On content transformation in the classroom: transdisciplinary perspectives on subject didactic research using didactic case studies

Abstract

The text explores a subject-didactic conception of teaching and learning as a process involving content transformations between cultural content knowledge and knowledge that is taught and learnt in the classroom. We examine the trajectory of powerful knowledge from two interdependent transformational perspectives: (I) the approximation of cultural knowledge to students’ experiences (didactic transformation), and (II) the development of students’ experiences towards culture (cognitive transformation). Their interconnection is referred to as the transformational turn. We present a methodology—the 3A Methodology (M3A)—for the qualitative analysis of teaching and learning through didactic case studies. We describe the Deep Structure of Teaching and Learning Model, which within M3A enables us to evaluate the integrity of teaching and learning as the quality of the connection between objectives, content, and the actual progression of the trajectory of powerful knowledge in teaching and learning. The authors summarize 15 years of research using M3A, revealing insights into the practice of teaching and learning, which has yielded insights into didactic formalisms that diminish the quality of teaching and learning and their opposite—didactic excellence. In the discussion, we compare our findings with Young and Muller’s characterization of three school development scenarios.