(Post-)Graduate Support at its Best!

Understanding resources, environments and processes of teaching and learning

Research Focus

In times of profound and rapid changes in technological and social environments, learning and teaching can be considered as a focal requirement, challenging individuals, schools and educational organizations. Based on the premise that individual, socio-cultural and situational circumstances of learners and teachers as well as thematic issues shape educational processes and results, studies in educational sciences and subject specific pedagogies (didactics) at the GRADE Center Education will primarily focus on organizing principles of those processes. This includes the justification of learning objectives as well as the thorough selection, legitimization and methodological structuring of learning and teaching in different academic disciplines. Research on classroom interaction and the effects of teaching methods will be complemented by studies of learners’ internal processes, most notably knowledge creation and changes in their perceptions and attitudes. The key questions pursued are: How are educational settings commonly organized? What do we know about appropriate teaching practices in different disciplines? Which teaching and learning arrangements meet the needs of heterogeneous learner groups? What structural and organizational developments on the level of schools and politics can improve educational processes? Within the GRADE Center Education these questions will be addressed from the perspectives of various disciplines ranging from educational sciences and subject specific pedagogies (didactics) to psychology, sociology, linguistics, political science and (educational) economics. Following a broad understanding of these disciplines, latest findings of subject specific pedagogies (didactics) as well as of educational sciences are combined in order to advance interdisciplinary research on teaching and learning processes.

Objective

The GRADE Center Education aims at the initiation, alliance and support of research projects in educational sciences and subject specific pedagogies (didactics). Based on a broad understanding of the respective disciplines, the structure of the Center puts an emphasis on supporting PhD and postdoc candidates in developing viable and significant research questions meeting the highest international standards. Moreover, the GRADE Center Education with its various subject and method-specific seminars as well as lectures with internal and external experts aims at supporting the successful and timely completion of methodically suitable, correct and thematically plausible dissertations and habilitations. In order to make sure that the studies meet the current state of research, recent findings from educational sciences and subject specific pedagogies (didactics) will be integrated into the program of the GRADE Center. Interdisciplinary workshops and meetings will not only serve the scientific exchange but also promote the networking of (young) scholars.

Further information is provided in the flyer (in German).