Early Schools and Pedagogy
When schools became organized around the 10th century, the writings and methods of the great teachers, such as Socrates and Lao-Tse, were forgotten, and teaching was performed by transmitting content from teacher to students. In the beginning, this methodology maintained that the students were “empty vessels” and that the teacher could pour knowledge into them. This approach to learning became known as “pedagogy” and is derived from the Greek words paid meaning “child” and agogus meaning “leader of.” In a pedagogy classroom, the teacher is responsible for all decisions about learning.
Today, the term has taken on new meaning. Nowadays, with most schools using more active inquiry techniques, pedagogy does not really apply to the old passive methods. In fact, it now more closely resembles the term “andragogy”.