Pe-dah-goge-i

Strange or as fancy as it might sound the word pedagogy (pe-dah-goge-i) does indeed exist, seriously I'm not making it up! It basically refers to how someone whose teaching goes about instructing or relaying the the theory or content that needs to be grasped by the receiver (student).

The father of this concept is widely accepted to be Lee Shulman, a Educational Psychologist that coined and introduced the phrase "Pedagogical Content Knowledge" (PCK) in his 1986 paper aptly titled "Those Who Understand: Knowledge Growth in Teaching." He encourages the professional development of teachers and their knowledge so that they are equipped to teach using broad knowledge of philosophies, teaching styles and the ability to approach lesson topics from different angles.

This is all done to make teaching lessons and topics as effective as possible allowing teachers to engage their learners in an efficient learning process. This is as teachers become aware of their students various learning preferences and needs, allowing lessons to be taught by the teacher in an appropriate manner. Thus its important for teachers to have this "wide scope" to pool from as lessons and teaching styles always need to accommodate different student. As students do not all share the same interests or learn and engage the same.

Thus the teaching process is continually evolving and the teacher needs to adapt their teaching style and methodology as is appropriate for that lesson and that group of students. This could be a great obstacle for the "not well salted" teachers as they can easily find themselves out of depth. You can imagine just how much work it can be, being a teacher not expanding your own knowledge evidently restricting the myriad of possibilities you could have used to relay, teach and evaluate your lessons to your students. Just because you can not think of new and exciting ways to present your lessons because you, yourself never exposed yourself to the possibility of new ideas of teaching to inspire your learners to learn. This may lead to the creation of a barrier between you and your learners, and you not being able to tap their full potential. Thus Shulman's haunting statement "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches" haunts so many educational establishments.

How do clueless teachers get in the system?

Shulman records a previous era where teaching emphasis was based strongly on content knowledge. Teachers had to go about writing basic licensing exams, that they need to pass every couple of years in order to remain a teacher. But don't be fooled by the word "exam", the examined would simply need to show how their knowledge is defined when evaluated. He records an account of a thirteen year old that happened to take the exam, when accompanying her sister to take hers, passed it, with her basic "13 year old" knowledge.

As teachers are not subject to so called, "re-qualify" with exams, their is no need for them to keep in mind their prior knowledge nor expand on their current world knowledge. Thus many teacher get stuck in the rut of setting up one syllabubs, and repeating it year after year, class after class with little to no change. And so to theres little to no change in the general performance or pass rate of learners passing through the class.

Because of this, there is the common possibility of the one good teacher, being shoveled in with the "fossil" teachers resulting in the teaching profession all being painted with the same paint brush as the teachers that actually work are not recognized. And generation after generation of learners pass through multiple teachers never really getting and education, and never having the light bulb moments of inspiration.