Prof. Dr. Thamar Voss

As a Professor on Teaching, Learning, and Motivation, I aim to contribute to accumulating reliable scientific knowledge on teachers’ professionalization to understand how teachers’ professional competence develops and to understand the significance of this competence for teachers’ professional success. It is important to me that the results of my research can be used in evidence-based practice and that they make a long-term contribution to the improvement of schools and teacher training.
I am a member of the international research group “In search of the good teacher” (Center for Excellence in Research EARLI).
I address important desiderata of research on teachers’ professional competence, such as:

• How can the development of teachers’ professional competence be optimally promoted across the phases of teacher education?
• How important is teachers’ professional knowledge for teachers’ professional success?
• What support do teachers need in the challenging career entry phase?

I am involved in the teacher training program. I place great importance on providing evidence-based lectures. I am a member of the School of Education FACE and the Ethics Committee Freiburg. Furthermore, I am the chairperson of the central exam board for the Master of Education.

Publications Research

Teaching, Learning, and Motivation

Department of Educational Science
University Freiburg
Rempartstraße 11
79098 Freiburg
Germany

Phone: +49 761 – 20396886
E-mail: thamar.voss|at|ezw.uni-freiburg.de

Office hours: by appointment only – requests via e-mail

Selected publications

Ernst, H. M., Wittwer, J., & Voss, T. (2025). When accuracy does not make a difference — The relationship between future teachers’ self-assessment accuracy, quality of learning material and subsequent topical interest. Unterrichtswissenschaft. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42010-025-00233-9

Bönke, N., Kunter, M., & Voss, T. (2025). Teachers’ professional beliefs made a difference for instructional quality in distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1024/1010-0652/a000396

Hans, S., & Voss, T. (2025). Lernstandserhebungen: Mehrwert oder nur Mehraufwand? Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 28(1), 181-203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-024-01282-z

Steininger, T. M., Wittwer, J., & Voss, T. (2025). Learning relational categories: Benefits of blocking, classification, and subject-specific examples. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 24(1), 38-59. https://doi.org/10.1177/14757257241248155

Zeeb, H., & Voss, T. (2025). Fostering preservice teachers’ research-related beliefs and motivation with growth mindset and utility value interventions. Motivation Science, 11(1), 84–100. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000352

Bönke, N., Klusmann, U., Kunter, M., Richter, D., & Voss, T. (2024). Long-term changes in teacher beliefs and motivation: Progress, stagnation or regress? Teaching and Teacher Education, 141, 104489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104489

Wittwer, J., Hans, S., & Voss, T. (2023). Inclusion of autistic students in schools: Knowledge, self-efficacy, and attitude of teachers in Germany. Autism. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231220210

Voss, T.*, Klusmann, U.*, Bönke, N., Richter, D., & Kunter, M. (2023). Teachers’ emotional exhaustion and teaching enthusiasm before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from a long-term longitudinal study. Zeitschrift für Psychologie. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000520 *first authors

Kienzler, J., Voss, T., & Wittwer, J. (2023). Student teachers’ conceptual knowledge of operant conditioning: How can case comparison support knowledge acquisition? Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-023-09627-7

Zeeb, H., Ibach, A., Voss, T., & Renkl, A. (2023). How teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and experience affect their perception of students’ fixed mindsets. Teaching and Teacher Education, 130, 104170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104170

Ernst, H. M., Wittwer, J., & Voss, T. (2023). Do they know what they know? Accuracy in teacher candidates‘ self-assessments and its influencing factors. British Educational Research Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3860

Wittwer, J., & Voss, T. (2022). Kognitive Aktivierung im Unterricht unter Pandemiebedingungen aus instruktionspsychologischer Sicht. In M. Schambeck & W. Verburg (Hrsg.), Wie Religion für Krisen taugt – Zum Beitrag religiöser Bildung in Krisenzeiten (S.116–135). Vandenhoek & Ruprecht. https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666703294.116

Voss, T. (2022). Not useful to inform teaching practice? Student teachers hold skeptical beliefs about evidence from education science. Frontiers in Education, 7, 976791. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.976791

Zeeb, H., Hunecke, J., & Voss, T. (2022). Teachers’ dysfunctional feedback to students from immigrant and non-immigrant backgrounds: A pilot study. Social Psychology of Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-022-09725-3

Voss, T., Zachrich, L., Fauth, B., & Wittwer, J.(2022). The same yet different? Teaching quality differs across a teacher’s classes, but teachers with higher knowledge make teaching quality more similar. Learning and Instruction, 80, 101614. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2022.101614

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

Voss, T.*, & Wittwer, J.* (2020). Unterricht in Zeiten von Corona: Ein Blick auf die Herausforderungen aus der Sicht von Unterrichts- und Instruktionsforschung. Unterrichtswissenschaft, 48, 601–627 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42010-020-00088-2 *first authors

Voss, T., & Kunter, M. (2020). “Reality shock” of beginning teachers? Changes in beginning teachers’ emotional exhaustion and constructivist-oriented beliefs. Journal of Teacher Education, 71(3), 292–306. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487119839700

Baier, F., Decker, A.-T., Voss, T., Kleickmann, T., Klusmann, U., & Kunter, M. (2019). What makes a good teacher? The relative importance of mathematics teachers’ cognitive ability, personality, knowledge, beliefs, and motivation for instructional quality. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 767–786. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12256

Rothenbusch, S., Voss, T., Golle, J., & Zettler, I. (2018). Linking teacher and parent ratings of teacher-nominated gifted elementary school students to each other and school grades. Gifted Child Quarterly, 63, 230–250. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986217752100

Voss, T., Wagner, W., Klusmann, U., Trautwein, U., & Kunter, M. (2017). Changes in beginning teachers’ classroom management knowledge and emotional exhaustion during the induction phase. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 51, 170–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2017.08.002

Voss, T., Kunina-Habenicht, O., Hoehne, V., & Kunter, M. (2015). Stichwort Pädagogisches Wissen von Lehrkräften: Empirische Zugänge und Befunde. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 18, 187–223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-015-0626-6

Voss, T., Kunter, M., & Baumert, J. (2011). Assessing teacher candidates’ general pedagogical and psychological knowledge: Test construction and validation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103, 952–969. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025125

All publications (pdf)