Under What Conditions Can Regional Learning Promote Participation?

Taking as a basis that on-site learning in the own region has a high educational potential and addressing the objective of promoting the participation of adults, young people and children at regional level, the concept of Regional Learning 21+ was developed, tested and evaluated in this research project. The evaluation results show that regional action-oriented learning promotes the identity formation and the acquisition of participatory competence, thus contributing effectively to the participation at regional level with particular emphasis on education for sustainable development. A two-group pre-test and post-test design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of Regional Learning 21+. Participants in learning activities were asked to complete a questionnaire before and after the activity in order to detect changes in the characteristics of regional identity and participatory competence. In addition, interviews with organizers of learning activities provided comprehensive data to identify factors that influence the effectiveness of the measure.Peer Reviewe

Informationswege von Lehrern – eine empirische Untersuchung zum Thema „Land- und Ernährungswirtschaft“

The present paper introduces the results of a study by order of the German Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture. The study had the objective to identify information paths of teachers in order to evaluate the potential of targeted publications. It is demonstrated that teachers of different levels of general education differ in part significantly in their search for teaching material and information literature on agriculture and food. Primary school teachers, for instance, attach more importance to farmers and agricultural or food manufacturers' associations as valuable resources than teachers of secondary schools do. On the one hand, these results indicate that primary school teachers take a relatively active part in discovery on family-farms. On the other hand, these results suggest that the different associations keep ready appropriate information literature especially for teachers of primary schools. These allegations are corroborated by an unexpectedly high proportion of primary school teachers who use that kind of factual information to a great extend; but they are invalidated by a relatively evenly distributed degree of utilisation among all groups of teachers. Some factors tend to influence the importance of resources for information about agriculture or food positively: private contacts, the offer of didactically and methodologically adapted and cost-saving material as well as easy local accessibility or easy availability due to simple communication channels. Regarding different types of media, the study indicates that teachers concentrate not only on one particular type of media when looking for information. Their behaviour is characterised by a balanced use of different kinds of media. However, the intensive use of schoolbooks among all groups of teachers is noticeable as well as the little importance of agrarian literature as a source of information

Acquiring Action Competence in Geography Education

So far, international competence research largely has focused on approaches to examine cognitive competence structures. The purpose of the planned study is to investigate both motivational and volitional aspects of geographical action competence in order to gain insights into how pupils acquire, develop and deepen geographical action competence in the broadest sense. To do so, we follow Heckhausen and Gollwitzer’s Rubicon-model of action phases and the theory of action-oriented learning in order to model the structures of geographical action competence. The model will then be tested and evaluated in school participation projects for pupils of grades 9/10. The study is designed to provide empirically valid insights into the structure of the competence area "Action" in Geography education.Peer Reviewe