The Representation of Reality in Teaching: A “Mimetic Didactic” Perspective on Examples in Plenary Talk

Abstract

Using an observation study in Norwegian lower secondary school classrooms this paper explores how subject matter and students' real-world experiences are linked within the use of examples in teaching. The theory of 'mimetic didactics' claims that giving students the possibility to interpret examples as both subject matter and something that is relevant to their own lives becomes a possibility through imaginative 'as-if' experiences. The study finds that 'as-if' experiences in the data are created by identifying with others and through a contextdependent knowledge base. The topics in the examples actualise being human within the political, economic and existential realm and offer possibilities to make knowledge relevant for the students' future. The study's contribution to classroom research comprises new concepts on the content aspects of classroom talk: the questions of knowledge accumulation and purpose.

Bringing teaching back in: The Norwegian NOUThe school of the futurein light of the Allgemeine Didaktik theory of Wolfgang Klafki

“…Learning is ultimately an individual and subjective experience for students and that is why teaching practice can be theorized by the concepts of matter-meaning (Hopmann, 2007). A content given in the curriculum, as disciplinary knowledge, can have an infinite number of meanings and can be exemplified, contextualized and worked with in ways that are limited only by the imagination of teachers (Willbergh, 2016). Herein lays their professional autonomy.…”

“…According to Keith R. Sawyer, this is one of the main sources of the concept of deep learning in the White Paper, 'Deep learning requires that learners relate new ideas and concepts to previous knowledge and experience ' (Sawyer, 2006, p. 4;Meld. St. 28 (2015-2016, p. 33). Whether this concept of deep learning can be a rapprochement to powerful knowledge as: 'students being able to generalize beyond their experience by engaging with the concepts of disciplinary knowledge' (Deng, 2015b;Wyse et al, 2014), or to categorical Bildung as 'a double unlocking of the content and the student, leading to increased understanding of their world' (Klafki, 2001b), remains to be seen.…”

“…General didactics, 'Allgemeine Didaktik' and Bildung theories, being German and Northern-European educational theories, are relatively unknown in the English-speaking world, but interest in it has been growing since the turn of the millennium (Aasebø, Midtsundstad & Willbergh, 2015;Deng, 2015a;Gundem & Hopmann, 1998;Hillen, Sturm & Willbergh (Eds. ), 2011;Hillen & Aprea, 2015;Hopmann, 2007;Kim, 2013;Krü ger, 2008;Menck, 2010;Meyer, 2007;Midtsundstad & Werler, 2011;Midtsundstad & Willbergh, 2010;Pikkarainen, 2011;Vásquez-Levy, 2002;Westbury, Hopmann & Riquarts, 2000;Willbergh, 2015Willbergh, , 2016.…”

“…Examples are per definition something specific that represents something general, in this case general knowledge represented by a specific aesthetic object, a case, a verbal expression, a picture or the like (Wagenschein, 2000;Willbergh, 2010). The value of the use of examples in teaching is that examples can be taken from the world of the students: the elemental can become fundamental by connecting it to the familiar (Willbergh, 2016). Hence, to unlock the educational substance of a given content in the curriculum (Deng, 2015a), to teach in a way that can turn the matter (Bildungsinhalt) into meaning (Bildungsgehalt) for the students (Hopmann, 2007), the teacher analyses the content.…”

“…Hence, to unlock the educational substance of a given content in the curriculum (Deng, 2015a), to teach in a way that can turn the matter (Bildungsinhalt) into meaning (Bildungsgehalt) for the students (Hopmann, 2007), the teacher analyses the content. Didaktik analysis consists of five questions (in the original version, (Klafki, 2000a)) revealing the appropriate exemplary meaning the content can illustrate, what aspect of the world the content can unlock for the students, connecting it to the subjective viewpoints of her/his students and selected aesthetic objects (Willbergh, 2016).…”