Didactic Transposition: from scientific knowledge to school knowledge

Transcription

1 Didactic Transposition: from scientific knowledge to school knowledge Lurdes de Fátima Polidoro 1 Robson Stigar 2 Summary: In this article we will try to conceptualize the term Didactic Transposition, its relation with science and with education, its significance for knowledge and finally its contribution to the discipline of Religious Instruction. Key-words: science, education, Religious Instruction, Didactic Transposition Introduction The dynamic character of today s world is certainly one of its most outstanding characteristics. The new order s name is movement. It is true that reality has never been static but nor has it ever been as dynamic as it is now. It is quite clear that in everyday life the word static is seldom used. Everything changes, drastically and in a short time. In its turn, the school has been finding it difficult to follow this dynamic tempo. Nor has it been able to dialogue with the sciences in view of the rapidity of information, knowledge and learning. It is therefore necessary to find strategies to prevent the school from becoming alien to the surrounding scientific reality. Didactic Transposition was born to confront this need. What is Didactic Transposition? Didactic Transposition is an instrument through which we analyse the movement of scientific knowledge (the knowledge scientists discover) to didactic knowledge (the knowledge as it is found in didactic books) and, through this, towards taught knowledge (the knowledge that actually happens in the classroom). The term was introduced in 1975 by the sociologist Michel Verret and rediscussed by Yves Chevallard in 1985 in his book La Transposition Didactique where 1 Masters in Science of Religion at the Pontificia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP). 2 Masters in Science of Religion at the Pontificia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP). Ciberteologia - Revista de Teologia & Cultura - Ano VI, n. 27 1

2 he shows the transformations that knowledge undergoes when it passes from the scientific field to the school field. For Chevallard Didactic Transposition is the work done to manufacture a teaching object, that is, to transform an object of knowledge produced by the sage (the scientist) into an object of school knowledge. In a strict sense, Didactic Transposition may be understood as the passage from scientific knowledge to taught knowledge. This passage, however, must not be understood as transposition of knowledge in the strict sense of the term: it is just a change of place. This passage is considered a process of transformation of a piece of knowledge that, in its movement towards the knowledge to be taught, becomes another. On the bases of the elements already mentioned, we believe that the transformation of scientific knowledge for teaching and propagation ends is not a simple adaptation or a simplification of that knowledge; this transformation can be analysed to facilitate the understanding of how new pieces of knowledge are produced in these processes. According to Chevallard, Didactic Transposition is understood as a process in which the content of a piece of knowledge that, - designed as knowledge to be taught - undergoes from that moment, a series of adaptive transformations that enables it to take its place among the objects of learning. The work that changes an object of the knowledge to be taught into a learning object is called Didactic Transposition. The term Didactic Transposition implies that there are differences between academic knowledge and school knowledge; these two types of knowledge have different natures and functions that are not always evident in the analyses of the cognitive dimension of the teaching and learning process. When he defined as Didactic Transposition the process of transformation of knowledge objects into objects of teaching and learning, Chevallard began a movement in which the mechanisms and interests of the participants in this process the teacher and the student are reappraised. The passage from scientific knowledge to school knowledge In the didactic process there is a deep relationship between the internal and external elements that influence it. This relationship is subordinated to different sets of rules represented, for example, by the institutional forces of the research; by the school institution itself (the type of school, its objectives and pedagogical project); by the Ciberteologia - Revista de Teologia & Cultura - Ano VI, n. 27 2

3 political forces (programmes and curricula of the Education Secretariats): by market forces (didactic and/or para-didactic books). The distance between scientific knowledge and taught knowledge does not represent, in this case, a hierarchy of types of knowledge, but a change of type of knowledge that occurs in the various social practices because of the diversity of the discursive genders and of the interlocutors involved. This process of change of knowledge happens because the didactic and the scientific functioning of knowledge are not the same. They interrelate but do no overlap. Thus, in order for a given piece of knowledge to be taught in an academic-scientific or school situation - as its original objective was not to be taught - it needs to undergo a transformation. To each transformation suffered by that piece of knowledge there corresponds, then, the process of Didactic Transposition. This transformation of the object of scientific knowledge into an object of school knowledge to be taught by the teachers and learned by the students means a selection and an interrelation of the academic knowledge, adapting it to the students cognitive possibilities and giving examples according to the reality around them. Chevallard begins with the assumption that the teaching of a given element of knowledge will only be possible if this element suffers certain deformations in order to become able to be taught. Oral and written languages must be adapted to these students conditions and also to the conditions in which things are taught and learned in the school the institutions that, subjected to deadlines and other restrictions, are responsible in our society for the task of transmitting the systematized pieces of knowledge. On the bases of the thesis defended by Chevallard, to reflect upon the process of construction of the teaching contents through epistemology means to interpret the didactic mediation as a specific movement the dynamic of which must be unveiled. Chevallard affirms that the transformation of academic knowledge into school knowledge happens in two stages: an external transposition at the level of the formal curriculum and of the didactic books, and an internal one when the curriculum is actually put into action at the classroom. It is possible to say that one of the greatest problems that the teacher has to face alone is precisely that of re-dimensioning the object of knowledge (the object of study, the teaching object) when s/he transposes it from one discursive practice to another, that is, to deal with knowledge taking into consideration the change in the discursive situation. Ciberteologia - Revista de Teologia & Cultura - Ano VI, n. 27 3

4 Although in the class room environment this process of re-dimensioning of knowledge is the teacher s responsibility, there are initiatives for creating continuing training courses that give priority to the reflexive process in which the student and the teacher have the opportunity to compare new pieces of knowledge with those that underlie their teaching practice. These courses can provide insights that will help the teacher in his complex task. Thus the Didactic Transposition, operated by student and teacher, would begin in the training environment itself and would be concretized by the teacher in the basic education classroom. Among its major functions the school has the role of transmitting the knowledge produced by humankind. In our view knowledge happens basically in the process of interaction and communication. As it is elaborated scientific knowledge goes through processes of codification, and the didactic processes must take into account the scientific codes. These codes, however, go through a process of de-codification or transposition in order to be understood by the students. For the transmission or communication to happen, knowledge must be transformed. Its process of transformation raises a series of problems, among which is the difference between the elements of the produced knowledge and those of the knowledge to be learned. This leads to a rupture between the knowledge as it is dealt with at school and that produced originally. According to Pinho Alves (2001) o saber a ensinar é entendido como um novo saber, sua estrutura de origem está localizada fora do contexto acadêmico produtor do saber sábio. Dessa forma, para que na integração entre objetos de ensino não haja prevalência de conceitos sem significado, é recomendado o uso das diferentes fontes de referência, que inspiram e estabelecem a legitimação de um saber (p. 23). [the knowledge to be taught is understood as a new type of knowledge, and its original structure is found outside the academic context that produces the scientific knowledge. So, in order that in the integration between the teaching objects there is no prevalence of meaningless concepts, the use of various reference sources that may inspire and legitimate a given knowledge is recommended.] In the process of Didactic Transposition there is a movement that starts with the changes in the academic knowledge and is institutionalized in the new texts of knowledge (curricular proposals and didactic books). In the classroom this demands new contents with the adoption of new teaching practices (effectively taught knowledge). Ciberteologia - Revista de Teologia & Cultura - Ano VI, n. 27 4

5 Didactic materials: problem or solution? Among its main functions the school has the role of transmitting the knowledge produced by humankind. Therefore, in these days when the issue of compulsory religious instruction in schools is being discussed, it is important to reflect upon the nature of what the school intends to transmit as the specific content of the Religious Instruction discipline itself. In every historical period the scientific knowledge taught in schools must be based on the knowledge produced by scientists who have been unanimously accepted by the scientific community. Religious research creates a form of teaching whereby the student is guided to learn - in a natural way and by studying them in the respective books - the principles of one or of various religions. This type of knowledge is therefore very different from the learning in the instruction process and it cannot be developed by a methodology or by similar tasks that are recommended for the attainment of objectives in the instructional sphere of teaching. Considering that the construction of knowledge begins with the relation subjectobject (in the case of Religious Instruction the subject is the student and the object is the religious phenomenon) we must take into account that there must be a clear and safe transposition of this vast and complex type of knowledge, the Religious Instruction. This didactic transition, therefore, must refer to the way the contents are organized and elaborated in order to contribute to the construction of knowledge. It happens, therefore, at the level of the analysis and awareness of the cultural plurality in the classroom, taking into account the student s freedom of religious expression (cf. Parâmetros curriculares nacionais: Ensino Religioso, p. 38). This is so because in order to understand the raison d être of Religious Instruction we must start from a conception of education that sees it as a global and integral process, a view of totality that gathers all levels of knowledge including the student s religious aspect. Final Considerations According to Chevallard, to arrive at the school scientific knowledge goes through transformations that simplify it in order to turn it into an object of school instruction. It is important that, in this simplification process, the focus of the contents is not lost leading to conceptual mistakes and incorrect information. Ciberteologia - Revista de Teologia & Cultura - Ano VI, n. 27 5

6 For the teacher, it is a great challenge to change a scientific piece of knowledge into didactic contents. In fact complex theories must be transformed in order to be assimilated by the students but they must not lose their properties and characteristics in the process. Thus, Didactic Transposition may be conceived as a series of transforming actions that change a piece of scientific knowledge into a piece of teachable knowledge. Bibliography BEHRENS, M. A. O paradigma emergente e a prática pedagógica. Curitiba: Champagnat, CHEVALLARD, Y. La Transposition Didactique. Grenoble: La Pensée sauvage, FÓRUM NACIONAL PERMANENTE DO ENSINO RELIGIOSO. Parâmetros curriculares nacionais; Ensino Religioso. 2nd. ed. São Paulo: Ave-Maria, KHUN, T. S. A estrutura das revoluções cientificas. São Paulo: Perspectiva, LUCKESI, C. L. História da educação. São Paulo: Cortez, MORAES, M. C. O paradigma educacional emergente. Campinas: Papirus, MORAN, J. M. Ensino e aprendizagem inovadores com tecnologias audiovisuais e telemáticas. In: MORAN, J. M.; MASETTO, M. T.; BEHRENS, M. A. Novas tecnologias e mediação pedagógica. Campinas: Papirus, PINHO ALVES, J. Regras da transposição didática aplicada ao laboratório didático. Caderno Catarinense de Ensino de Física, v. 17. n. 2, p , August VIESSER, Lizete C. Um paradigma didático para o Ensino Religioso. Petrópolis: Vozes, Translated by Vera Lúcia Mello Joscelyne Ciberteologia - Revista de Teologia & Cultura - Ano VI, n. 27 6