Research group

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Composition and working methods of the research group

A religious education empirical teaching research group has existed at the Institute of Catholic Theology since 2012 under the direction of Prof. Dr. Annegret Reese-Schnitker.


The research group is made up of student assistants, research assistants and religious education teachers (the latter on a voluntary basis). The working group meets every four to six weeks for a working and coordination meeting and twice a year for a retreat. Twice a semester, religious education teachers are invited to the large group meetings as experts in the field. Many evaluation steps (rating procedures, case analyses, evaluation of the video material) are carried out in small evaluation groups.

Aims of the research group

The research group pursues the primary goalto conduct empirical teaching research studies (2015 to 2021: "Conversations in Religious Education", 2022 to date RaP: Religious Education at the Pulse of Time).


A secondary goal is to prepare and incorporate the acquired empirical data for university didactic teaching (videographed lessons and interview recordings and transcripts).

Current research project "RaP: Religious education at the pulse of time"

The aim of the study is to find out how (and whether) current socio-political and church-political topics play a role in religious education lessons, what relevance is attributed to them and to what extent they are made the subject of lessons and discussions by religious education teachers or pupils. In addition to concrete teaching experiences, the focus is also on the motivation for addressing the topic. The associated opportunities and target perspectives for religious learning as well as the particular challenges and hurdles in the practical implementation in religious education settings are also taken into consideration.


In the first part of RaP, an interview study with religious education teachers from all school levels was used as a basis to survey the teachers' internal view of their teaching and the expertise they bring with them. The focus was on how current and topical, socially and ecclesiastically relevant issues are addressed and dealt with in religious education lessons, the associated actors and factors that influence the discussion (heterogeneous learning groups, globalized crises, contextual school conditions).


In the fourth quarter of 2022, 16 teachers from all types of schools were interviewed using a guided interview with open narrative impulses and closed questions about their teaching experiences with current issues. At the beginning, the teachers were openly invited with a narrative impulse to talk about their teaching practice and report on specific teaching scenes, lesson plans or projects on current topics. This was followed, where appropriate, by guideline-oriented questions about motivation, the initiators, the challenges and, finally, the question of which topics they currently consider to be highly topical and relevant for religious education. The evaluation of the interviews, which has not yet been completed, is based on content analysis according to Mayring as well as an intensive semantic-syntactic analysis of narrative and dense interview passages. The aim is to crystallize successful teaching examples as well as obstacles to dealing with current issues in religious education. A publication of the findings of the first part is planned for 2025 by Kohlhammerverlag.


Building on the results of the survey of religious education teachers, the second part will develop, test, implement (record) and reflect on discussion formats in a circular manner as part of subject-specific didactic development research. In cooperation between university and school(s), the processing of such topics in (religion) lessons is to be successfully accompanied in the sense of social responsibility and under the claim of democratic language skills.


Finally, in a third part, the knowledge gained will lead to the creation of teaching material in the form of macro-adaptive manuals for didactic discussion formats. These discussion formats are intended to help and provide orientation for giving space to current topics, such as "war" and "political crises", and to be able to deal with them in a guided and successful manner, in order to ultimately strengthen the confidence of teachers to teach in tune with the times.

Completed research project: "Conversations in religious education"

In the Kassel teaching research project "Conversations in religious education", the initiation and organization of conversation phases with children and young people at lower secondary level by religious education teachers was examined. The focus of the analysis was on the course of communication in lessons and its control by the teachers. Of particular interest was the form and structure of conversations in religious education lessons.
Conversation is at the heart of religious education lessons, but to date there have been hardly any empirical studies on the initiation and design of such conversations by teachers or on their potential momentum. How do young people start talking about theological issues in class and how are these conversations initiated, shaped and driven forward or managed by the religious education teachers? Are there recurring difficulties that teachers and students have to deal with again and again?


The aim of the research project was to take a look at real religious education lessons in order to make the concrete problems in practice tangible and workable.


Method


Videotaped classroom recordings of religious education lessons were used to record how religious education teachers stage classroom discussions on the central systematic theological topics of the Trinity and eschatology and how these classroom discussions develop in terms of their dynamics.
The classroom recordings were analyzed using a low- and high-inference rating procedure. Selected classroom discussions were interpreted sequentially by means of a case analysis. Content analysis evaluation methods were used for individual questions (e.g. importance of media, feedback, questions in classroom discussions).

Publications on the research project "Conversations in religious education"

Reese-Schnitker, Annegret / Bertram, Daniel / Fröhle, Dominic, Conversations in Religious Education. Insights - Insights - Potentials, Stuttgart 2022.


Görth, Martha / Fröhle, Dominic, "Ich hab da mal 'ne Frage" - Schülerfragen im Religionsunterricht, in: Katechetische Blätter. Zeitschrift für religiöses Lernen in Schule und Gemeinde 2/2019, pp. 106-110.


Ernst, Philipp, Between student orientation and instruction. What to look out for? In: Catechetische Blätter. Zeitschrift für religiöses Lernen in Schule und Gemeinde, 2/2019, p.111-116.


Bertram, Daniel / Franzmann, Marcel, The role of the teacher in classroom discussions: Moderator - Motivator - Auditor, in: Katechetische Blätter. Journal for Religious Learning in School and Parish 2/2019, pp. 117-122.


Reese-Schnitker, Annegret / Fröhle, Dominic, Is talking really just silver? Insights into videographed conversations in religious education, in: Pädagogische Stiftung Cassianeum (ed.), Dokumentation des 13. Arbeitsforum für Religionspädagogik, Munich 2018, 125-140.


Reese-Schnitker, Annegret, Interactive learning processes in the context of biblical learning. A sequential detailed analysis of conversations, in: Mirjam Schambeck, Ulrich Riegel (eds.). What goes on in religious education. Ways and results of religious education research, Freiburg 2018, 233-251.


Reese-Schnitker, Annegret, Gelungene Unterrichtsgespräche: Miteinander ins Gespräch kommen, in: Volker Garske/Thomas, Nauerth / Niermann, Anja (eds.), Vom Können erzählen: Ein Lesebuch zum Frieden. Festschrift für Egon Reese-Schnitker, Annegret, Wie werden biblische Texte im Religionsunterricht 'eingespielt'? Insights into an empirical teaching research study. In: Klumbies, Paul-Gerhard / Müllner, Ilse, Bibel und Kultur. The Book of Books in Literature, Music and Film, Leipzig 2016, 221-250.


Reese-Schnitker, Annegret, Productive interruptions in classroom discussions. Typical patterns, stumbling blocks and learning opportunities in classroom discussions - illustrated by a case study. In: Catechetische Blätter 138 H. 2 (2013), 130-137.

Members of the research group

The members of the research group can be found under the following link:

Members of the research group: More Infos