DIDACTIC TRANSPOSITION: YVES CHEVALLARD, RISKS, EXAMPLES - ECONOMÍA - 2024

The didactic transposition is a process of modification that the contents of knowledge undergo in order to adapt them to teaching. Consequently, knowledge is transformed into a “taught knowledge” that is adapted to the needs of the students.

The didactic transposition is related to the definition of didactics, which consists of a pedagogical and scientific discipline that is responsible for studying the elements and processes that are developed during teaching and learning. Likewise, didactics articulates the pedagogical projects that are implemented in educational institutions.

The objective of the didactic transposition is to transform knowledge into «knowledge taught». Source: pixabay.com

The concept of didactics emerged in 1975 and was built by Michel Verret, who established that teachers had to transform knowledge to turn it into teaching and then exercise or apply it in the students they taught.

In the eighties, debates continued on the relationship between the teacher and the student, which allowed the opening of a set of concepts related to epistemology and scientific knowledge that is proposed in didactics.

In 1997, Yves Chevallard, a French researcher and writer, decided to include the theory of “wise knowledge” in teaching: the knowledge that a group of specialists possess on the specific languages ​​required to transform knowledge into teaching. In other words, this group is capable of spreading knowledge in a way that is understandable and accessible to others.

Didactic transposition according to Yves Chevallard

Yves Chevallard defined didactic transposition as the transformation of scientific knowledge or knowledge into didactic knowledge or knowledge, turning it into a possible object to teach.

Consequently, "wise knowledge" has to be modified in such a way that it becomes understandable material not only for other researchers but also for the society where said material is incorporated. Therefore, academic knowledge suffers a decontextualization and depersonalization of scientific knowledge.

In addition, Chevallard defines didactic transposition as the "work" that is responsible for transforming the "object of knowledge" in the teaching material.

To better explain the concept, the writer made a diagram where it can be perceived how knowledge should be included in school plans together with practice during educational moments.

Scheme and further studies

Chevallard's scheme responds to the following order: scientific concept (object of knowledge)> inclusion in the program of a course (object to be taught)> didactic transpositions or transformations in various classrooms (object of teaching).

The above can be found in the book The didactic transposition: from wise knowledge to taught knowledge. In later studies, Chevallard realized that transposition processes required the participation of agents and institutions, whom the author calls “noospheres”, using Vladimir Vernadski's definition.

Then, Chevellard expanded his theory by adding the concept of "institutional transposition", which consists of the one carried out by educational institutions following the parameters of didactics.

Risks

In some cases, Yves Chevallard's theory assumes some risks to which not only agents or educational institutions are subject, but also teachers and students when carrying out the transposition.

This is because some factors or anomalies can develop that can affect the teaching and learning process.

Knowledge or information overly modified

In some cases, "wise knowledge" is modified to such an extent that it can be subjected to the loss of its original essence, so it ends up becoming mediocre material.

This is because the data presented may differ significantly from the original data, which occurs thanks to the massification of knowledge (television, internet or radio).

This means that sometimes the media do not have the necessary didactic preparation to carry out the transposition. Consequently, knowledge may be poorly imparted; this would affect the development of future learning because the receiver accumulates nondescript information.

Teacher negligence

In some circumstances, the teachers in charge of imparting knowledge are not fully trained to carry out the didactic transposition. This is because many teachers do not have didactic knowledge despite having adequate preparation.

Such cases often occur with teachers who studied a particular career and did not want to be teachers, but were pushed for personal reasons to link with that job.

Consequently, those who do not have a pedagogical preparation have difficulties or deficiencies when transmitting information to their students.

Lack of knowledge of the origins of knowledge

During the didactic transposition, knowledge suffers a delimitation, which can bring collateral and negative effects such as ignorance regarding the situations or problems that gave rise to that knowledge or knowledge; that is, a break is generated between the creation or realization of knowledge and knowledge itself.

On many occasions the student memorizes the knowledge without questioning the reason for the existence of this knowledge; This results in only a partial understanding of the object of teaching or study.

Examples

An example of a didactic transposition can be the following: a teacher decides to give a class on laser; This topic can be taught in both college and high school and in both settings there will be students with the skills to understand this material.

However, if a high school student attends a college class on this topic, they will not be able to fully understand the information despite having some laser-related knowledge.

This occurs because there was no university professor who was previously in charge of converting the material on the laser into a “taught knowledge”, so the student does not have the ability to connect one class with the other.

This situation can be applied to other cases and topics, as occurs for example when teaching some more advanced chemistry precepts or certain historical data.

References

1. Carvajal, C. (2012) The didactic transposition. Retrieved on June 26, 2019 from Dialnet: dialnet.unirioja.es
2. Díaz, G. (sf) What is the didactic transposition? Retrieved on June 26, 2019 from Education Things: cosasdeeducacion.es
3. Mendoza, G. (2005) The didactic transposition: history of a concept. Retrieved on June 26, 2019 from Relalyc: redalyc.org
4. SA (sf.) Didactic transposition. Retrieved on June 26, 2019 from Wikipedia: es.wikipedia.org
5. Suárez, P. (2017) Teaching history, a challenge between didactics and discipline. Retrieved on June 26, 2019 from Scielo: scielo.conicyt.cl