The advent of “national standards” of education challenged the German and Scandinavian tradition of Didaktik. One of the major Didaktik-tasks has been to guide teachers work in the wake of Bildung (Hopmann 2007). But the tradition of Didaktik seems to be challenged by the verifiable model of canon based and competency orientated educational standards. The new language of literacy sets up a normative framework for conceptualizing performance based instruction. Both approaches - Bildung and literacy - seem to offer an answer to the ill-defined problem of education. The student leaves school as “gebildet” or as measured by the benchmark of national standards. A problem occurs since educational programs assume that students will make use of educational offers as they were intended. But, the results of these processes are highly contingent and not foreseeable. On the one side Bildung stands quite clearly out as solution of an ill-defined problem. Neither the initial state nor the results of educational treatments are given at forehand (Chi & Glaser 1985). Insofar the concept accepts the contingency of instruction and learning. This distinctive mark opens up for teachers’ professional actions and allows for the development of adequate and adjusted solutions of instruction in shifting contexts. On the other side literacy comes with the promise of being well-defined and simply and safely achievable. Such problems are characterized by clear initial states, a defined objective of the problem, given information and operators’ that are well addressed, as well as by a finite number of constraints, and a constrained set of logical states are provided (Newell & Simon 1972; Greeno 1978; Mayer 1997, Jonassen 2000). Seen in the light of problem solving this problem type provides an effective modus operandi to be solved. On the first sight literacy (Resnick & Resnick 1977; Stedman & Kaestle 1987; OECD 2006) builds on articulated and distinct competence asymmetry. As restraining and success guaranteeing methodology best practice strategies and “what works”-models have to be applied (Hargreaves 1997, Davies 1999). “Educational standards” will work as measurable outcomes of instruction. But, in the light of instructions contingency the paper will raise the question: does the concept of literacy provide a well-defined problem?

First, the paper will present a clear distinction between ill-defined and well-defined problems. Thereafter, the concepts of Bildung and literacy will be analyzed by the use of conceptual history (Koselleck 1954). This happens to show the structures of meaning of the two concepts. Conceptual history is interested in examining how specific historical and current conditions are transferred into the (historical) semantics of terms. Conceptual history is outlined as a "historical-philological" analysis method. It aims to determine the different meaning of terms. Partly this could be carried out by analyzing how they were used, to whom they are addressed to or to which polemical context they belong to (Koselleck 1972). These findings will be confronted with the problem solving categories to show where the two concepts should be placed.

The outlined paper will show on a conceptual level if “literacy by standards” will be able to deliver a fully controllable pedagogically situation of instruction. Then, literacy does provide a well-defined problem. This concept would stand out as interesting for teacher education. Beyond that the analysis will show to what extent the concept of literacy provides a new language for Didaktik. Finally, the paper will discuss in how far literacy represents a cultural change in Didaktik.