Theoretical Framework and Research Question

Globalization and increased transnational mobility and at the same time worldwide challenges such as economic crises, climate change, global pandemics and war have increased during the last decades and have led to heterogeneity in school population (Wernicke et al., 2021). Given the continuous increase in heterogeneity, a consideration of individual student needs has reemerged as a major issue in theoretical, empirical, and practice-oriented work (Hardy et al., 2019). As Corno (2008) states: “Our modern society expects instruction to reach all students across a broad range of special needs, talents, linguistic backgrounds, and sociocultural conditions”.  Teachers are challenged to meet the individual needs of all students and adjustments to students’ individual development are considered a core element of effective teaching (Hardy et al., 2019).  Adaptive teaching (Corno, 2008) as a solution has been discussed for the last decades and is today more relevant than ever. Adaptive teaching is essential in instructional interaction: the teacher guides the learning process in dialogue with students, supporting independent learning, problem-solving, and cognitive self-experience (Brägger, Haug et al., 2021). Corno (2008) states that teaching adaptively means responding to learners as they work, diagnose their needs “on the fly” (Corno, 2008, p.1).  The teachers’ intervention occurs slightly above the students' level and is gradually withdrawn, transferring responsibility for the learning and problem-solving process back to the students (Vygotsky, 1980; Van de Pol et al., 2010). Despite being considered a well-founded and pedagogically promising concept (Hardy et al., 2019), adaptive teaching remains limited in practice in the German school system (Schwippert et al., 2020).

A reason for this might be that it poses a significant challenge for teachers to simultaneously address a variety of students individually – both in lesson preparation and in situational teaching-learning interactions. To meet these needs, promoting adaptive teaching competence amongst pre-service teachers appears particularly significant. We follow the idea that teachers’ competence is based on learnable dispositions linked to teaching situations (König, 2020). The lack of opportunities to learn such competencies in university teacher training may be a cause of teachers’ difficulties in teaching adaptively (Praetorius et al., 2012). For the subject of mathematics, which primarily involves task-based teaching, there is a specific need to focus on problem-solving processes that teachers must adaptively support (Leiß, 2007).

We developed a model for adaptive teaching (Lemmrich et al., in press), addressing both the level of adaptive lesson planning and adaptive decision-making during ongoing lessons. The model provides a framework for differentiating generic facets of adaptive teaching in a subject-specific manner. We also developed an innovative seminar concept to impart competence in teaching adaptively in mathematical problem-solving processes, aiming to overcome traditional theory-practice barriers (Schilling & Leiss, 2022). Therefore, it incorporates multiperspective videos and trainings and a community of practice. The seminar has been continuously evaluated and modified (Leiss et al., submitted). The following presents initial results. The guiding research question was: To what extent can the ability of pre-service teachers to give adaptive instructions be promoted through university teaching?

Methodology The study was conducted in an experimental pre-post-design. The experimental group (n = 26) and the control group (n = 77) completed a 90-minute online assessment at the beginning and end of the semester, with items covering (1) cognition (subject knowledge, subject-specific pedagogical knowledge) (2) beliefs (self-efficacy concerning ability of teaching adaptively) (3) situation-specific skills (stimuli followed by multiple-choice-questions on diagnosis and intervention). The sample of pre-service teachers were recruited in the summer semester of 2021 in the cohort of mathematics teacher training in their fourth semester at the Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany. The experimental group was trained in the developed innovative seminar, that promotes competence in teaching adaptively in mathematical problem-solving processes.

Findings and conclusion Results show that pre-service teachers’ competence in teaching mathematics adaptively could be improved through the seminar concept especially in declarative subject-specific pedagogical knowledge ((1) cognition). Also, we find a significant increase in the self-efficacy of the pre-service teachers ((2) beliefs). Regarding situation-specific skills (3) in the field of diagnosis and intervention, no measurable changes can be achieved, despite the constructive-reflexive engagement with various practical elements during the seminar. The seminar is capable of imparting adaptive teaching competence. However, this largely depends on how frequently students utilize the learning opportunities. These results illustrate the complexity of "good" adaptive teaching in subject instruction. The competence of adaptive teaching as merely one aspect of teachers’ professional competence, could not be conclusively achieved in all facets with the pre-service teachers in the seminar. To train future teachers in teaching adaptively, seems to pose challenges in university teacher education. Further investigations should explore the question of the influence of pre-service teachers’ beliefs in additional runs of the seminar, possibly using an instrument that goes beyond self-efficacy. Adaptive teaching must be tailored to the specific subject situation: An intertwining of subject didactics and educational science in teacher education is necessary to address adaptive teaching as both a general pedagogical and subject-specific concept. Research paper and attempts for European collaborations concerning adaptive teaching reveal the relevance not only for Germany, but for European teaching institutions (e.g. E-ADAPT )

Literatur Brägger, G., Haug, R., Reusser, K. & Steiner, N. (2021). Adaptive Lernunterstützung und formatives Feedback in offenen Lernumgebungen. In G. Brägger & H.-G. Rolff (Hrsg.), Handbuch Lernen mit digitalen Medien (S. 700–754). Beltz. Corno, L. Y. (2008). On teaching adaptively. Educational psychologist, 43(3), 161-173. Hardy, I., Decristan, J. & Klieme, E. (2019). Adaptive teaching in research on learning and instruction. Journal for educational research online, 11(2), 169-191. König, J. (2020). Kompetenzorientierter Ansatz in der Lehrerinnen-und Lehrerbildung. In C. Cramer, J. König, M. Rothland, & S. Blömeke (Eds.), Handbuch Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung (pp. 163-171). Verlag Julius Klinkhardt. Leiss, D. (2007). Hilf mir es selbst zu tun“ – Lehrerinterventionen beim mathematischen Modellieren. Franzbecker Verlag. Leiss, D., Schilling, L., Lemmrich, S. & Ehmke, T. (eingereicht). Adaptive Lernunterstützung in der Lehrkräfteausbildung fördern – Ein beispielhaftes Seminarkonzept mit Evaluation an der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg Lemmrich, S., Ehmke, T., & Reusser, K. (in press). Adaptive Lernunterstützung durch fachliche Präzision und interaktionale Qualität PraxisForschungLehrer*innenBildung. Zeitschrift für Schul- und Professionsentwicklung. Praetorius, A.-K., Lipowsky, F., & Karst, K. (2012). Diagnostische Kompetenz von Lehrkräften: Aktueller Forschungsstand, unterrichtspraktische Umsetzbarkeit und Bedeutung für den Unterricht. In R. Lazarides & A. Ittel (Eds.), Differenzierung im mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht. Implikationen für Theorie und Praxis (pp. 115-146). Schilling, L., Poschkamp, A.-K., Leiss, D., & Besser, M. (2022). Entwicklung eines schulischen Lehr-Lernsettings zur Implementation des Problemlösens im kompetenzorientierten Mathematikunterricht mit Einsatz eines Erklärvideos als didaktisches Tool. In T. Ehmke, S. Fischer-Schöneborn, K. Reusser, D. Leiss T. Schmidt & S. Weinhold (Hrsg.), Innovation in Theorie-Praxis-Netzwerken – Beiträge zur Weiterentwicklung der Lehrkräftebildung (S. 252-276). Weinheim Basel: Beltz Juventa. Schwippert, K., Kasper, D., Köller, O., McElvany, N., Selter, C., Steffensky, M. & Wendt, H. (Hrsg.). (2020). TIMSS 2019: Mathematische und naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenzen von Grundschulkindern in Deutschland im internationalen Vergleich [1. Auflage, neue Ausgabe]. Waxmann. https://doi.org/10.31244/9783830993193 Vygotsky, L. S. (1980). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard university press. Wernicke, M., Hammer, S., Hansen, A. & Schroedler, T. (Hrsg.). (2021). Preparing Teachers to Work with Multilingual Learners. Multilingual Matters.