We explain what didactics is and how it is developed in the educational field. Also, how can this science be classified.
What is didactics?
The word didactic comes from greek didasko. In the first instance, didactics can be defined as the science of learning and teaching. Within this science of the teaching Y learning the combination of doing and didactic knowledge is necessary, that is, theory and practice.
Practice is very important since it is known that the human being learn through experience. It is also normal to teach from it. However, it is important not to fall back exclusively on the teachings through this technique. That is why it is so important to complement it with theory.
It is elementary to emphasize that a good theory must be able to be carried out, that is, it must be applicable to reality. There are authors who affirm that it is not necessary to fall into the dichotomy of theory and practice, that both must go hand in hand, since praxis itself is both action and reflection.
Being a science, didactics has a formal and a material object.
- The formal object can be defined as the approach with which the material object is observed. The latter refers to the process of learning and teaching.
- The material object can be identified with the various strategies and methods that are used in the process.
Didactics in teaching
Although the concept of didactics can be applied in various aspects, it is normally used in school organizations. Through this science, an attempt is made to organize and argue the teaching techniques. For this, the student and the teacher, and the curriculum and the context in which it is learned are added.
Within didactics there is a classification of it:
- Differentiated didactics. Also known under the name of differential. It receives this name since it is used particularly in each case, depending on the person or the characteristics of the group in which they work. It is considered that this is the didactics that should be used in any case, that is, that it adapts to the diversity of individuals.
- General didactics. It encompasses the rules and principles that govern didactics. For this, he is in charge of analyzing the elements that are usually repeated on different occasions and studying the different didactic currents. Once this task has been carried out, it presents certain prototypes to explain what has been analyzed, and to be able to apply it in the groups in a general way.
- Special didactics. It takes up the rules mentioned above, created by general didactics and applies them specifically in a particular subject, that is, in the social Sciences, in the natural, on the math, on the physical education etc. That is why this is even more specific than the first.