TNTEE Publications - Didaktik/Fachdidaktik

The focus of chapter 14 by Aud Marit Simensen is on paradigm shifts in foreign language didactics.
In this chapter she discusses the problems created by shifts of paradigm. This is discussed firstly in
relation to theories of language learning and theories of language, sometimes referred to as the
academic “parent” disciplines of foreign language didactics. Secondly these are related to theories
of foreign language teaching, most often referred to as foreign language teaching methods. The
problems are discussed from the point of view of educating teachers for a career across shifting
paradigms. Above all Simensen questions the prescriptive aspects of foreign language didactics in
teacher education and argues for a greater emphasis on analysis and criticism. It is argued also that
there should be an emphasis on providing the students with an historical perspective on foreign
language teaching and with the underlying theoretical rationale for different approaches to foreign
language teaching over time, including different “versions” of foreign language school subjects.
The “panacea fallacy” is seen as a phenomenon in foreign language teaching that should be avoided
in teacher education. The priority is seen to be in preparing students better for the changes or major
shifts that inevitably will come during their career as teachers. With this in mind, an important
function in teacher education is seen to be in explaining new theories, concepts, ideas and teaching
methods. However theories in teacher education should not be primarily for prescriptive purposes.
Rather they should be for descriptive and consciousness-raising purposes and classificatory purposes.
A good historical perspective on theories is seen to be essential in contributing towards “vaccinating
our students against believing that the new ideas etc. will solve all our problems”. It is seen as
crucial that the theories students encounter in teacher education are not presented as the whole
truth. A vital role of teacher education is seen to be in cultivating some of those intellectual virtues
such as “a distrust of dogmatism and a healthy scepticism to accepted truths at any time”.
In chapter 15 Folke Vernersson and Lars Owe Dahlgren discuss the use of models in social science
and civics teaching. The chapter draws on experience gained through a research project on
instructional models in civics and their application in teacher education with special regard to the
upper parts of the compulsory and secondary school. Models are seen as providing simplified and
formalised pictures of reality. Within the disciplinary context, models can function as “generative
links between empirical studies and prevailing theory”. In a didactic context, the function is seen to
be “a more pragmatic one – to assist the teacher in teaching situations”. The value of models in
teaching is seen to be in giving “hints concerning the important issues of selection and communication
of the subject matter”. The concept of a model is central to the discussion in this chapter. The
empirical aspects draw on the experimental activities of a group of student teachers. The students’
projects are seen to provide “useful experience and deepened empirical knowledge”. Finally, two
main strategies for the use of models – the deductive and the inductive – are discussed. The deductive
approach i.e. a method by which conclusions are logically dependent on the premises at hand leads
to assumptions made from various models or theories being tested by empirical observations. In
general it is observed that deduction is common in mathematics and in the sciences and that in
practice, deductive teaching strategies combined with a high degree of teacher influence are probably
quite common. When this kind of teaching is characterised too much by the teacher’s personality,
without consideration of the students’ preconceptions, it has normally been classified – and criticised
– as traditional transmission teaching. Inductive strategies on the other hand are seen to aim at
having the students independently formulate and analyse issues in society. The goal is to arrive at
personal models or “theories” which later may be tested against reality. This strategy is seen to be
well established within teacher education in Sweden. It is suggested that the two strategies probably
do not occur very often in pure, refined versions. The choice of strategy is seen to be dependent on
the nature of the goals in the final analysis and will reflect conceptions about the nature of scientific
research and knowledge. It is also posited that “didactical reflections lead to an enriched, enlarged
and possibly changed perspective on science itself”.
TNTEE Publications Volume 2, Nr 1, October 1999 9