Social competence as learning goal:: Teaching pedagogics on the lower secondary level

Instruction in pedagogics on the lower level of secondary education within the German school system is usually offered as a compulsory optional subject for the grades nine and ten and is taught under the name of either pedagogics, educational science, socio-pedagogics, social work, or basic pedagogics. Depending on the respective Land, the subject is included in the curricula for the four different types of German secondary schools. From the conceptional point of view, three variants may be distinguished: the biographical, the pedagogical, and the socialization-related variant. In view of the postmodern trend towards individualization and subjectivization, pedagogics ought to be taught to all students as a nonvocational school subject aiming at the formation of general humane competences.