The research is aimed at investigating the perspectives that characterise general didactics and the didactics of disciplines, highlighting the need of an interaction between the two fields of research predominantly in teacher education. The issue has been broadly discussed in European literature (Develay, 1995; Terisse, 2000; Jonnaert & Laurin, 2001; Schubauer-Leoni, 2008; Schneuwly, 2011; Dorier, Leutenegger & Schneuwly, 2013) and in Italy the debate is still open today (Frabboni, 1992; Damiano, 1996; D’Amore & Frabboni, 1996; Nigris, 2012) with contrasting positions stemming from two highly opposing schools of thought:

• those sustaining general didactics, according to whom there exists no specific didactics for every single subject or discipline. On the other hand, general didactics is able to identify adequate methodologies thanks to which all students can acquire the necessary competencies to master knowledge. Therefore, the didactics of disciplines is a branch of general didactics;

• those sustaining the didactics of disciplines, who believe that general didactics doesn’t exist and there could only be the didactics of something (for example, of mathematics, physics, languages etc.). The disciplinary epistemology attributes a secondary role to general didactics and concentrates on the specific content to be taught.  

Over the past decade, in Italy, a new intermediary position is being paved, collocating the two approaches on the same level: general didactics is mainly concerned with the aspects related to the interaction between the teacher and the student, whereas disciplinary didactics is more focused on the interaction with knowledge (Nigris, 2012; Martini, 2012; 2016). The need to promote a dialogue between both fields of research, which so far has been difficult to create, emerges especially in light of teacher professionalism which should be founded on the osmosis of the two forms of knowledge: pedagogical-didactic knowledge and knowledge related to the individual disciplines. In fact, in Italy teachers are primarily experts of the discipline taught and acquire competences related to pedagogy and didactics only during post-graduate courses; more precisely in the specialization (post-Masters degree) courses to obtain a teachers’ warrant. Disciplinary knowledge is definitely important, but not sufficient. Teachers transpose didactically specific knowledge on the basis of methodological and content-related characteristics of the subject in question, adapting to the particular context in which they find themselves working in. This entails rigorous disciplinary knowledge that needs to be taught that can only be taught and learnt through effective didactics. Thus, teachers need to be competent on two levels: they need to have expertise in content knowledge and in the teaching methodologies required for that particular discipline. This latter pedagogical and didactic aspect leads to the overcoming of the perspective of the exclusive transmission of knowledge, focusing the attention on the pedagogical intentions that meet the educational needs and paves the way to efficacious curricular and extracurricular programming (Rivoltella & Rossi, 2012; Martini, 2012; Sibilio, 2014).

On the basis of these considerations and on the studies related to the possible application of the theory of simplexity in the field of didactics (Berthoz, 2011; Sibilio, 2014), the objective of this work is the design and implementation of a teacher-training model guided by the properties and principles of simplexity (Aiello & Sibilio, 2013; Sibilio, 2014). What is being hypothesised is that this theory can constitute the theoretical and methodological framework of reference for disciplinary didactics as well as a useful operational guide for teachers which, through the application of regulatory principles, may bridge the gap between the ontological identity of disciplines and the emerging needs in the teaching-learning process. This will, in turn, promote the acquisition of methodological and didactic competencies besides the competences related to the specific contents of the disciplines. 

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