Pragmatic refers to the ability to understand and interpret social cues. Students with strong pragmatic language skills are able to participate in classroom activities and build relationships with peers, fostering a positive learning environment. Conversely, students with weak pragmatic language skills struggle to express themselves and have difficulty understanding others. In addition, they may have a hard time predicting what will happen in a given situation and have trouble interpreting the behaviors of others. Pragmatic language skills are essential to building a strong foundation for academic and social-emotional success.
A pragmatist is concerned more with what actually happens than with an ideological vision of how things ought to happen. For example, a pragmatist would focus on incremental improvement over radical change when making policy decisions. They would likely favor a damage control approach to war instead of a utopian vision of how warfare should be conducted.
This pragmatic mindset is central to pragmatism as a philosophy. The word itself comes from the Greek pragma, meaning “practical.” While there is no single pragmatist creed and a large number of philosophical movements can be classified as pragmatist, many of the most prominent philosophers to embrace pragmatism are associated with the Chicago School of thought, which includes Mead, Dewey, Angell, and Moore. Pragmatism has had wide-ranging influence, particularly outside of philosophy, in areas such as education, psychology, law, business, and sociology.
There is no one definition of pragmatism, but some of its most notable features include the idea that a theory is true if it is useful or at least works well and that unpractical ideas should be rejected. Some pragmatists have also rejected a teleological view of the universe and a Cartesian understanding of the mind. Others have criticized the idea that there is a fixed set of laws and principles governing human conduct. Still others have criticized the idea that a theory is scientific if it can be tested and replicated.
A number of pragmatists have also developed formal logic, a type of systematic reasoning that focuses on the consequences of a proposition and can be used to evaluate its truth. The philosophy of pragmatism has been influential in a wide range of fields, including philosophy of science, logic, ethics, and epistemology.
As a philosophical movement, pragmatism has waned in recent times. The popularity of analytic philosophy has undermined its emancipatory promise, and the reputations of Dewey and James have faded. It is important for teachers to be aware of the pragmatic perspectives of their students and provide them with opportunities to develop these skills. There are a variety of strategies for teaching pragmatic language in the classroom, such as explicit modeling and role-playing activities, visual supports, and social stories. Teachers can also facilitate cooperative group work and collaborative learning to support communication and social-emotional development.