Research-Based Professionalisation of Teacher Education

Applicants

Prof. Dr. Friedrich Funke
Faculty of Education, Institute of Educational Science, Chair of Educational Science with a focus on Quantitative Methods, Technische Universität Dresden

Prof. Dr. Marcus Schütte
Faculty of Education, Institute of Educational Science, Chair of Primary School Pedagogy/Mathematics, Technische Universität Dresden

Prof. Dr. Axel Gehrmann
Faculty of Education, Institute of Educational Science, Chair of General Didactics and Empirical Classroom Research, Technische Universität Dresden

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Mark Bechtel
Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies, Institute of Romance Studies, Junior Professorship for Didactics of Romance Languages, Technische Universität Dresden

Institution

TU Dresden

Duration

01.01.2016 – 30.06.2019

Funding volume

512,000 € (Quality Initiative Teacher Education, BMBF)

Initial situation – diagnosis of weaknesses

In teacher education programmes, students are to be introduced to the foundations of the respective academic discipline and prepared for the academic reflection of practice, among other things by establishing a stronger link between teaching and research. So far, however, both have been implemented inadequately at German universities; teacher education lacks sufficient elements of research orientation. This is partly the result of the misunderstanding, also widespread among students, that "theory and practice" are mutually exclusive opposites. At TU Dresden, seconded teachers from school service are jointly located at the ZLSB; one aim of their secondment is to pursue further qualification in the form of a doctorate. In this undertaking, different socialisation practices come together, and seconded teachers with practical experience sometimes find academic research and writing their dissertations overwhelming. At the same time, between researchers working on teaching, school and teacher education from disciplinary, subject-didactic and educational-science perspectives, there is no institutionalised form of exchange that could complement the working groups of the ZLSB, which deal mainly with questions of programme design in teacher education, with a research-oriented structure.

Aims

The proposed project of a graduate forum aims to establish scientifically critical thinking as the basis of practical action explicitly as an indispensable core competency of professional action by teachers and future teachers. The seconded teachers of the ZLSB and the research staff to be appointed within the framework of the Quality Initiative Teacher Education are to be systematically supported academically in their doctoral projects in order to increase the quality of the qualification works and to achieve synergy effects between the experienced practising teachers and the other doctoral candidates. The graduate forum allows a systematic introduction to the methodological planning, conducting, evaluation and documentation of research projects, in order to increase the quality of the qualification works. Synergy effects are achieved through the heterogeneity of the doctoral candidates, both in terms of their practical experience and the respective stage of their research projects. The same is to be achieved for student teachers. By giving the academic final thesis a stronger research-oriented empirical focus, a possible transition from teacher education studies into a subsequent doctoral phase is facilitated.

Approach

Due to the close interlinking of research and teaching in this project and the resulting sustainable establishment of inquiry-based learning for all actors involved in teacher education at TU Dresden, the project can be linked to approaches of inquiry-based teaching as well as to "practice research" (Hollenbach/Tillmann 2009). The graduate forum supports and demands dialogue among all participants in teacher education: subject sciences, subject didactics, educational sciences. The synergistic networking formulated as a desideratum in the framework concept takes place in our concept on several levels: in terms of personnel, the applicants cover a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research methods, subject didactics and critical reflection, which will lead to a first synergetic networking of teachers at TU Dresden. The students and doctoral candidates are also very heterogeneous due to different professional-biographical phases, while their experiences also complement each other.

Work programme

With a view to sustainability and a long-term perspective for teacher education at TU, the funding until 2018 serves above all as a pilot for a future graduate school to be established in the second funding period of the Quality Initiative Teacher Education.

Phase 1: Establishment of basic personnel structures, elaboration of a thematic orientation of the graduate forum and the future graduate school: Phase 2: Provide a teaching offer on qualitative and

quantitative research methods for graduates and students, establishment of cross-area and cross-subject research colloquia;

Phase 3: Evaluation of the measures, publication of research results.

Dissemination plan

The result will be the training of qualified early-career researchers from the very beginning of their studies at TU. From this, research staff, seconded teachers and students will benefit reciprocally, and it is foreseeable that this will raise both the quality of teacher education and the practical relevance of research to a higher level.

Outlook

In the second funding period of the Quality Initiative, the establishment of a graduate school at TU Dresden is planned. The special feature here lies in the conceptual and institutional integration of research-oriented students (over three semesters in supplementary studies) in order to make synergies from the practical experience of the seconded teachers and the more immediate research proximity of the students complementarily usable. We thus create an infrastructure for the synergetic integration of a) outstanding students, b) doctoral candidates following undergraduate studies, and c) the seconded teachers.