lives as opposed to the way traditional education was conceived in the past.
In fact, it attempts to integrate education and life by developing the child's personal development and learning, in a way that doesn't separate him or her from the world.
- Fostering the child's own development
Teachers need to be aware of how children learn and grow. They need to understand the child as a whole, with his or her own ways of thinking, expressing or even feeling".
Source: Les principes clés de la pédagogie nouvelle - April 2022 - BienEnseigner team
https://www.bienenseigner.com/pedagogie-nouvelle/amp/
Pedagogies based on new pedagogies offer the possibility of schools adapted to society, the job market and its evolutions. The risk is minimal. These pedagogies have been tried and tested for decades. Traditional schools have the choice of whether or not to take the plunge.
With the global advent of artificial intelligence and other technologies, it is highly likely that the unresolved void created by our new social modalities will be filled in the medium term by other ways of teaching and learning.
Illustration: Pixabay - Adelkazaika
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