Definition of PEDAGOGICAL

Pedagogical, Pedagogy, and Pedagogue

Pedagogical and its cognates present us with an excellent example of how different words can come from the same root, retain an almost identical meaning, and yet take on distinctive connotations. Pedagogical, pedagogy, and pedagogue all come from the Greek paidagōgos, originally the word for a slave who brought children to school. But while pedagogical and pedagogy have meanings simply related to teaching or teachers (with no implied judgment), pedagogue has taken on a negative tone, often referring to a dull or overly formal teacher. A similar transformation has taken place with many of the pedant- words in English. A pedant originally denoted simply "a tutor," but now tends to mean "one who makes a show of knowledge." Pedantic formerly meant "relating to teaching," but now is more commonly used to mean "unimaginative or dull."

Did You Know?

Pedagogical, which has the somewhat less common spelling variant pedagogic, was coined in the early 17th century from a Greek adjective of the same meaning. That adjective, paidagōgikos, in turn derives from the noun paidagōgos, meaning "teacher." The English word pedagogue (which can simply mean "teacher" but usually suggests one who is particularly dull) derives from the same root. Though the words "educational" and "teacher" make the grade in most contexts, pedagogical and pedagogue are useful additions to the class.

Examples of pedagogical in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This ratio, though, translated into a surprisingly wide range of pedagogical approaches. — E. Tammy Kim, The New Yorker, "The Messy Reality of Personalized Learning," 10 July 2019 That girl’s assignment was merely one example, albeit an egregious one, of a standard pedagogical approach. — Natalie Wexler, The Atlantic, "Elementary Education Has Gone Terribly Wrong," 9 July 2019 By now the internet has such far-reaching influence that such a pedagogical intervention is called for. — Tyler Cowen, The Denver Post, "Guest Commentary: Internet 101 should be a required class," 7 July 2019 However, some criticized the measure as unnecessary, as France banned all smartphone use in classrooms—except for pedagogical use—in 2010. — Ephrat Livni, Quartz, "Earthquakes are making Japan think twice about banning smartphones in schools," 23 June 2019 This pedagogical approach has led to Japanese near-dominance on PISA in reading, scientific literacy, and math. — Peg Tyre, BostonGlobe.com, "How to survive in an AI world," 13 June 2019 The press played a pedagogical role, explaining exciting new techniques to its readers. — Nara B. Milanich, Time, "Paternity Testing Had a Long History Before Today’s DNA Kits. The Science Hasn’t Always Matched the Hype," 10 June 2019 Give in take is scale off scale: pedagogical riots, transitional institutions, experimental bands. — Ben Lerner, Harper's magazine, "Resistances," 10 Jan. 2019 The pedagogical approach underlying these primers assumed that beginning readers learned new words best by associating them with pictures and memorizing them through dutiful repetition. — I-huei Go, The New Yorker, "How Dr. Seuss Changed Education in America," 5 June 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'pedagogical.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.