FOR 738:  Orchestrating Computer-supported Processes of Learning and Instruction

• Subject Area: Social and Behavioural Sciences ; Humanities
• Term: from 2006 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 22134855

Digital technologies can support education in multiple ways. Traditional forms of instruction can be enhanced by incorporating a variety of multi-media presentation formats and telemedial communication scenarios. Furthermore, new didactic scenarios such as forms of collaborative inquiry learning, problem-based learning or learning by hypervideo production can be realised.
However, in formal educational settings the potential of technology-supported learning is not exploited properly, if it is exploited at all. This is only partly due to structural reasons such as a lack of financial means. Another set of causes relates to characteristics of the research, whose results should inform about a better use of digital media in education. We argue that three central issues contribute crucially to this situation:
(1) the lack of interdisciplinary connections between research approaches in psychology, educational science and educational technology;
(2) research's low sensitivity to problems in educational practice;
(3) the lack of reference with regard to conceptual frameworks of teaching and learning as well as with regard to models of competencies of teachers and learners. This reduces opportunities to accumulate knowledge from research and to practically apply these insights.
In our approach, we are connecting psychological, educational and didactical expertise within each of the projects and thus seek to combine the strengths of each discipline in a broader interdisciplinary perspective. Secondly, we intend to reach a higher sensibility of our research to the conditions of educational practice via investigating use-inspired research questions and seeking heightened external validity while simultaneously following the methodical standards of empirical research. Thirdly, the projects relate clearly to existing conceptual frameworks of teaching and learning such as the PISA framework and refer to other existing standards and models wherever applicable in order to interconnect results with other research efforts and practice.
The projects focus on the relation between learning prerequisites, learning processes and instruction, on the one side, and on the analysis and facilitation of teacher expertise under different instructional and institutional conditions on the other. Through these efforts we aim at achieving a more comprehensive approach to learning and instruction with digital media.

• DFG Programme: Research Units

Projects

• Computer-supported collaboration scripts for inquiry learning in the science classroom (Applicant Fischer, Frank )
• Coordination and Integration within the Research Group "Orchestrating Computer-supported Processes of Learning and Instruction" (Applicant Hesse, Friedrich Wilhelm )
• Coordination of the research group "Analysis and Promotion of Effective Processes of Learning and Instruction (Applicant Hesse, Friedrich Wilhelm )
• Designing multimedia messages for classroom settings (Applicant Gerjets, Peter )
• Fostering deep understanding and skills acquisition by means of collaborative design tasks involving innovative digital video technologies in the classroom (Applicant Zahn, Carmen )
• Förderung der Kompetenz von Lehrkräften durch mediengestütztes, fallbasiertes Lernen. Experimentelle Forschung zur Implementation pädagogischer Innovation (Applicant Schrader, Josef )
• Kontexteffekte in der Lern-Lehrforschung: Methodische Herausforderungen bei der Schätzung und Interpretation von Mehrebenenanalyse (Applicant Lüdtke, Oliver )
• Multimedia in the classroom: Implementation intentions to foster learning with dynamic visualizations (Applicant Scheiter, Katharina )
• On the neuro-cognitive representations involved in fraction processing and its learning (Applicant Möller, Korbinian )
• Promoting teacher expertise: The relation of individual prerequisites and instructional processes in computer-supported case-based learning environments (Applicant Schrader, Josef )
• Teachers' professional knowledge acquisition on the basis of videos of teachers own or others' classroom (Applicant Bohl, Thorsten )
• The development of English achievement and motivation in vocational training: Does one lesson make a difference? (Applicant Jonkmann, Kathrin )
• Use of digital video: Learning strategies and media literarcy (Applicant Schwan, Stephan )
• Verkörperlichtes Lernen von Numerosität für den Transfer in die schulische Praxis - Mathe mit der Matte (Applicant Cress, Ulrike )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Hesse