Contact

Prof. Dr. Thamar Voss

Teaching, Learning, and Motivation

thamar.voss|at|ezw.uni-freiburg.de

CuPha

Curriculum Phasenübergreifend im Lehramt

Coherent curriculum across the phases of teacher education

In Germany, formal teacher education involves two phases. Phase 1 takes place at the university, where students usually study two teaching subjects and attend general courses in psycholo-gy, pedagogy, or sociology. Phase 2 involves a compulsory student-teaching phase. During this phase, teacher candidates are allocated to placement schools, where they gradually take on higher levels of teaching responsibilities. The universities are mainly responsible for Phase 1 of teacher training, whereas state-run teacher education institutes at the school district level (“Studienseminare”) are responsible for the student-teaching phases. The curricula of the two phases of teacher education are often not aligned.

In our project CuPHa, we collaborate closely with actors in the second phase of teacher educa-tion to design a coherent curriculum across the phases.

The theoretical basis for this alignment is the ‘core practices’ approach. Core practices, such as explaining, giving feedback, or preventing student misbehavior, are high-leverage practices that occur with high frequency in teaching and have a demonstrated evidence-based potential to impact student achievement. The classroom situations in which teachers and students interact are highly complex. Focusing on core practices of teaching acknowledges that teaching is com-plex, while at the same time providing an opportunity to focus on key elements of teaching. In our project, we identify a set of core practices, break them down into the knowledge components involved, and investigate how to optimally promote their development with adequate learn-ing opportunities.

Publications

Voss, T., Wittwer, J., & Nückles, M. (2019). Kohärenz zwischen Theorie und Praxis durch Fokussierung auf Core Practices. Ein instruktionspsychologischer Ansatz zur Abstimmung der Phasen der Lehrerbildung. In BMBF (Hrsg.), Profilbildung im Lehramtsstudium. Beiträge der „Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung“ zur individuellen Orientierung, curricularen Entwicklung und institutionellen Verankerung (S. 123–131). BMBF.

Wittwer, J., Kratschmayr, L., & Voss, T. (2019). Wie gut erkennen Lehrkräfte typische Fehler in der Formulierung von Lernzielen? Unterrichtswissenschaft, 48, 113–128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42010-019-00056-5

COCO

Förderung des konzeptuellen Wissens von Lehramtsstudierenden im Bereich Klassenführung

Developing student teachers’ conceptual knowledge about classroom management through case comparison

Beginning teachers often feel challenged during their first months and years of teaching. One of beginning teachers’ main concerns is related to classroom management. Consequently, in our project, we aim to systematically support the building up of classroom management competen-cies throughout the phases of teacher training. We develop learning units to support the acquisi-tion of conceptual knowledge in the area of classroom management and investigate the effec-tiveness of these units in experimental studies with student teachers. In light of the research on example-based learning, we investigated how the acquisition of conceptual knowledge about operant conditioning can be promoted through case comparisons. Moreover, we study whether learning through case comparison changed beliefs about operant conditioning.

Publications

Kienzler, J., Voss, T., & Wittwer, J. (2020, März 25–27). Kontrastiert statt isoliert? Aufbau konzeptuellen Wissens bei angehenden Lehrkräften [Posterpräsentation]. 8. Tagung der Gesellschaft für Empirische Bildungsforschung (GEBF), Potsdam, Deutschland.

SEARCH

Förderung der forschungsmethodischen Kompetenz von Lehrkräften

Fostering teachers’ research competencies

Imagine a teacher who reads in the news that students’ performance in German schools has “decreased significantly”. What does that mean? Or imagine a teacher who would like to get sys-tematic feedback on the quality of her or his teaching – how can they get this kind of feedback? These examples demonstrate that teachers need basic knowledge about research methods and statistics to understand the results of educational research, to reflect on their actions based on evidence or theories, and to design their courses in an evidence-based manner. The methodo-logical competence of future teachers should therefore be fostered already during teacher edu-cation. However, students often perceive knowledge about research methods and statistics as irrelevant to their profession. In addition, many student teachers find statistics difficult and have doubts about their statistical skills. In our project, we investigate how such unfavorable beliefs can be prevented and how the motivation to engage with research methods of student teachers can be increased.

Publications

Voss, T., Zeeb, H., Dehmel, A., & Fauth, B. (in press). Forschungsmethoden in der Lehrerbildung. In C. Cramer, M. Drahmann, J. König, M. Rothland, & S. Blömeke (Hrsg.), Handbuch Lehrerbildung. Klinkhardt/UTB.

EXCITED

Erwerb von Konzepten im Lehramtsstudium

Category Learning in Teacher Education

Teacher education programs teach professional competencies necessary for successful performance in the teaching profession. A central component of professional competencies is knowledge about concepts. Concepts help to understand professional requirements and thereby guide professional action. For example, when planning lessons, it is important to understand which different types of knowledge students need to acquire in order to achieve a certain learning goal. On this basis, appropriate learning methods can then be selected for instruction. In this project, we are interested in how to promote the acquisition of concepts with examples in teacher education programs. We investigate to what extent it makes a difference for the learning of concepts how examples are arranged in the learning material, which tasks student teachers receive when working with examples, and how important the relation of examples to the teaching subjects is.

Publications

Steininger, T. M., Voss, T, & Wittwer, J. (2023, 18.–20. September). Gezielte Unterstützung von Generalisierung und Diskriminierung beim Kategorienlernen: Das Klassifizieren vorgegebener Beispiele bleibt effektiver als das Generieren eigener Beispiele [Vortrag]. 19. Tagung der Fachgruppe Pädagogische Psychologie (PAEPS), Kiel, Deutschland.

Steininger, T. M., Kienzler, J., Wittwer, J., & Voss. (2023, 13.–15. September). Konzeptlernen in der Lehrkraftbildung als Voraussetzung für die erfolgreiche Anwendung von Core Practices [Vortrag]. Sektionstagung empirische Bildungsforschung der Arbeitsgruppe für Empirische Pädagogische Forschung (AEPF), Potsdam, Deutschland.

Kienzler, J., Steininger, T. M., Voss, T., & Wittwer, J. (2023, August 22–26). At the Core of Core Practices: Conceptual Knowledge as an Enabling Factor for Successful Teaching [Paper presentation]. 20th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), Thessaloniki, Greece.

Steininger, T. M., Wittwer, J., & Voss, T. (2022, 9.–11. März). Geblocktes, aktives und fachspezifisches beispielbasiertes Lernen fördert die Anwendung relationaler Konzepte in generativen Aufgaben [Vortrag]. 9. Tagung der Gesellschaft für empirische Bildungsforschung (GEBF), online.

Steininger, T. M., Wittwer, J., & Voss, T. (2022). Classifying examples is more effective for learning relational categories than reading or generating examples. Instructional Science 50. 771–788. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-022-09584-7

Steininger, T. M., Kienzler, J., Wittwer, J., & Voss, T. (2021, August 23–27). Supporting Student Teachers’ Conceptual Knowledge Acquisition Through Example-Based Learning [Paper presentation]. 19th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), online.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Thamar Voss

Teaching, Learning, and Motivation

CuPha

Curriculum Phasenübergreifend im Lehramt

Coherent curriculum across the phases of teacher education

Publications

COCO

Förderung des konzeptuellen Wissens von Lehramtsstudierenden im Bereich Klassenführung

Developing student teachers’ conceptual knowledge about classroom management through case comparison

Publications

SEARCH

Förderung der forschungsmethodischen Kompetenz von Lehrkräften

Fostering teachers’ research competencies

Publications

EXCITED

Erwerb von Konzepten im Lehramtsstudium

Category Learning in Teacher Education

Publications

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