Description: #edtech #startup #learning
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
There are basically two pedagogical approaches when it comes to teaching and learning: Lighting a fire or filling a pail. They go back at least two millennia when Plutarch first wrote about this idea in his essay “On Listening” . Until today, public education as well as edtech approaches can be broken down into these two concepts.
The people in lighting-the-fire camp adhere to John Dewey (1859-1952): “I believe that education, therefore is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.” Learning is socially situated and knowledge is constructed through interaction with others. A person constructs a new understanding based on prior understanding in the context of learning communities. Researchers label this idea as social constructivism .