FALKO (research project)

FALKO is an interdisciplinary research project in which subject didactics and pedagogy from the Universities of Regensburg and Augsburg are involved. The team deals with professional knowledge of secondary school - teachers and links up to preparatory work of the project COACTIV of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development at. A central component of the previous work was the joint development of subject-specific professional knowledge tests for the subjects German, English, Protestant religion, Latin, music and physics. The acronym FALKO stands for " Fa chspezifische L ehrer ko mpetenzen".

Involved

FALKO was initiated by Stefan Krauss (University of Regensburg, didactics of mathematics ) and Anita Schilcher (University of Regensburg, didactics of German language and literature ). Other participants are Michael Fricke ( religious education and didactics of religious instruction), Anja Göhring and Anja Schödl (natural science and technology with a focus on physics ), Sven Hilbert (professorship for methods of empirical educational research ), Alfred Lindl and Harald Kloiber ( Latin didactics ), Regina H. Mulder, Susanne Sauer and Franziska Kempka ( pedagogy ), Johannes Wild ( didactics of German language and literature ), Oliver Tepner ( chemistry didactics ), Jochen Kirchhoff ( history didactics , University of Erfurt), Petra Kirchhoff ( specialist didactics of English , University of Erfurt), Markus Pissarek ( didactics of German language and literature , Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt), as well as Bernhard Hofmann and Gabriele Puffer ( music education , University of Augsburg).

Research concerns

The first goal of the project was the development of valid test instruments for the recording of domain-specific professional knowledge from teachers of lower secondary level as well as from students from corresponding courses . This also was the first time slightly structured domains such as the subjects of religion, Latin and music included. A common theoretical and formal framework model should enable the examination of subject-specific relationships and development processes as well as the testing of interdisciplinary hypotheses of correlation and difference .

Theoretical framework

The basis of the work was a joint theoretical conceptualization of specialist knowledge and subject didactic knowledge of teachers , which was carried out based on the knowledge taxonomy of Lee Shulman and its modeling in the COACTIV study. Both facets of knowledge were operationalized on a domain-specific basis for the subjects German, English, Latin, physics, music and Protestant religion . Expertise is shown as in-depth knowledge of the content of the corresponding school curricula . Didactic knowledge is conceptualized in three facets: knowledge about subject-related cognitions of students; Knowledge of subject-specific instruction strategies ; Knowledge of the potential of assignments and teaching materials.

methodology

Test design

A domain-specific professional knowledge test was developed for each subject involved ( paper-and-pencil test with a duration of approx. 90 minutes, 30 minutes of which is for the "Technical Knowledge" section and 60 minutes for the "Subject Didactic Knowledge" section).

Validation study

The validation study included data from a total of N = 1144 students ( n = 601) and teachers ( n = 543), which were mainly collected in Bavaria . For transdisciplinary meta-analyzes , new data from the COACTIV study could also be taken into account, so that a database of N = 1594 people was available. Among them were 741 teachers (54.0% female) who either taught at a non-grammar school (241 people) or at a grammar school (499 people) (average work experience: 12.24 years, SD = 10.35; range 0 , 5-40). In addition, 853 teacher training students (64.9% female) took part in the study (desired degree non- grammar school teacher training: n = 347, grammar school teacher training: n = 498 people; average study experience: 6.57 semesters, SD = 3.16; range 1– 14).

In order to enable a broad-based discourse on methodology and results, all test items were published online.

Results

Within the framework of FALKO, it was possible for the first time, based on a common theoretical framework model, to jointly conceptualize the professional knowledge of teachers for a large and heterogeneous compilation of school subjects down to the facet level and to implement it in reliable and valid test instruments . This means that, for the first time, interdisciplinary comparisons are also possible for domains with little structure .

Meta-analyzes based on the FALKO total sample ( N = 1594) yielded the following findings, among others:

Gymnasium teachers have a considerable lead in specialist knowledge across all subjects compared to non-gymnasium teachers; it is the same with the students.

In the FALKO specialist knowledge tests, students in high school teaching positions achieved on average the same level as non-high school teachers who had completed their vocational training.

In the grammar school as well as in the non-grammar school area, teachers have significantly more specialist didactic knowledge than students.

The results of confirmatory factor analyzes support Lee Shulman's theoretical assumption for all subjects involved that subject knowledge and subject-didactic knowledge are two separate but not completely disjoint knowledge constructs.

In addition, a central result of the COACTIV study for the subjects involved in FALKO could be generalized within the framework of multi-level analyzes : The development space for subject-didactic knowledge is evidently determined by the available specialist knowledge modeled close to the school. This underlines the importance of a solid, teaching-related, specialist training in all teacher training courses, without diminishing the relevance of a thorough subject-didactic training.

The last finding in particular again raises a question about educational equity, which has already been asked by other researchers: non-high school teachers turned out to be less competent on average in all FALKO subjects in terms of their professional knowledge than their high school colleagues. Non-grammar school teachers in particular mostly work with weaker students who are particularly dependent on teaching that is effective in learning and thus on particularly well-trained, scientifically and didactically competent teachers. In the COACTIV study, this circumstance was identified as one of the factors that could be largely responsible for the unusually wide spread of performance among German students at the end of compulsory schooling .

literature

S. Krauss, A. Lindl, A. Schilcher (Eds.): Falko: Subject-specific teacher skills: Conception of professional knowledge tests in the subjects of German, English, Latin, physics, Protestant religion, music and pedagogy. Waxmann, Münster et al. 2017, ISBN 978-3-8309-3445-5 . (waxmann.com)

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ FALKO - Subject-specific teaching skills: Interdisciplinary research group - University of Regensburg. Retrieved August 20, 2017 .
↑ ^a ^b Stefan Krauss, Alfred Lindl, Anita Schilcher, Oliver Tepner: The FALKO research project - an introductory overview . In: Stefan Krauss, Alfred Lindl et al. (Ed.): FALKO: Subject-specific teacher skills . Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2017, ISBN 978-3-8309-3445-5 , p. 9-65 .
↑ ^a ^b Lee Shulman: Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching . In: Educational Researcher . tape 15 , no. 2 , 1986, p. 4-14 , doi : 10.3102 / 0013189X015002004 .
^ ^A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Alfred Lindl, Stefan Krauss: transdisciplinary perspectives on domain-specific teacher competencies. A meta-analysis of the central results of the FALKO research project . In: Stefan Krauss, Alfred Lindl et al. (Ed.): FALKO: Subject-specific teacher skills . Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2017, ISBN 978-3-8309-3445-5 , p. 381-434 .
↑ Waxmann Publisher: FALKO: Specialist teacher competencies. Retrieved August 20, 2017 .
↑ Georg Neuweg: The knowledge of the knowledge mediator . In: Ewald Terhart, Hedda Bennewitz, Martin Rothland (eds.): Handbook of research on the teaching profession . 2nd Edition. Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2014, p. 189 .
↑ ^a ^b Jürgen Baumert, Mareike Kunter: The mathematics-specific knowledge of teachers, cognitive activation in the classroom and learning progress of pupils . In: Mareike Kunter, Jürgen Baumert et al. (Eds.): Professional competence of teachers. Results of the COACTIV research program . Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2011, ISBN 978-3-8309-2433-3 , p. 186 .

[1] FALKO - Subject-specific teaching skills: Interdisciplinary research group - University of Regensburg. Retrieved August 20, 2017 .

[:0-2] Stefan Krauss, Alfred Lindl, Anita Schilcher, Oliver Tepner: The FALKO research project - an introductory overview . In: Stefan Krauss, Alfred Lindl et al. (Ed.): FALKO: Subject-specific teacher skills . Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2017, ISBN 978-3-8309-3445-5 , p. 9-65 .

[:1-3] Lee Shulman: Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching . In: Educational Researcher . tape 15 , no. 2 , 1986, p. 4-14 , doi : 10.3102 / 0013189X015002004 .

[:2-4] A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Alfred Lindl, Stefan Krauss: transdisciplinary perspectives on domain-specific teacher competencies. A meta-analysis of the central results of the FALKO research project . In: Stefan Krauss, Alfred Lindl et al. (Ed.): FALKO: Subject-specific teacher skills . Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2017, ISBN 978-3-8309-3445-5 , p. 381-434 .

[5] Waxmann Publisher: FALKO: Specialist teacher competencies. Retrieved August 20, 2017 .

[6] Georg Neuweg: The knowledge of the knowledge mediator . In: Ewald Terhart, Hedda Bennewitz, Martin Rothland (eds.): Handbook of research on the teaching profession . 2nd Edition. Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2014, p. 189 .

[:3-7] Jürgen Baumert, Mareike Kunter: The mathematics-specific knowledge of teachers, cognitive activation in the classroom and learning progress of pupils . In: Mareike Kunter, Jürgen Baumert et al. (Eds.): Professional competence of teachers. Results of the COACTIV research program . Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2011, ISBN 978-3-8309-2433-3 , p. 186 .