Didactics

Didactics as a field of research is concerned with what influences, enables or hinders teaching and learning in different contexts. Learning is seen as something that can take place in formal contexts, such as school and education at different levels, in semi-formal contexts, for example in museums, and also informally, for example as an integral part of professional life. However, most often didactic research is about school teaching (different ages). Areas of interest are choice of content, motivations for content selection and the process of transforming university disciplines to content for teaching in schools.

Teaching is studied from several different perspectives and many factors and knowledge bases are relevant. Didactic theories are about teaching and Bildung. Some theories are based on an empirical-analytical perspective, while others are based to a greater extent on philosophy of education. Together, the didactic theories contribute to perspectives and models in relation to the didactic questions (why, what, how, etc.).

The core of didactics is to concretise and operationalise didactic theories that answer the didactic questions. This can be done by developing or systematically testing didactic models or by making different didactic choices visible as well as their implications. The didactic research at Malmö University is both general and subject-specific.