The Concept of Spoon-Feeding

What is spoon-feeding? It might be useful to begin with dictionary definitions of spoon-feeding as the first step towards an answer.

In the literal sense of the term, ‘spoon-feeding’ refers to performing a physical action for children that they can do on their own, or which they are ready to learn to do with some effort. The result of spoon-feeding in the context of eating is the inhibition of the development of the capacity to feed oneself. Translating this into the pedagogical domain, we may say that if students are capable of doing X, or are at a stage that they can learn to do X with some struggle on their part and help from the teacher, the teacher’s doing X for the learner constitutes spoon-feeding. The result of spoon-feeding in the academic context is the inhibition of the development of the capacity for independent thinking and learning. Hence, spoon-feeding in pedagogy would be the activity of preventing possible mental development by doing for the learner what the learner could have done for himself/herself. To appreciate this concept of spoon-feeding, we need to understand what spoon-feeding impedes, namely, the capacity to learn independently and the capacity to think independently.

Independent Learning and Independent Thinking

What do we mean by ‘independent learning’? Suppose we say that dependent learning is characterised by the need to depend upon educational institutions and teachers to learn something, it would then follow that independent learning is characterised by the capacity to learn without depending upon educational institutions and teachers.