Reconsidering the Instruction of Discipline in Germany

—Following Bueb’s Debate—

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the significance and the function of the instruction of discipline, following Bueb's debate about discipline.

The German word "Disziplin" was avoided in Germany after the Second World War, because of its association with Nazism. However in 2006, Bueb (2006) restored the concept of "Disziplin" and because of his proposal, there were some critical responses to Bueb from researchers which have led to a new reconsideration concerning the instruction of discipline. In recent years, not only the criticism against Bueb but also the reconstruction of discipline has been proposed by Becker (2009) who emphasized cooperative decision of rule and demands from children to a teacher to get over the indoctrination, and Frech-Becker (2015) who related the discipline with the "Bildung" theory.

The significance of this study is to reveal that discipline is not regarded as an external control, but based on the "Bildung" theory, discipline promotes the acquisition of knowledge and leads to self-formation. The goal of this study is to consider how to decide the lesson rules in cooperation with learners and how the instruction of discipline is connected with subjects and leads to self-formation.