Current global developments, such as migration movements, go hand in hand with increasing social heterogeneity (Mecheril/Rangger 2022). Dealing with heterogeneity in school , in the sense of a broad understanding of inclusion (Löser/Werning 2015), means enabling all pupils to learn the same subject regardless of their different learning needs and backgrounds (Werning 2020). While this heterogeneity is often seen as an opportunity for learning in school cultural development processes (Budde 2015), it also comes with challenges, especially for teachers. They must prepare lessons that are sensitive to heterogeneity, especially in subjects that require complex teaching and learning processes with a high degree of abstraction. This also includes science lessons with experimentation as a core method (Stinken-Rösner et al. 2023).

When experimenting, teachers have to choose between small-step instructions, which have little cognitive activating effect, or open task formats, which can be overwhelming for students (Kleinert et al. 2021). Incremental learning aids offer a central and established solution to this requirement (ibid.): They break down complex tasks into subtasks and provide hints and solutions for each step, which students can access independently. In combination with digital media, such as an app for the tablet, they also offer further possibilities for differentiation.

The use of tablets in the classroom is an internationally researched topic (Aufenanger/Bastian 2017; Zhang/Nouri 2018). Tablets, as well as other digital media, are proving to be significant for the development of teaching and are also seen as a significant opportunity for the success of inclusive teaching (Filk/Schaumburg 2021). The user competences of teachers and students with regard to digital media are diverse and multifaceted (Engel/Jörissen 2022) and the actual use of the media remains largely dependent on the respective individuals (Aufenanger 2017). For science lessons, it has been shown that digital media have the potential to break down barriers (Stinken-Rösner et al. 2023).

This is where our research comes in. We focus the use of an app for inclusive science classes with an ethnographic approach and a special focus on its inclusive and exclusive potential. For this Lesson observations and, interviews with teachers and pupils are carried out. Our research is situated within the joint research project "DiLernProfis" (Short for: Learning process oriented diagnostics and didactis - digital incremental scaffolds as a professionalization concept for adaptive teaching), funded by the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research). The goal of “DiLernprofis” is the development of a web app that enables teachers to create and use digital learning aids. These should allow all pupils to complete complex tasks, such as experimentation, independently. In line with a broad understanding of inclusion, the focus is not on a specific group of pupils, but on the entire learning group, which is defined as heterogeneous in terms of its composition. To this end, a teacher training program is carried out and a certified training concept developed on this basis (Löser et al. 2023). The findings of our sub-project are used to further develop the app as well as the teacher training.

The data collection of the project takes place in two research phases. In each phase, a training course is organized to prepare the participating teachers for the creation and use of the learning aids. Teachers use two evaluated learning aids for experimentation in their lessons and then develop their own learning aid. We are currently in the middle of the second research phase of the project. The teachers in this phase have attended several training sessions and are now preparing to use the evaluated learning aids. In our sub-project, ethnographic observations were carried out in all participating classes, and observation protocols were drawn up and subsequently translated into detailed protocols. The observations focused on the use of the learning aids by teachers and pupils. The ethnographic approach makes it possible to follow the teaching process in a flexible and open way, and thus to consider a variety of practices with and around the learning aids. In addition, interviews were conducted with teachers and students after using the tool. In these they reflected on its use. In total, 45 observation protocols and 12 interview transcripts were produced. The data analysis was also characterized by openness and flexibility. It is based on the GTM (Strauss/Corbin 2010) and allows us to reconstruct key practices from the data through coding. We adopt a practice-theoretical perspective (Schatzki 2012). From this perspective, we understand the social as emerging from practice, in which human actors and material artefacts jointly shape events, while at the same time normative orders come into play (Rabenstein 2018). In this sense, our understanding of social reality moves between poststructuralism (the dissolution of an acting subject) and theories of action (artefacts as tools) (Hirschauer 2016). This approach allows us to understand the use of the app in complex social situations, and to draw conclusions about its role in the different interactions. Our practice-theoretical perspective, the ethnographic observations, the interviews and the analysis strategy are thus in a synergetic relationship, which proves to be a suitable framework with regard to our project objective. Findings about the actual teaching practice with the app allow us to draw conclusions regarding the further development of the app and the training concept as well as general findings regarding the use of digital media in science experiments at school.

Our sub-project reconstructs classroom practice with regard to activities with and around the app in order to reveal its inclusive and exclusive potential. By this it supports both main concerns of “DiLernProfis”, the development of an app for inclusive science lessons as well as of a training-concept for its use. The analysis of observation protocols and interviews revealed different ways of using and assessing the app. In many cases, the app was understood, as intended, as an optional tool to be used individually when independent task completion is otherwise unsuccessful. At the same time, various limiting factors were observed with regard to the use of the app. Students sometimes organized the use of the app in an unintended way, for example when it was used to quickly access the solution without first working on the task. The app use was optional, so it was also completely rejected by a few students to avoid stigmatization. The experiment already represented a materially complex learning situation, which was expanded by the addition of the tablet and made it more difficult for some pupils to use the learning aids (Schilling et al. 2023). Teachers proved to be creative when they used the app outside of the intended format and instead created and applied other task formats. At the same time, the implementation and use of the app in classroom practice proved to be challenging for teachers and students, but also proved to be used more and more routinely over time. At ECER 2024, building on key findings from our analyses, we want to present and discuss the inclusive and exclusive potential of the project app on a case study basis. This will address the opportunities offered by digital media as well as the obstacles that need to be considered when introducing them.

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