Читать книгу The Art of Foreign Language Teaching - Peter Lutzker - Страница 12

The origins of the concept of teaching as an art can be seen in the practice of the Sophists beginning in the 5^th century B.C. who were the first pedagogues to develop a broadly humanistic and ethical approach to education reflected in the concept of paideia. This implied for them forming the entire person spiritually, morally and intellectually. To achieve these goals they introduced the idea of a broad humanistic education based on the disciplined study of rhetoric, grammar and dialectics, as well as on the accumulation of an encyclopaedic knowledge of a broad range of subjects including geometry, music, poetry, ethics and politics. This approach reflected a new democratic understanding of the role of a liberal arts education in preparing more young people to take an active part in Greek political and cultural life.30 Through their widely recognized virtuosity as teachers and speakers the Sophists quickly and dramatically transformed the entire Greek concept of education.

Realizing the aims implied in their understanding of paideia meant coming to terms with the numerous pedagogical challenges inherent in carrying out such a broadly based educational approach. This required the initial development of didactical principles. Ernst Lichtenstein sees here the origins of Didactics as a relevant educational field. He writes,

A pedagogical consciousness also becomes aware … for the first time of the educative process, of the preconditions and conditions that are the basis for its success and of the factors that must work within it. In the course of this reflection it encounters both the problem of how individuals can be shaped and influenced with respect to their individual possibilities, as well as theoretical questions pertaining to educational leadership, the educational path and methodology.31

In the widespread realization of their new educational concepts, Lichtenstein sees the Sophists as having created the basis for an understanding of pedagogy as an art.

This new pedagogical consciousness understands education firstly as an independent cultural activity that has to be brought into the form of art.32