EEdnaS

Objective of the project

The objective of the project is to interlink the promotion of professional competences in the sense of the previously established Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge (TPACK) of (prospective) teachers with the development, testing, research and distribution of digital learning environments to improve the quality of teaching in general sciences education.

Theoretical embedding

Professional competences of teachers are of great importance for the quality of teaching and the learning success of students. The question of how teachers develop professional competences is an important question of empirical educational research, to which the present project is to be connected - in an extension to the previous state of research (e.g. T-KnoX project), digitisation-related competences will be focused on. In the EEdnaS sub-study, conditions for the development of digitisation-related professional competences are investigated by means of an experimental study.

Research questions:

• How must seminars be designed in order to positively influence professional competences (attitudes and attitudes as well as professional knowledge (TPACK)) of student teachers with regard to the use of digital media in (future) teaching.
• Which conditions in the presentation of the contents (subject knowledge, subject didactic knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and technology/digitalisation-related knowledge) positively influence the development?
• What influence does one's own selection of a content area (content) have on the development of science teaching in the seminar for the development of professional competences (TPACK)?
• What influence does the accompanying evaluation of the tests by students have on the development of their professional competences (TPACK)?
• What is the structure of professional competence with regard to the use of digital media?
• What are the correlations between attitudes and behaviours and professional knowledge? What are the correlations between the areas of knowledge?
• What are the correlations between professional competences and the quality of lesson designs and the quality of teaching?
• How does the quality of teaching change in relation to science teaching?

Content of the research project

Description of the project: As part of the final seminar on subject didactics (05-GSD-SACH04), students work with teachers and research assistants at the university to develop digital teaching-learning labs in the field of primary school didactics in general sciences education using digital media. In the development of the learning environments, the focus is on questions about the subject-specific use of digital media to address heterogeneous learning prerequisites (pupil expectations, learning difficulties) as well as on the enrichment of teaching through multiple digital representation options and subject-specific options for digital performance recording and feedback. The lessons developed in this way are tested, videographed and improved in special university classrooms in the field. This leads to immediate implementation in the field. The developed digital learning environments will be made available to other actors in the sense of upscaling (Open Educational Resources in the network of the University of Leipzig EDUdigitaLE (https://oer.uni-leipzig.de/); further training).

Description of the research project: In the sub-project EEdnaS, conditions for the development of digitisation-related professional competences of prospective teachers are investigated by means of an experimental study (for research questions see above). Within the framework of the study, prospective teachers take part in differently designed seminars, whereby all seminars include the development and testing or accompanying research of digitally enriched general sciences education. The students are randomly assigned to the treatments and are surveyed before, and after participation in the seminar using questionnaires and interviews. Due to the temporal proximity to the teacher traineeship and entry into the teaching profession, a follow-up survey is also planned (pre-post-follow-up design). The focus is on recording and describing the change in TPACK as well as the development of attitudes and attitudes with regard to the subject-specific implementation of digital media. The contrast is not only between the individual treatment groups, but also with the competence development of the students who take similar seminar courses in module 05-GSD-SACH04 are to function as a control group. A prerequisite for carrying out this research is the (further) development of measurement-invariant questionnaires and interview guidelines for recording competences at the level of (prospective) teachers and students (preliminary work is available). A second line of research is subject didactic development research: The developed lessons as well as the seminar structure are continuously researched and improved with the involvement of all developers involved in the design-based research approach (e.g. Euler 2014).

Current state of work

Status October 2021:

• The implementation of the 3 planned treatments was successfully completed at 3 primary schools in the Leipzig city area, with students and pupils of the third grade level in 6 classes.
• The treatments were implemented as eTeaching lessons in the primary schools, whereby the teaching students were digitally connected to the classroom.

Status September 2020:

• Piloting of the three planned treatments incl. survey instruments is being prepared.
• Acquisition of participating primary schools / teachers - Examination of participation fees for teachers.
• Compilation of the research data management plan with the aim, among other things, of making the data obtained usable for video-based teaching (teacher education in all phases of teacher training).
• Development of the test instruments in line with the overall project