Pedagogy

How to spell pedagogy

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce pedagogy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pedagogy mean?

1. nounThe method and practice of teaching, especially as a subject of study or theory.

Pedagogy in a sentence

• The new teacher trainer specialises in early-years pedagogy.

• Modern pedagogy favours active learning over rote memorisation.

Where does pedagogy come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek paidagogia, meaning the office of leading a child, which itself came from paidagogos, the household servant who escorted a boy to and from school. That servant's title was built from pais (genitive paidos), meaning 'child', and agogos, meaning 'leader' or 'guide', from the verb agein, 'to lead'. Over time the focus shifted from the person doing the escorting to the broader art and method of teaching itself. English took the word in the sixteenth century, largely by way of French pedagogie and Latin paedagogia, and it gradually narrowed to mean the theory and practice of education. The same paid- root for 'child' survives in words like 'paediatric', while the agog element reappears in 'demagogue', literally a leader of the people, which is a useful reminder that the tricky middle of pedagogy hides the idea of leading.

How the word is built

• ped- (from Greek pais, paid-: child)
• -agog (from agogos: leading, from agein: to lead)
• -y (noun suffix)