The initial issue that triggered the empirical research study presented in this paper are two important (inter-)national appeals that to be considered and implemented in (primary) school; they are the UN standards on inclusive education (UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2006) as well as standards in primary science education that emerged with the international conception of “scientific literacy” (e.g., Bybee, 1997). Both appeals, more detailed below, are significant challenges for school learning and especially in primary science education.

Already before the publication of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), there was international agreement that inclusive education is imperative. The convention, however, issued finalized obligatory standards for inclusion in every part of human life, including for school-based education and learning. Two years after the German ratification in 2009, a national German mandate was released with binding statements regarding inclusive school education, so that every pupil—with every special educational need (SEN)—may have the right to attend a regular German primary school (KMK, 2011).

Moreover, since the conception of “scientific literacy” (Bybee, 1997), there is national and international consensus to begin science in primary school, kindergarten, or even preschool (AAAS, 2015; GDSU, 2013). In addition, there is also (inter-)national consensus—in regards to further and lifelong learning in science—that knowledge and comprehension of science topics alone are not sufficient to reach usable, transferable, and reflective competences for everyone, especially for young children and young adults. Particularly in elementary or primary science education, supporting motivational, affective, and self-evaluative aims in science education is important in the long-term cultivation of multiple learning effects in scientific learning (ib.).

Nevertheless, there is a clear discrepancy between the (inter-)national standards and requirements and the current state of research on the practical implementation (i.e., evidence-based didactic learning materials) for primary teachers to meet these standards. Especially there is a need for research that explicitly connects inclusive learning with primary science education.

In beginning our attempt to meet the aforementioned demands for research, and to fulfill the need for inclusive primary science learning materials, we designed an empirical research project to examine and develop effective learning conditions for inclusive learning environments within primary science education. The project, funded by the Müller-Reitz Foundation (Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft), is a cooperative effort between the Department of Didactics in Primary Science Education (Prof. Eva Blumberg, Theresa Fromme) and the Department of Primary School Pedagogy (Prof. Frank Hellmich) at the University of Paderborn (Germany).

The project’s major aims are to examine learning conditions for every child’s optimum individual development in inclusive primary science educational settings and to create corresponding learning materials. Our central question of the running project (04/2014–04/2016) is how to design learning environments so that all children—with and without SEN—can reach individual optimum learning effects, including cognitive, motivational, and self-evaluative outcomes. Therefore, the central research aims of the project’s study are to examine the conditions and multiple learning effects of inclusive learning groups while using adaptive learning and teaching methods. A further aim of the study is to evaluate, and improve where necessary, existing testing instruments especially for children with SEN.

Based on results of the aforementioned previous studies (Blumberg, 2008), we assume that student-oriented, constructivist learning environments on complex science topics with an individual degree of scaffolding and a high degree of various activity-orientation and cooperation could generally be a successful way to reach a high level of multiple cognitive, motivational, and self-evaluative learning outcomes for every participating student according to his or her SEN and learning abilities.

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