DIDACTIC STRATEGIES, CLASS MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND LEARNING PERFORMANCES IN THE HIGH SCHOOL ECONOMIC EDUCATION. A CRITICAL REALISM PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

There are two main classical fields of research which have been trying for decades to give explanations of the class molesting problems or the low performances of pupils in learning. One is the educational psychology and the other is the pedagogy. The educational psychologists put at the center (among other factors) the human centric aspects such as cognitive processes, emotions or behavioral aspects involved in educational processes such as learning, memory, cognition, or attention. On the other hand, the pedagogy-oriented researchers, put at the center the didactic strategies used by the teacher, the formal planning, the projection of lessons, or the evaluation done in educational contexts. In this paper, I argue that in many cases, there are important contextual aspects which are not considered as seriously as they should. Put simple, for instance, if the adolescents are not interested in the discipline because the discipline taught is not a baccalaureate discipline the interest in learning and the learning achieved by the adolescents will be poor, no matter what didactic strategy, or class management practice the professor uses. In this line of thinking, in this paper, I try to investigate through a case study research strategy, the contextual aspects responsible for the class problems and for the low performances in economic learning, giving the context a central role. Based on the four contextual causes of problems identified in the paper, I proposed four practical solutions/short term solutions applicable in the classroom, in order to improve the immediate attractiveness of the educational context.