didaktiikkaan

Didaktiikka, or didactics, is the branch of pedagogy that studies how teaching and learning can be organized to achieve educational goals. It concerns the aims of instruction, the content to be taught, the sequencing and pacing of learning activities, and the methods and assessment used to support learning. The discipline seeks to describe and explain how different teaching arrangements influence what students learn, and to provide guidelines for planning, implementing, and evaluating instruction.

Didactics often distinguishes general didactics (universal principles of teaching applicable across subjects) from subject-specific didactics (aineen didaktiikka). The latter investigates how to teach a particular subject, such as mathematics didactics or language didactics, taking into account subject content, typical student difficulties, and appropriate representations and tasks.

Methods and concepts associated with didactics include learning objectives, curriculum alignment, instructional strategies (direct instruction, inquiry-based learning, collaborative learning), differentiation to meet diverse learners, formative assessment, and feedback. The field integrates insights from educational psychology, curriculum studies, and classroom practice and aims to connect theoretical knowledge with real-world teaching.

In Finnish higher education and teacher education, didaktiikka is a central component of educational sciences. It guides teacher preparation, curriculum planning, and professional development, and supports reflective practice by focusing on what and how to teach to support learners’ understanding and skills. Historically, the concept has roots in European pedagogical thought and has evolved with changes in curriculum design and learning research.