Mittuniversitetet

The INTED conference has established itself as a meeting point for sharing new ideas on technology enhanced education. A question raised at INTED 2019 was: "How can you prepare students for the future, if you are stuck in the past?".  A highly relevant question, but this paper is based on the research question: "How could students be prepared for the future, if you take a look at the past, and in particular the history of didactics?".  

This study was carried out as a literature review with the two-folded idea of, 1) conducting a central and comparative literature study with a focus on didactics as the central theme for a review of the available literature. Furthermore, the study was comparative in the sense that ideas relating to didactics in different historical eras have been compared to one another. For the other part of the study, 2) a contextual method was used regarding texts as parts of historical moments, and as moves in arguments in particular historical contexts.

Three main findings from the history of didactics are, 1) the Greek and Roman idea of playful and game-based learning, 2) the Renaissance idea of self-directed learning and 3) the Comenian concept of flipping education with less teacher led classroom sessions. The conclusion is that all these three didactic ideas have a potential to vitalise contemporary education, and prepare students for a future with 21st century skills.