Pedagogical Tact

The pedagogical tact is a concept from the German Geisteswissenschaften that was conceived by Herbart to address the application of theories in the educational practice; this is a topic that has been important in research as well as in practice. Already Herbart had considered the most important issues of this application. The present project aims at (1) comprehending the crucial problems of the relationship between theory and practice precisely; (2) conceiving the pedagogical tact in capitalizing on concepts from the Geisteswissenschaften (ethical issues, among others) and using empiric-analytical approaches (particularly situation specificity; per- sonality theory, namely Mischels Cognitive-Affective Personality System; subjective theories etc.) and phenomenology; macro- and micro-analytical levels are distinguished; (3) deducing hypotheses which address not only the two levels but also the relationship between them; (4) further developing methods which permit to study the variables addressed in the theory and in the hypotheses (macro-analyses: in particular structure-laying methods; micro-analyses: stimulated recall); (5) testing the hypotheses empirically by performing several studies, the most important being a quasi- experimental intervention study with participants in a course for mediators in the elementary education system as experimental group; (6) and disseminating the outcomes and the theoretical insight to practitioners in order to enhance their professionalism and to the scientific community. The project provides multiple scientific values added: Combining geisteswissenschaftliche and em- pirical-analytic concepts in a prototypical example; analysis and theoretical account for a crucial problem in research in education and in its application; integration of several theories from different domains into one theoretical framework; studies on the macro- and micro-analytical levels and ad- dressing the relations, etc. For practice the values added are in the substantial increase of profession- alism of educators through improved application of scientific theories, which in turn enhances the usefulness of scientific theories; the application of theories leads to more responsible education which eventually will benefit the people to be educated and hence the society as a whole.

The theory-practice transfer is a crucial issue in research in education and for theory-guided professional actions. For many reasons - which are analyzed in the project -, this transfer is not trivial. To account for it, Herbart has conceived the concept of Pedagogical Tact already in 1802. However, despite much discussion in pedagogy (particularly in the Geisteswissenschaften), a comprehensive theory of Tact has not yet been developed, and particularly little empirical research has been done in this regard. The project aims at formulating such a theory and at testing it with data that are as close to the actual practitioners' behavior as possible. According to this theory, practitioners can only capitalize on scientific theories by integrating them into their system of subjective theories (personal belief system) and by basing their practical decisions in concrete situations on these. The theory of Tact includes a series of frameworks from social sciences, Geisteswissenschaften, and phenomenology, like decision theory, situation specificity, subjective theories, and normative requirements and values. The empirical studies address (1) the practitioners' concept of the transfer. This study shows that the often-claimed assumption that practitioners do not recognize scientific theories as relevant for their actions is refuted. (2) Practitioners' thoughts during their actions are assessed and analyzed with respect to the issues addressed in the theory of Tact: A practical situation is video-recorded, and immediately afterwards, the practitioner reports what went through his or her head when taking a decision. On one hand, 13 experienced primary and secondary teachers are compared with 21 student teachers, using a theory-based coding system to analyze their reports. It turns out that the former realize more elements of the theory of Tact than the latter; more detailed analyses are underway, addressing issues like the goals aimed at in different situations, the concrete use of scientific theories, and situation specificity. On the other hand, four experienced elementary teachers are assessed across time and situations, using a hermeneutic-oriented analysis. The results show that teachers who were already Tactful in the first assessments improve in Tact over time whereas those who are less Tactful do not change because they do not reflect about their actions appropriately. For both studies, due to small sample sizes, generalizations are not possible. (3) Based on these results, a handbook for the theory-practice transfer for elementary teachers with respect to concrete practical issues is conceived. It is hoped that based on this research the theory-practice transfer can be fostered and hence professionalism in teaching (or practice in general) can be improved. However, scientific theories will never determine practice fully, instead the practitioners will keep freedom of decision-making and hence the responsibility for their actions, but will be supported by scientific theories.