School Didactics And Learning: a school Didactic Model Framing An Analysis of Pedagogical Implication of Learning Theory

(Schulpädagogik)
.
This is not to say that the model is ideologically uncritical. First, the values behind the model may and
will be explicated. Second, the teacher’s critical role in relation to the values regulating the pedagogical
work is pointed out as an important aspect of teachers’ work. In this sense the present model falls within
school pedagogics as well as within general didactics. However, having said this, it is necessary to clarify
the internal relation between school pedagogics and general didactics. Kansanen’s (1989, p. 13) argument is
relevant in this context. He shows that school pedagogics may, first of all, be considered as a part of general
education 
(Allgemeine Pädagogik)
. Second, as an explanatory framework general didactics transcends the
pedagogical practice of schools. This means that general didactics goes beyond school pedagogics because
of two facts. First, general didactics is about teaching wherever it occurs while school pedagogics covers
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SCHOOL DIDACTICS AND LEARNING

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only educational issues related to schools. Second, general didactics covers curriculum theory. Thus general
didactics has a partly independent role in relation to school pedagogics. Against this background the field
uniting school pedagogics 
(Schulpädagogik)
and general didactics may be called school didactics
(Schuldidaktik)
.
School Didactics
Since the model developed here is primarily directed towards an understanding of pedagogical activity
within schools, the term school didactics 
(Schuldidaktik)
was finally chosen as the most appropriate. It is
not as broad as general didactics; it is limited to teaching and educating activities in the institutionalized
school. It is not as wide as 
Schulpädagogik
either; school didactics is not the theory of school or schooling
in general. Finally, it is not limited to the methods of instruction as such.
The aim of school didactics is to provide a conceptual language by which we may talk about educational
reality in the institutionalized school. The expression institutionalized school refers to such educational
organizations as arrange learning environments regulated by a collectively agreed curriculum. Schooling is
seen as a compromise between the individual student’s needs and interests and the collective’s interest.
Traditionally many didacticians have worked with problems explicitly related to teaching and learning in
schools. In contemporary educational research, schools appear as only one of many pedagogical settings
investigated. This change in the educational field has motivated a division of general didactics into different
subfields. In talking about school didactics it must be noted that it is not the same as “didactics for a certain
level” (German 
Stufendidaktik,
Swedish 
stadiedidaktik
) exemplified by preschool didactics, compulsory
school didactics
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, university didactics etc. (German 
Grundschuldidaktik Hochschuldidaktik
). The present
notion of school didactics incorporates all these levels as long as they function as institutionalized
educational systems following a collective curriculum.
The following model can be used to visualize the relations between general education, school
pedagogics, school didactics, general didactics, and subject didactics (see 
Fig. 3.4
).
Figure 3.4
shows that school didactics falls within school pedagogics, which in turn falls within general
education. It was previously pointed out that general didactics goes beyond school pedagogics. School
didactics is thus the field which unites general didactics and school pedagogics. 
The situation is analogous to that of subject didactics