Volume 5 (2022): Issue 1 (December 2022)

Content-related didactical innovations are often developed in research-based and co-constructive ways by subject-matter education specialists, design researchers, and teachers. For scaling-up the flexible and co-constructive implementation of these innovations in many classrooms, the German Center for Mathematics Teacher Education follows material, personnel, and systemic implementation strategies on three levels: the classroom level, the teacher professional development level (PD) and the facilitator professional development level. The paper exemplifies these strategies using a case involving the implementation of the Mastering Math program, which was designed to develop students’ understanding of basic mathematical concepts. The case is used to illustrate three basic principles for implementations into subject-matter classrooms: (1) Co-constructive implementation requires research-practice partnerships on several levels, (2) targeted implementation requires content-related innovations, and (3) a research base is required for enhancing both the pedagogical quality and the content quality of the teacher and facilitator PD.

Can there be international knowledge transfer in subject-related didactics which is not limited to psychological research results which have often been received internationally, and what are the presuppositions of such transfer? The starting point of this article is an international project with consultations and cooperation in the field of religion-related didactics. One of the most important questions in this project refers to the possibility of insights and research results achieved by subject-related didactics for which international validity can be claimed. This question is not limited to empirical research but refers to validity claims in subject-related didactics in general as well as to the more far- reaching question if subject-related didactics can be considered an academic discipline if international validity claims would be excluded. Moreover, the article discusses possible contents of the international knowledge transfer from teacher education. Finally, a number of suggestions for future work in subject- related didactics are offered.

The following contribution is divided into two parts, for reasons of space. The current article will deal with issues of translation and translatability from German into English in the field of Didaktik (didactics, subject didactics and general subject didactics). The starting point will be to gather information about the spread and acceptance of the concept of didactics as a cover term for a comprehensive theory of teaching and learning within school as an institution, in Europe and beyond. The multi-facetted reality of this concept in so many countries or educational settings and the different approaches to go with it, will have an effect on the demands of an appropriate rendering of Didaktik in English as a lingua franca and thus transferring it into another, essentially foreign socio- cultural context. The same is even more true for the notion of Fachdidaktik (= subject-matter didactics).

In particular, it will be shown that there are challenges and even limits in sharing didactic and subject-didactic knowledge, concepts and research findings internationally, when transmitting them from German into English and thus from a continental European into an Anglo-Saxon way of thinking and of organizing school education. The difficulty to establish a one-to-one equivalence is reflected on the linguistic level, where certain anglicized forms which do not originally exist in English, have been developed (e.g. subject-matter) didactics, general subject didactics), for lack of appropriate translations. Also in many other cases of translation more than one version is possible, depending on context, focus or intention. This insight will be applied to individual notions or whole semantic clusters in the field (e.g. around key words like Fach or Fachliche Bildung).

In combination with the second part the overall goal is to bring Didaktik/didactics and curriculum theory into conversation again and widen the scope towards subject-matter didactics at the same time.²

Up to now, the discussion about research designs in subject-matter didactics has mainly taken place within the disciplines of this academic field. A generic model is useful in order to stimulate a discussion across different disciplines as it provides a common reference point. Such a model was the goal of a Delphi study, which consisted of two rounds. This paper describes the basic results of this Delphi study. On the one hand it brought about the basic contours of such a model: it is characterized by three basic dimensions (subject areas, methodologies, reference theories) and categories by which these three dimensions were operationalized. On the other hand, the Delphi brought about those topics that need to be discussed in future. This is especially true for categories on the dimensions of methodologies and reference theories. In summary, this study offers arguments and impulses for further discussion about the understanding of research in subject-matter didactics.

Research on students´ concepts based on conceptual change theory is being conducted in relation to more and more different subject content. CONCEPT, the concept of a concept, however, has very different meanings and functions in different contexts of subject-matter teaching and learning. In this study tools of analytic philosophy of science and philosophy of cognition are applied to examine the recent process of a research transfer from science education to philosophy education. Transmutations of CONCEPT are evident in empirical studies in philosophy education. However, such a transfer process can reveal problems of CONCEPT that affect any subject- matter research on student´s concepts. Three main problems are shown: a problem that is new to philosophy education, one that is a legacy of science education, and another, future problem that is emerging with conceptual engineering. The solution to these problems could lie in an integrated interdisciplinary project, the theoretical determination of subject-matter CONCEPT.

In a plural and democratic society teaching challenges not only arise from the conditionality and perspectivity of knowledge, convictions and value systems, but also from a postfactual thinking. Questions of how to deal with one’s own subject-specific norms are sometimes pushed into the background in academic subject didactics. The article shows the potential of interdisciplinary comparison by using the example of classroom communication norms within different disciplines with strong subject cultures. An exchange regarding relativity and normativity could profile the subject-specificity of knowledge and knowledge communication as a necessary orientation against simplification and disambiguation for teachers and students in an uncertain world.

Social sciences combined subjects are currently taught in 13 German federal states at different types of school and in recent years, the scientific discussion commenced about combined courses. There are both terminological inconsistencies and incoherence in the integration of the different disciplinary parts. This article examines the development of Geography as an independent school subject and as part of combined courses. With a qualitative analysis of all curricular reference documents of social sciences combined subjects, the integration structure and the importance of Geography were determined.

The transfer of research findings into teaching practice is often defined as a mutual exchange process between research and teaching practice. In the exchange and handling of new findings, the implicitaction-guiding orientations of teachers in particular are highly important. The present study is dedicated to reconstructing these orientations of teacher trainers of geography, who, as educators of trainee teachers in the second practical phase of the German teacher training system, occupy a unique position between research and teaching practice. Using the documentary method, different orientations of the teacher trainers were reconstructed through multiple group discussions. These were conducted in the context of a one-year training series on new insights into China’s innovation-based economic development. These orientations move along a continuum between instruction and co-construction. From these findings, important insights for future transfer research and practice can be derived.

Language competences are still a powerful gatekeeper for many students in science learning. Popular approaches to integrating language and subject learning have attempted to make science learning more accessible to all students; however, empirical evidence for the effects of novel teaching approaches is still scarce. The Disaggregate-Instruction-Approach (DIA), which ‘disaggregates’ concept from scientific language learning, offers great potential to address an increasingly diverse population of students in science subjects and beyond. In this paper, we will present a comparative study with 228 public school students who either participated in a teaching intervention aligned with the DIA or designed in accordance with principles of language- and subject-integrated Scaffolding. The findings indicate that learners in both conditions reach substantial learning gains. However, students who received the DIA exhibit very similar learning growth scores regardless of their language proficiency whereas control group students reach a higher learning growth depending on their language competences.

The gap between research about education and teaching practice is well-known in most subjects/disciplines. A nationwide online questionnaire survey regarding which sources German-language teachers use for lesson preparation and what in-service training opportunities they perceive may shed light on how research findings can be incorporated into classroom practice.

These are some of the results from the 403 responses: In-service training courses are popular, but judged to be of little use. Social media offers are frequently used and assessed as helpful – despite the often poor quality, which teachers do not necessarily recognise. Therefore subject didactics should rethink certain traditions and explore new ways of reaching teachers. Because teachersʼ pracƟces of lesson preparaƟon tend to be idiosyncratic rather than determined by the subject matter, the findings from the survey are equally relevant and useful for all subjects and can contribute to a better alignment of subject science, subject didactics and teaching practice.