The GDR term subject teaching methodologies (Fachmethodiken) corresponds to school subject didactics (Fachdidaktik), a term commonly used in the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland, BRD). The two terms were not systematically differentiated from one another. However, different focal points are evident in the self-designation of various institutional areas. In the GDR, the term didactics was mostly used for conceptual, general didactic statements (cf. Drefenstedt et al., 1976), which were linked to traditions ranging from Radke and Comenius to Marxist-Leninist pedagogy. The focus was on narrowly limiting the term to interdisciplinary principles of teaching and learning in the classroom that were strongly oriented towards personality development (Laabs et al., 1987, p. 82). This was reflected, for example, in the Institute for Didactics of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences (Akademie der Pädagogischen Wissenschaften, APW) and in its work on an overarching teaching theory (Malycha, 2008, p. 95). In contrast, subject teaching methodology always referred to a specific subject and was therefore seen not only as a teaching methodology or a practical collection of handouts for lesson planning, but also as a science of the respective subject (Mader, 1959, p. 381).

The term subject teaching methodologies also served as a classification category for the organisation of planning and research in the field of teaching subjects within leading educational institutions of the GDR (DPZI staffing plan, 1951). These institutions were given the objective of providing schooling practice with theoretical foundations and practical instructions for scientific teaching (APW, 1987, p. 255) and thereby ensuring the effective design of teaching and the production of teaching materials and media required for this. Relevant publications from the Soviet Union and independent publications provided orientation points. International trends and concepts derived from transatlantic cooperation were taken up in the reception of related areas of the individual university disciplines, education studies and pedagogical psychology.

Just like didactic research, methodologies specialised in this way were publicly criticised during the Wende (see also transition / transformation) period from 1989 onwards, as they had allowed themselves to be taken over by ideological objectives and dogmatic guidelines (cf. Fuhrmann, 1994, p. 269). In contrast, GDR methodologists emphasise professional and scientific standards in their work as well as their direct obligation to teachers in training.