A "Wissenschaftsdidaktik" perspective on Decoding the Disciplines: Theoretical reflections opening up potentials for teaching and research

The current German-language discussion on “Wissenschaftsdidaktik” (translated literally as “didactics of research”, but with a continental European understanding of didactics in the background) is based on demands from the 1970s and is nevertheless fruitful for a contemporary understanding of teaching and learning in universities. Essential ideas are that research is a special teaching-learning subject, that good teaching is the responsibility of the disciplines and their communities rather than an add-on task, and that there is reflective potential for research in teaching (Hentig, 1970; Reinmann & Rhein, 2022). From the perspective of “Wissenschaftsdidaktik”, Decoding the Disciplines can be perceived as related (Reinmann, 2022), as a framework offering practical approaches to work on the connection between research and teaching.  

The contribution aims to make the German-language discussion on “Wissenschaftsdidaktik” accessible for the international discourse on Decoding the Disciplines and to examine what potential this theoretical perspective on Decoding opens up for teaching and research. The original framework, but also younger developments within Decoding practice, e. g. the expansion of the focus from cognitive procedures to other practices, the involvement of students or the lifting of the process to a higher institutional level (Pace, 2021) will be reconsidered theoretically and suggestions for a broader use of the Decoding framework will be developed.