Analysis and Promotion of Effective Processes of Learning and Instruction (DFG Research Group 738)

Digital technologies can support education in multiple ways. Traditional forms of instruction can be enhanced by incorporating a variety of multi-media presentation formats and telemedial communication scenarios. Furthermore, new didactic scenarios such as forms of collaborative inquiry learning, problem based learning or learning by hypervideo production can be realised. However, in formal educational settings the potential of technology-supported learning is not exploited properly, if it is exploited at all. This is only partly due to structural reasons such as a lack of financial means. Another set of causes relates to characteristics of the research whose results should inform a better use of digital media in education. We argue that three central issues crucially contribute to this situation:

 

1. The lack of interdisciplinary connections between research approaches in psychology, educational science and educational technology; 
2. Research's low sensitivity to problems in educational practice; 
3.  The lack of reference with regard to conceptual frameworks of teaching and learning as well as with regard to models of competencies of teachers and learners
   
    

This reduces opportunities to accumulate knowledge from research and to practically apply these insights.

In our approach, we are connecting psychological, educational and didactical expertise within each of the projects and thus seek to combine the strengths of each discipline in a broader interdisciplinary perspective. Secondly, we intend to reach a higher sensibility of our research to the conditions of educational practice via investigating use-inspired research questions and seeking heightened external validity while simultaneously following the methodical standards of empirical research. Thirdly, the projects relate clearly to existing conceptual frameworks of teaching and learning such as the PISA framework and refer to other existing standards and models wherever applicable in order to interconnect results with other research efforts and practice.

The projects focus on the relation between learning prerequisites, learning processes and instruction on the one side and on the analysis and facilitation of teacher expertise under different instructional and institutional conditions on the other side. Through these efforts we aim at achieving a more comprehensive approach to learning and instruction with digital media.

The research group is funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).

Projects, second funding phase (2010-2013)

• Cognitive Activation in Secondary School (Hauptschule) Education
• Embodied learning of numerosities and its use in school contexts
• Contextual effects in educational research: Methodological challenges in the estimation and interpretation of multilevel models
• Multimedia in the classroom: Instructional support for the availability and the use of more effective cognitive learning strategies
• Promoting teachers´ competence through computer-supported case-based learning: Experimental research on the implementation of pedagogical innovations
• Frameproject Analysis and support of effective learning and instruction processes

Projects, first funding phase (2007-2010)

• Designing multimedia messages for classroom settings
• Use of digital video: Learning strategies and media literacy
• Innovative Digital Video Technologies for Collaborative Design Tasks in German Classes - Conditions for Effective Cooperation and Learning
• Computer-supported collaboration scripts for inquiry learning in the science classroom
• Promoting teacher expertise: The relation of individual prerequisites and instructional processes in computer-supported case-based learning environments
• Backbone Project: Coordination and Integration within the Research Group
  
  

Involved Research Institutes:

• Institute of Educational Science, University of Tübingen

• Psychological Institute, University of Tübingen

• Knowledge Media Research Center, Tübingen

• Chair of Education and Educational Psychology, University of Munich

Sprecher:

Prof. Dr. Dr. Friedrich W. Hesse
Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen