When Potentially Developing Situations do Not Develop: Critical Didactic Incidents in Problem-oriented Instruction

Authors

  • Tereza Češková

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14712/23362189.2020.1636

Keywords:

problem-solving competence, critical incident, problem-oriented task, primary education, interaction

Abstract

Teachers often consider the concept of competences incomprehensible and difficult to grasp in instruction. The development of pupils’ competences is thus potentially limited. The study focuses on the problem-solving competence (PSC), specifically on learning situations that potentially develop pupils’ PSC (i.e. problem-oriented situations with a problem task at their core). However, the fact that a teacher uses problem tasks in instruction does not automatically mean that pupils’ PSC is developed.
Aim: The study aims to describe what causes the loss of the potential of problem-oriented situations to develop pupils’ PSC.
Methods: 19 problem-oriented learning situations that had been identified in ten primary science lessons and were not found to actually develop PSC were researched. Using critical didactic incident analysis, concrete forms of problem-oriented learning situations are described to capture the recurrent phenomena that cause the situations to lose their potential to develop PSC.
Results: The dominant group of incidents was characterized by an excessive concentration of activity in the teacher – they guided pupils through the solving process so much that they solved the task de facto on their own. The study describes the mechanism of how this and other incidents came about. Describing some phenomena that reduce the development of PSC might help to show what should be avoided in instruction.

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Published

2020-07-31

Issue

Section

Research paper