Didactics (from the Greek. "Didacticos" - "teaching") is a branch of pedagogical knowledge that studies the problems of training 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 fundamentals of didactics of special pedagogy aimed at the learning process and education of children with developmental anomalies have their own specifics.
Differentiation of concepts
One of the key in didactics is the concept of education and its components - teaching and teaching, as well as the concept of education. The main criterion for differentiation (as didactics defines this in pedagogy) is the ratio of goals and means. Thus, education is a goal, while education is a means of achieving this goal.
Learning, in turn, includes components such as teaching and learning. Teaching is the systematic guidance of the teacher in the educational activities of students - determining the volume and content of this activity. Learning is the process by which students learn the content of education. It includes both the activities of the teacher (instruction, control), and the activities of the students themselves. Moreover, the learning process can take place both in the form of direct control by the teacher (in the lesson), and in the form of self-education.
Main goals
In modern didactics, it is customary to distinguish the following tasks:
- humanization of the learning process,
- differentiation and individualization of the learning process,
- the formation of intersubject communication between the studied disciplines,
- the formation of cognitive activity of students,
- development of mental abilities,
- the formation of moral-volitional qualities of the personality.
Thus, the tasks of didactics in pedagogy can be divided into two main groups. On the one hand, these are tasks focused on the description and explanation of the learning process and the conditions for its implementation; on the other, on the development of 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. Komensky and others. In this case, we are talking exclusively about scientifically based ideas on which didactics in pedagogy are based. So, for example, Ya. A. Komensky 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 on which didactics in pedagogy is based.
Basic principles:
- science
- strength
- availability (feasibility),
- consciousness and activity
- the connection between theory and practice,
- systematic and consistent
- visibility.
Principle of science
It is aimed at forming a complex of scientific knowledge among students. The principle is implemented in the process of analyzing educational material, its main ideas, which are distinguished by didactics. In pedagogy, this is educational material that meets the criteria of scientificness - relying on reliable facts, the presence of specific examples and a clear conceptual framework (scientific terms).
Strength principle
This principle also defines didactics in pedagogy. What it is? On the one hand, the principle of strength is determined by the objectives of the educational institution, and on the other, by the laws of the learning process itself. To rely on the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities (zunas) at all subsequent stages of training, as well as for their practical application, their clear assimilation and long-term retention in memory is necessary.
The principle of accessibility (feasibility)
The emphasis is on the real possibilities of students in such a way as to avoid physical and mental overload. If this principle is not observed in the learning process, as a rule, there is a decrease in student motivation. Efficiency also suffers, which leads to fatigue.
The other extreme is the excessive simplification 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 simple to complex, from known to unknown, from particular to general, etc.
Teaching methods, according to the classical theory of L. S. Vygotsky, should be guided by the zone of "immediate development", develop the strength and abilities of the child. In other words, education should lead the development of the child. Moreover, this principle may have its own specifics in certain pedagogical approaches. For example, in some training systems it is proposed to start not with close material, but with the main, not with individual elements, but with their structure, etc.
The principle of consciousness and activity
The principles of didactics in pedagogy are aimed not only directly at the learning process itself, but also at shaping the appropriate behavior of students. So, the principle of consciousness and activity implies a purposeful active perception by students of the phenomena studied, as well as their understanding, creative processing and practical application. We are talking primarily 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, various methods of stimulating students' cognitive activity are widely used. Didactics, pedagogy, psychology should equally be guided by the personal resources of the subject of training, including his creative and heuristic abilities.
According to the concept of L. N. Zankov, the decisive in the learning process is, on the one hand, students' understanding of knowledge at a conceptual level, and on the other, understanding the applied value of this knowledge. It is necessary to master a certain technology of assimilation of knowledge, which, in turn, requires students to have a high level of consciousness and activity.
The principle of the connection of theory with 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 knowledge acquired by students. The more knowledge gained is manifested in practical activities, the more intense is the consciousness of students in the learning process, the higher their interest in this process.
The principle of consistency and consistency
Didactics in pedagogy is, first of all, an emphasis on a certain systematization of transmitted knowledge. According to the basic scientific principles, a subject can be considered the owner of effective, real knowledge only if he has in his mind a clear picture of the surrounding external world 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
Ya. A. Komensky wrote that the learning process should be based on personal observation of students and their sensual visibility. At the same time, didactics as a section of pedagogy distinguishes several visualization functions that vary depending on the specifics of a particular stage of training: an image can act as an object of study, as a support for understanding the connections 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 visibility are distinguished (classification by T. I. Ilyina):
- natural visibility (aimed at objects of objective reality);
- experimental visualization (realized in the process of experiments and experiments);
- volume visualization (use of models, layouts, various figures, etc.);
- visual clarity (carried out using drawings, paintings and photographs);
- sound-visual clarity (through film and television materials);
- symbolic and graphic visualization (the use of formulas, maps, charts and graphs);
- internal visibility (creation of speech images).
Basic 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 (Ya. A. Komensky, J. Milton, I.V. Basedov): the transfer of the maximum knowledge experience to students is the dominant goal of education. On the one hand, the 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. Disterverg, A. Nemeyer, E. Schmidt, A. B. Dobrovolsky): the emphasis from the amount of knowledge gained is transferred to the development of students' abilities and interests. The main thesis becomes the ancient statement of Heraclitus: "Mnogoznanie 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 student experience. According to this approach, the mastery of social experience should take place through the development of all types of society. The study of individual subjects is replaced by practical exercises aimed at introducing the student to various activities. Pupils, therefore, are given complete freedom in the choice of disciplines. The main disadvantage of this approach is a violation of the dialectical relationship of practical and cognitive activity.
- Functional materialism (V. Okon): the integral relationship of cognition with activity is considered. Academic disciplines should be guided by 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 to leading worldview ideas, the process of obtaining knowledge acquires a reduced character.
- Paradigm approach (G. Scheuerl): rejection of historical and logical sequence in the learning process. It is proposed to present the material focally, 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): training acts as a process of processing and transmitting information, the specificity of which is determined by didactics. This in pedagogy allows using the theory of information systems.
- Associative approach (J. Locke): sensory knowledge 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. As the main educational method exercises are used. At the same time, the role of creative activity and independent search in the process of students gaining knowledge is not taken into account.
- The concept of phased formation of mental actions (P. Ya. Halperin, N.F. Talyzina). Training should go through certain, interconnected stages: the process of preliminary familiarization with the action and the conditions for its implementation, the formation of the action itself with the deployment of its corresponding operations; the process of forming an action in inner speech, the process of transforming actions into minimized mental operations. This theory is particularly effective when training begins with objective perception (for example, among athletes, drivers, musicians). In other cases, the theory of the gradual formation of mental actions may be of a limited nature.
- Management approach (V. A. Yakunin): the learning process is considered from the perspective of management and the main management stages. This is the goal, the information basis of training, forecasting, making an appropriate decision, the implementation of this decision, the communication phase, monitoring and evaluation of results, correction.
As mentioned above, didactics is a section of pedagogy that studies the problems of the learning process. In turn, the basic 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.