Barbara Kochan

Barbara Kochan (born April 27, 1944 in Bad Landeck ) is a German pedagogue, university teacher and author of several non-fiction books. She is a professor for elementary school education at the Technical University of Berlin and is considered a pioneer in the field of scientifically based use of the computer for language learning in four to twelve year old children.

Life

Barbara Kochan was appointed professor for elementary school didactics at the Berlin University of Education in 1972 . Since then she has been teaching and researching in the field of language learning and its teaching support in childhood, since 1980 at the Technical University of Berlin. There she founded the computer-aided "writing workshop for children" in 1986 , which was renamed "ComputerLernWerkstatt" (CLW) in 1998 , the first teaching and research facility in this field in Germany. Kochan's scientific work on the acquisition of written language by means of a computer, as well as the learning programs based on it, which she developed with a didactic lead, are also known beyond the German-speaking world. Various countries are currently trying to adapt and implement the pre-school education initiative developed by Kochan - together with her colleague Elke Schröter - under the title "Clever mice - children discover language" .

Focus of work

Kochans field of activity is the education of primary school , in particular the teaching of German learning area including its multiple scientific basis. Over the years she has set different priorities.

In the 1970s, she was particularly concerned with mother tongue learning in the field of oral language use. Your publications on the role play for linguistic and social learning have significantly influenced the German didactics of linguistic and social action - beyond primary school lessons. She has also shaped teaching practice nationwide through her collaboration on the innovative language book "Language and Spoken", which theoretically modeled communicative language teaching, made it methodologically concrete and disseminated it in schools.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Kochan dealt with learning to spell . Based on the hypothesis that most spelling errors are due to - subjectively correct - language-analytical thinking, she asked children how they explain their (non-standard) spellings. She found her hypothesis confirmed and developed a concept of spelling lessons that replaces mere correction of errors on paper and mere memorization with dialogical thinking on the individual theory of the respective child. "We teachers have to think our way into the child's theory so that the child can think out of his or her non-standard theory."

In the mid-1980s she turned to the question of how children learn to write texts and how they can be supported in doing so. It received the international literature on writing process and learning to write research as well as the acquisition of written language, including research on spontaneous preschool writing, in which children - as soon as they no longer scribble but use letters - "invent" their spelling ( invented spelling ). From this she drew lasting impulses for a first sketch of her concept of unfolding (writing) learning and - as a didactic consequence - unfolding (writing) teaching .

In this context, she was concerned with the question of what role the respective writing tool (pen, stamp, printer, computer with word processing) plays in learning to write, in writing texts and in the child's development as an author. Since the use of computers in primary schools in the Federal Republic of Germany was still uncommon in the mid-1980s, she founded the "writing workshop for children" in 1986 as a personal and material writing environment in which groups of children with heterogeneous performance - with a free choice of writing tool - self-determined (long-term) writing projects such as B. realized books or newspapers. Kochan founded and ran this writing workshop in the face of fierce and longstanding resistance from a predominantly computer-rejecting team, both in education policy and in public.

Kochan's didactic concept for the use of word processing in writing and essay lessons received international attention as she worked in international expert groups. Since 1993 she has been working on the concept of developing learning and teaching together with her colleague Elke Schröter. Since then, the two scientists have been jointly researching, conceiving and realizing, in particular, the didactically sensible, science-based use of the computer for language and written language learning in children aged four to twelve.

At the end of the 1990s, Barbara Kochan, together with Elke Schröter and the educational software producer Gerd Scheimann (Munich), developed the didactic concept as well as the content and methods for an innovative learning software for German lessons in primary schools: LolliPop Multimedia Deutsch . This software stands out among other things. a. characterized by the fact that children can independently explore the language without guidance from adults - using "speaking writing", digital tools and special error handling - and thereby learn linguistically , i.e. not just practice what they have already learned elsewhere. This even applies to the acquisition of written language and learning to spell. The multimedia sound table, including synthetic voice output, plays a major role in the acquisition of written language when writing freely. With this tool, children can write down their thoughts before they master the letter-sound relationships, because the table shows them the letters they need for each sound. The children gradually learn the letter-sound relationships - without a course, in recurring moments of individual needs. For spell learning, the two scientists have implemented their method of dialogic "accompanied spelling" in this software in a media-specific manner, which starts with the "theory in error". The "LolliPop" software has won several awards (digita, Comenius Medal, Giga-Maus).

With the expansion of didactic computer use beyond word processing to include the development of learning software, the computer-aided "writing workshop for children" was renamed the ComputerLernWerkstatt in 1998 . As such, it is internationally known and in demand today.

In 2003, Barbara Kochan - again together with Elke Schröter - developed the pedagogical and didactic concept for the nationwide educational initiative " Clever Mice - Children Discover Language", launched and sponsored by Microsoft Germany . The central medium of this initiative to promote language among four to six year olds in initially 200 kindergartens in socially disadvantaged areas is the "Smart Mouse" software, which was designed according to the same didactic principles as the "LolliPop" software. In their accompanying scientific study, Kochan and Schröter report impressive social and linguistic learning successes that the children achieved after just six months. Even children of other languages ​​of origin, who at the beginning of the project could not speak German at all or only poorly, found their way into the German language, including the acquisition of written language, by playing with the software.

In the meantime, Kochan and Schröter have developed another smart mouse software didactically: News from the smart mouse (published under the title Lolli, Pop and the smart mouse ). It was awarded the "Golden Giga-Maus" as the best educational software of 2006. Around 40,000 children in the Federal Republic of Germany are currently learning with it. The software is also increasingly used in Austria, South Tyrol and German-speaking Switzerland.

Together with Elke Schröter, Barbara Kochan has developed multimedia methods that can be transferred to other languages ​​with an alphabetical writing system.

Pedagogical and didactic basic positions

A continuous interplay between theory, product development (language book, learning software) and practice is characteristic of Kochan's work. This always includes concrete work with children, also in extra-curricular contexts such as the ComputerLernWerkstatt (CLW). By observing linguistic behavior and learning in self-determined projects in extra-curricular contexts, Kochan gains insight and access to comparatively natural learning strategies of children, which are rarely revealed in conventional teacher and textbook-centered lessons. But it is precisely these "natural" learning strategies that Kochan uses for more successful learning at school.

As a basic pedagogical and didactic position, Kochan's work (from role play to learning software for written language acquisition) pervades the view that children are capable of self-determined and independent language learning. Kochan sees the children's will to participate in communication in their environment as the motive for this learning. As a strategy for children's learning, Kochan places the children's natural search for regularities in spoken and written language and their communicative use at the center of didactics. She sees the central didactic task in the - personal and material - design of a language and written cultural learning environment. This learning environment should offer good models of linguistic communication, challenge oral and written communication, give the opportunity to speak metacognitively about linguistic problems and insights of the children and appreciate the activities and insights (including preliminary ones). Accordingly, Kochan regards and treats children as authors from the moment they claim to capture a wording with graphic characters - even if they do not yet use the conventional letters for it. Kochan sees the discovery and gradual use of letters, and successively also spelling, as a process of developing what is essentially a communicative writing act that is complex from the start. The impetus for this development is the children's experience - which can be provoked by teaching - that they can use the letters to get their thoughts out of their heads.

The concept of "unfolding learning" or "unfolding teaching" sees the emotional, social and mental powers of the child's personality as agents of learning in "I want" situations and relates to the child's need for interaction and communication in groups one to which it belongs. The concept is based on the child's confidence in the willingness to make an effort to achieve self-determined goals. Linguistic unfolding learning takes place in the self-determined use of language through its self-determined analysis and reflection as well as through communication about it. Development means learning that is directed from the inside out - in contrast to bringing learning content into the child. The reward and drive of this learning is the joy of one's own knowledge. This concept gives teachers spiritual orientation for structuring their lessons. It does not provide any recipes or templates. It also sees the teacher as a self-responsible, independently thinking subject of the lesson who has to cater to the individual personalities of the children, their abilities and needs, in order to help their abilities to develop.

Selected publications

Edited volumes (editor / co-editor)

• Role play as a method of linguistic and social learning. A reader. Kronberg / Ts .: Scriptor 1974
• Taschenlexikon elementary school. Königstein / Ts .: Scriptor 1979 (together with Elisabeth Neuhaus-Siemon)

Monographs

• Clever mice - children discover language. An educational initiative from Microsoft Germany. Project folder. Unterschleißheim: Microsoft 2003. (Together with Elke Schröter)
• Final report on the study on Microsoft's education initiative "Smart Mice - Children Discover Language". Unterschleißheim: Microsoft 2006 (together with Elke Schröter) [available for download at "www.schlaumaeuse.de" and at " http://www.clw.tu-berlin.de "]
• News from the smart mice. The daycare manual. Unterschleißheim: Microsoft Germany 2007. (Together with Elke Schröter)

Contributions to anthologies and journals

• Errors as a learning aid in spelling lessons. In: Renate Valtin and Ingrid Naegele (eds.): "Writing is important!" - Basics and examples for communicative writing (learning). (Contributions to the reform of the elementary school. Vol. 67/68) Frankfurt / M .: Working group elementary school 1986, p. 111–128.
• How to Handle Children's Spelling Mistakes on the Microcomputer? In: Education & Computing. (Special Issue: The Primary Curriculum and New Technology - Ways and Means) 1987 Vol. 3, Nos. 3.4; 219-222.
• Can Alex learn from his spelling mistakes? In: Heiko Balhorn and Hans Brügelmann (eds.): Worlds of writing in the experience of children. Konstanz: Faude 1987, pp. 136-146.
• German learning area. Didactics on the way to children. In: Elisabeth K. Paefgen and Gerhart Wolff (eds.): Pragmatics in language and literature. Tübingen: Narr 1993, pp. 47-65.
• Writing process, writing development and writing tool. Theoretical Aspects of Computer Use in Developing Writing Lessons. In: Werner Hofmann, Jochen Müsseler and Heike Adolphs (eds.): Computer and written language acquisition. Program developments, applications, learning concepts. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 1993, pp. 57-91.
• The computer as a challenge for thinking about written language learning and writing culture in primary school - arguments and suggestions for developing writing lessons. In: Hartmut Mitzlaff (Hrsg.): Handbuch Grundschule und Computer. From taboo to everyday practice. Weinheim and Basel: Beltz 1996, pp. 131–151.
• Paths of thought for learning free writing. In: Gudrun Spitta (Ed.): Free writing - going your own way. Lengwil: Libelle 1998, pp. 218-277.
• Letters can be used to get thoughts out of your head. How first graders can learn to write on the computer. In: Heiko Balhorn, Horst Bartnitzky, Inge Büchner and Angelika Speck-Hamdan (eds.): Treasure chest 1. From the ways of children into writing. (Contributions to the reform of the primary school. Bd. 104) Frankfurt / M. and Hamburg: Working Group Primary School and German Society for Reading and Writing 1998, pp. 224–237.
• Writing and publishing with the computer as a means of acquiring knowledge in all areas of learning - a didactic concept. In: Hartmut Mitzlaff and Angelika Speck-Hamdan (eds.): Elementary school and new media. (Contributions to the reform of the elementary school. Bd. 103) Frankfurt / M .: Working group elementary school 1998, pp. 35–54.
• Computer learning to read and write. In: Mitzlaff, Hartmut (Ed.): Internationales Handbuch Computer (ICT), Elementary School, Kindergarten and New Learning Culture. Vol. 2. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren 2007, pp. 496–506.
• "Smart mice" in kindergartens and day care centers - report from a project. In: Mitzlaff, Hartmut (Ed.): Internationales Handbuch Computer (ICT), Elementary School, Kindergarten and New Learning Culture. Vol. 1. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren 2007, pp. 365–374 (together with Elke Schröter).
• Twenty years of ComputerLernWerkstatt (CLW) at the TU Berlin - research, teaching, consulting and product development for learning using computers. In: Mitzlaff, Hartmut (Ed.): Internationales Handbuch Computer (ICT), Elementary School, Kindergarten and New Learning Culture. Vol. 2. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren 2007, pp. 507-524 (together with Elke Schröter).

Collaboration on school books

• Language and speak. Working materials for language promotion in primary and secondary level I, ed. v. Detlef C. Kochan, Dorothea Ader, Johann Bauer and Walter Henze. Hanover: Schroedel 1971ff. (Volume volumes for the 2nd to 8th school year: student book, student workbook, teacher manual.)

Educational software

• LolliPop Multimedia German. Berlin: Cornelsen 1999–2001 (together with Gerd Scheimann and Elke Schröter)
• Smart mice. Sponsored software for the Microsoft educational initiative "Smart Mice - Children Discover Language" in day-care centers. Unterschleißheim: Microsoft 2003 (together with Gerd Scheimann and Elke Schröter)
• Lolli, Pop and the Smart Mice. Berlin: Cornelsen 2006. Software sponsored under the title "Neues von den Schlaumäusen" for the Microsoft educational initiative "Clever mice - children discover language" in day-care centers. Unterschleißheim: Microsoft 2006 (together with Gerd Scheimann and Elke Schröter)

Prizes, awards

At the UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education 2007, Barbara Kochan made it into the top ten among 68 competitors from all over the world with her now internationally recognized work on computer-aided written language acquisition and developing writing lessons in kindergarten and primary school. In 2007 she was proposed as the only participant from the entire German-speaking area.

Web links

• Computer learning workshop
• About Barbara Kochan