First DFG Research Training Group on Elementary School Research Started

The Research Training Group is dedicated to empirical research on the conditions and qualities of subject-specific learning in mathematics and German lessons at elementary schools. It is the first of its kind to be funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and is located at the interface of mathematics and German didactics and empirically oriented educational science. The aim is to develop interdisciplinary theory: "The aim is to develop concepts for how we can observe the subject-specific quality of elementary school teaching," said Prof. Dr. Georg Breidenstein (University of Halle-Wittenberg) at the kick-off meeting.

The basis for this is a large-scale standardized video study in which the relationship between subject-specific quality and interaction in the classroom is being researched. Within the framework of a videographic monitoring of German and mathematics lessons (2 times 2 hours) in approx. 20-25 elementary school classes of the 3rd grade, the previous research gap in empirical educational research will be investigated to record and describe in more detail subject-specific interactions of students. For the research situations, the lesson content is specified in each case in both subjects in order to enable better comparability of the observations.

The research is also supported by a first cohort of twelve doctoral students and one postdoc each. All doctoral candidates with their dissertation projects have now been selected, and five doctoral candidates and the postdoctoral researcher Dr. Tanya Tyagunova have already started their work. In one dissertation project, for example, the question is being investigated of how linguistic diversity in the classroom is expressed in the different learning needs of the students and is reflected in the interaction of the teachers with the students in German lessons.

On the part of the University of Kassel, the project is led by Prof. Dr. Friederike Heinzel, Professor of Educational Science with a focus on elementary school pedagogy. At the digital kick-off meeting, she emphasized in her welcoming speech the good cooperation of all participants of the cross-locational research training group.

In its first phase, the DFG Research Training Group "INTERFACH" will be funded by the DFG with approximately four million euros for the period 2022-2026. In addition to Friederike Heinzel, Prof. Dr. Natalie Fischer (Department of Social Relations in Schools), Prof. Dr. Frank Lipowsky (Department of Empirical Research on Schools and Teaching) and Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Rathgeb-Schnierer (Department of Mathematics Didactics/ Focus on Elementary School) are involved in Kassel.

Further information can be found here.

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