PISA-LDW

How do students learn to solve problems in the digital space? How can learning in digital environments be observed and assessed? How are core competencies of digital learning effectively supported? To answer these and other questions, innovative approaches to the diagnostic use of behavioral data from digital learning and assessment environments have great potential. The central goal of this accompanying research on the innovative domain in PISA 2025 “Learning in the Digital World” (LDW) is the development and empirical validation of such approaches.

As an innovative PISA domain, two areas of competence are to be covered that are of particular importance in digital learning contexts: The first is the competence to model complex systems and solve algorithmic problems with the help of digital tools. In doing so, the students go through a process of self-directed learning and “learn” how to solve the problems. On the other hand, the students’ ability to self-regulate this learning process is to be recorded. This means how they monitor, control and adapt this process in (meta-)cognitive, behavioral, motivational and affective terms. For this purpose, behavioral data from the processing of the tasks will also be used – these are obtained by presenting complex problems to the students on the computer in a simulated and interactive learning environment. The students work out solutions step by step – using the learning tasks, learning materials and aids offered in the learning environment. How they accomplish this and how successfully they do so is the subject of the measurement.
For example, in one learning unit, students are asked to create a program by combining commands that are available as blocks in order to control an game piece (see turtle in Fig. 1). The game piece should be made to collect the blue object and then move to a target position. The students can check their programmed solution again and again with the help of a test option, receive supportive feedback and further improve it using learning materials.

Fig. 1. Mockup of a sample task (train turtle) in the style of LDW units.

Mockup of a sample task


The indicators obtained from the behavioral data to capture the competence areas will be examined to determine whether the individual differences they depict can be interpreted in terms of the constructs in question (construct validation). For this purpose, the correlation structure between learning potentials or learning activities on the one hand and LDW problem-solving competence on the other hand will be examined (nomological network). Learning potentials include, among others, reasoning, prior knowledge, self-efficacy and motivation to learn, learning activities the activities in the LDW learning unit as well as preceding learning opportunities in the (extra)curricular setting.

In the context of the research project, (self-regulated) learning processes in digital environments are thus made empirically accessible, the influence of individual preconditions on the learning and problem-solving processes is investigated as well as their effects on learning success. The knowledge gained in the project contributes to a better understanding of learning processes and how they can be diagnosed in digital learning environments.

Objectives

  • Development of indicators to capture the LDW construct domains.
  • Validation of test score interpretations
  • Research on learning processes in interactive learning environments

learn:digital transfer centre

The competence network lernen:digital shapes the dialogue between science and practice for the digital transformation of schools and teacher training. The transfer centre makes the results of the learning:digital competence network visible to teachers, promotes co-constructive further development with practitioners and supports the nationwide transfer to teacher training. The DIE contributes its expertise in promoting the professional development of teaching staff by addressing these issues, among others:

  • How can the coordination of action by relevant actors in digitisation-related teacher training be described?
  • What are the conducive and obstructive conditions for transfer in digitisation-related teacher training?
  • How should digitisation-related qualification programmes for multipliers be designed?

The transfer office acts as an interface within the competence network lernen:digital and thus ensures systematic dialogue between science and practice. The activities and services of the transfer centre are divided into four fields of action: networking, research, transfer and science communication. The central tasks are the consolidation of scientific expertise in the project networks into competence centres, benefit-inspired research on transfer-relevant issues and networking with the state institutes for teacher training, education administration and education policy. One of the DIE’s main objectives is the development of formats for the professionalisation of multipliers in digitisation-related further and continuing training for teachers. Another focus is on analysing the coordination of action by the groups of actors in the education system and the conditions for successful transfer.

FID

The specialised information service “Educational Science and Educational Research” (Fachinformationsdienst Erziehungswissenschaft und Bildungsforschung) renders a contribution to a supply of scientific information, across locations in Germany. It aims at delivering the scientific resources required by education scientists for their particular research needs quickly and directly – preferably in digital format. The Information Centre for Education and the Research Library for the History of Education at DIPF collaborate closely with three other co-operation partners and the pertinent community in developing services with a priority on the following disciplines:

  • Education science
  • Educational research
  • Subject didactics
  • Higher education research
  • Research on textbooks and educational media
  • History of education

FID services have largely been integrated into the German Education Portal, which the project partners are supporting in order to create a comprehensive search and documentation area and subject-related service portal.

The specialized information service FID is monitored by an advisory board that brings together subject-specific and librarian expertise, and usage is continually being evaluated.

E-CER

The international network “In Search of the Good Teacher” brings together researchers from Canada, the USA, the Netherlands, Germany, England and Australia. The network is funded by the European Association of Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) and coordinated by DIPF and the University of York.

Theoretical development: Up to now, disparate lines of research on teacher quality have existed independently of each other. The network now aims to bring these lines of research together for future research.

Methodological development: Only a few standardized instruments measuring teacher quality in international contexts exist. In this network, researchers work jointly on further improvement and validation. In the spirit of Open Science these standardized instruments will be made available to the research community.

Interdisciplinarity: The networks focus lies on interdisciplinarity. Questions about “good” teachers may need input from different fields such as psychology, educational science, or experts in subject matter.

Practical impact: These findings can contribute to the creation of effective teacher education:

  1. Teacher selection: Who should enter the teaching profession? Which features should one look for when recruiting teachers?
  2. Teacher training and continuing education: How important are aspects such as subject-matter knowledge or motivation? How can they be fostered?

Project Objectives: The aim of the research group is two-fold: First, it links the theoretical approaches in a collective model. Second, establishing new research connections. This is done both through the sharing and advancing teacher assessment instruments, and through joint work on existing study data and the planning of new cooperative studies that allow for a high degree of generalization.

ForSynData

Research syntheses are an increasingly used method in educational and behavioural sciences to gain an evidence-based overview of relevant aspects or topics. Evidence is due to the complete and systematic assessment and selection of relevant publications and structured synthesis of findings from literature. A multitude of approaches has been developed in this context occasionally involving AI tools. The project targets a standardization of the documentation of research syntheses and resulting heterogeneous data.

On the one hand, the project addresses researchers acting as data suppliers who are in need of support for transparent documentation and processing of FAIR data. Researchers will also be enabled to reuse other scientists’ research synthesis data. Research data thus need to be researchable so they can be assessed according to individual needs and used in the individual research settings.

ForSynData also addresses research data centres that curate and make available data in educational science and psychology and act as intermediaries between data givers – suppliers – and users of research syntheses.

The project is subdivided into four work packages that are coequally processed and run by DIPF and ZPID which focuses on research syntheses from psychology while DIPF focuses on syntheses from education.

First of all, a heuristic analysis will serve to assess relevant research syntheses from both disciplines – based on existing classifications found in the literature relating to different types. Reproducibility is checked. Criteria for reproducibility are geared towards research synthesis guidelines and the FAIR principles. The developed guidelines will be presented to focus groups of experts for evaluation purposes. Focus is placed on the comprehensibility of guidelines and the implementation of documentations with respect to assessing potentials of reusability – i.e. assessment of needs and data quality. Necessary metadata standards will be prepared for the final guidelines to sustainably curate research syntheses. Processing and documentation of guidelines will be linked to a close cooperation of staff at the research data centres involved. The metadata will be aligned to existing research data management standards – linking up to work by KonsortSWD, “Linking Textual Data”, “Open Data Format” and the NFDI section in charge of metadata. The final work package addresses an evaluation of processes for data publication and reusage involving research data centres as data curators and researchers as data suppliers of data and data users.

KonsortSWD

Which research data are needed to drive research of societal contexts and phenomena? How can these data be documented and made available, how can they be indexed and networked, to facilitate excellent research? Together with other partners, DIPF engages in setting up KonsortSWD, the national research data infrastructure for social, behavioural, educational and economic sciences.

KonsortSWD targets a further development of the existing research data infrastructure as a joint venture, stopping existing gaps and extending the infrastructure in a sustainable way.

MEChS

MEChS is one of five projects grown out of the scientific MILES (Methodological Issues in Longitudinal Educational Studies) -consortium, which is coordinated by the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) at Kiel. In this co-operative project data from two longitudinal studies LAU (Aspects of learning background and learning development) and KESS (Competencies and attitudes of students), which have been conducted during the 1990s and the 2000s in Hamburg, was reanalyzed with the aim of answering methodological and substantial questions of longitudinal research in depth.

NEPS TBT

The Technology based Testing (TBT) work package is part of the NEPS methods group and is located at the DIPF in the TBA centre (Centre for Technology-Based Assessment). There it is under the scientific leadership of Prof. Dr. Frank Goldhammer and scientific co-leadership of Dr. Daniel Schiffner as well as the operational leadership of Dr. Lena Engelhardt. NEPS-TBT works closely with the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) and is concerned with innovative survey and test methods, for example, computer- and Internet-based skills testing.

The TBT work package supports the implementation of Technology based testing in NEPS, especially in the domains of reading and mathematics, with science-based services, project-specific adaptations of software products, and accompanying scientific research.

enorM

As a project within the framework of the “Science Year 2022 – Participate!”, enorM was divided into a mobilization phase and an interaction phase, in which the coordination office of the Leibniz Education Research Network participated.

During the mobilization phase, the project collected questions and ideas from students about learning in the future: at several local schools, via a broad social media campaign and, in particular, via the website lernen-von-morgen.de. At the online “Education Future Camp” on April 2, 2022 the submitted questions were organized and weighted together with interested students. In the subsequent interaction phase, the students interacted with researchers, met them online in “Book a Question” sessions, discussed with them at a hackathon and produced their own podcast series. In collaboration with an agency, a computer game – a digital escape room – was developed, which provides children and young people a completely different approach to learning in the future.

Students were also involved in this project: In a workshop with the agency, they helped develop the game idea and provided feedback on test versions during the production period. The computer game includes visualizations of the discussions between students and researchers as well as the podcast episodes. It is available on the website www.lernen-von-morgen.de beyond the project period.

The project serves the exchange and transfer of experiences from educational practice to research. In addition, the aim is to break new ground in science communication with new presentation and event formats.

COACTIV-expeRt

How do teachers develop into experts in teaching? How well do studies and preparatory service prepare them for the profession? These central questions of teacher (education) research were investigated in the COACTIV-expeRt project funded by the German Research Foundation. The aim was to investigate the long-term development of teachers’ professional competence and to identify resources for positive development as well as risk factors for unfavourable development. In addition, it was analysed how sustainable the professional competence acquired during studies and preparatory service predicts later success in the teaching profession. The data basis was the COACTIV teacher traineeship study, in which more than 800 teacher candidates were surveyed from 2007 to 2009 during their pre-service training on central aspects of professional competence, on characteristics of their personality and on the learning opportunities in the pre-service training. In several sub-studies, the aspects of professional competence and various indicators of professional success among these participants, who now have an average of 10 years of professional experience were investigated.

This study aims to investigate the long-term professionalisation of teachers and the development of their professional competence. In addition, the study examines indicators of professional success and attempts to identify resources for positive professional development as well as risk factors for rather unfavourable development of teachers.