There are three representative views on the emergence of educational activities in the history of pedagogy, namely, the biological origin of education, the psychological origin and the labor origin.
1, the biological origin of education.
Representative figures are French philosopher and sociologist Litor Noel, British educator and philosopher Percy? Yes It is believed that education exists not only in human society, but also in the animal kingdom.
Education comes from animal instinct. Animals, especially higher animals, are born with a potential educational ability derived from heredity, so that future generations can continue to reproduce. The most obvious mistake of biological origin theory is to equate animal instinct with education and deny the sociality of education.
2. The psychological origin theory of education
American psychologist Lu Meng believes that education originated from children's unconscious imitation of adults, and put forward the "psychological origin theory" of education from the psychological point of view. In primitive society, children constantly imitated adults' work, accumulated life experience and learned various survival skills by observing their activities such as gathering, hunting and knitting.
The theory of psychological origin regards education as a simple imitation and fails to recognize the purpose of education. Although Meng Lu has made some progress, he pointed out that education is only an attribute of human beings, but animals don't, but he still thinks that education is unconscious in essence, that is, it is instinctive, not learned, which also ignores the sociality of education.
3. The labor origin theory of education
Marxist historical materialism criticizes the view that biological origin theory and psychological origin theory deny the sociality of education, and holds that education originated from the productive labor practice of human society. The direct basis of this theory is Engels' book The Role of Labor in the Transformation from Ape to Man.
The fundamental difference between humans and animals is that humans can make and use tools. In order to continue the production and life of the race, the older generation purposefully passed on production skills, skills and experience to the next generation, and education was born in this kind of experience transmission.
When people live in society, they must act according to the common code of conduct. In the long-term labor process, language expressing meaning and emotion is produced and developed, human brain and limbs are further developed, and activity ability and coordination are continuously enhanced.
Therefore, labor promotes human development and provides a prerequisite for the emergence of education. It can be said that without labor, there would be no development of human society and no education. Education originates from labor and depends on social production and life practice and human development needs.