Didactic Terminology Operated by Russian Future and Practicing Teachers: Comparative Analysis

This article contains results of studies and comparisons of conceptual competence in didactics demonstrated by 115 students – future and currently practicing teachers. The article gives an insight into conceptual competence in didactics in terms of strength of mastering the didactic knowledge, structuring this knowledge when solving didactic problems and the ability to freely operate didactic concepts when stating new problems associated with learning process organization and assessment of its results. The article describes the study procedure based on analysis of definitions of didactic concepts (a total of 3487 definitions were processed), 353 concept maps, as well as statements of problems in the educational field (a total of 400 statements were analyzed). The level of conceptual competence in didactics possessed by Russian students and teachers with different educational specialization (primary school, humanitarian sciences, natural sciences, supplementary education) is identified and assessed based on the developed assessment criteria, and the nature of relationship between the level of demonstration of such competence and sources and means of renewing and acquiring didactic information when encountering difficulties.