What Does didactics Mean
It is usual to find products and activities for children where the concept of didactics appears. "Didactic content", "Didactic material" and "Didactic game" are, to cite a few cases by way of example, phrases that frequently resonate in the minds of many adults. However, many times we lose sight of the theoretical definitions and then we are left without identifying what, specifically, words like the one mentioned mean. For this reason, today we will try to provide interesting data that allow us to discover what didactics is, exactly.
In more technical terms, didactics is the branch of Pedagogy that is responsible for seeking methods and techniques to improve teaching, defining the guidelines to ensure that knowledge reaches the educated in a more effective way.
Experts say that didactics is understood to be that discipline of a scientific-pedagogical nature that focuses on each of the stages of learning . In other words, it is the branch of pedagogy that allows to approach, analyze and design the schemes and plans destined to shape the bases of each pedagogical theory.
This discipline that establishes the principles of education and serves teachers when selecting and developing content, pursues the purpose of ordering and supporting both the teaching models and the learning plan. It is called a didactic act to the circumstance of teaching for which certain elements are needed: the teacher (who teaches), the student (who learns) and the learning context .
As for the qualification of didactics, it can be understood in different ways: exclusively as a technique, as an applied science, simply as a theory or as a basic science of instruction. The didactic models, on the other hand, can be characterized by a theoretical profile (descriptive, explanatory and predictive) or technological (prescriptive and normative).
It should be noted that, throughout history, education has progressed and, within the framework of these advances, didactic references have been modernized .
At first, for example, there was a model that emphasized both the teaching staff and the type of content provided to the student (process-product model), without taking into account the chosen method, the teaching framework or the student. .
Over the years, a more active system was adopted where one tries to stimulate creative skills and the ability to understand through practice and personal rehearsals. On the other hand, the so-called mediational model seeks to generate and enhance individual skills to reach self-training. With cognitive sciences at the service of didactics, the didactic systems of recent years have become more flexible and have a greater scope .
At present there are three well differentiated didactic models: the normative (focused on content), the incentive (focused on the student) and the approximate (for whom the construction that the student makes of the new knowledge prevails).
Education, as well as the rest of the world, was changing and adapting to the times , for that reason its didactic models were changing. What twenty years ago was recommended and applied in all schools, today is not only not used but is considered negative for education .
In its beginnings, education was governed by a traditional didactic model , which focused on teaching no matter how much, the methods were not studied in depth, nor the contexts in which the knowledge or situation of each individual was tried to be imparted; Currently when trying to teach it is very important to use a didactics that includes a prior analysis of the context of the students in general and of each individual, which seeks to approach each one and develop self-training skills, essential so that the knowledge achieved can be applied in the daily life of individuals.
Experts define didactics
For Aebli, didactics is a science that helps Pedagogy for everything that has to do with the most general educational tasks. Ensures that scientific didactics is the result of knowledge of educational processes in the intellect of an individual and the methodologies used.
Mattos expresses that for him it consists of a pedagogical doctrine whose goal is to define an adequate teaching technique and effectively direct the learning of a group. It has a practical and normative character that must be respected.
Stöcker , for his part, assures that it is a theory that allows giving instructions in school teaching at all levels. Analyze all aspects of teaching (phenomena, precepts, principles, laws, etc.); while Larroyo presents it as the study of procedures in the task of teaching.