The collection of chapters in this book results from ongoing scientific discussions on teaching, learning and curriculum studies in Europe. Didactics as a research field and area of knowledge deals with questions about teaching, learning and educational content. Didactics explores institutionalized teaching and learning processes that are fundamental to allow people living together and acting as citizens. It connects curriculum issues to classroom practices and student's learning experience in a unique manner that goes beyond the field of curriculum studies and the field of the learning sciences. Focusing on different research traditions for conceptualizing the relationships between learning and teaching through the educational content learnt, the book presents advanced research in field of "Didactics - teaching and learning" that addresses the new challenges faced by the teaching profession.
The collection of chapters in this book supports the continuous growth of comparative research on classroom practices and addresses in a novel manner the need for including international perspectives on Didactics in teacher education programs and graduate schools in education worldwide.
Part 1 highlights the recent advances in the theoretical development of Didactics and more particularly the development of comparative didactics. Part 2 illustrates the diversity and complementarities of theoretical and methodological approaches for the empirical study of classroom practices. Part 3 maps certain societal challenges that didactic research faces in a changing world.
Florence Ligozat is Professor in Comparative Didactics in the Department of Educational Sciences at the University of Geneva, in Switzerland. During her doctoral and post-doctoral studies, her research focused on mathematics didactics and science didactics. Her current research investigates the didactic transposition of knowledge in classroom practices and the specific / generic dimensions of teaching through the modeling of the teacher and student's joint actions in different educational contexts. She is particularly interested in cross-cultural comparisons of classroom practices and research traditions in Didactics in European countries. She chaired the French-speaking Association for Comparative Research in Didactics (2012-2016). She is currently convenor of EERA Network 27 Didactics - Learning and teaching, and she acted as Main Link convenor of this network in the period 2016-2021.
Kirsti Klette is a distinguished professor at the Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo. Her research interests include research on teaching and learning, teaching quality, classroom studies and comparative studies. She has been the principal investigator for several international and comparative projects targeted classroom learning including the large-scale video study "Linking Instruction and Student Achievement" (LISA) analyzing how instructional practices in mathematics and language arts impact student learning, and the "Synthesizing Research on Teaching Quality" (SYNTEQ) summarizing how classroom video documentation develop our understanding of teaching quality. She is also the Director of the newly funded Nordic Center of Excellence "Quality in Nordic Teaching" (QUINT) drawing on comparative classroom video data from all Nordic countries. She is one of the founder of the EERA Network 27 Didactics – Learning and Teaching, and she acts as convenor of this network since 2005.
Jonas Almqvist is Professor at the Department of Education, Uppsala University in Sweden. He is the scientific director of the Research Group for Comparative Didactics. He develops research in comparative didactics with a focus on issues of teaching and learning in different subjects (mainly biology, chemistry and physics) in compulsory school and in preschool. He currently leads the international research network "Comparative didactics and professional development for teachers" funded by the Swedish Research Council. He is currently convenor of the EERA Network 27 Didactics – Learning and teaching and he acted as Deputy Link Convenor of this network in the period 2014-2021.
Foreword.- 1. Introduction.- Part I. Theoretical Reflections on Research Orientations in Didactics.- 2. Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Subject Didactics. An Intercontinental Dialogue?.- 3. Comparative Didactics. A (re)constructive move from Subject Didactics in the French-Speaking Educational Research.- 4. Teaching Traditions in Classroom Practice – A Comparative Didactic Approach.- 5. The Rise, Evolution, and Future of Didactics in Italy: Branching Out Towards New Research Horizons.- Part II. Methods and Lenses for Exploring Teaching and Learning in the Classroom.- 6. Curriculum Materials in Initial Literacy: An Instrumental Approach in Spain.- 7. Mangling Didactic Models for Use in Didactic Analysis of Classroom Interaction.- 8. Issues in "Individualized" Teaching Practice in Germany. An Ethno-Methodological Approach.- 9. Towards Programmatic Research When Studying Classroom Teaching and Learning?.- Part III. Didactics Meets Societal Challenges.- 10. Addressing Gender in French Research on Subject Didactics. A New Line of Investigation in Physical Education.- 11. A Gender-balanced Approach to Teaching Visual Literacy in the Czech Republic.- 12. Didactic Transposition and Learning Game Design. Towards a Ludicization Model for School Visits in Museums.- 13. ICT in the Classroom. Didactical Challenges for Practitioners and Researchers.- Index.