Bildung as the central category of education?

Abstract

This chapter deals with the unresolved issue of the explanatory power and the impact of didactics or the didactics approach on school education which is prevalent in many European countries, especially in northern and Western Europe. The specific development in Germany stands for the massive incorporation of subject didactics into teacher education and for the theoretical advancement towards a common theory of all subject didactics. In general didactics, there are many models offered for characterising good teaching, and many theoreticians working in that field. Yet, didactic modelling is hardly based on empirical research – rather it is predominantly normative and value oriented. Subject-matter didactics has many branches according to the specific area of focus and expertise, developed over the last 50 years and well established by now as academic disciplines. Many more theoretical advances in formulating an appropriate and precise theory of subject-based Bildung are still needed, of course.