Research Projects
Current Projects
School research
Choice: School Choice and socio-cultural Fitting. School Choice, School Quality and School Types within the German School System with Special Reference to Private Schools
Completed Projects
Institutioneller Wandel und Pfadabhängigkeiten. Determinanten schulstruktureller Reformprozesse in den ostdeutschen Bundesländern
QAKS - Qualitätsanalyse Katholische Schulen
Evaluation of private Montessori Schools in Bavaria
TEDS-FU - Teacher Education and Development Study: Follow Up (2010-2013, DFG)
TEDS-M - Learning to Teach Mathematics: Teacher Education and Development Study (2006-2010, DFG)
MT21 – Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century (2004-2010, NSF)
TEDS-Telekom: Effectiveness of reforms in mathematics teacher education (2008-2012, Deutsche Telekom Stiftung)
CaMoT- Case Method of Technology for Practical use of Training Teachers
KoKoHs
Coordination of „Modeling and Measuring Competencies in Higher Education”
| Principle Investigators: | Prof. Dr. Sigrid Blömeke (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Dr. Olga Zlatikin-Troitschanskaia (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) |
| Associates: | Corinna Lautenbach, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Christiane Kuhn, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz |
| Contact: | corinna.lautenbach@hu-berlin.de |
| Project Duration | 01.05.2011 - 31.03.2015 |
| Funding: | Promoted by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF |
Measuring competencies in higher education has largely been neglected in international empirical education research, despite the increasing importance of tertiary education to society. An examination of the effectiveness of higher education programs could serve as a basis for evidence-based statements on the output or outcome of this heterogeneous sector. These statements could then be used for sustainable development and reforms on a structural, organizational or individual level. The experience of current changes (like the switch to BA-MA models in Europe) shows that developing and realizing successful concepts in higher education calls for a theoretical and empirical footing.
In order to close the research gap even further, experts from different disciplines will work together and network nationally as well as internationally on the joint multi- and interdisciplinary research program “Modeling and measuring competencies in higher education (KoKoHs)” while integrating different methods. In this context we are initializing research projects that not only focus on modeling and measuring generic competencies acquired at an academic level, but also domain-specific competencies and knowledge in the following areas: teacher training in STEM fields, teacher training in socioscientific subjects, teacher training in German / History, Pedagogics, Economic Sciences and Engineering.
In order to meet the challenges successfully, a coordination office was installed in Berlin (under the direction of Prof Dr Sigrid Blömeke, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin) and Mainz (under the direction of Prof Dr Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, JGU Mainz) on May 1st, 2011, in order to coordinate the projects and the research program. The main tasks of the coordination office are promoting exchange and networking among the funded projects in order to use synergies as well as a systematical and sustainable advancement of young researchers. A further major interest is to keep up the existing international cooperations and to further benefit from them in the national funding initiative through communicative exchange.
Further information: KoKoHs - Homepage
KomMa
Structure, level and development of professional competencies of pre-school (kindergarten) teachers in the field of mathematics
| Project Management: | Prof. Dr. Sigrid Blömeke (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Dr. Marianne Grassmann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Dr. Hartmut Wedekind (Alice-Salomon-Hochschule, Berlin) |
| Associates: | Simone Dunekacke, Lars Jenssen and Wibke Baack (all Humboldt Universität zu Berlin), Martin Tengler (Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin) |
| Contact: | simone.dunekacke@hu-berlin.de |
| Funding period: | 2011-2014 |
| Funding: | BMBF (as part of the funding initiative KoKoHs: modelling and measuring competencies in the higher education sector) |
Mathematical literacy of children develops from the very beginning. Already at an early age im-portant developments occur that affect school achievement (not only in mathematics). This has been demonstrated by various studies (e.g., Krajewski, Schneider). The development of mathematical literacy depends on a stimulating environment and specific learning opportunities. Especially in institutional day care and kindergarten, children should find such opportunities to learn. This places high demands on pre-school teachers’ professional competence to identify learning opportunities in an informal context and to use these in order to foster mathematical learning. For this purpose they need, in addition to general-educational and developmental psychological knowledge, mathematical content and mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MCK, MPCK). KomMa examines whether pre-school teachers acquire professional competencies during their training, and whether they have been offered corresponding opportunities to learn. Only a few studies on the acquisition of competences of pre-school teachers exist, regardless of the professional context. Aims of KomMa are therefore:
Further information will follow. |
TEDS-FU
Teacher Education and Development Study: Follow Up
| Principle Investigators: | Prof. Dr. Sigrid Blömeke (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Prof. Dr. Gabriele Kaiser (Universität Hamburg) Prof. Dr. Johannes König (Universität Köln) Prof. Dr. rer.nat. Martina Döhrmann (Universität Vechta). |
| Project Duration | 01.06.2010 - 31.05.2013 |
| Funding: | DFG |
Designed as a follow-up to the international study TEDS-M (Blömeke, Kaiser & Lehmann, 2010), TEDS-FU is intended to evaluate the development of mathematics teachers’ competencies during their transition from teacher education into the profession, thus, focusing on teacher induction. One focus of the study is the development of test instruments that reflect the holistic and situated nature of teacher performance in the classroom. In addition to a short version of the paper-and-pencil tests used in the TEDS-M study, video vignettes were developed. Beginning teachers are supposed to perceive what is going on, to analyze the situation, to generate courses of action and to reflect on their choices. Thus, process-based data are to be acquired, which show the different levels of teaching expertise. TEDS-FU is a longitudinal study. The sample includes teachers who took part in TEDS-M in 2008, during their last year of teacher education, and gained the qualification to teach mathematics in primary and lower-secondary schools.
Core research questions:
- How stable are the levels and structures of competencies that were revealed in TEDS-M at the end of teacher education under the conditions of career entrance?
- How can professional success, after three years of occupation, be measured?
- How valid are predictions based on data of TEDS-M with regard to the professional success of teachers?
- What is the value added of standardized measures of competencies compared to the exam grades of teacher licensing?
- Which conditions at schools are beneficial to the advancement of teachers’ competencies during the phase of career entrance?
Further information: TEDS-FU Homepage
Evaluation of private Montessori Schools in Bavaria
| Project management: | PD Dr. Thomas Koinzer, In collaboration with with Sabine Gruehn (Universität Münster) and Achim Leschinsky (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) |
| Funding | Montessori-Landesverband Bayern, Software AG-Stiftung |
| Project duration: | 04/2007 - 12/2011 |
| Evaluation of Student Assessment in Mathematics, Reading and Problem Solving: School Climate and Quality |
The institutional and political transformation in the German school system since 1949 and the effects on social inequity
| Project management: | Prof. Dr. Rita Nikolai, Marcel Helbig (WZB) |
| Associates: | Kerstin Rothe, Mareike Schmale |
| Project duration: | Since 7/2009 |
| Within the framework of the collaborative research project with Rita Nikolai (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Marcel Helbig (Social Science Research Center Berlin), the impact of different school policies and their consequences on the social selectivity of higher education are analyzed by political, economic, institutional and social factors. To comply with this objective, a comprehensive database, primarily based on educational rules and regulations, had to be implemented to locate and reconstruct the institutional changes of school policies over time. This approach is supplemented with additional surveys and aggregate data about the political, institutional, party-political, and socioeconomic regional contexts as well as case studies about the decision-making processes for school policies. |
Comparison of school policies in Germany's federal states: An analysis of the election manifestos since 2000
| Project management: | Prof. Dr. Rita Nikolai, Marcel Helbig (WZB) |
| Associates: | Kerstin Rothe, Mareike Schmale |
| Project duration: | Since 10/2011 |
| This research project about the school policies in the federal states of Germany examines the German democratic parties’ political views on general education, as represented in the regional parliaments between the years 2001 – 2011. For the identification of political positions, the parties' election manifestos will be analyzed using a computer-based qualitative content analysis. This approach will allow the differences between the political positions and the distinctions between the federal states to be examined, which will be important because the individual states are fully responsible for the financial and conceptual supervision of the educational sector. The ways in which party views regarding educational programs and concepts have changed over time will also be analyzed. Based on the research results of a variety of studies that have already been conducted, this research project is also expected to find notable differences between the views of regional associations within the same parties. The primary objective of this project´s analysis is to receive further possible explanatory approaches for the highly diverse school policies in the regional states of Germany. |
Choice
School Choice and socio-cultural Fitting. School Choice, School Quality and School Types within the German School System with Special Reference to Private Schools
Principles: Prof. Dr. Thomas Koinzer, Prof. Dr. Sabine Gruehn (Münster)
Investigators: Tanja Mayer, Judith Schwarz (Münster)
Project Duration: 10/2014-09/2017
Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Homepage: http://choice.hu-berlin.de/en.html
Over the last 10 years the German school system faces a continuous increase of private schools. Between 2001 and 2011 the share of private schools has risen from 5.8% to 8.5%. Also the proportion of pupils has increased during this period to 9.8% and has almost doubled. The reasons for the attractiveness of private schools are largely unknown. Perceived deficits of public schools are well accepted as processes of distinction of specific social milieus too. To answer these questions the study will examine the school choice motives of private school parents in comparison with public school parents in the light of their socio-cultural milieu and the perceived and articulated features of school quality. The aim is – within a theoretical frame of Bourdieu’s habitus concept and rational choice approaches – first to evaluate why and how parents chose schools. The second aim is – with the particular emphasis on private schools – to situate parents or milieus within a typology of different private schools (e.g. religious, international, alternative) and to evaluate how different social milieus fit to different types of private schools. Furthermore the project will assess the structures and conditions how the different private school types – on their part – fit to the different choosing social milieus.
The central research questions are 1) whether and how parents or distinct social milieus choose private or public schools for their children and which doesn’t? How do they justify their choice in the context of the perceived quality of the school? 2) With particular emphasis on private schools: What are the different types of private schools that can be determined respectively the habitual and socio-cultural characteristics of the parents? What is the part of the different types of private schools themselves to fit to the parents / children or social milie
u? How do the schools refine the relationship to the choosing social milieu? Which educational, religious or social self-concepts construct the ‘dual fitting’? Can such a construct of fitting be localized within the public school system too and how do private schools encourage competition and social segregation within the whole school system?
The study will focus on the school choice motivations in elementary schools in Berlin. Quantitative and qualitative methods of survey from parents as well as school principals are used.
Completed Projects
TEDS-M 2008
Learning to Teach Mathematics - Teacher Education and Development Study
| Principle Investigators: | Prof. Dr. Sigrid Blömeke (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Federführung), Prof. Dr. Gabriele Kaiser (Universität Hamburg), Prof. Dr. Rainer Lehmann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Dr. Johannes König (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Projektmanagement), Dr. Martina Döhrmann (Universität Hamburg), Dr. Anja Felbrich, Dr. Ute Suhl, Dipl.-Psych. Christiane Schmotz, Christiane Buchholtz (all Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) |
| Project Duration | 01.01.2006 - 31.12.2010 |
| Funding: | Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) |
For further information please visit the IEA - Homepage or the TEDS-M Homepage at MSU
MT21
Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century
| Principle Investigators: | Prof. Dr. Sigrid Blömeke, Dr. Anja Felbrich, Dipl.-Psych. Christiane Müller |
| Project Duration | 01.04.2004 - 31.12.2010 |
| Funding: | National Science Foundation und Michigan State University |
Summary of the international results of MT21: Download,
Summary of the most important results concerning Germany of MT21: Download
For further information please visit the Homepage of the MT21 - Projectmanagement
TEDS-LT
Teacher Education and Development Study: Learning to Teach
| Principle Investigators: | Prof. Dr. Sigrid Blömeke (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Projektleitung), Prof. Dr. Albert Bremerich-Voss (Universität Duisburg-Essen), Prof. Dr. Gabriele Kaiser (Universität Hamburg), Prof. Dr. Rainer Lehmann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Dr. Günther Nold (Technische Universität Dortmund), Prof. Dr. Knut Schwippert (Universität Hamburg), Prof. Dr. Heiner Willenberg (Universität Hamburg), Prof. Jörg Doll (Universität Hamburg), Dr. Johannes König (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Dr. Christiane Buchholtz (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Bianca Roters (Technische Universität Dortmund), Nils Buchholtz (Universität Hamburg), Jutta Dämmer (Universität Duisburg-Essen). |
| Associated with the project is the Section English: Prof. Dr. Jan Hollm, Prof. Dr. Jörg-U. Keßler und Dr. Helga Haudeck (Pädagogische Hochschule Ludwigsburg). | |
| Contact: | Christiane Buchholtz, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Email christiane.buchholtz@staff.hu-berlin.de, Tel. 030/2093-1938, Fax: 030/2093-1946 |
| Project Duration | 01.10.2008 - 31.10.2012 |
| Funding: | |
TEDS-LT examines the professional competencies of future lower secondary teachers from programs granting a license to teach German, English or Mathematics. We distinguish between teachers in consecutive 3-year Bachelor followed by 1- or 2-year Master programs and teachers in traditional 4- or 5-year concurrent programs. TEDS-LT is a national option in the context of IEA’s “Teacher Education and Development Study: Learning to Teach Mathematics (TED-M)” (BL 548/3-1).
The conceptual framework of TEDS-LT is based on Weinert’s (1999) definition of competencies that includes cognitive dispositions as well as motivational and volitional characteristics. Germany’s Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education (KMK) defines standards for teacher education as a normative criterion. In 2009 and 2011, about 3,000 future teachers were tested on their content knowledge and their pedagogical content knowledge in German, English and Mathematics.
First results are presented in: S. Blömeke, A. Bremerich-Vos, H. Haudeck, G. Kaiser, R. Lehmann, G. Nold, K. Schwippert & H. Willenberg (Eds.) (2011), Kompetenzen von Lehramtsstudierenden in gering strukturierten Domänen – Erste Ergebnisse aus TEDS-LT. Münster, Germany: Waxmann.
TEDS-Telekom:
Effectiveness of reforms in mathematics teacher education
| Principle Investigators: | Prof. Dr. Sigrid Blömeke (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Dr. Gabriele Kaiser (Universität Hamburg) und Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Rinkens (Universität Paderborn), Nils Buchholtz, Dr. Björn Schwarz (beide Universität Hamburg), Dr. Ute Suhl (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Dr. Johannes König (Universität zu Köln) | |
| Contact: | Nils Buchholtz (Universität Hamburg) | |
| Project Duration | 1.1.2008-31.12.2012 | |
| Funding: |  |
| TEDS-Telekom is a study funded by Deutsche Telekom Stiftung (DTS). It examines the effectiveness of reforms in mathematics teacher education at universities in Berlin, Duisburg-Essen, Gießen and Siegen, that were earlier funded by the DTS („Mathematik Neu Denken“). The core characteristics of this reform are to teach mathematics and mathematics pedagogy in an integrated way and to focus on school mathematics from a higher point of view as proposed by Felix Klein. Criteria for the refom’s effectiveness are mathematics content knowledge, mathematics pedagogical content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge as well as beliefs and motivation. Students from Berlin, Duisburg-Essen, Gießen and Siegen (treatment groups) are compared with students from other universities (control groups). In addition, the TEDS-M results serve as a point of reference (Blömeke, Kaiser & Lehmann, 2010). |
Bridging Cultural Differences:
An international comparison of excellent teacher-education programmes in Germany, Scandinavia and the US
| Principle Investigators: | Prof. Dr. Sigrid Blömeke |
| Project Duration | 2006-2007 |
The aim of this project is to be able to compare teacher education across countries in detail (i.e. beyond structural characteristics). This kind of research is seen as an important basis for large-scale assessments afterwards. Starting point is the hypothesis that Germany and the US represent two extreme forms of teacher education whereas Scandinavia bridges the educational traditions of English-speaking countries and Germany.
- Study Design
In each country teacher-education institutions are inquired which are selected on the basis of excellence (according to formal rankings if these exist or to criteria like awards, amount of funding, recommendations of teacher-education experts). This is in the US: Michigan State University, University of Berkeley and University of Stanford. This is in Scandinavia: University of Oslo (Norway), University of Volda (Norway) and University of Umeå (Sweden). This is in Germany: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Universität Paderborn.
At each university interviews are carried out with teacher educators and programme managers as well as classes are observed and syllabi are analyzed. Primary teacher education is inquired as well as secondary teacher education. Since teacher education is very much domain specific, the subject-matter related parts of the study focus on mathematics.
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Research Questions
- Principles of teacher education
What is the mission/ the main goal of the teacher-education programs? What is emphasized and how is success measured?
How is teacher education institutionally anchored and what are the reasons for the solutions? What are specific benefits and problems? How is teacher education valued in universities/ countries?
Who teaches what to whom? How are the content dimensions institutionally/ personally linked to each other? What kind of accountability mechanisms exist? What happens in reality?
Does teacher supply and demand affect the teacher-education programs? What kind of background does a typical teacher-education student bring into teacher education?
- Faculty in teacher education
How do faculty identify themselves? What are typical routes into a position in teacher education? What are the most important criteria for tenure or calls?
What are important tasks of faculty in teacher education? What kind of credit do they get for the single tasks?
What do they want teacher-education students to learn? How do they value teacher education? If they had the power to make changes in teacher education: What would they do?
- Social status of teacher education
How is education valued in the society? Which social status do teachers have? Which political differences do exist regarding educational issues?
- Principles of teacher education
CaMoT
Case Method of Technology for Practical use of Training Teachers
| Durchführende: | Prof. Dr. Sigrid Blömeke, Dr. Heike Schaumburg, Dipl.-Psych. Maren Kirste |
| Projektdauer: | 01.10.2005 - 30.09.2007 |
| Finanzierung: | Europäische Union im Rahmen des Sokrates-Programms |
CaMoT is oriented towards the initial and in-service training of primary and secondary teachers about the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education. CaMoT will produce 10 cases of ICT use. 5 of them will be based on formal educational settings, and 5 of non-formal use of ICT (such as Libraries, youth clubs, cyber-cafes). Each case will be structured around a dilemma. All cases will be translated into the 4 languages of the Consortium.
The case method provides an important opportunity to stimulate the reflective thinking of teachers by means of practical examples of the use of educational technologies (Shulman 1992, Merseth 1996, Orland-Barak 2002, Kinzie et alli 2004). CaMoT intends to develop a tool for teacher education: the cases, i.e. complex educational tools which are submitted in the form of narrative practices of real stories. The case idea implies a shift in emphasis from theory to practice and a shift in genre from exposition to narrative. This is the reason why case teaching is focused on particular situations rather than on general principles, findings, and rules, but also, the students encounter with those situations is vicarious rather than direct. The cases will serve as precedents to provide occasions to practice analysis, interpretation and problem solving, and they will be used as prototypes to develop essential knowledge about teaching events, teaching with ICT.
Countries participating are England, Spain, Germany, Austria, Poland and Lithuania.
Philosophische Fakultät IV der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Chair Instructional Research