General Didactic 101
In order to know the meaning of the general didactic term, it is necessary, in the first place, to discover the etymological origin of the two words that give it shape:
-Didactic derives from the Greek. Specifically, it comes from “didaktikós” and is the result of the sum of two differentiated components: “didasko”, which can be translated as “I teach”, and the suffix “-ico”, which means “relative to”.
-General, secondly, comes from Latin, exactly from “generalis”.
The notion of didactics refers to what is valid or adequate to instruct or teach. The concept can also refer to that whose purpose is teaching. General, on the other hand, is a term with various uses. As an adjective, it refers to what is common, regular, habitual or universal.
General didactics studies teaching techniques and methods.
What is general didactics
The idea of general didactics, in this framework, is linked to the discipline that focuses on the analysis of teaching methods and techniques. Its object of study, therefore, are all the elements that are part of the instruction and learning process.
It can be said that general didactics is a branch of pedagogy dedicated to the search and development of adequate procedures to optimize the quality of teaching. In this way, it favors the transmission of knowledge to students.
Through general didactics, the aim is to improve educational quality.
His objectives
Through general didactics, different perspectives are studied so that pedagogical theories can be applied and thus teachers have the possibility of choosing and developing those contents that they will be in charge of imparting to students. It can be affirmed that general didactics provides support for both the learning plan and the teaching method.
It is important to bear in mind that educators (teachers) and learners (students) intervene in the didactic process, who interact in a specific framework (the educational establishment inserted in a certain community). Educators, according to the study plan, must teach content according to a methodology to achieve an objective. All these factors are considered by the general didactics.
General didactics as a subject
So important is general didactics within education that even in the Degree in Teaching in Early Childhood Education of many universities the subject of General Didactics is taught. With this, what is intended is that the students who study this career get to acquire the knowledge and skills on the fundamental principles of that mentioned discipline.
In the same way, they learn what the design and development processes of the curriculum are, they analyze the different aspects of didactics, they develop the skills to carry out their teaching work…
It is important to know that, in addition to general didactics, there are other types. We are referring, for example, to special didactics, which comes to study the methods that are applied for teaching in each subject, and differential didactics. This, which also responds to the name of differentiated didactics, is the one that is based on very specific aspects of the student such as age or what are called intellectual competences, for example.
