Inclusive school development pursues the goal of increasing educational equality. Meeting the needs of all pupils in one classroom adaptive learning environments play an important role in inclusive education. Such adaption requires an ongoing data collection about the pupils learning statuses. Another challenge for modern schools in a globalizing and connected world lies within the increasing requirement of digitalization in class. The joint research project “DiLernProfis” (Formative Assessment and teaching methodology - incremental scaffolds as a concept for professionalization for adaptive teaching), funded by the BMBF, takes this to account and turns its analytic view upon the connection of assessments and the adaption of teaching. The focus of the project lies upon biology classes in comprehensive schools while providing an incremental scaffold in form of an app for tablets. Assessment in this context is seen as a formative one. Mitchell describes this as an “assessment for learning” which is systematically embodied in day to day teaching and helps understanding pupils individual needs and to support them accordingly (2008, 184 f).

Our subproject of DiLernProfis focuses on events in the classes using an ethnographical approach. The main question regards forms of inclusion or exclusion in the class while using the app. The implementation of tablets in class is a quite new teaching method, therefore we follow the assumption that different teaching and learning practices will arise. Considering both individual and class-aspects, pupils, teachers, artefacts as well as areal aspects come into view.

The theoretical approach can be described as praxeological (Schatzki 2002). This perspective locates the social within social practice and therefore is interested in interactions. In educational science theoretical as well as atheoretical knowledge (seen as practical knowledge), the material dimension and subjectivation are of elevated meaning (Budde et al. 2018, 10). Practical knowledge is seen as a part of practices, that can’t be observed. These forms of knowledge are structuring social practices, so that the discursive dimension has to be accounted as a form of symbolic-substantial framing when analyzing practices (Budde et al. 2017, n. pag.). The material dimension of bodies in practices highlights the necessity of the skill to use ones own body or ‘to be a body’ in a certain way (Reckwitz 2003, 290). The incorporation of knowledge can therefore be seen in routines of movements and activities (ibid.). The second instance of the material dimension lies within artefacts. This includes small items as well as buildings or vehicles. They can be seen as crucial elements in practices. Specific practices often require particular artefacts (ibid., 291). Processes of subjectivation are happening within and through practices. That way subjects only become subjects through their practices (Budde 2018, 15f.). With a praxeological approach social occurrences in classrooms can be analyzed by using the aspects addressed above. This includes the use of material elements (e.g. tablets) and interactions between pupils and teachers as well as peer interaction.

Aufenanger and Bastian (2017) point to many international approaches for an implementation of tablets in day-to-day teaching. The importance of tablets for inclusive (secondary) classes is often elevated (see e.g. Aufenanger /Bastian 2017; Mulet et al. 2019; Hustinx et al. 2019). While some studies focus especially on science classes (see e.g. Cotič et al. 2020), also, the importance of teachers assessment skills is highlighted (see e.g. Ikhsanudin 2021).

In our subproject we will join four groups of learners in different integrated comprehensive schools while implementing the app in biology class. We collect data with ethnographic observations and interviews with teachers and pupils. Biology classes can be seen as restricted situations, which can be analyzed with an ethnographic approach (Thomas 2019, 70). Concerning participatory observations Thomas (2019, p. 70) points to the importance of empirical sensibility. He sees the steady influx of new data from the field as a chance for deeper clarifications and differentiations of theory (ibid., 61). An ethnographical perspective assumes that the specific field characteristics show through the presence of strangers, e.g. researches (Breidenstein et al. 2020, 42). An open approach therefore is especially helpful to identify specific structures of a field. As Thomas (2019, 83) points out, cultural meanings and (subjective) interpretations of social situations become ascertainable by focusing communication. Beside everyday conversations (in participatory observations) interviews offer a more formal occasion for dialogue (ibid., 85 f). From an ethnographical standpoint such conversations can be seen as practices, in which social realities are constructed. A data-triangulative approach has the advantage to combine the interview statements with observed practices for a deeper understanding (ibid.). The episodic interview offers a fitting form of dialogue by combining principles of narration with more open inquiries, so that subjective knowledge as well as experiences become visible. For this, open story-telling prompts are followed up by more precise questions, so that the interviewer can ask about specific episodes, which might be especially relevant for the research focus (Flick 2011, 273; Thomas 2019, 85 f). The data analysis is performed using coding strategies of the grounded theory (Corbin/Strauss 2010) and mapping methods (Clarke 2005). The grounded theory enables an open approach to the material, which elaborates in the ongoing analysis (Corbin/Strauss 2010, 39 ff). Based on the grounded theory methodology Clarke (2005) developed multiple forms of mapping, which offer analytic tools for complex social situations, whereat the social is located within practices. All in all the selected methods of data collection and analysis offer a fitting methodological framework for the subproject’s focus. The open approach allows us to catch the complex elements of social practice and allows the discovery of the unexpected (e.g. unanticipated stigmatizations).

The overall project of DiLernProfis pursues the goal to develop a digital incremental scaffold in form of an app for tablets as well as a certified concept for teacher training. Our subproject will contribute results concerning the impact of digital devices on practices in classrooms and the changes in the ways of teaching and learning. Moreover we will highlight the chances and risks on the matter of diverse classes by pointing out forms of inclusion and exclusion in the use of the app (e.g. stigmatization). It also allows to address the digital divide on a social and national level (e.g. socio-economic family backgrounds and rural areas) and international level (e.g. IT infrastructure, state expenses for education), which are of importance in the discussion about inclusion and digitalization (Resta et al. 2018). The results will also generate general implications for app-based teaching methods. We would like to discuss our theoretical and methodological framework and present the data of our first observation period in class with tablets, as well as implications for upcoming observations. All in all our project is located within a broad state of research. This way we can contribute to the further development of theory and practice concerning implications for teacher trainings in the use of digital media in class. Therefore the project plays its part in the modernization of school in an increasingly digitalized world as well as in the ongoing process of enhanced educational equality. Thus it touches a subject of international importance, legally regulated by (for example) the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN 2006).

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