Educational Sciences, Pedagogy and Didactics
What the exam expects
This domain tests whether a candidate can teach, not only know. Educational sciences: learning theories (behaviourism - Pavlov, Skinner; cognitivism - Piaget's stages, Bruner; socioconstructivism - Vygotsky's zone of proximal development; humanism - Rogers), motivation, assessment, and classroom management. Pedagogy: the difference between pedagogy (the art and science of teaching) and didactics (the specific methods of teaching a discipline), objectives-based planning, the competency-based approach (APC), and differentiation. Didactics: designing a lesson with objectives, prerequisites, a situation-problem, activities, formative assessment and remediation.
Traps that recur
- Confusing pedagogy (general) with didactics (discipline-specific).
- Writing objectives with vague verbs ("understand", "know") instead of observable ones ("identify", "calculate", "justify").
- Confusing formative assessment (to guide learning) with summative assessment (to certify).
- Treating the APC as a method of content delivery rather than a shift toward competencies in authentic situations.
- Confusing Piaget (individual construction) with Vygotsky (social mediation).
Rule of thumb
Every lesson plan must answer three questions: what competency is targeted, in what situation will it be mobilised, and how will I know it has been acquired? If a lesson cannot answer the third, it has no evaluation logic.
Worked example
Objective: "At the end of the lesson, the pupil will be able to calculate the area of a rectangle in a real situation." This is observable, measurable and situated. Contrast "the pupil will understand area", which cannot be assessed. Then add the situation-problem (measuring a schoolyard) and the criterion of success.