Didactics (from the Greek "didacticos" - "teaching") is a branch of pedagogical knowledge that studies the problems of teaching and education (the main categories of didactics) in pedagogy. Didactics, pedagogy, psychology are related disciplines, borrowing from each other the conceptual apparatus, research methods, basic principles, etc. Also, the basics of didactics of special pedagogy, aimed at the process of teaching and educating children with developmental anomalies, have their own specifics.
Differentiation of concepts
One of the key concepts in didactics is the concept of learning and its components - learning and teaching, as well as the concept of education. The main criterion of differentiation (as didactics defines it in pedagogy) is the ratio of goals and means. Thus, education is the goal, and learning is the means to achieve this goal.
In turn, learning includes such components as teaching and learning. Teaching is the systematic guidance of the teacher of the educational activities of students -determination of the scope and content of this activity. Teaching is the process of mastering the content of education by students. It includes both the activities of the teacher (instruction, control), and the activities of the students themselves. At the same time, the learning process can take place both in the form of direct control by the teacher (in the classroom), and in the form of self-education.
Main Tasks
In modern didactics, it is customary to single out the following tasks:
- humanization of the learning process,
- differentiation and individualization of the learning process,
- formation of interdisciplinary connection between the studied disciplines,
- formation of cognitive activity of students,
- development of mental abilities,
- formation of moral and volitional qualities of a person.
Thus, the tasks of didactics in pedagogy can be divided into two main groups. On the one hand, these are tasks focused on describing and explaining the learning process and the conditions for its implementation; on the other hand, to develop the optimal organization of this process, new training systems and technologies.
Principles of didactics
In pedagogy, didactic principles are aimed at determining the content, organizational forms and methods of educational work in accordance with the goals and patterns of the process of education and training.
These principles are based on the ideas of K. D. Ushinsky, Ya. A. Comenius and others. At the same time, we are talking exclusively about scientifically based ideas on which didactics in pedagogy is based. So, for example, Ya. A. Comenius formulated the so-called golden rule of didactics, according to which all the senses of the student should be involved in the learning process. Subsequently, this idea becomes one of the key ones on which didactics in pedagogy relies.
Guidelines:
- science,
- strength,
- accessibility (feasibility),
- consciousness and activity,
- links between theory and practice,
- systematic and consistent
- visibility.
Scientific principle
It aims to form a complex of scientific knowledge in students. The principle is implemented in the process of analyzing the educational material, its main ideas, which are highlighted by didactics. In pedagogy, this is educational material that meets the criteria of scientific character - reliance on reliable facts, the presence of specific examples and a clear conceptual apparatus (scientific terms).
Stability principle
This principle is also determined by didactics in pedagogy. What it is? On the one hand, the principle of strength is determined by the tasks of the educational institution, on the other hand, by the laws of the learning process itself. To rely on the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities (zuns) at all subsequent stages of training, as well as for their practical application, it is necessary to clearly assimilate them and keep them in memory for a long time.
Principle of accessibility (feasibility)
The emphasis is on the real possibilities of students in such a way as to avoid physical and mental overload. In case of non-complianceAccording to this principle, in the learning process, as a rule, there is a decrease in the motivation of students. Also, performance suffers, which leads to rapid fatigue.
The other extreme is the oversimplification of the material being studied, which also does not contribute to the effectiveness of training. For its part, didactics as a branch of pedagogy defines the principle of accessibility as a path from the simple to the complex, from the known to the unknown, from the particular to the general, etc.
Teaching methods, according to the classical theory of L. S. Vygotsky, should focus on the zone of "proximal development", develop the child's strengths and abilities. In other words, learning should lead the development of the child. At the same time, this principle may have its own specifics in certain pedagogical approaches. For example, in some teaching systems it is proposed to start not with close material, but with the main one, not with individual elements, but with their structure, etc.
Principle of consciousness and activity
The principles of didactics in pedagogy are aimed not only directly at the learning process itself, but also at the formation of the appropriate behavior of students. Thus, the principle of consciousness and activity implies a purposeful active perception by students of the phenomena being studied, as well as their comprehension, creative processing and practical application. First of all, we are talking about activity aimed at the process of independent search for knowledge, and not at their usual memorization. To apply this principle in the learning process are widely usedvarious methods of stimulating the cognitive activity of students. Didactics, pedagogy, psychology should equally focus on the personal resources of the subject of education, including his creative and heuristic abilities.
According to the concept of L. N. Zankov, the decisive factor in the learning process is, on the one hand, students' understanding of knowledge at the conceptual level, and on the other hand, understanding the applied value of this knowledge. It is necessary to master a certain technology of mastering knowledge, which, in turn, requires a high level of consciousness and activity from students.
The principle of connection between theory and practice
In various philosophical teachings, practice has long been a criterion for the truth of knowledge and a source of cognitive activity of the subject. Didactics is also based on this principle. In pedagogy, this is a criterion for the effectiveness of the knowledge gained by students. The more the acquired knowledge finds its manifestation in practical activities, the more intensely the students' consciousness manifests itself in the learning process, the higher their interest in this process.
The principle of systematicity and consistency
Didactics in pedagogy is, first of all, an emphasis on a certain systematic nature of the transmitted knowledge. According to the basic scientific provisions, the subject can be considered the owner of effective, real knowledge only if he has a clear picture of the surrounding external world in his mind in the form of a system of interrelated concepts.
The formation of a system of scientific knowledge should take place in a certain sequence, given by the logic of the educational material, as well as the cognitive abilities of students. If this principle is not observed, the speed of the learning process slows down significantly.
Visibility principle
I. A. Comenius wrote that the learning process should be based on the personal observation of students and their sensual visibility. At the same time, didactics, as a section of pedagogy, highlights several visualization functions that vary depending on the specifics of a particular stage of learning: an image can act as an object of study, as a support for understanding the relationships between individual properties of an object (diagrams, drawings), etc.
Thus, in accordance with the level of development of abstract thinking of students, the following types of visualization are distinguished (classification by T. I. Ilyina):
- natural clarity (aimed at objects of objective reality);
- experimental clarity (implemented in the process of experiments and experiments);
- volumetric visibility (using models, layouts, various shapes, etc.);
- pictorial clarity (carried out with the help of drawings, paintings and photographs);
- sound-visual visibility (through film and television materials);
- symbolic and graphical clarity (using formulas, maps, diagrams and graphs);
- internalvisibility (creation of speech images).
Main didactic concepts
Understanding the essence of the learning process is the main point that didactics is aimed at. In pedagogy, this understanding is considered primarily from the position of the dominant goal of learning. There are several leading theoretical concepts of learning:
- Didactic encyclopedism (J. A. Comenius, J. Milton, I. V. Basedov): the dominant goal of learning is to transfer the maximum amount of experience to students. On the one hand, intensive educational methods provided by the teacher are necessary, on the other hand, the presence of active independent activity of the students themselves.
- Didactic formalism (I. Pestalozzi, A. Diesterverg, A. Nemeyer, E. Schmidt, A. B. Dobrovolsky): the emphasis is shifted from the amount of knowledge gained to the development of students' abilities and interests. The main thesis is the ancient saying of Heraclitus: "Much knowledge does not teach the mind." Accordingly, it is necessary first of all to form the student's ability to think correctly.
- Didactic pragmatism or utilitarianism (J. Dewey, G. Kershensteiner) - learning as a reconstruction of students' experience. According to this approach, the mastery of social experience should take place through the mastery of all types of society's activities. The study of individual subjects is replaced by practical exercises aimed at familiarizing the student with various types of activities. Students are thus given complete freedom in the choice of disciplines. The main disadvantage of this approach– violation of the dialectical relationship between practical and cognitive activity.
- Functional materialism (V. Okon): the integral connection between cognition and activity is considered. Academic disciplines should focus on key ideas of worldview significance (class struggle in history, evolution in biology, functional dependence in mathematics, etc.). The main drawback of the concept: when the educational material is limited exclusively by leading worldview ideas, the process of obtaining knowledge becomes reduced.
- Paradigm approach (G. Scheyerl): rejection of the historical-logical sequence in the learning process. The material is proposed to be presented in focus, i.e. focus on certain typical facts. Accordingly, there is a violation of the principle of consistency.
- Cybernetic approach (E. I. Mashbits, S. I. Arkhangelsky): learning acts as a process of processing and transmitting information, the specifics of which are determined by didactics. This makes it possible to use the theory of information systems in pedagogy.
- Associative approach (J. Locke): sensory cognition is considered the basis of learning. A separate role is given to visual images that contribute to such a mental function of students as generalization. Exercises are used as the main teaching method. This does not take into account the role of creative activity and independent search in the process of obtaining knowledge by students.
- The concept of the phased formation of mental actions (P. Ya. Galperin, N. F. Talyzina). Learning must be throughcertain interconnected stages: the process of preliminary acquaintance with the action and the conditions for its implementation, the formation of the action itself with the deployment of the operations corresponding to it; the process of forming an action in inner speech, the process of transforming actions into convoluted mental operations. This theory is especially effective when training begins with object perception (for example, in athletes, drivers, musicians). In other cases, the theory of the gradual formation of mental actions may be limited.
- Management approach (V. A. Yakunin): the learning process is considered from the position of management and the main management stages. This is the goal, the information basis of training, forecasting, making an appropriate decision, executing this decision, the communication stage, monitoring and evaluating results, correction.
As mentioned above, didactics is a branch of pedagogy that studies the problems of the learning process. In turn, the main didactic concepts consider the learning process from the point of view of the dominant educational goal, as well as in accordance with a certain system of relations between the teacher and students.
