Abstract
The need to establish a research field within psychology didactics at secondary level has recently been voiced by several researchers internationally. An analysis of a Swedish case coming out of secondary level education in psychology presented here provides an illustration that complexity thinking—derived from complexity theory—is uniquely placed to consider and indicate possible solutions to challenges, described by researchers as central to the foundation of a new field. Subject matter didactics is defined for the purpose of this paper as a combination of general didactics and subject matter content, and considering the international nature of research traditions coming out of psychology, the implications of the results presented here cannot be regarded as limited solely to national concerns. An online survey was sent to secondary schools in Sweden. Discussions and lectures along with teaching to the book—alternatively used as inspiration—emerged as central from the thematic analysis of the results, providing the first mapping of teaching practices secondary level psychology in Sweden. An analysis, founded on complexity thinking—combined with a model enabling a delimitation of the scope of study—focused on time use and the importance placed on self-knowledge, along with the transformation of theory into practice. The former pointed to a teacher-centered nested subsystem (e.g., asymmetric relations between teachers and students), whereas the latter pointed to student-centered nested subsystems coming out of embodied knowledge (e.g., students as node) where psychological perspectives are learnt through self-reflection, case studies, and everyday life experiences (turning theory to practice), implying a holistic approach. The analysis applied to the Swedish case provides an illustration of how complexity theory has the potential to address challenges at the micro and the macro levels to the establishment of a new research field in psychology didactics and to indicate possible solutions (drawing among other things upon teaching experiences coming out of the Swedish case study). Psychology’s high relevance to everyday life, multi-causality, perspective pluralism, dynamic systems character, and scientific character make complexity thinking a relevant approach in the consideration of challenges to the establishment of a research field in didactics of psychology.
Highlights
Subject matter didactics has developed out of general didactics and covers a variety of traditions, some aiming at methodology and teacher practices and others coming out of empirical investigations of student learning
Following on—from the question asking the respondents about the perceived difference between psychology didactics and other subject matter didactics—four categories emerged
These themes referred to the transformation of the curriculum into practice— i.e., a focus on theories and concepts, the aim to increase a student’s self-knowledge through self-reflection, a focus on connecting theory and practice—different approaches seemingly pointing to the necessity of developing teaching methods which differ from those of other subjects taught at the secondary level
Summary
Subject matter didactics has developed out of general didactics and covers a variety of traditions, some aiming at methodology and teacher practices and others coming out of empirical investigations of student learning. Subject matter didactics developed historically as both teaching practice and normative theory (Sandfuchs, 1990; Tenorth, 2006), optimizing disciplinerelated learning processes, remain as pivotal features to this day (Cramer and Schreiber, 2018). The term didactics is often considered to have negative connotations in the Anglo Saxon world (Kansanen, 2009) and, in an attempt to avoid this, a new way of spelling didactics has been introduced, didaktik (Hudson, 2007; Kansanen, 2009), along with subject matter didaktik (Kansanen, 2009). Be used for the purpose of this paper; subject matter didactics and subject didactics will be taken to have the same meaning (and psychology didactics will be used alternatively with didactics of psychology). General didactics is an important part of subject matter didactics
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
