College of Education and STEM Research Collaborartorium and Resource Center

Initial teacher education is essential for teacher quality, as it equips future staff with the knowledge and skills to teach effectively and to meet the needs of their future institution and students (OECD, 2016). Almost every country in the world now has higher education institutions responsible for the education and training of future teachers. Depending on many factors, each country has different characteristics (e.g., program structures), approaches, or orientations (e.g., curricular content and sequence, pedagogy) by which teacher education varies (Tatto et al. 2009). Because characteristics of teacher education strongly shape learning opportunities, variance in teacher education can lead to differences in future teachers' knowledge, instructional practice, and presumably student learning. To learn from each other’s approaches, my key aim is to open up insights into how we do teacher education in Germany, focusing on elementary teacher education. During the presentation, we will take a look at teacher education in Germany in general and gain insights into specific programs at the University of Leipzig. Focusing on approaches in elementary science teacher education, we will finally take a look at a research-based development study called EEdnaS. As a subproject of the QLB project PraxisdigitaliS (funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research), the EEdnaS study aimed to promote the professional competence (Baumert & Kunter 2006) of prospective teachers required for teaching science content (Giest 2017) in a world shaped by digitalization. Sustainable digital literacy of (prospective) teachers is characterized, among other things, by the ability of teachers to select, use, reflect on, and share the use of digital media in relation to learning opportunities and focused goals (Kotzebue et al. 2020). Knowledge (in the sense of the TPaCK model (Mishra & Köhler 2006) and beliefs are described as fundamental aspects of competence (Kunter, Pohlmann & Decker 2020). Our research project addressed the key question: What learning opportunities are most effective for building TPaCK and positive beliefs about TPACK in elementary science teacher education? In order to promote TPaCK competencies in a structured way, specific elementary science methods courses were developed and implemented as part of a regular teacher training program. The courses (1) directly addressed the development of knowledge and beliefs according to TPACK in two different ways, that were contrasted in a study design. (2) Students were asked to plan, implement and evaluate science lessons with special attention to digitization and to share the developed units as Open Educational Resources (OER). The presentation will give insights into the science methods course and the science lessons implemented by the students. Finally, we will highlight and discuss the research findings regarding the development of professional competencies and think about implication concerning preservice elementary teacher education.

Erstellt von: GSD Sachunterricht