Pedagogics refers to the art or science of education and highlights the correlation between personal advancement and its positive impact on the society. The concept was founded by Johann Friedrich Herbart and has five underlying principles preparation, presentation, association, generalization, and application. The European early modern period of the 16th to the 18h century was characterized by Renaissance which saw the interest in classical scholarship surge with notable discoveries like the printing press. The Enlightenment period in Europe gave rise to scholarly books, essays, inventions, scientific discoveries, laws and mental revolutions which created a conducive environment for pedagogy. The social revolution also occurred and the social stratification that in earlier periods denied the lower class citizen’s education began to crumble as the influence of the Catholic Church on education began to weaken with the rise of Protestantism. An analysis of this period will inform how pedagogy was practiced in the 16th to 18th century period with Western Europe and the United Kingdom being the areas of focus.
The 16th- 18th Century Education System
Abrahams and Head (2013) posit that religion and the family status or the social standing of the children mainly influenced the school system in the modern period (p. 126). “The Catholic Church had a lot of influence in the early 16th Century before Protestantism took root in Europe and the UK while the social classification determined who went to school where before the enlightenment period brought the humanism ideology” (Loomba, 2014 p.246). Education started early in the children’s lives with the parents being the first teachers. Apprenticeship formed a fundamental part of education in the early ages and the serf’s boys would accompany their fathers to the fields while the girls stayed at home with their mothers learning gardening, weaving, animal husbandry and household chores (Damm, Thimann, & Zittel, 2013). The young boys of noble birth were taught hunting skills while the ladies learned how to cook. Craftsmen and merchant's children were also taught the family business from a young age.
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The formal education was imparted in grammar and song schools which were largely affiliated with the church (Moncrief, 2016). Grammar schools were originally started to teach Latin and were vocational places meant to prepare the students for their church duties while song schools were aimed at teaching performing arts (Bourke, 2016). The curriculum was later in the centuries upgraded to include Greek, English, natural sciences, math, law, astronomy, history and geography (Wiesner-Hanks, 2016). Grammar schools taught the children up to fourteen after which they proceeded to join the University or the Church. “In the 17th Century, the nobles, rich merchants, and guilds took to founding grammar schools as acts of charity and the commoners’ kids who could not afford schools fees were allowed to attend school” (Peters, Liu & Ondercin, 2012 p. 368). However, most of them didn’t go to school since they were busy helping out their families during school hours. Monastic schools were also established during the period and included almonry schools for the poor and chantry schools (Wiesner-Hanks, 2016). Tudor boys began their education in nursery schools called petty schools before being enrolled in grammar schools by the time they turned seven and those who couldn’t attend school were enrolled in apprenticeship.
At about 15 or 16, the boys completed their education in the Grammar schools and proceeded to the University (Abrahams & Head, 2017). Professor and Broomhall postulate that University education during the 16th century was, however, a luxury availed only to the rich and smartest people (p. 264). Oxford and Cambridge Universities were the only universities and people who schooled there were regarded in high esteem in the society, and the scholars were exempted from secular jurisdiction. The Universities were aimed at producing learned theologians at first, but they expanded their curriculum to cover other areas of public service like law, clerical work and other administrative studies (Professor & Broomhall, 2013). Education was therefore principally meant for boys and gender bias in education in the early modern period is apparent. Noble girls were however given education but from home by a tutor while girls from the middle class were taught by their mothers with the peasant girls getting little to no education since they spent their lives as servants. Noble girls and in rare cases boys were sent to live in nunneries for schooling where they learned to read, write and pray (Abrahams & Head, 2017).Girls were taught skills in spinning, home keeping, needlework and other domestic skills in readiness for marriage by the nuns. The 17th century saw the education system change with the construction of girls' boarding schools for girls where subjects like writing, music, and needlework were taught. In the early 18th-century charity schools were founded in many English towns, but the protestants' children were banned from attending which gave rise to dissenting academies(Professor & Broomhall, 2013). The peasants’ children however never went to school mostly since they were expected to work from as early as six years when they worked in farms scaring birds away from newly sown seeds.
Curriculum
The syllabus of the early modern period education system was divided into two. Elementary trivium was the first part which the university students learned and it included subjects like dialectic, Grammar, Rhetoric (Dammet.al.2013). Once they passed, they proceeded on to the more advanced quadrivium which encompassed music, arithmetic, geometry, geography, and history, astrology, music and astronomy. Once the students passed the trivium level, a bachelor's degree was conferred, and a Masters of Arts was conferred on completion and passing of the quadrivium level (Reid & Wilson, 2016).The curriculum was therefore changed in the 16th and 17th century whereby the quadrivium was separated to make a clear distinction between math and the sciences (Rothgangel, Adam, Lachmann, Schlag, & Schweitzer, 2014). The students took a compulsory classic academic course in their first years of college which was aligned to the English university model and in consistency with the Puritan philosophy of the first colonists.
Right from the grammar schools, Latin was the language of instruction, and the learners had to pass in their grammar school Latin examinations to earn an admission at the universities (Professor & Broomhall, 2013). The students at the University level further learned languages like Latin, Greek, and Hebrew as part of their curriculum. The lessons entailed equipping them with the knowledge to examine and analyze classical languages through histories and drama which was a way of grooming future scholars (Rothgangel et.al, 2014). In the 18th Century, the syllabus was further extended to accommodate more subjects like Logic, Ethics and Politics, Arithmetic and Geometry, and later, Algebra, Astronomy, Physics, Metaphysics and Theology.
With time Botany, Zoology, Physiology, and Anatomy were recognized as independent disciplines as well as Magnetism, Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Chemistry and Geology (Rothgangel et.al, 2014). The classification gave room to student specialization in their areas of interest away from the over generalized sciences cluster and gave room for innovation and innovations. The restructuring of the Quadrivium gave clear distinction and definition of the Mathematical and scientific studies and allowed for the provision of an academic system that provided for the cultivation of students’ skills, interests, attitudes and spurring invention and innovation as any good curriculum should (Rothgangel et.al, 2014). The curriculum was also heavily impacted by the invention of printing since it simplified the packaging of learning materials and eased the organization of subjects and learning schedules. It made referencing of bibliographical materials easy, and the book became part of the curriculum and learning processes (Rothgangel et.al., 2014). The curriculum in the Grammar Schools was also expanded in the 17th Century to accommodate vernacular literature, arithmetic, and music in addition to the Latin and Bible studies.
Methodology of Teaching
In the 16th century, many children learned using a hornbook which was a wooden board with a handle which always an alphabet and the Lord’s Prayer had attached in class (Smith & Sataloff, 2013).Before the invention of printing, the method of instruction was majorly oral, and students were expected to cram and memorize whatever the teacher taught in class since there was no note taking involved. After the renaissance period which was characterized by a lot of reading and writing had taken root in Europe and the UK, the mode of instruction changed to copying passages from original sources in a bid to memorize and understand them (Rothgangel et.al ., 2014). The students would copy the passages verbatim, and it was believed that they internalized the contents as they copied them. The copying of instruction became a major part of the learning process during the 17th and the 18th period and was considered a useful tool in teaching Latin to the students.
Song was also a useful tool in the learning process in the early modern period curriculum. Chantry priests and choristers were employed in schools to train the students and the mandatory qualifications for the posts were prowess in music and grammar (Smith & Sataloff, 2013). They trained the students in playing the harp, the pipe, singing, and dancing. “The primary objective of using song in the learning process was to prepare the young people for their service in the church, but some of them ended up pursuing secular careers in music, art, and drama” (Smith & Sataloff, 2013 p. 98). Oral recital was also a teaching technique employed by teachers during the early modern period. Students were expected to memorize the contents of the lessons, and each would be called in turn to recite the lesson in front of their classmates. The school system was characterized by corporal punishment whereby birching was a common way of meting it (Cameron, 2013). The students would work hard to memorize these lessons to avoid punishment since the boys were lashed on their behinds using the birch.
Apprenticeship was also a pedagogical method employed in teaching during the 16th to the 18th century (Cameron, 2013). The law required any man setting up a craftsmanship venture to have at least seven years of experience from apprenticeship according to the statute of apprentices. From a young age, boys were taught their family's crafts and in rare cases the girls too if they were the heiress of their family business. The peasant boys accompanied their fathers to the fields where they learned how to till the land and do other masculine jobs through observation. The sons of the nobles accompanied their fathers in hunting and were taught how to hunt and use weapons (Trabasso, Sabatini & Massaro, 2014). The peasant girls were left at home with their mothers where they learned how to perform house hold chores while the noble ladies were taught how to cook and run households. There were also vocational schools where the young men who did not make it to universities attended. For them to complete the apprenticeship course, they were tested by making a masterpiece which was judged by a group of masters (Scott, 2015). Girls also learned through apprenticeship by being assigned to older ladies with whom they went to stay for a while so as to watch and learn high society mannerisms and observe how they acted and interacted with other people.
The students were also taught through community engagement whereby the young people of noble blood were invited into the king’s court (Trabasso, Sabatini & Massaro, 2014). They spent months interacting with older noble people while the girls were sometimes appointed as the royalties' waiting ladies an opportunity that afforded them with a chance to interact with older and more polished nobilities. As printing and Enlightenment took root in Europe and the UK, the teaching method of dictation came up. Students would take notes as the teachers taught and this helped in improving their performance exponentially because unlike the essay copying, they understood what they were writing (Whitehead, 2015). This method was however only effective for students at advanced levels of education.
Cognitive and Affective Skills Imparted For Successful Functioning In Society
The education system in the early modern period was highly aimed at producing outstanding citizens in society (Scott, 2015). The education curricula incorporated scholarly materials on manners, civility, and courtesy with the aim of imparting chivalry on the students. The boys of noble descent got taught how to talk, live and act like gentlemen while the noble girls learned how to become and act like ladies (Trabasso, Sabatini & Massaro, 2014). The girls got educated on everyday habits, fashion, music and the art lessons which came in handy when they entered the courting age. “The girl child education aimed at enabling them to co-exist with other nobles peacefully and also taught them how to handle their servants and hold intelligent conversations while remaining charming since intelligence was not considered a feminine trait in those eras” (Whitehead, 2015 p. 98). Education, therefore, eased the transition of the boys and girls into adulthood and contributed in creating a civil and well-cultured society.
The nobles' sons were taught how to ride, the art of conversation, about deeds and degrees and how to live a life of honor to uphold their family names (Fass, 2015). When they were invited to the king's court, a master was appointed to observe and correct their table manners, their communication skills and other attributes related to gentlemanliness (Kumin, 2014). The learning process in courts and nobles houses played a crucial role in shaping the young men's perceptions of the real world away from the classroom confines. The education system also imparted mannerisms in young boys through literature that detailed how the boys should handle themselves when in school and outside school (Cope, 2015). They were supposed to be polite to their masters, be industrious and humble in class while learning, and they were also instructed on how to behave after school (Whitehead, 2015). These lessons imparted important virtues like kindness, humility, respect and tolerance in the students’ attributes that are important in functioning in the society.
The students were also armed with physical skills which made them productive citizens in the society (Houston, 2013).The education system produced priests, writers, scholars, musicians, poets, scientists, lawyers and professionals in all forms of occupations. It also polished the young ladies so that they played their roles as wives perfectly and carried themselves gracefully. Apprenticeship produced young, industrious men who were important in the production economies for the sound functioning of the society (Baddeley & Voeste, 2012). The education system, therefore, opened doors of possibilities to the youth and kept them from engaging in vices like burglary and instead offered them careers not only in the church also in the secular professions(Scott, 2015). These skills were important in the society and were critical in the social and economic development of the society.
Conclusion
In sum, the early modern period of the 1600 to 1800 was a period of much pedagogical advancement and formed a basis for the modern day curriculums. The period was characterized by the transfer of the education sector's control from the catholic to the protestant church, the age of enlightenment in Europe and the UK and also the rise of humanism. The developments created a conducive environment for pedagogy and saw to the increase of literacy levels across all social classes. The children went to school in chantry schools, nunneries, and grammar and song schools as well as in monastic schools although home schooling was common practice among the nobles. On turning seventeen the students were enrolled in the university at either Harvard or Cambridge. The syllabus included subjects like music, arithmetic, geography and history, elementary trivium and the quadrivium. The methods of teaching included recitation, dictation and passage copying in the classrooms and through apprenticeship outside the classroom. The education was aimed at producing upstanding citizens who added value to the society through becoming professionals like doctors, lawyers, and performing artists among other jobs and also imparted emotional intelligence which helped in peaceful co-existence in society.
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