Scientific Research
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Research projects
Workshop work
Study workshops offer spaces for research-based learning and encounters. Students from various degree programs can find their own approaches to subject content and didactic issues as well as to teaching and learning materials and support concepts and develop creative ideas for their use, adaptation and further development. Transfer formats also create links to non-university stakeholders. In this way, innovative ideas are brought into school practice - and at the same time, impulses from practice flow back into university teaching. One such workshop at the University of Kassel is the Integrated Study Workshop for Languages (ISW)whose profile has been expanded to include basic language education since 2025.
The workshop work of the Department of Specialized Learning with a focus on basic language education is located at the ISW. The ISW combines first, second and foreign language didactics and focuses on language education under the conditions of multilingualism. Since 2025, the focus has also been on basic language education and thus the promotion of basic language skills. The ISW's offer includes teaching, research and transfer to the region.
There are also collaborations with the Diversity, Heterogeneity and Inclusion Study and Research Workshop (StuDIo) at Faculty 01. at Faculty 01. The joint focus is on linguistic diversity and diversity in language.
Workshop discussions with Mentor Nordhessen
In cooperation with the association Mentor Nordhessen e.V., a regular transfer format takes place at the Integrated Study Workshop for Languages (ISW), which closely interlinks theory and practice in reading and spelling support. The format is run by the Department of Learning with a focus on basic language education. Through cooperation with other members of the ISW directorate, different specialist perspectives are also incorporated.
About once a month (information on future dates and topics can be found here), volunteer reading mentors come to the university to discuss children with reading and/or spelling difficulties. As these difficulties can manifest themselves in very different ways and be embedded in very different contexts, the focus is on joint case work on individual support approaches. Topics such as multilingualism and educational equality also play a role. The format is deliberately bidirectional: The mentors bring valuable practical examples and experience from individual support, while academics work with students to contribute diagnostic expertise and evidence-based support principles.
Involvement of the students
Students of the LER4 module, which deals with difficulties in the acquisition of (written) language, are actively involved in the project. They accompany a mentor to a support session at school and thus get to know one of the supported children. During another visit, they carry out a learning assessment in the area of reading or spelling. Based on these findings, the students develop tailored support materials by adapting evidence-based support approaches and tailoring them to the specific context of the mentor's work. The developed materials are presented during the workshop discussions - and it is not uncommon for the mentors to report on their successful use later on.
The project is designed as a service-learning format and thrives on bidirectional transfer: students contribute diagnostic knowledge and evidence-based support approaches, while the mentors share their practical experience and concrete case studies from individual support. In this way, both sides benefit from each other. At the same time, as prospective teachers, the students experience how valuable exchange and collaboration across professional boundaries can be. In view of the ongoing shortage of specialists in schools, social commitment is already gaining in importance during training.
Development of a test procedure to assess writing skills
In cooperation with: Prof. Dr. Michael Becker-Mrotzek; Prof. Dr. Jörg Jost; Prof. Dr. Markus Linnemann, Prof. Dr. Christian Rietz, Prof. Dr. Alfred Schabmann & Dr.in Barbara Schmidt
Writing is one of the key skills for social participation, the promotion of which must be a declared educational goal. However, adequate support can only succeed if an individual diagnosis of the skills has taken place in advance. At present, however, there are no test procedures in Germany for the (promotional) diagnostic assessment of writing skills. Only didactically oriented assessment grids are available, but these do not meet the quality criteria of test theory. In contrast, there are various test procedures available in English-speaking countries, but these are limited in terms of construct assessment. Transferring these to the German-speaking world would therefore not meet the project objectives.
Against this background, the necessity of the project becomes clear. On the basis of previous research findings, both individual dimensions of writing competence and procedural processes during writing are to be recorded in the intended diagnostic instrument. The new test procedure should capture the construct of writing competence as comprehensively as possible and satisfy the quality criteria of test theory. Methodologically, access to the construct of writing competence is to be provided both via text-remote items (e.g. tasks in multiple-choice format) and via long texts (writing an informative text).
Further information:
Standards for determining support needs and universal support Basel-Landschaft (StaFF-BL)
In cooperation with: Prof. Dr. Dennis Christian Hövel, Prof. Pierre-Carl Link, Prof. Dr. Fabio Sticca & Dr.in Neele Bäker
Supported by: Office for Primary Schools, Canton Basel-Landschaft
Project description:
The criteria for determining the need for special educational measures in the area of behavior are ambiguous. However, a school without discrimination requires fair, i.e. uniform and valid diagnostics. This serves to adapt teaching and support measures to the individual needs of pupils.
The project outlines the pilot implementation of a diagnostic decision tree in schools in the canton of Basel-Landschaft. The decision tree focuses on both the processual character and the child-environment interaction so that diagnostics, teaching and support are closely linked.
Further information can be found at
StaFF - Standards for the identification of special educational needs (completed 2022-2025)
In cooperation with: Prof. Dr. Alfred Schabmann, Dr. BarbaraSchmidt, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Dworschak, Prof. Dr. Dennis Christian Hövel & Prof. Dr. Prisca Stenneken
The StaFF project (funded by the Ministry of Education of the State of Schleswig-Holstein) developed process standards for determining special educational needs in the areas of learning, intellectual development, emotional and social development and language.
Initial situation
Before the project, neither Schleswig-Holstein nor other federal states had clear criteria for determining special educational needs. This situation meant that assessors had considerable discretionary powers and procedures were often not open-ended. The result: increasing support rates and large regional differences that cannot be explained by differences in the pupil population itself. As the attribution of special educational needs can have serious consequences for the educational and life paths of children and young people, standardization was urgently needed.
The necessity of categorical attributions is critically reflected in the project. The standards developed therefore take the following aspects into account:
- Support needs are based on individual circumstances. In addition to criteria for assigning support priorities, the standards therefore also specify questions for planning individual support measures.
- Support needs can rarely be clearly assigned to individual support priorities. Cross-connections between the main areas of support bring the individual, cross-area needs into focus.
- The actual aim of special educational diagnostics is the targeted planning of individual support measures - not the attribution itself. The concept can therefore also be used independently of the identification of distinct areas of special needs or special educational needs.
Procedure
The process standards were developed in three steps: First, an analysis of needs and the current situation was carried out by interviewing diagnosticians and analyzing expert opinions. Building on this, process chains covering all areas of support were designed on the basis of intensive literature research. Finally, the standards were tested in a formative evaluation and adapted to the needs of practice.
Further information at: https://osf.io/8gp5k/overview