Philosophical approach to paidocentric pedagogy

Abstract

The human being is never fully made and finished. In this task of self-realization, the role of education is fundamental. The pedagogy that has traditionally dominated has been based on the teacher and on the contents that the teacher has to transmit to the students. The pedagogical act does not consist merely in teaching content. The educational core is located in the experience of learning. We do not learn because the teacher offers us the contents. We only really learn them when we discover them. A good pedagogy has to try to make the student feel the need for knowledge so that he/she seeks it and discovers it. The teacher must first and foremost teach the desire to learn. Against this education of magistocentrism and logocentrism, paidocentric education is based on the student’s learning because it considers that education is to educate oneself. But teacher remains essential. His function is to make the student learn by himself. What he has to teach is ‘to let learn’. To know does not consist in having knowledge, but in being aware of one’s own ignorance and, consequently, in being open to learning. To know is to be able to ask questions, because only those who can ask questions, those who want to know, can learn. He has to teach how to ask questions because one only learns by asking questions. The teacher teaches when he himself learns by teaching.