In the early 1980s, there was confusion between the terms "pedagogy" and "didactics," with "pedagogy" being the more commonly used term. During this time, the two were often treated as synonymous or viewed as having only slight differences. However, it is now possible to clearly distinguish between the two concepts.
What is pedagogy? Pedagogy refers to a “normative educational discipline focused on the teacher’s actions in real educational settings” (Legendre, 2005, p. 1007). In essence, pedagogy is about the actual teaching process—how teaching is conducted in the classroom. On the other hand, didactics involves the planning, reflection, and evaluation of teaching before, during, and after the classroom experience.
In 1986, the term “didactics” gained prominence with the establishment of the International Association for the Development of Research in Didactics of French as a Mother Tongue (DFLM), which brought together experts in the field, known as didacticians, from across the French-speaking world. While the term “didactics” remains polysemic, in English, the term is rarely used. Some French-speaking researchers use it and translate it as “didactic,” while English-speaking scholars typically use broader terms. For instance, when referring to the teaching of French, the term “French Education” is used rather than “French Didactic.”
What is didactics? Didactics can be defined as an “educational discipline concerned with the planning, management, and regulation of the pedagogical situation” (Legendre, 2005, p. 403). It involves:
- Planning teaching strategies for learning
- Implementing these strategies to achieve curriculum goals
- Reflecting on the success or failure of these strategies to refine and adjust teaching methods, practices, and approaches.
In short, didactics focuses on the content and its relationship to teaching and learning (Reuter, 2011, p. 36).
The foundations of didactics are drawn from various fields such as linguistics, educational sciences, cognitive psychology, and sociology. Though French didactics could claim certain concepts as its own, what matters is how it organizes these ideas to illuminate its research. While the discipline did not initially focus on developing unique concepts and methods, its strength lies in the conceptual and methodological framework it has built, allowing it to address key aspects of education that other disciplines do not (Dauney, Reuter, and Schneuwly, 2011, p. 25). The discussions surrounding this emerging field are still ongoing (Dabène, 2015).
The Didactic Triangle In any teaching-learning situation, there are three key elements: 1) the teacher, 2) the learner, and 3) the knowledge. This is known as the “didactic triangle” (Chevallard, 1985/1991) or “pedagogical triangle.” The relationships between these three elements are as follows:
- The relationship between the teacher and the knowledge (the curriculum content)
- The relationship between the learner and the knowledge
- The pedagogical relationship between the teacher and the learner
This framework helps to illustrate the complex dynamics of teaching and learning.
