Kersten Reich

Kersten Reich (born August 14, 1948 in Hamburg ) is a German educator and cultural theorist. He was Professor of General Pedagogy from 1979 to 2006 and has been Professor of International Teaching and Learning Research at the University of Cologne since 2007 . He founded the approach of interactionist constructivism and is known for his constructivist theories in the fields of didactics and pedagogy. In his work on equal opportunities and inclusion, he pursues a broad concept of inclusion in theory and practice. His approach is implemented in the practice of the Inclusive University School Cologne, the first practical training school in the more recent German teacher training.

Career

Reich studied art and political science with a state examination for teaching as well as psychology, education and philosophy. He was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD. In 1976 he presented his dissertation Theories of General Didactics . He completed his habilitation in 1978 with a thesis on education and knowledge . He completed long stays abroad in Great Britain , the USA and the People's Republic of China .

Services

In the field of education, Kersten Reich became known with his dissertation Theories of General Didactics in the 1970s, in which he presented the educational theory didactics critically and showed the learning theory didactics in its comprehensive context. In the habilitation thesis, a turn towards Erlangen constructivism can be seen . In the 1990s he founded interactionist constructivism. This approach sees itself as a socio-culturally oriented constructivism , in particular, to the pragmatism of John Dewey anknüpft. That's why Reich founded the Cologne Dewey Center in direct cooperation with the American Dewey Center. Together with Jim Garrison and Stefan Neubert, he published two basic papers on "John Dewey's Philosophy of Education" and on "Democracy and Education Reconsidered".

In 1998 the main work on interactionist constructivism, The Order of Views, appeared in two volumes. In dealing with trends in the more recent critique of knowledge, he explains why constructivists should not only fall back on an observer theory, but also always have to consider the role of the participants and actors in their interactive context.

The works "Inclusion and Educational Justice" from 2012 and "Equal Opportunities and Forms of Capital" from 2013 comprehensively address educational disadvantages in both German and international education systems. Reich expands Bourdieu's theory of the forms of capital by working out the surplus value of the different forms of capital and adding physical and learning capital.

Reich implemented his cultural theoretical analyzes mainly in three books in pedagogy and didactics. In systemic-constructivist pedagogy , he presents the basics of constructive and systemic work in pedagogy. The systemic results from the perception of new perspectives and foreign worldviews within the framework of the interaction, which can lead to a reconstruction of one's own worldview (cf. systemic therapy ). He goes into possible fields of application. The book has already been published in six editions. In Constructivist Didactics , which is available in the 5th edition, the constructivist teaching and learning approach is comprehensively described for practice. The associated pool of methods helps to get a targeted overview of teaching and learning methods. Didactics work out how inclusive upbringing and education can succeed.

Private

Kersten Reich is married and has two children.

Works

• Paul Heimann : Didactics as a teaching science. Edited and introduced by Kersten Reich and Helga Thomas. Klett, Stuttgart 1976.
• Theories of General Didactics. On the basic lines of didactic scientific development in the Federal Republic of Germany and in the German Democratic Republic. Klett, Stuttgart 1977 (dissertation, TU Berlin, 1976).
• Education and Knowledge. Studies on the methodology of educational science. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1978 (habilitation thesis, TU Berlin).
• Teaching, condition analysis and decision making. Approaches to the new foundation of the Berlin School of Didactics. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1979.
• Houses of Reason. My conversations with philosophical thinkers in the West. Lang, Bern 1988.
• Systemic-constructivist pedagogy. Luchterhand, Neuwied 1996; 6th edition: Beltz, Weinheim 2010.
• with Yuqing Wei: relationships as a way of life. Philosophy and Education in Ancient China. Waxmann, Münster 1997.
• The order of the looks. 2 volumes. Luchterhand / Beltz, Neuwied et al. 1998.
• Constructivist didactics. Luchterhand, Neuwied 2012; 5th edition: Beltz, Weinheim 2012 ISBN 978-3-407-25689-8 .
• Inclusion and equity in education. Beltz, Weinheim 2012.
• Equal opportunities and forms of capital. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2013.
• Including didactics. Building blocks for an inclusive school. Beltz, Weinheim 2014, ISBN 978-3-407-25710-9 .
• An inclusive school for everyone. The model of the inclusive university school in Cologne. Beltz, Weinheim / Basel 2015 ISBN 978-3-407-25725-3

Web links

• Literature by and about Kersten Reich in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website about the learning theory of interactionist constructivism
• On the psychology of extreme situations at Bettelheim und Federn