Copyrighted material Crossing Boundaries 2023 Kaunas, Lithuania Tyson, R. (2023). Lehrkunstdidaktik and its potential for vocational didactics. In V. Tūtlys, L. Vaitkutė & C. Nägele (Eds.), Vocational Education and Training Transformations for Digital, Sustainable and Socially Fair Future. Proceedings of the 5th Crossing Boundaries Conference in Vocational Education and Training, Kaunas, 25. – 26. May (pp. 458–462). European Research Network on Vocational Education and Training, VETNET, Vytautas Magnus University Education Academy, Institute of Educational Science. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7822271 Lehrkunstdidaktik and its Potential for Vocational Didactics Tyson, Ruhi ruhi.tyson@gmail.com, Stockholm University Abstract This paper focuses on the German didactical theory Lehrkunstdidaktik (The-art-of-teaching) and its potential to enrich vocational didactics. A brief outline is given of the central conceptual scheme of The-art-of-teaching: its exemplary-genetic-dramatic approach to pedagogical cases. Following this two cases from vocational didactics are presented and discussed from the perspective of The-art-of-teaching. In conclusion it is argued that The-art-of-teaching is a didactical theory well suited to enrich vocational didactics and, in turn, to demonstrate the general educational value of some pedagogical cases taken from the vocational field. Keywords lehrkunstdidaktik, the-art-of-teaching, vocational didactics, vocational bildung Background The German didactical research tradition Lehrkunstdidaktik (mostly translated as “the art of teaching”) has grown from the Bildung-oriented didactics of Martin Wagenschein (eg. Aeschlimann, 1999; Berg, 2003, 2004, 2009; Wagenschein, 1991). Central to it is the development of so-called Lehrstücke (pedagogical cases). These cases are meant to engage with a particularly rich subject matter, a “timeless theme from our history”, something that holds an unusually strong potential to develop deeper understanding in a subject and its context. As a method for this a so-called exemplary-genetic-dramatic approach is used where the case that is developed focuses on some exemplary topic (ie. a topic of unusual pedagogical richness), explores its history and how we have understood it in the past as well as present. Finally, the dramatic element emphasizes the compositional aspect, that this case be in a sense “staged” by the teacher in such a way as to involve the students in a process of exploration and experience. A typical pedagogical case that has been well researched and repeatedly “staged” (Emden & Gerwig, 2020) is based on the famous physicist Michael Faradays lectures for children and youth, The chemical history of a candle. In these lectures Faraday uses a candle to explore the circulation of carbon but in such a way as to unlock for the participants the richest and deepest understanding of the subject-matter. Over the years a wide repertoire of didactical cases has developed within this practice-oriented research tradition, many as the center of doctoral theses in education. In evaluating the work done within the “art of teaching” school of didactics the well-known German scholar of education, Wolfgang Klafki wrote (in the foreword to Berg & Schulze, 1997, p. 14f., my translation):