Didactics consists of the analysis and development of techniques and methods that can be used to teach certain content to an individual or a group. Didactics is part of pedagogical science, being responsible for studying the learning and teaching processes.
Teachers and instructors use didactics as a means to apply models of approaches that enable their students to learn. In short, didactics is the way in which the teacher teaches certain content to students, ensuring, through strategies, the construction of knowledge.
See also:meaning of pedagogy.
However, didactics should not be interpreted as a technical practice. The objective of this is also to develop critical thinking in trainers, who must analyze the techniques and strategies used in order to reformulate or question them, when appropriate.
Thus, it can be said that didactics is a reflective study that, based on the critical capacity of the teaching professional, must assist in the transformation of teaching methods according to the environment or time, for example.
Some of the main synonyms for didactics are: pedagogical, educational, educational and instructive.
Etymologically, the didactic word originated from the French didactique and which, in turn, arose from the Greek didaktikḗ, which can be translated as "the art of teaching".
See also:meaning of methodology.
General Didactics and Special Didactics
General didactics studies all the principles that are common among all types of teaching and for any type of student.
Special didactics, on the other hand, analyzes the specific teaching problems that each subject may present, as well as possible ways to solve them.