Didactic Sequence*

A didactic sequence is a group of activities created in order to reach an objective. Those activities must follow an order and an organization. That means that each activity has its own purpose and all of them work together in order to reach a bigger objective.

Another characteristic of didactic sequences is that they must have a rhythm too.

According to Zabala Vidiella, didactic sequences must have the following characteristics:

•  “They must test the previous knowledge of the pupils and adapt the class to the level of knowledge of students.” (Rodriguez, n.d)
•  “The contents of the class must be meaningful and must represent a challenge for students.” (Rodriguez, n.d)
• “They promote mental activity and construction of new concepts.” (Rodriguez, n.d)
• “They promote autonomy and met cognition.” (Rodriguez, n.d)

• The didactic sequence must develop in students knowledge, abilities and attitudes. And must help the student to take his abilities outside the school. (Obaya, n.d)

A didactic sequence for English must have four main elements:

1. Activities: “What students will be doing in the classroom.” (Harmer, 2006)
2. Skills: “Which language skills  se wish our students to develop”
3. Language: “What language students will practice, research or use”
4.  Content: “Select content which has a good chance of provoking interest and involvement.

Cognitivism is a theory that began on 1960. It arose as an opposition to the behaviorist approach of the time. Cognitivism is based on the mental processes that students use in order to reach understanding. Some of those processes are perception, memorization, thinking and resolution of problems.

Cognitivism was the basis of the constructivist theories of the time. It as related with Vigotsky and Piaget´s theories and it supported them.

Some of the principles of Cognitivism are:

The subject is an active part in knowledge and the relationships between it and the environment are very important in order to acquire a real learning.

The own reception and organization of knowledge is pretty important to get understanding as well as the strategies that the subject use to it.

Human beings are able to learn by themselves, using the elements around them and using their previous knowledge too.

Learners construct their own knowledge by making their own information structures.

Cognitivism is based on the idea that people construct their knowledge by changing the understanding, meanings and concepts  of things inside them.

Besides using constructivist theories (Piaget, Vygotsky and Ausbel), Cognitivism also use other knowledge theories, including the Information Processes one.

So, at the end of the day, Cognitivism is about how students learn by themselves, constructing their own knowledge using all tools around them, including social interaction, previous knowledge and culture.

But on the other side we have the Metacognitivism  theory too.

This theory goes beyond the first one, because it is concerned not just about  the students building their own knowledge, but also how about they realize they are building it.

Metacognitivism is based on the idea that students must know about the strategies they need to apply in a specific time in order to reach understanding.  This means that students will be able to know about their best developed abilities and the worst develop abilities in order to take as much advantage as they can to take control of their own learning process.

If they can do that they will regulate their own learning process and will create effective  strategies to  reach the best understanding they can.

http://www.eumed.net/libros/2007c/322/secuencia%20didactica.htm

http://www.izt.uam.mx/contactos/n63ne/secuencia_v2.pdf