A didactic method is a way of teaching that uses a clear and organized approach based on science or education to share information with students. This method is often compared to other teaching styles, such as dialectics and the Socratic method. The term can also describe a specific type of teaching method, like constructivist didactics.

Overview

Didactics is the study of teaching, including how people learn. It is different from "mathetics," which is the study of learning. Didactics focuses only on the science of teaching.

This theory can be compared to open learning, also called experiential learning, where people learn on their own, without strict rules or structure. It can also be compared to autodidactic learning, where a person teaches themselves using books or other materials.

The theory of didactic learning methods looks at the knowledge students already have and builds on it to help them learn more. It also refers to the starting point in a lesson plan, where the goal is to teach new knowledge. A teacher acts as an authority, but also as a guide and a source of help for students.

Didactics has different meanings in continental Europe and English-speaking countries. Didacticism was the cultural origin of this method, but it is often used in a negative way to describe teaching that focuses only on strict lessons or beliefs. Experts believe these differences came from different cultural developments in the 19th century, when Great Britain and its colonies grew farther apart from continental Europe. In the Anglo-Saxon world, the rise of Romanticism and Aestheticism led to negative views of didactics. In continental Europe, leaders like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi helped move away from strict moral lessons in teaching earlier.

These cultural differences created two main traditions: the Anglo-Saxon tradition of studying curricula and the continental and northern European tradition of didactics. Today, the study of didactics is less important in many English-speaking countries.

However, with the start of globalization in the early 20th century, arguments about these differences became less common. Now, didactics and pedagogy can be studied as a general theory in three main areas.

Nature of didactics and difference with pedagogy

Didactics is a field of study that looks at both ideas and practical activities related to teaching and learning. It examines the content, methods, and reasons behind what is taught. Didactics focuses on the learner, how their mind works, and how they understand new information. This area of study draws from ideas in cognitive psychology and teaching theory, as well as sometimes from social psychology. Didactics describes what has happened over time, while pedagogy, another related field, focuses on what should be done now. Didactics provides the background for pedagogy, which is more about setting educational goals and preparing learners for their future roles in society.

In continental Europe, didactics and pedagogy are separate areas of study. Didactics is a knowledge-based field that studies all teaching activities before, during, and after lessons. It includes planning, controlling, and managing the teaching environment to understand how teaching leads to learning. Pedagogy, on the other hand, is a practice-based field that studies how teaching is applied in real classrooms. Pedagogy uses research from didactics and can be seen as a practical part of didactics.

In France, didactics refers to the science of teaching specific subjects, such as math or history. A key idea in French didactics is "didactic transposition," a concept introduced by Michel Verret in 1975 and later expanded by Yves Chevallard in the 1980s. This idea applies not only to math but also to other subjects.

Didactic transposition has three steps. The first step, called "external transposition," transforms expert knowledge, such as that created by scientists or researchers, into "knowledge to teach." This involves selecting, organizing, and defining what will be taught and how it will be presented. This process is shaped by teachers, education experts, and government officials, who decide what is taught and how. Chevallard called this shared environment the "noosphere."

The second step, "internal transposition," changes "knowledge to teach" into "taught knowledge." This is how teachers actually present the material in the classroom, depending on their students and the rules or time limits they face.

The third step transforms "taught knowledge" into "acquired knowledge," which is the knowledge students actually learn. This acquired knowledge can be used to improve the teaching process. Didactic research must consider all these steps of didactic transposition.

Didactic teaching

The didactic method gives students the necessary theoretical knowledge. It is a useful approach for teaching students who struggle to manage their tasks and rely on teachers for guidance. It is also used to teach basic reading and writing skills. In this method, the teacher or someone who is literate is the main source of knowledge, and information is shared directly with students.

Although the didactic method is used in many schools, it does not meet the needs or interests of all students. Listening to long lectures can become boring for some learners. There is little back-and-forth communication between students and teachers. This method may not encourage students to become interested in the subject, as it often focuses on one-way teaching. Students’ personal experiences may not play a major role in the learning process.