Conference Presentation
Reference
Comparative Didactics: A Reconstructive Move from Subject Didactics. Paper presented in the WERA Symposium "Transnational
Research on Didactics - Learning and Teaching", coordinated by B.
Hudson. European Congress on Educational Research, 8-11 sept 2015, Corvinus University, Hungary.
LIGOZAT, Florence
Abstract
In the history of the modern school systems in Europe, the development of the didactiques des disciplines (subject didactics) originates in 1) the building of “disciplines” (school subjects) as social organisations aimed at producing and diffusing knowledge and 2) the empowerment of the secondary school teachers through professional associations (Schneuwly, 2011).
Subject didactics were thus born as practices of teaching a given discipline and attempts of theorising such practices. Against this background, mass schooling reforms in the 60's -70's in France and their unexpected side effects have prompted a significant turn for the “didactiques des disciplines" (Caillot, 2007; Ligozat & Leutenegger, 2012). They became descriptive and explicative research fields about the irreducible role of the knowledge content in teaching and learning. In this turn, research in didactics of mathematics played an important role in theorising 1) the knowledge transposition inherent to the didactical institutions (Chevallard, 1985/1991; Chevallard & Bosch 2014) and 2) the didactical contract as a framework for understanding the teacher [...]
LIGOZAT, Florence. Comparative Didactics: A Reconstructive Move from Subject Didactics.
Paper presented in the WERA Symposium "Transnational Research on Didactics - Learning and Teaching", coordinated by B. Hudson. European Congress on Educational Research, 8-11 sept 2015, Corvinus University, Hungary. In: European Congress on Educational Research (ECER), Corvinus University, Hungary, 8-11 September, 2015
Available at:
http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:76066
Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version.
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FACULTÉ DE PSYCHOLOGIE
ET DES SCIENCES DE L’ÉDUCATION
Groupe de Recherche en Didactique Comparée
Florence Ligozat
WERA Symposium on Didac;cs -‐ Learning and Teaching Budapest, 8-‐11 September 2015
Compara've didac'cs:
A reconstruc've move
from subject didac%ques
The French-‐speaking Tradi;on for Didac&ques
Les didac&ques : a myriad of research fields aKached to the school subject maKers and their rela;ve academic disciplines
As many didac&ques as there are subject ma6ers taught at school?
Common features of the Didac;ques developed in France (and certain French-‐speaking countries) :
– The quest for an autonomy from the methods and results produced by cogni;ve sciences, sociology, etc. (rejec;on of “applica;onism”)
– A problema;sa;on of the content to be taught (e.g., why, what from, what for, ..etc., epistemological, sociological, historical issues)
– A study of the consequences for teaching and learning in analyzing the exis;ng teaching designs or in building new ones (ingeniered lessons) to be tested in classrooms.
(Caillot 2007, EERJ)
Overview
• A 1
stparadigma;c shiZ (70-‐80’s)
– Form psycho-‐pedagogy to subject didac&ques
• A 2
ndparadigma;c shiZ (2000's)
– Compara;ve didac;cs as a reconstruc;ve move for
studying the [teacher-‐student-‐content] system
A FIRST PARADIGMATIC SHIFT
The rise of subject didac;cs in the 70's -‐ 80's
The Case of Mathema;cs
Late 70’s
« Didac;que des mathéma;ques »
Brousseau , Chevallard (France)
Study of the epistemological and ins;tu;onnal condi;ons for teaching and learning a
mathema;cal content
Psycho-‐pedagogy
Vinh-‐Bang, Morf, Pauli (Genève)
Teaching methods derived from psychology
Gene;c Epistemology
Piaget, Inhelder (Genève)
Adap;ve model of knowing (Subject-‐Object)
Social Psychology
Doise,
Perret –Clermont (Genève)
Socio-‐cultural model of knowledge acquisi;on
Human developement
Biological, Language, Cogni&ve, Affects…etc.
« New maths » reform
Curriculum reform based on set structures
A « language» isolated from problems and
prac&ces
Set theory
Bourbaki, Dieudonné
A structuralist unifying view of mathema;cs as a language
Structuralism
The Case of Physical Educa;on
Early 80’s
« Didac;que de l’éduca;on physique
et spor;ve »
Marsenach et Merand, (France)
Study of the content enactment in ordinary classrooms with respect to the epistemological features of what is taught and learned
Physical Educa;on as a recognized subject
maKer in the na;onal curriculum in France
Psycho-‐pedagogy
Teaching methods derived from motor learning
psychology
Motor learning
Famose ; Schmidt
A cogni;ve approach of motor task
PE is derived from sport psychology
Process-‐product research
Pieron, Brunelle (Belgium), Québec)
Behaviorist analysis of teaching in PE
Posi&vism
Human developement
Biological, Language, Cogni&ve, Affects…etc.
Ecological paradigm
Siedentop, Tousignant (Québec)
In situ analysis of students teacher negoca;ons
(by Chantal Amade-‐Escot)
New Theore;cal Frameworks Emerged…
v Didac;cal Transposi;on of knowledge
(Chevallard 1985/1991)v Didac;cal situa;ons, Milieu & Didac;cal contract
(Brousseau 1986/1997)
Borrowed and/or reworked by others subject didac;cs
• In PE didac;cs : transposi;on, didac;cal contract, situa;on, milieu
• In French language didac;cs : transposi;on, ins;tu;onalisa;on, textual genres
• In social sciences didac;cs : disciplinary contract
• In sciences and technology : referen;al social prac;ces, obstacles
• (etc.)
Mathema;cs Didac;cs
Second language Didac;cs French language
Didac;cs
Science (Biology, Physics, Chemistry)
Didac;cs
Social Sciences (History, Geography, Ci;zenship) Didac;cs
Physical Educa;on
Didac;cs Arts Didac;cs […]
Technology Didac;cs
The Field of the Subject Didac&ques
New issues
• The division of school subjects as the ground of the Didac;ques (or subject didac;cs)
• The teacher's interven;on in the classroom
• The students' learning through the school subjects
Compara;ve Research in Didac;cs
2002 : “Vers une didac&que comparée”, special issue, Revue Française de Pédagogie (Mercier, Schubauer-‐Leoni & Sensevy)
2006 : the “Associa;on pour les Recherches Compara;stes en Didac;ques” (ARCD, Lyon) ini;ates a dialogue among researchers involved in (subject) didac;cs.
Ø Aims
• “The construc;on of a scien;fic community concerned by issues in didac;cs at large;
• The inscrip;on of didac;cal issues, rela;ng to the individual, ins;tu;onal and social condi;ons of transmission and sharing of knowledge (know-‐how and know-‐what), within the field of social and human sciences”.
(Translated from the By-‐Laws of the ARCD)
Compara;ve Research in Didac;cs
But a debate is open within the ARCD:
• Favor horizontal discussions between subject didac;cs in order to iden;fy their complementari;es and
reciprocal needs of each other ? à “interdidac;cs”
and/or
• Elaborate a boKom up reconstruc;ve move about teaching and learning from the various
conceptualiza;ons made by the subject didac;cs ? à
“compara;ve didac;cs”
“a science of the condi&ons of diffusion of knowledge in any ins&tu&ons, such as a class of pupils, society at large…etc.
More par&cularly didac&cs [sic] is the scien&fic study (and the knowledge resul&ng thereof) of the innumerable ac&ons taken to cause (or impede) the diffusion of such and such a body of knowledge in such and such ins&tu&on”
The domain of study of la didac&que is made of didac&cal facts : “any fact that can be in some way looked at as the effect of a socially situated wish [purpose] to cause
someone learn something”
(Chevallard, 2007, EERJ).
La Didac&que ?
Rela;onships between
Compara;ve Didac;cs & Subject Didac;cs
Mathema;cs Didac;cs
Second language Didac;cs French language
Didac;cs
Science (Biology, Physics, Chemistry)
Didac;cs
Social Sciences (History, Geography, Ci;zenship) Didac;cs
Physical Educa;on
Didac;cs Arts Didac;cs […]
Technology Didac;cs
« Subject Didac;cs »
Realm
Inves;ga;on of classroom prac;ces Specific and generic ac;ons within the
didac;cal system
Inves;ga;on of frameworks
Specific and generic analy;cal categories -‐ selected from subject didac;cs -‐ derived from human and social sciences
« Compara;ve Didac;cs »
(by Chantal Amade-‐Escot)
TOWARD A 2
ND. PARADIGMATIC SHIFT ???
Some condi;ons for fostering research in didac;cs
Perspec;ves for research in Compara;ve didac;cs
• The didac;cal system as a whole theore;cal
objet of study in which the didac;c transposi;on occurs
• The modelling of the agency of the teacher and the students about the contents taught and
learnt -‐ a joint ac;on (contract -‐ milieu)
à Describe content-‐specific didac;c phenomena
à Elicit generic features of teaching and learning prac;ces à Improve teaching interven;ons on the ST -‐ content
rela;onship (collabora;ve research)
Didac;c System
Students
Teacher
A triadic rela;onship as the main research concern Teaching
purposes
Learning
purposes
Examples of Theore;cal Elabora;ons
Anthropological Theory of the Didac;cs
(Chevallard & al.)• An epistemological program about knowledge diffusion in society
– Knowledge as praxeologies (techniques and discourses) – Ins;tu;onal transposi;on of praxeologies
Joint Ac;on in Didac;cs
(Sensevy et al., Schubauer-‐Leoni et al. , Amade-‐Escot et al., Mercier et al)• A didac;cal program about the content in teaching and learning
– historic-‐cultural perspec;ve – transac;onal perspec;ve
TEACHER
STUDENT(s)
SET of TASKS, PROBLEMS
Content -‐ to -‐ be -‐ taught
(Knowledge, curriculum, subject, competences, etc)
Social prac'ces
academic, ar&s&c, professional, sports, craU, etc Bodies of knowledge (prac'cal / theori'cal)
Joint ac'ons
Didac;cal contract -‐ milieu Meaning-‐making
(Meso-‐topo-‐chono-‐genesis)
Compa'bility?
Didac'c
system
revisited
Compara;ve Didac;cs -‐ Realm of Inves;ga;on
Look at the ins;tu;onal boundaries in which teaching and learning take place :
– Subject maKers as social ins;tu;ons of ways of doing /thinking about the world
– Forms of schooling at different stages (pre-‐school, primary, lower/upper secondary) but also voca;onal training, leisure &
sport clubs, nurseries …etc.
– Na;onal contexts of schooling and curriculum choices
• e.g. : Project “Teaching Tradi&ons and Learning” (Uppsala, Stockholm, Toulouse, Genève, Rennes) 2014-‐2018
à Outline the generic part of teaching and learning
prac;ces in comparing their specific forms (empirical)
Scale of socio-‐historic determinants (Chevallard, 2007)
Na;onal Educa;onal Contexts
School structures
Pedagogical trends
Curriculum and School Subjects
Topics Levels of constraints specific ß generic
Teacher Student(s)
Contents taught / learnt
Didac'cal system
France Genève
(CH) Vaud
(CH)
Primary
Grade 4 Primary
Grade 4&5
Primary Grade 4
Free choice of the textbooks Common set of teaching materials
Na;onal Program 2002
Maths / grade 3-‐5 Western Swiss study scheme 1997 Maths / grade 4 -‐ 6
Topic n° 6 : quan;;es and measurements
Real Numbers and measures Module 7 : « problems of
measurements»
Classe de Joëlle, O1 CE2-‐CM1
Classe de Magali, 74
CM1
Classe de Clarisse, Genève
6-‐7ème P
Classe de Claudia, Vaud
6ème P
Research plan Ligozat (2008)
Example
New Challenges
• The encounters with other didac;c research tradi;ons (in Europe and World wide)
– Epistemological issues : Is a "common ground" possible to overcome fragmenta;on ?
• Not a common theory but a common ground of research concerns aKended from different theore;cal perspec;ves
– Socio-‐historic-‐poli'cal issues : Role of na;onal choices, interests and problems related to educa;on (and available fundings!)
• How do they shape our research ques;ons?
• Which ques;ons may be burred or underes;mated (which dimension of the didac;c system)?
Beyond fragmenta'on …
Compare, relate and/or combine theore'cal frameworks
through empirical compara've works
FACULTÉ DE PSYCHOLOGIE
ET DES SCIENCES DE L’ÉDUCATION
Groupe de Recherche en Didactique Comparée
