CATALPA – Center of Advanced Technology for Assisted Learning and Predictive Analytics

As a central scientific institution of the FernUniversität in Hagen, CATALPA integrates theoretical knowledge with practical applications. This results in scalable findings and AI-supported prototypes for innovations in higher education, including feedback, self-regulation, assessments, teaching and learning concepts, and group processes.

More than 60 scientists collaborate on an interdisciplinary basis at CATALPA. They examine practical issues from the perspectives of psychology, computational linguistics, educational science, computer science, and organizational sociology. All CATALPA researchers share the vision of offering the best possible individual support to all students.

The FernUniversität in Hagen’s 70,000 students are more diverse in terms of age, origin, and educational background than those of almost any other German university. Where better to research how digital systems can improve teaching and learning than here?

CATALPA operates as a living lab, generating findings from practice that feed directly back into it — be it through interventions to reduce stereotyping or technological developments in digital learning environments. In close cooperation with the Center for Learning and Innovation (ZLI) and the Center for Digitalization and IT (ZDI) at the FernUniversität, CATALPA investigates the impact and potential of educational technologies in a protected environment and tests prototypes in practice.

Department of Educational Science at the University of Potsdam

The Department of Educational Science is part of the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Potsdam, which was founded in 1992. The orientation of the department is empirical-quantitative with a focus on the school education sector. The department’s research investigates central challenges in the educational context against the backdrop of individual, institutional and systemic characteristics. These include the significance of educational inequalities and how to deal with them adaptively in the educational context, the professional development of teachers and the development of innovative and effective technology-enhanced teaching and learning scenarios. In line with the Leibniz Association’s motto theoria cum praxi, the department’s profile is oriented towards a use-inspired basic research agenda, in which scientific insights and social benefit are closely linked. Accordingly, members of the department are heavily involved in shaping the dialog between science, educational practice and educational policy. In teaching, the department is responsible for educational science courses in teacher training. In addition, a separate Bachelor’s degree course and, from winter semester 2024 and 2025 respectively, two Master’s degree courses with different specializations (digital education, educational psychology and educational research) are offered.

Important work and offers:

  • Several professorships in the department are active in various project networks and in the transfer office in the BMBF-funded Kompetenzverbund lernen:digital. The project management including the office of the transfer office are located at the department.
  • Several professorships in the department cooperate with representatives of the Leibniz Institutes as part of the BMBF large-scale projects “Schule macht stark” and “Leistung macht Schule”.
  • One of the department’s professor is a member of the “Science of Intelligence” Cluster of Excellence of the Berlin university alliance.
  • Several professors are involved as lecturers in the IMPRS Research School LIFE, which is supported by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development Berlin and three international universities.
  • The department is committed to the transfer of knowledge and evidence-based policy advice at regional and national level. This includes memberships in the scientific advisory board of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the State of Brandenburg, in the committees of the Institute for School Quality of the States of Berlin and Brandenburg e.V., in the scientific advisory board of the steering group “Determining the performance of the education system in international comparison” and in the German UNESCO Education Committee.

SoQuZ

Quantitative and qualitative social research have become the preferred means of introspection in industrial societies. The social data generated in the research process are therefore an indispensable source for research in contemporary history. In recent years, therefore, there has been a turn towards data-based research within contemporary historical research. Historians use data from quantitative and qualitative social research to answer their research questions. In doing so, the data are extracted from their original contexts of origin, contextualized and (re)evaluated. Typical for the historical approach is that very different materials are combined (e.g. data, publications about the data, producer interviews, etc.).

The use of social data, however, poses greater challenges for contemporary historians:

  • Potentially relevant data sets are fragmented in different repositories or data centers, or have not yet been secured for research at all.
  • Legal questions concerning the use of the data are still unresolved. This concerns on the one hand questions of legal ownership and on the other hand questions of data protection.
  • The analysis of social science data requires special skills (e.g., knowledge of statistics) that are rarely included in university history curricula.
  • Currently, there is no offer of established data infrastructures that systematically support historians in indexing and securing rediscovered data.

This project aimed to develop a framework for a data infrastructure for contemporary history research. Before resources are spent on building a sustainable infrastructure, several fundamental questions must be answered:

  • How great is the potential use of social data in contemporary historical research? Can relevant data sets already be identified that are suitable for contemporary historical research?
  • What are the legal boundaries to the use of social data by historians?
  • What kind of support do historians need for the development and use of social data? Which services of existing social science or humanities research infrastructures already cover these needs?
  • How can a data infrastructure for research in contemporary history be implemented? How can sustainability be ensured?

The project aimed to answer these questions and subsequently identify perspectives for the further development of contemporary history data infrastructures within the dynamic developments of the National Research Data Infrastructure and the European Open Science Cloud.

TeaCop

Teachers had a special responsibility during the COVID 19 pandemic. With the school closures in March 2020, they had to abruptly adapt to unprecedented forms of distance learning and support their students in their remote learning. The TeaCop study investigated how well teachers are coping with the challenges posed by the pandemic. Characteristics of successful coping include both teachers’ well-being and the quality of their teaching during the pandemic. It was also investigated which individual and contextual factors explain differences in teachers’ successful adaptation to these challenges. To this end, data from the DFG-funded longitudinal study COACTIV-expeRt was drawn on.

MINT-ProNeD

Educational success depends heavily on the individual learning requirements of pupils – especially in the STEM subjects. Adaptive teaching, which explicitly takes individual requirements into account and offers personalised learning opportunities, is considered a promising didactic concept for dealing productively with heterogeneity. Digital technologies support teachers in effectively organising adaptive lessons as they provide them with innovative options for diagnostics and differentiation.

Despite numerous lighthouse projects in the field of digital education, previous initiatives in teacher training are often characterised by low coverage, insufficient cross-phase cooperation and a lack of subject-specificity. Therefore, a central question of the MINT-ProNeD project network is: How can teachers be qualified and well trained to implement digitally supported adaptive teaching?

The MINT-ProNeD joint project aims to establish an integrative overall concept for STEM teacher training: in three interdisciplinary and cross-phase networks (further training, teaching development and counselling, Future Innovation Hub) and a cross-cutting work area of translation and dissemination.

Educational attainment of disadvantaged children and effects of support programmes

The core of the project is a large panel survey, the ‘Corona und Du’ (CoDu) study. This investigates the educational attainment of socially disadvantaged children and young people and ways of coping with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to regular surveys of children of different age groups and their parents, two randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are being used to investigate a) how the provision of free e-book readers for children affects their reading behaviour and reading performance and b) whether online tutoring for young people from SGB II families is a suitable instrument to compensate for possible inequalities in the Covid-19-related educational gaps.

VideT

The aim of the project “VideT: Communicating the research process – a video-based transfer tool for students” is to clarify the influence of various parameters on the understanding of research processes and scientific findings, on attitudes and on the credibility of science and researchers. In order to achieve the project goals, this interdisciplinary joint project combines competencies from the natural and social sciences as well as from educational research. The aim of the joint project is to develop a video-based transfer instrument for communicating empirical scientific research processes and to test it prototypically in school laboratories with schoolchildren. In addition to testing the instrument in schools and student laboratories, the accompanying scientific research will analyze parameters that condition and influence the success of the transfer. The topic of the videos is the research of the Leibniz Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) on the ecology of bats and the effects of human activities on these animals.

Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)

The Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) investigates the causes and consequences of demographic change.In an advisory capacity, the BiB is in contact with the federal government and federal ministries and advises them on the basis of scientific research. As part of the advisory cooperation, the BiB supports the Federal Government in international cooperation on population issues within the framework of the United Nations. Informing the public about demographic change and the Institute’s research findings is another important task. The Institute was founded in 1973 and is since then is based in Wiesbaden, Hesse.

As part of the advisory cooperation, the BiB supports the Federal Government in international cooperation on population issues within the framework of the United Nations.Informing the public about demographic change and the Institute’s research findings is another central task.

The Institute is a federal departmental research institution and is part of the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs.

Important works and tasks:

  • Research: Research is a central task at the BiB. It is the basis for sound advice and information. One of its core tasks is the continuous monitoring of demographic trends. Other areas of focus include the three research areas of family and fertility, migration and mobility, and demographic change and ageing. In addition, the Education and Human Capital research group, which was newly formed in 2021, investigates the importance of education for population development in Germany. One example of this is the study “Why children from potentially disadvantaged families are less likely to attend daycare – even if they need it” which was conducted on behalf of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
  • Policy advice: On the basis of the institute’s own research findings, the institute advises the federal government and federal ministries. Information, interpretation of demographic trends and the preparation of scientific expertise represent core competencies in policy advice. At the level of international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations, the BiB advises and supports the federal government on population issues.
  • Information: The BiB publishes the results of its research in numerous publications. In more than 430 charts, maps and tables, the BiB regularly publishes information on demographic facts for Germany, Europe and the world.

SchuMaS

In the federal-state initiative SchuMaS – “Schule macht stark”, researchers from 13 institutions are working with a total of 200 schools to develop measures to improve the learning conditions and performance of socially disadvantaged students. The common feature of the selected 200 schools is the socially challenging situation in which the schools find themselves and the more difficult conditions for teaching and learning that accompany this. These conditions are: Increased language support needs, high staff turnover, parent homes at risk of poverty. The current pandemic situation is also not ignored. 

The actual success of the students is the main focus of “SchuMaS”. The overall goal of the project is to improve the educational opportunities of socially disadvantaged students and thus reduce social inequalities.
Particular attention is paid to improving the basic mathematical skills, learning motivation and social skills of the students. 

In relation to the special requirements of the schools, four thematic fields of action are in the foreground, for which individual measures are to be developed in close scientific and practical cooperation. These are:

1. to further develop teaching – with a special focus on mathematics and German,
2. to qualify the pedagogical staff working at the schools in a more targeted way, taking into account the specific conditions of schools in socially challenging situations,
3. further develop schools as an organization, school culture and leadership, and
4. to promote learning outside the classroom and support in the social environment.

In four regional centers of the interdisciplinary research network, the 200 participating schools are advised and supported in mastering their challenges in close cooperation with the state institutes, quality development agencies and school supervisory authorities. The scientific monitoring and evaluation is carried out by other working groups of the project network, the results of which are to be used to produce a recommendation for action after five years, which can be used as a handout to other schools in challenging situations.

REACH

The cooperation project “REAching young adults with low ACHievment in literacy” (REACH), which was sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), was led by the Stiftung Lesen (German Reading Foundation). REACH was aimed at young adults between 16 and 35 years old who are on the so-called alpha-level 3 – a special group among adults with poor literacy: They profit most strongly from remedial programs for their long-term professional life.

Focus of REACH

The project focused on young adults between 16 and 35 because …

  • They can have the greatest and most sustainable benefit from remedial programs,
  • Addressing them early will hopefully lead to maintaining and strengthening their reading competence,
  • Addressing them will motivate and empower them to become reading role models for their children.

To find ways of access, there was a necessity to identify …

  • (Key) persons and locations through which target groups can be reached,
  • Communicative approaches and pathways such as the media,
  • Content-related links: topics, fields of interest, and activities.

Goals of REACH

  • Reviewing the suitability of access ways, which can already be derived from practical experience,
  • Identification and review through characterizing the target group in the most differentiated and precise way possible,
  • Analysis of living conditions, features, habits, and mindsets (e.g., media usage, activities in social media, living situation, family situation, interests and habits during leisure time, etc.)

To achieve this, no new data was collected, but rather existing data was used as effectively as possible, and linked with each other. Subsequently, a small number of potential ways of accessing and addressing was tested by way of a pilot study and simultaneously evaluated.