Journal of el hikma for philosophical studies

Volume: / N°: ( ), p -
Issn : 2353- Eissn :2602-

Didactics : an overview on the key concepts

Mezaini Djilali , Khemmad Mohammed
University of Djilali Bounaama Khemis Miliana(Algeria), [email protected]
University of El Oued(Algeria), [email protected]
Received: / / Accepted: / / Published: / /
Abstract:
This study aims at identifying didactics as a science with its own concepts and theoretical
principles. It also aims at clarifying the development of this concept in Arabic and foreign
languages, and clarifying the difference in the use of the connotation of this word among the Arab
countries and to make distinction between types of didactics. The didactics is based on the study of
the triadic interaction of the teacher, the learner, and knowledge. We also took a closer look at
some concepts such as: didactic contract, didactic transposition, didactic obstacles, didactic
perceptions, as well as didactic situations. We also some historical facts about didactics in the
Algerian educational system.
Keywords: didactics, didcatic contract, didctic transposition, obstacles.
:‫ملخص‬
‫ كما تهدف إلى ثىضيح الذي حصل في هذا‬.‫تهدف هذه الدراشة إلى التعزف على التعليمية كعلم له مفاهيمه و مبادئه‬
‫ فالتعليمية بنيت‬.‫ كما ثزمي هذه الدراشة إلى ثىضيح الفزوق بين أهماط التعليمية‬.‫املفهىم في اللغة العزبية و اللغات ألاجنبية‬
‫ كم ثناولت الدراشة الحالية بش يء من التفضيل لبعض‬. ‫واملعزفة‬ ،‫ التلميذ‬،‫على أشاس دراشةالتفاعل الثالثي بين املعلم‬
‫ وثطزق‬. ‫ التصىرات التعليمية والىضعيات التعليمية‬،‫ العىائق التعليمية‬،‫ النقلة التعليمية‬،‫ العقد التعليمي‬:‫املفاهيم مثل‬
.‫الباحثان كذلك إلى بعض النقاط التاريخية املتعلقة ببداًات اشتخدام مفهىم التعليمية في املنظىمة التربىية بالجزائز‬
.‫ العىائق التعليمية‬،‫ النقلة التعليمية‬،‫ العقد التعليمي‬،‫ التعليمية‬:‫كلمات مفتاحيه‬
_____________
Corresponding author:Mezaini Djilali,
. INTRODUCTION
Many teachers find it difficult to communicate their teaching contents and transform them
into abilities and skills that can be easily acquired by learners. Moreover, the learner by his turn
faces a great deal of difficulties that prevent him from grasping those contents. Consequently The
negative results are clearly noticed during classroom assessments. The main reason for that failure
might be due to the fact that our traditional curricula as well as our teaching methods put more
emphasis on the lower cognitive teaching objectives such as recalling ,rather than the higher ones.
On the other hand, we might ,by no means, be able to overcome those shortcomings unless we
intend to apply the reliable findings of the recent studies that focus on transforming the scholar
knowledge into teachable knowledge that fosters the learners 'competencies and establish the
appropriate environment to boost their creative abilities and motivate them to actively acquire
knowledge.
No one can ignore the fact that effective teaching is not limited to the teacher‟s ability to
master the content area of any teaching subject, but it rather, requires that the teacher should have
accurate and comprehensive knowledge of the components of the teaching process. And didactics is
the science that is interested in studying of interrelation of these components.
 Mezaini Djilali Khemmad Mohammed
. The evolution of the concept of didactics
Didactics was defined by Dolch as " the science of learning and teaching in general. It deals
with learning in all possible forms and with teaching of all kinds at all levels"
(Zierer&Seel,2012,p.1). As for Cheval lard, didactics is defined as the science of dissemination (and
the non-dissemination, or even the retention) of knowledge and practices in a determined group of
human – a school classroom, “the” society, an institution, etc (Chevallard,
And to investigate the core of didactics, Jank and Meyer (2002) suggested the following
questions: “Who should learn what?, from whom? ,when?, with whom?, where?, how?, with what?
and for which purpose?” These questions are often addressed by various didactic approaches
(Zierer&Seel,2012,p.1). The foundational period of
didactics goes back to the seventeenth century ,and it is well common to connect the first modern
use of the term with Wolfgang Ratke (1571–1635), who presented a reform programmer, the so-
called “Frankfurter Memorial” for schools in 1612 (Kansanen, 1992, p. 5). In those days didactics
was primarily known as “the art of teaching”. For Johann Amos Comenius, i.e. Jan Komensky
(1592– 6 ), didactics was an art. It was the art of “teaching everything to everybody”
(Uljens1997). Comenius wrote the Didactica Magna 6 ) expecting that using both a new
method and more effective teaching media would make it possible to teach everyone everything
(omnes omnis) both quickly and effectively. According to Folke 9 ): The French word “
didactique” was derived from the Greek “Didactikos”, which means: “let us learn”, (i.e, we teach
each other, or I learn from you, and I teach you).Moreover, the term “Didasko” corresponds to I
learn, while “Didaskon” means education Lourci, ). But according to Blankertz, didactics ,
however, should not be confused with the French term “didactique”, a term still used today for a
specific kind of instructional literature (Blankertz, 1987, p. 21). This usage has its roots in Greek
literature.
As far as the Arabic language is concerned,it always happened to come across a variety of Arabic
terms that correspnd to just one single word in other foreign languages, and this may be due to the
diversity of translation sources, including the multiplicity of terms derived from English or from
French, since they are the two common languages from which new terms are borrowed, among
which the term “didactique” in French and “didactics” in English, which are closer in meaning to
the follwing arabic terms: “taelimiat, taelimiaat, eilm altadris, eilm altaelim, altadrisiat,
aldidaktik ". And Those terms vary in use all over the Arabic countries. Some Arab researchers
prefer using the term “aldidaktik” to avoid any confusion in the concept, while others prefer using
other equivalent terms. According to Hanafi bin Issa the word “taelimiat” in the Arabic
language is stemmed from the word “taalim” which is derived from word “allema” which means
placing a mark to denote something without bringing it (Derridj,2011,p.8). And it also referred to a
type of poetry that expresses scientific or technical knowledge. And according to Blankertz,
didactic literature comprised various kinds of instructional poems which existed alongside with the
heroic and historical poems. These instructional poems are quite similar to our instructional
ryhming poetry, which was written on purpose to help learners to easily and quickly grasp,
memorize, and recall what they learn.
Although the concept of didactics remained prevalent until the sixties,it was limited to the
educational activities, and used interchageably with the pedagogy, and it was extremely hard to
make a clear cut between them.
 Didactics : an overview on the key concepts
3. Didactic object
Every teaching and learning process and at any level consists of three basic factors (teacher,
learner, and the content ).These factors interact reciprocally forming the so-called “didactic
triangle”. According to Jean Houssaye, every teaching situation
can be described as a triangle consisting of three main poles: knowledge, teacher and learner. All
the teaching process is based on a particular relationship between two of these three elements and
the exclusion of the third with which each of the chosen elements must maintain contact
(Houssaye,1996).

A figure: shows the three poles of didactics

The relationship between the poles of the didactic triangle that determines the learning
situation, which takes place through taking into account the balance between these poles when
planning and implementing according to each teaching-learning situation and not neglecting any of
its components, to avoid falling into what Mirieu called “drifts”. Philip Mirieu identifies three types
of drifts in which the teacher can fall during the planning and implementation process, and these
types are as follows:
Curriculum drift : a process whereby the learning experiences associated with a curriculum do not
match the specific syllabus associated with desired outcomes.
Demiurgic drift : the teacher on himself as a teacher and transmitter of knowledge
Psychological drift : the teacher focuses is totally on the learner and neglects the other two
components.
. Branches of Didactics
Legendre states in the “Dictionnaire actuel de l‟éducation ” that a distinction must be made
whenever didactics is defined.
. General Didactics
The concept of General Didactics, is a unified body of knowledge about teaching and
learning can be applied in all the different disciplines. It represents the overarching theory of both
decision making on and processes of teaching and learning in societal institutions .
 Mezaini Djilali Khemmad Mohammed
. Specific Subject)
It is a type of a subject-related didactics that studies the conditions for the transmission of
“culture” specific to an institution as well as the conditions for the acquisition of knowledge by a
learner .This type of didactics allows teachers of a certain discipline or subject to help their learners
grasp the content taught with rigor and efficacy. It is also considered as a part of General Didactics,
and is equally concerned with laws, data and principles, but on a smaller scale, because it is related
to one academic subject, deals with a particular subject ,and uses particular teaching techniques.
.Basic concepts of didactics
Although didactics is considered as a newly emerging science that relies on linguistics,
epistemology, pedagogy and psychology, it has rapidly established and developed special
theoretical concepts for it.
. Didactic contract
The Didactic Contract typically implies the „modification‟ of knowledge. Brousseau 99 )
describes the Didactic Contract as „a system of rules, mostly implicit, associating the students and
the teacher, for a given piece of knowledge‟ p. ).This term was introduced by "Brousseau " and "
Chevallard " in 1990, through which they stressed that the relationship between the teacher and the
learner is tied by a set of reciprocal obligations in a didactic situation that appear in the form of
behaviors based on clear rules explicitly or implicitly that are expressed. The teacher expects a set
of particular responses and behaviors from the learners, and in return the learners expect a particular
set of behaviors from the teacher.
The Didactic contract differs from the pedagogical contract in the way that it is not limited to
teaching strategies, but it rather goes beyond it to researching the contents and their methods of
teaching. The corner stone of the didactic contract is the students‟ acquisition of abilities, skills and
knowledge.
. Didactic Transposition
The notion of didactic transposition was introduced in the field of didactics of mathematics
by Yves Chevallard , and it refers to the transformation an object or a body of knowledge undergoes
from the moment it is produced, put into use, selected, and designed to be taught until it is actually
taught in a given educational institution(Chevallard , 9 , 99 ).The didactic transposition is the
process by which a content of knowledge is modified to adapt it to its teaching to a less technical
level, accessible to non-specialised students. In this way, wise knowledge is transformed into taught
knowledge , appropriate to the student's level (Chevallard,2005).The process of transposition is
described using a number of key subconcepts that are first „desynscretisation‟, which refers to the
fact that the knowledge is cut off from its origin; second, „depersonalisation‟ because the
knowledge is no longer linked to its producer; third, „programmability‟, which is based on the
knowledge being „elementarized and organized‟ according to a progression and, finally, „publicity
and social control of learning‟ (Hudson ,2016
Didactic transposition involves a series of stages in which the scientific knowledge is
progressively adapted to the level of the learners. This knowledge is shaped according to the
objectives of the curriculum proposed by the educational authorities and, both the authors of the
school books and the teachers themselves in the classroom are involved in this process, making the
knowledge useful for the learners. When one wishes to “transpose” a body of knowledge from its
original habitat to school, specific work should be carried out to rebuild an appropriate environment
with activities aimed at making this knowledge “teachable,” meaningful, and useful (Chevallard &
Bosch, 2013). One can dis tinguish trhree types of knowledge :
 Didactics : an overview on the key concepts
a) Scholarly knowledge „savoir savant‟): Because the contexts of scientists in which scholarly
knowledge is constructed are not similar to the contexts of learners in school or other educational
situations (Fensham, 2002).
b) The knowledge to be taught (Savoir a Enseigner): It is the one that is found in curricula and
textbooks and is derived from scientific knowledge. The main difference between them is that
scientific knowledge is characterized by broadness, openness, and fulfillment of pure scientific
purposes, while this knowledge is governed by closure and selection in order to serve the goals of
an educational project.
c) Learned Knowledge (Savoir Enseigné):The learned knowledge is represented in what is
actually circulated by teachers and the learners, and it derives its content from the knowledge to be
taught (curricula and textbooks). It can also be taken from other tributaries such as exam topics,
forums, formative courses that the teacher undergoes, the teacher‟s own experiences...etc.
And according to chevallard, didactic transposition includes two major steps (Chevallard, 1991,

a) External transposition: It refers to the process of selecting, adapting, organizing and declaring the
“knowledge to be taught”beginning from scholarly knowledge and ending with all the teaching
materials that can be proposed in a given course (Bosch et al,2021).
b) Internal transposition : It refers to the process of transforming programmes and syllabi or the
“knowledge to be taught” into the “actually taught knowledge” in classrooms. The teacher‟s role at
this level is chiefly concerned with the functions of thinking and practice, in addition to the
evaluation and intervention to adapt the teaching ressources to correspond to the level and
characteristics of his group of learners.
.3Didactic Obstacles
The word Didactic obstacles refers to the obstacles that prevent access to building knowledge
in good conditions, hinder the process of teaching and learning in the desired manner, and stand as a
stumbling block that hinders learners‟ control of concepts, and prevents them from acquiring
knowledge, skills, and experiences in appropriate conditions .Obstacle can take two forms:
a).Positive form: we consider the obstacle as positive when it is seen as a challenge, and turns into
an exciting one that helps the learner to achieve his learning objectives and expectations.
b).Negative aspect: the obstacle takes a negative form when it is regarded as a source of learner
failure.
.3. The nature of didactic obstacles
According to ditactic experts, didactic obstacles are a result of two major causes:
a) Epistemological causes: They refer to the teaching approach adopted in the classroom, such
as opting for a methodology, or a teaching method that seems inappropriate for the learner.
b) Psychological causes: They represent the perceptions and beliefs held by both the teacher
and the learner which stand as an obstacle that hinders the learning process. Educators believe that
the student's first interaction with knowledge is clearly affected by his previous knowledge.
.4Didactic representations
Didactic representations are a set of common concepts and firm practical rules established by
individuals based on their experience, knowledge, and research results. These representations are
considered as a cornerstone in interacting with learners, planning for lessons to make learning
happen.
The teacher‟s correct perception of the students‟ situations, their prior knowledge, personal
characteristics, and their way of thinking is one of the most important factors for success in
 Mezaini Djilali Khemmad Mohammed
developing curricula, planning for lessons, and achieving the goals of the teaching
process.Moreover,these perceptions and beliefs relate to all teaching subjets.
Learners‟ perceptions of any type of knowledge may happen to be more or less wrong, and
modern education considers that error is part of the learning process. Therefore, analyzing the
learners‟ errors and identifying their sources is necessary to promote his educational performance.
And if the teacher is required to modify the learners‟ beliefs and perceptions and help them
detecting their errors , and he is also required to plan his lessons on his practical perceptions of
knowledge, and on the assumptions of the teaching method that corresponds to the characteristics of
the learner.
.5Didactical situations
The theory of didactical Situations began to develop in the 1960s in France, initiated by Guy
Brousseau who has led its development since that time. A first synthesis was published in 1997
(Brousseau 99 ). And a situation refers to a system of interactions between three poles: students,
teacher and knowledge. And knowledge, according to Brousseau (1998), is a property of a system
constituted by a subject and a “milieu” in interaction. Learning occurs through this interaction: the
subject acts within and receives feedback from the milieu and the important role of the teacher is to
establish an environment that facilitates the learning process. And we can find different types of
didactical situations :
.5. Situation of action
The “didactic situations” of action are those in which the learner, who is actively engaged in
the search for a solution to a certain problem, performs certain more immediate actions, which
result in the production of knowledge of a more operational nature (Catarino,2020,p.229) . (a) the
students are willing to adopt it as their own, and are interested in solving it to satisfy their own
curiosity or ambition; (b) the students have the means to construct the solution by themselves, either
by inventing a new procedure or choosing one among those they know, without, however, the
teacher suggesting which one to choose. In this situation ( Sierpinska,2003), knowledge appears as
a means for solving a problem or a class of problems.It allows learners to demonstrate their
knowledge in the form of a decision making. Such a situation aims at creating a sort of interaction
between the learner and the environment.
Situation of action can be hard to organise and are rather time consuming,so it is probably
realistic only to include a small number of such situations in a course (pederson,2010).
.5.2Formulation situation
The “didactic situations” of formulation are those in which the learner already uses some
explicit theoretical models or schemes in attempts to solving a problem, in addition to showing an
evident working with theoretical information in a much more elaborated way.
Sierpinska mentioned that “ The milieu for the learners is developed on the basis of some
previously shared experience or activity: The learners exchange and compare observations between
themselves. They may not have the language to formulate their observations, so their main effort in
this situation goes into creating such a language and agree on some common meanings. The teacher
chairs the exchanges (in order to avoid chaos) and highlights (repeats louder, writes on the board)
some formulations of the students, in case they may not have been heard by other learners.
Knowledge, in this situation, appears as a result of a personal experience, which needs to be
communicated, and thus slightly de-personalized and decontextualized, in order to be understood by
others ” (Sierpinska,2003,p. ).
 Didactics : an overview on the key concepts
.5.3Situation of validation
The “didactic situations” of validation are those in which The teacher takes on the role of the
theoretician evaluating the productions of other theoreticians, whose role, in the classroom, is
played by the students. The This situation requires the learners to have the ability to convince others
of the validity and legitimacy of the results reached by them.Learners try to explain some
phenomenon, or to verify a theoretical conjecture. The teacher acts as the chair of a scientific
debate: s/he intervenes only to put some order in the debate among Learners, draw their attention to
possible inconsistencies, and encourage them to be more precise and systematic in the use of
concepts ( Sierpinska,2003) This situation is the most difficult and complex factor because it
requires providing explanation and contextualization of the proof (Brousseau, ).
6.Didactics in the Algerian educational system
The term “Didactis” appeared first through some texts and not by survey, and it did not
reflect explicitly the actual meaning after independence, but what appeared in text are another term
that indicates its meaning, which is “methodology of teaching” . Grifou announced that“The first
Algerian official text regulating the Algerian school after independence dates back to 1965, and the
thing that distinguishes this text (this text was not mentioned) is that it cut off all connections with
the traditional pedagogies, whether it was related to Arabic or French.Since then, thanks to this
decisive text, we moved to the era of teaching methodologies (ie teaching methods) and in such a
way both Arabic and French teaching methods were introduced (Greffou,1989,p.21).
In this regard, Abd al-Rahman bin Bouika 99 ) mentioned that the term “ Didactics”, which
was translated in Algeria into“Subject Matter Didactics” or “ Didactics of a discipline”.
Ali bin Mohammed (1991) - the former Minister of Education – stated that the term “ Subject
Matter Didactics” appeared clearly and was officially used in the Algerian school at the beginning
of March, 1991 when the Algerian Ministry of Education organized a series of national forums at
(the Palais des Nations )that extended from the beginning of March to the end of April 1991 to carry
out a more in depth investigations regarding the subject of didactics in a variety disciplines
(language and literature, didactics of scientific subjects, and didactics of social sciences and foreign
languages).The main issue of the forums revolves around the following questions :What do we
teach? Whom do we teach? And how do we teach? these questions and others are meant to convey
the idea that the teacher has become required more than ever to have access to modern information,
to have accurate knowledge of the learning mechanism, and all the steps of the educational process,
starting from defining the contents and ending with preparing and evaluating teaching materials.
7. CONCLUSION
The rapid evolution of the teaching practices throughout discipines, is due practically to the
growth of research scope regarding didactics. The research findings have been contributing in the
identification of the nature of the factors that are involved in the teaching and learning process.
Given the significance didactics in the field of education, we tried through this paperto shed the
light on the main components of didactics , give definition to the different concepts regarding the
field of didactics,and trace back its first beginning nationally and internationally.
 Mezaini Djilali Khemmad Mohammed
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