The didactic model as articulator of the classroom-system: a case study in secondary education

Abstract

This study explores how the didactic model used by three secondary school teachers conditions the relationships between the elements that make up the classroom system. We start from the hypothesis that the classroom system is articulated around a series of elements as a structure. These elements would be: the textbook, the homework, the exam and the didactic model of the teacher that, in some way, gives coherence and integrates the rest. A qualitative methodology of participant observation with case analysis strategy has been used, and the results show us three secondary education classrooms in which the different elements of the classroom-system form a structure whose elements are related by laws of internal composition. Teachers' management of these elements is linked to the maintenance of order and classroom governance.