documentational

Documentational refers to the documentational approach to didactics (DAD), a theoretical framework used to study teaching and learning through the interaction with resources. Originating with Yves Chevallard, the approach focuses on how teachers and students transform materials into purposeful teaching documents and how those documents, in turn, shape practice.

The central distinction in documentational theory is between resources and documents. Resources are any materials or tools available for teaching, such as textbooks, digital content, worksheets, software, manipulatives, or colleague-made activities. Documents are the integrated products that teachers create by selecting, adapting, combining, and organizing resources to fit specific teaching goals, contexts, and curricula. Documents carry the teacher’s didactic intentions, pedagogical decisions, and routines and thus mediate classroom activity.

Documentational genesis is the ongoing process by which resources are transformed into documents through use, adaptation, and reflection. This process is bidirectional: documents influence future resource selection and development, while resources prompt new document creation. Documentational analysis is the corresponding research practice used to study how documents function in practice, including how didactic transpositions, professional knowledge, and classroom interactions are manifested in documents.

The approach has been applied across disciplines, with substantial use in mathematics education, and has gained attention in the study of digital resources, collaboration, and professional development. Critics note its conceptual complexity and the challenges of operationalizing its constructs, but it remains a influential lens for examining the interplay between resources, documents, and teaching practice.