Session Information
04 SES 05 C, Teacher Education
Paper Session
Time:
2009-09-29
08:30-10:00
Room:
NIG, HS C
Chair:
Kevin Wright
Contribution
Dealing with heterogeneity requires from teachers a number of specific qualifications. In order to realise in a pedagogical fruitful way the potential of pupils as well as to overcome difficulties in communication and integration they need to have a varied repertoire of didactical methods which enables them to initiate and accompany individually or in a group-process the various interactions of teaching and learning. This requires knowledge about certain obstacles in the process of learning (i.e. difficulties in learning and communicating) and about pedagogical and pragmatic options (i.e. teaching techniques).
In everyday teaching we constantly face the question of whether to support the individual in the best way possible or to focus on group-dynamics so as to encourage the development in the learning group. Only by means of a special training in the perception and understanding of particularities are teachers able to act pedagogically in such a way to do justice to the demands of individual students.
The paper will present a three-year research project (start 2008) which will analyse how students of the University College of Teacher Training cope with the intellectual and practical challenges of their teaching practice in heterogeneous groups. The research team understands the dealing with heterogeneity as a cross-section task, which means it is seen as a basic competence in the profession which therefore cannot be limited to specific fields of teaching. For that reason we consider not so much specific differences as such (i.e. social or cultural differences) as relevant to our research project. We rather address the question at what point heterogeneity becomes a crucial factor in teaching. The focus is therefore on the process by which specific differences become relevant in the concrete teaching situation.
The study thus focuses on two main topics:
1) the ability of students to identify certain differences as relevant to a teaching/learning situation,
2) the ability of making on-the-spot-decisions in concrete “diversity situations” which require instantaneous action.
Method
The qualitatively oriented research project combines a number of methods which analyse and describe the perceptive, the interpretative and the practical skills which enable students to perceive and to professionally react to the relevant differences of the pupils.
As a first step the perceptive and interpretative skills of 274 students were tested in the introductory phase (autumn 08) by means of a picture or text impulse which will be repeated at the end of their studies. In the following term of studies (spring 2009) the students have been tested with regard to) their knowledge of the topic of heterogeneity. The results are going to be measured and compared again at a later stage of the teacher training program. In addition to that the continuous development and change of the students with regard to dealing with heterogeneity and diversity in their practical teaching will be documented in case studies.
Expected Outcomes
The result of these picture and text impulses as well as the cognitive test will be presented at the conference. As the data collection will not be ready before the end of the course there can be no results concerning the longitudinal analysis.
The paper thus will focus on the analysis of the perception and the pragmatic out-put of the students as to heterogeneous in their teaching practice.
The results of the study should form the empirical grounds which should then be integrated and should lead on to further depths-studies regarding the subject.
The knowledge about how students in the course of their training deal with heterogeneity, how they perceive and interpret the various situations will thus be put in relation and evaluated with the current academic course programme.
References
Bromme, R. (1997): Der Lehrer als Experte. Huber Krüger-Potratz, M. (2004): Der Umgang mit Heterogenität (S. 558-566). In: Blömeke, S. u.a. (Hg.): Handbuch Lehrerbildung. Klinkhardt Polanyi, M. (1966): Tacit dimension. Peter Smith Rosenberger, K. (2005): Kindgemäßheit im Kontext. VS Verlag Volpert, W. (2006): Handeln-Können – Der Blick auf die individuelle Kompetenz (S. 163-179): In: Martin, H. & Greiner, U. (Hg.): Schauen, was rauskommt. LIT Verlag Wittgenstein, L. (1998): Philosophical Investigations. Blackwell Publishers
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