Prospective Teachers’ Representations on the Concept of Force

We present a study on teacher education and, in particular, on Physics. Our assumption is that General Didactics and Disciplinary Didactic constitute two fundamental components of teachers’ professional development and therefore both must be used to interpret didactic phenomena adequately. This research involves a sample of 274 prospective teachers, enrolled in the Primary Education Sciences degrees in three Italian Universities (Milano Bicocca, Udine, Urbino,). It concerns the study of the spontaneous representations produced by students to foster understanding of the force concept and on the reasons given to motivate their effectiveness on an educational level and disciplinary one. The research tools and methods were developed by crossing the literature of General Didactics and Physics Education, identifying analytical categories that emerge from two different and complementary perspectives. In the broad spectrum of students’ conceptions, given by this double perspective, some aspects stand out: most of the representations do not include the representation of the forces at play, but rather imply a precise didactic approach inherent to the concept of force. This is confirmed by the analysis of the didactic and disciplinary motivations, in which a frequent identification of the two types of motivations emerges.

Rethinking Bildung in the Anthropocene: The Case of Wolfgang Klafki

In this article, I discuss education in a time in the history when the human impact on Earth is massive and pervasive, with devastating consequences on the conditions for life. Within various academic fields, this era is increasingly distinguished as the Anthropocene. The term highlights the new, dominant position of the human species in Earth’s history, but is contentious, hiding as much as it reveals. Humanity is surely not one, but many, participating in a complex web of relations constituted by other species and the material world. Moreover, the Anthropocene is also a time of global corporate capitalism, when the magnitude and the consequences of human activities are unequally distributed among humans and more-than humans alike. The ethical and political dimensions involved in this determine the reflections in this article. Specifically, I examine Wolfgang Klafki’s educational theory as an expression of and a response to the Anthropocene. Klafki is a salient contributor to the rethinking of North European general didactics in the 20th century, in which Bildung, formations of the self, plays a key role. In Klafki’s later works, epochal key problems are integrated in his concept of Bildung, addressing environmental crisis, social inequity, and threats to peace on Earth, in a global outlook that transcends Bildung’s traditionally national scope. At the same time, Klafki’s educational response expresses an anthropocentric outlook, which calls for rethinking. In such a rethinking I suggest to see the mediating element of the common, crucial in Klafki’s Bildung theory, not as limited to human interests but as including concerns for life on Earth, and to conceive of historical situatedness as an aspect of the commonality of Bildung.

CONFIGURAÇÃO DA ÁREA DE DIDÁTICA NAS LICENCIATURAS: para além de uma didática geral ou específica

Considerando que boa parte dos professores tem apresentado dificuldades ao ingressarem no magistério, especialmente quanto à compreensão do seu papel social e de como tratar questões de ensino e aprendizagem na escola, este trabalho teve como objetivo discutir o papel e a configuração da didática na formação de inicial de professores. A pesquisa assume-se numa abordagem qualitativa e numa perspectiva hermenêutica. As técnicas utilizadas foram a entrevista e o questionário aplicados a professores de didática geral e específica em universidades federais de cinco regiões do Brasil. Os resultados demonstram que a didática ensinada nas licenciaturas nas cinco regiões do país se configura como uma didática “geral”, com exceção de uma instituição. Essa didática geral considera como condição de seu ensino metodologias diversificadas e ativas para ensinar conteúdos considerados clássicos, como: Tendências Pedagógicas; Trajetória histórica da Didática. Currículo; Planejamento e Avaliação, além de outros conteúdos, como Formação e Identidade Docente. A conclusão aponta para a necessidade de articulação e configuração da didática enquanto uma área nas licenciaturas, na qual fariam parte todas as disciplinas que discutem os processos de ensino, inclusive as didáticas específicas. Como área, a didática teria possibilidade de viabilizar melhor a relação entre teoria e prática como um dos instrumentos para formar o professor mais consciente do seu papel social, e melhor preparado para atuar nas salas de aulas.Palavras-chave: didática; didática específica; formação de professores.DIDACTICS AREA CONFIGURATION IN TEACHING’S DEGREE: for beyond a general or specific didacticsAbstractConsidering that the majority of teachers has presented difficulties when joining the mastership, especially in understanding their social role and how to deal with issues of teaching and learning in schools, this work has as its objective to discuss the role and configuration of Didactics in the initial formation of teachers. The research is based on a qualitative approach and in a hermeneutic perspective. The techniques used were the interview and the questionnaire applied to teachers of General and Specific Didactics in federal universities of Brazil’s five regions. The results showed that the Didactics taught in teaching’s degree of these five regions is configured like General Didactics, excepting one institution. This General Didactics considers as condition of its teaching diversified and active methodologies to teach content considered classic, such as: Pedagogical Tendencies, Historical Trajectory of Didactics, Curriculum, Planning and Evaluation, besides other subjects, such as Teacher Formation and Identity. The conclusion points to the necessity of articulation and configuration of Didactics while an area in teaching’s degree in which all the subjects that discuss the learning process would be part of it, including Specific Didactics. As an area, Didactics would have the possibility of better enabling the relationship between theory and practice as one of the instruments to form teachers more conscious of their social role and better prepared to act in classrooms.Keywords: didactics; specific didactic; teachers formation.CONFIGURACIÓN DEL ÁREA DE DIDÁCTICA EN LAS LICENCIATURAS:además de una didáctica general o específicaResumenPor considerar que buena parte de los maestros han presentado dificultades al ingresar en el magisterio, especialmente en cuanto a la comprensión de su papel social y de como tratar cuestiones de enseñanza y aprendizaje en la escuela, este trabajo hubo como objetivo discutir el papel y la configuración de la didáctica en la formación inicial de maestros. La pesquisa es asumida en un enfoque qualitativo, así como en una perspectiva hermenéutica. Las técnicas utilizadas fueron la entrevista y el cuestionario aplicados a maestros de Didáctica General y Específica en universidades federales de cinco regiones del Brasil. Los resultados obtenidos demostraron que la didáctica enseñada en las licenciaturas de las cinco regiones del país se configura como una didáctica “general”, con excepción de una institución. Esa didáctica general considera, como condición de su enseñanza, metodologías diversificadas y activas para enseñar contenidos considerados clásicos, tales como: Tendencias Pedagógicas; Trayectoria Histórica de la Didáctica; Currículum; Planeamiento y Evaluación, además de otros contenidos, tales como Formación e Identidad Docente. La conclusión apunta la necesidad de articulación y configuración de la didáctica mientras un área en las licenciaturas, en lo cual harían parte todas las disciplinas que discurran los procesos de enseñanza, incluso las didácticas específicas. Como un área, la didáctica habría posibilidad de mejor permitir la relación entre teoría y práctica, como uno de los instrumentos, para que puedan formar un maestro más consciente de su papel social y, también, mejor preparado para actuar en salas de clase.Palabras clave: didáctica; didáctica específica; formación de maestros.

Bildung-Centered General Didactics

Bildung-centered general didactics is a tradition of schooling and teacher education in Germany and the Nordic countries. It originated from the late 18th century during the development of nation-states, when the professions had designated areas of responsibility. The teacher’s duty was to interpret the curriculum, transforming it into meaningful teaching for the students in the classroom. Teaching comprises the totality of the three aspects of any teaching situation; the teacher, the student, and content, and their relations in specific practices. Bildung-centered general didactics puts content to the fore. It is a hermeneutical discipline centered on the topics of the culture as a whole. Bildung, in German and Nordic general didactics, is a concept grasping the normative ideals behind any educational phenomenon. Hence, the meaning of Bildung will vary from culture to culture and across time. However, the idea of Bildung is mostly associated with the ideals of modernity in Western history; the core question being how to educate autonomous and responsible democratic citizens. Since then, pedagogy has implied a paradox: how to cultivate the freedom of individuals through the exercise of power. Bildung-centered general didactics centers on this paradox in theory and practice, and at the macro and micro levels of the educational system. The most influential Bildung-centered general didactic approach is that of Wolfgang Klafki (1927–2016). Klafki’s primary term is categorical Bildung, a dialectic of the content and the student, and a didactic analysis as the means for teachers to contribute to the empowerment of students.

Train to research. Epistemological and pedagogical approaches to the educational field in Education Sciences

The article aims to reconstruct the formative-disciplinary practices that occur in the territories for disciplinary research in Education Sciences undergraduate course. For the development of the work, we position ourselves in a qualitative methodology, specifically in the case studies. In this sense, the cases selected for this study were two teams from the subjects General Didactics and History of Argentine Education, which were reconstructed from in-depth interviews with directors, researchers, undergraduate and graduate students. We fully identified three formative territories for disciplinary research: the field, the office, and the extra-institutional territories, in each of which diverse pedagogical links were configured according to the limits imposed by the epistemology of the discipline. Although each formative territory has singular connotations, there is a dialectic among them that feeds back, communicates and constitutes them.

Nurty myślenia o dydaktyce

The aim of the article is to present three currents of thinking about didactics: 1) as a science, 2) as art and 3) as an academic subject. The position of didactics as one of the basic subdisciplines of pedagogy in systematic science was presented. The question whether didactics be long to social sciences was raised. The need to rebuild and reconstruct didactics was emphasized, remembering about its permanent foun dations, complexity, and diversity. Directions of development and va rieties of didactics were recalled. Attention was paid to the problem of marginalizing general didactics as an academic subject in the curricula of pedagogical studies. The narrative was given a tripartite structure complemented with examples of didactic thinking and action, which is part of the systematics of problems proposed by Stanisław Palka.

Articulations and tensions between General Didactics and Science Education: some analytical perspectives

The relationships between General Didactics (GD) and content-specific Didactics (CED), in this case, Science Education (SE) have proven to be fertile in theoretical-epistemological terms. But despite the progress in the consolidation of a fluid exchange, there are still controversial dimensions to continue deepening. For this reason, we analyze, from own four perspectives, different dimensions and problems in order to identify and problematize articulations and emerging tensions in debates around GD and SE. The analysis perspectives that we construct are: 1- sociology of science; 2- historical-contextual; 3- investigation and / or intervention; and 4- curricular-institutional. Among other conclusions, we visualize a series of challenges to face, mainly related to the consolidation of a rich and fruitful interdisciplinary work that has a substantial impact on the improvement of teaching practices, from a socio-political project in which values of social justice prevail.

Pulsujące metafory dydaktyki w kleszczach języka. O lingwistycznych blokadach konstruktywistycznej zmiany w kształceniu

The content of the article includes analyses of the linguistic plane of the reception of constructivist didactics, carried out in order to seek a partial answer to the question: why does the paradigmatic change in the area of school education in Poland, which has been intensively postulated by scientific circles over the last thirty years, not materialise in the space of contemporary educational practices in their institutional settings? In particular, the subject of analyses refers to the dominant – “instructive” – linguistic level of general didactics, with regard to such concepts as: education, learning, knowledge. The purpose of the linguistic analyses was to show how the existing constellations of didactic metaphors have hindered the conceptualisation and reception of ideas coming from constructivist positions.

Discourse, Critique and Subject in Vocational Language Education in Germany: An Outline of the Concept of Critical Foreign Language Didactics

The paper offers an attempt at including the critical-discursive perspective in the reflection on vocational language education in Germany; its aim is to outline a base for critical foreign language didactics drawing on the critical and post-Foucauldian discourse analysis. The first part of the paper forms a reconstruction of the enmeshment of vocational language education in a number of contexts (political, migrational, and integrative). Constituting a transformative variant of language didactics and examining vocational language education, critical foreign language didactics will be perceived as a research program pertaining to the reflection on education and pedagogical activity (under the framework of critical pedagogy), teaching and learning (from the standpoint of the critical trend in general didactics), and language education and its specificity within teaching and learning particular languages (in the context of foreign language didactics). The final part of the paper will present methodological implications by indicating potential directions for – and levels of – vocational language education analysis. It will also offer an attempt at their further clarification aimed at a critical analysis of subject formation and forms of subjectification.