Student errors: how teachers diagnose them and how they respond to them

Current pedagogical discourse has established that teacher competence is a condition sine qua non for high level performance in the classroom. Nevertheless questions of conceptualising and measuring teacher competence have yet to be answered. In our study we analyse a facet of teacher competence essential to successful learning processes; namely, teacher competence when diagnosing and responding to student errors in a constructive manner. Two pilot studies investigate how students perceive "error culture" in their classrooms, and how teachers deal with learner errors during lessons. (DIPF/Orig.

Magnetic fields during the early phase of massive star formation

The goal of this work is to improve our current understanding of the formation process of massive stars in the presence of magnetic fields by means of numerical simulations. In particular, I focus on protostellar accretion rates, the evolution and the properties of protostellar discs and their associated outflows, and the interplay of turbulence and magnetic fields and its impact on protostellar disc formation. In a systematic parameter study I show that the accretion rates are remarkably constant over a wide range of initial conditions. Furthermore, I show that in the absence of turbulence for strong initial magnetic fields only sub-Keplerian discs can form which is attributed to the strong magnetic braking effect. This result seems to be in contrast to observational results. The morphology of the outflows, which shows a strong dependence on the initial conditions, can ultimately be linked to the structure of the underlying disc. Well-collimated outflows with high outflows velocities only develop if a Keplerian protostellar disc is present, otherwise slowly expanding, sphere-like outflows develop. Furthermore, I analyse the driving mechanism of outflows with an analytical criterion derived in the course of this work. When including supersonic, turbulent motions in the simulations, Keplerian protostellar discs form in contrast to the non-turbulent simulations. This result is in agreement with observations of early-type protostellar objects

Exploring well-being at work - An interview study on how IT professionals perceive their workplace

The workplace is particularly important for promoting well-being at work and general life satisfaction, as performing a professional activity can be perceived as satisfying and motivating. In addition, employment opens up opportunities for individual development that employees may be perceived as fulfilling. By conducting an interview study with IT professionals of a German medium-sized company, we investigate which factors of the individual work environment are perceived as conducive to the performance of everyday job duties and thus increase well-being at work. Furthermore, we analyze the extent to which participants are satisfied with the implementation of the factors that are important to them, whether socio-demographic differences are relevant, and whether the perception of the work environment has an effect on employees' commitment. Results show that interpersonal factors in particular are considered to be important in everyday working life. About individual factors, a mixed picture emerged, whereby sociodemographic differences play only a minor role. Furthermore, there are indications of a positive relationship between the perception of the work environment and the IT professionals' commitment. In-depth analysis of the employee statements helps to determine which aspects of the work environment should be implemented, developed, or promoted. In the long term, this can support individual learning and development paths and generates a work environment that sustainably promotes employees' well-being at work and fosters long-term employment relationships

Explaining skills of prospective teachers – Findings from a simulation study

Providing instructional explanations is a central skill of teachers. Using interactive simulations, we examined the explaining skills of 48 prospective teachers attending a teacher education program for accounting in vocational schools in Germany. We used a performance-based assessment that relies on explanatory quality as an indicator of teacher candidates’ explaining skills. Video analysis was used to assess the quality of prepared and impromptu explanations in respect of different quality aspects. We found that the prepared explanations of prospective teachers were of high quality in terms of student–teacher interaction and language. With respect to the quality of content (e.g., accuracy, multiple approaches to explaining) and representation (e.g., visualization, examples), prospective teachers performed significantly worse. The quality of teacher candidates’ improvised explanations was significantly lower. This was especially true for the quality of representations, the process structure, and the interaction between student and teacher. For four of the five quality criteria examined, no correlation could be found between the quality of prepared and improvised explanations. For the language criterion, however, there was a correlation between the two types of explaining situations. Implications on how to support teacher candidates in developing explaining skills during teacher education are discussed

Learning through workplace experiences in dual higher education

It is not only in Germany that an increasing importance of dual study programmes can be observed. However, little is known about competence development during studies and the effects of practical phases. Against this background, the practical phases of two dual Bachelor’s programmes at the University of Applied Labour Studies (UALS) are being analysed in more detail and an overview of the research project is given

Ausprägung und Förderung fachdidaktischer Kompetenzen von (angehenden) Lehrkräften an kaufmännischen Schulen - Zum konstruktiven Umgang mit Fehlern im Rechnungswesenunterricht

Rechnungswesenunterricht nimmt seit jeher einen hohen Stellenwert in den Curricula kaufmännischer Schulen ein. Einschlägige Forschungsarbeiten verweisen jedoch darauf, dass er von Lernenden als stellenweise langweilig und eintönig wahrgenommen wird. Zudem gilt Rechnungswesenunterricht als fehleranfällig –sich im Zeitablauf kumulierende Lernschwierigkeiten und Verständnisdefizite sind hier keine Seltenheit. An dieser zuletzt genannten Problematik setzen die langjährigen Bemühungen der Arbeitsgruppen um Eveline Wuttke in Frankfurt und Jürgen Seifried in Konstanz bzw. Mannheim an. In dem vorliegenden Beitrag zeichnen wir die gemeinsam umgesetzten Forschungsvorhaben nach, die von der Identifizierung typischer Schülerfehler über die Modellierung einer entsprechenden fach-didaktischen Kompetenz zum konstruktiven Umgang mit Schülerfehlern bis hin zur Förderung der professionellen Kompetenzen (angehender) Lehrpersonen an kaufmännischen Schulen reichen. Im Fokus des vorliegenden Beitrags steht die Förderung der fachdidaktischen Kompetenz von (angehen-den) Lehrpersonen an kaufmännischen Schulen. Wir berichten insbesondere über das Design und die Effekte von fachdidaktischen Trainings für Lehrkräfte im Vorbereitungsdienst und Studierende der Wirtschaftspädagogik. Die Evaluation der Maßnahmen verweist darauf, dass eine umfassende Ver-knüpfung der Trainingsinhalte mit der Unterrichtspraxis sowie der Einbezug der Sichtweisen der Leh-renden bezüglich des Nutzens einer unterrichtlichen Auseinandersetzung mit Schülerfehlern für den Erfolg des Trainings wesentlich sind. Ein aktuell verfolgtes Forschungsvorhaben setzt hier an, indem eine Fortbildung für praktizierende Lehrkräfte implementiert wird, in welchem die Reflexion über das eigene Unterrichtshandeln in Fehlersituationen im Vordergrund steht