The teaching of Didactics in Undergraduate teaching degree courses under the eyes of teachers educators
Author(s):
Giseli Cruz (submitting) Marli André (presenting)
Conference:
ECER 2013
Format:
Paper

Session Information

27 SES 07 B, Didactics and Teacher Training Issues

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-11
17:15-18:45
Room:
A-206
Chair:
Anatoli Rakhkochkine

Contribution

What prevails today as Didactics? What are the conceptions that guide the teaching of Didactics in teacher education courses? Who are the teachers who teach didactics?  What do these teacher educators  do in order to teach teaching? The formulation of these issues resulted from an analysis of the field of Didactics, more specifically with regard to teaching didactics in teacher education courses. From the 80s of the twentieth century, the production in this field of study in Brazil was strongly marked by discussion raised by Candau (1983) about the need to overcome the instrumental perspective of didatics for the affirmation of a fundamental didatics, marked by the multi-dimensionality of the teaching-learning process, that involves, in an articulated manner, the human, political and technical dimensions. The proposal of a “fundamental” Didactics represented a broad movement of reaction to a type of didactics based on neutrality. Studies on Dictadicts, when proposing the overcoming of the instrumental perspective for the fundamental perspective, do not suggest the end of the discussion on what or how to teach, but its recontextualization, since there is an  understanding that teaching is a social practice, which requires an epistemology that considers the context of social and historical situations in which it occurs. However, following the discussions and proposals regarding the role played by Dicdatics in the curriculum of teacher education shows that this discipline is facing a process of disintegration which includes changes in labels, decreased workload, a shift of topics to other disciplines and the suppression of strategies on how to teach. This situation leads us to think that the proposal of a Dicdatics that helps teachers to understand the learning process in order to delineate it from a situated context has not been assumed by teacher education courses , even though the prescriptive character, characteristic of instrumental Didactic, seems to be overpast. If the prescriptive does not prevail, but the fundamental of dicdatics is not established, what is accounted as dicdatics  in teacher education courses? Those issues challenged us to analyze the teaching of didactics in teacher education courses, taking into account the perspective of the teacher educators involved in the professional trainning of student teachers. This study discusses research data that intended to analyze conceptions and teaching practices of those teacher educators who were teaching Didactics in teacher education courses of three universities in the State of Rio de Janeiro/BR. Taking into account  that the practice of the teacher educator must be a model for the professional practice of future teachers, we sought theoretical support in Gauthier (1998) for a discussion of the professional knowledge which is necessary to be a good teacher and in Zeichner (2009) for the analysis of which course features can promote achievement of educational objectives and a successful teacher education. The conception of teaching  was based on Roldao (2007) and Cochran-Smith & Lytle (1999).

Method

The subjects of the research were 40 teacher educators (all involved in the professional training of student-teachers) who taught the subject of Didatics in three Universities in the State of Rio de Janeiro/BR, in the years 2010 and 2011. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, discussion groups and classroom observations. The interviews allowed to depict the teacher educators’ conceptions of the teaching of Didactics and the discussion groups as well as the classroom observations allowed to question the teaching practices of teacher educators and to grasp the pedagogical reasoning that sustains what they do to teach didactics. The fieldwork consisted of 40 interviews, 4 discussion groups and 30 classroom observations, 10 in each university.

Expected Outcomes

Trying to answer what counts as Didactic in teacher education courses, the data collected showed that there is no prevalence of instrumental Dicdatics in the teacher education courses offered by the universities involved in this study. What was found is that there is a trend to cover several topics which are important in teacher education, but there is no concern to affirm the fundamental Didactics, marked by the multidimensionality of the process of teaching and learning. It is possible to perceive that, although each teacher educator embrace a peculiar way of teaching, supported by a particular conception of teaching, there is always the use of strategies that sometimes are related to a teaching conception of transmission, assimilation and reproduction of knowledge; and at in another times are directed towards an investigative approach, to collective elaboration, socialization of knowledge and practices. The results point out that teacher educators believe that their practices are based on the dialogue and that they use a variety of teaching strategies according to the content taught. However, there seems to be no concern with the specificity of pedagogical knowledge, as it is not predominant the problematization of this knowledge in the management of their classrooms.

References

CANDAU, V. M. F. (org.). A Didática em questão. Rio de Janeiro: Vozes, 1983. COCHRAN-SMITH, M., & LYTLE, S. L. Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: teacher learning in communities. In: Review of Research in Education. USA, 24, p. 249–305, 1999. GAUTHIER, C. et al. Por uma teoria da pedagogia: pesquisas contemporâneas sobre o saber docente. Ijuí : Ed. Unijuí, 1998. ROLDÃO, M. do C. Função docente: natureza e construção do conhecimento profissional. Revista Brasileira de Educação. Rio de Janeiro, v. 12, n. 34, p. 94-181, jan./abr. 2007. ZEICHNER, K. M. Uma agenda de pesquisa para a formação docente. Revista Brasileira de Pesquisa sobre Formação Docente. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica, v. 01, n. 01, p. 13-40, ago./dez. 2009.

Author Information

Giseli Cruz (submitting)
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Marli André (presenting)
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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