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

Didaktik
shows that it originates from the Greek verb
 (didáskein)
. In its active form it refers to teaching, presentation, clarification, and instruction. In
its passive form it means to learn, to become taught. In addition, there is a mediating meaning of the term;
to learn by oneself, to adopt, i.e. 
aus sich
selbst lernen, sich aneignen
. Further the noun derived from the
verb is 
 (didaxis),
which means teaching, instruction. In addition there is the expression art of
teaching (
, i.e. 
didaktiké téchne
) referring to the practice of teaching. Finally 
didaskaleion
meant a school (see Heursen, 1994, p. 307).
Didactics should not be confused with the French 
didactique,
a term still used today for a specific kind of
instructional literature (Blankertz, 1987, p. 21). This usage has its roots in Greek literature. According to
Herwig Blankertz, didactic literature comprised various kinds of instructional poems which existed side by
side with the heroic and historical poems.
As was noted above, the term didactics has already appeared in Greek literature and even in the Old
Testament (Knecht-von Martial, 1985; Kroksmark, 1993). It is, however, common to connect the first
modern use of the term with Wolfgang Ratke (1571–1635), who presented a reform programme, the so-
called 
Frankfurter Memorial
for schools in 1612 (Kansanen, 1992, p. 5). In those days didactics was
primarily under stood as the 
art
of teaching (Lehrkunst). For Johan Amos Comenius, i.e. Jan Komensky
(1592–1670), didactics was an art. It was the art of “teaching everything to everybody”. In his 
Didactica
Magna
of 1657 Comenius expounded his views (Comenius, 1990).
In clarifying terminological differences between didactics and some Swedish, Finnish and German terms,
I will rely on previous explications of didactics. But the conceptual analysis of the field is also approached
by proposing a model developed in order to deal with pedagogical activities in the institutionalized school.
Even though the concept of didactics is one of the most central in continental educational research, there
is no single specific definition one could refer to. This has led to a continuous need for clarification of the
concept.
One way of starting the discussion is to take a look at how textbooks on didactics deal with the different
schools of didactics. Memmert (1991, p. 9), for example, lists four ways of defining didactics:
1.
Didaktik
is the science of teaching and learning;
2.
Didaktik
is the science of teaching 
(Wissenschaft vom Unterricht)
. When 
Unterricht
is used in order to
define 
Didaktik,
the term 
Unterricht
is often understood as an institutionalized teaching-learning
process in a wider sense of the word;
3.
Didaktik
is curriculum theory 
(Curriculum Forschung)
or humanscience theory of education
(Geisteswissenschaftliche Didaktik)
i.e. a difference is usually made between didactics in a narrower
2. DIDACTICS AND THE TSL PROCESS
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sense, including curriculum theory only 
(Didaktik im engeren Sinne),
and didactics in a broader or
wider sense 
(Didaktik im weiteren Sinne),
including both curriculum theory and instructional methods;
4.
Didaktik
is the science of behavioural changes 
(Wissenschaft von der
Verhaltensanäerung)
.
Schröder (1992, p. 60) supports the second delimitation mentioned above. He writes that: “In its widest
sense, didactics can be defined as the science of teaching