Paper Presentation
room KA 101
Changes in educational science research competencies among teachers in further education
Rollett, Wolfram, University of Education Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany Kittel, Daniel, University of Education Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany Groß Ophoff, Jana, University of Education Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
Teachers are increasingly required to back up their teaching activities with scientific evidence (Weber & Achtenhagen, 2009), but seldom show a high level of Educational Research Literacy (ERL, Shank & Brown, 2007). Learning opportunities in further education seem to be a promising way to convey the required competencies to teachers, but there is no empirical evidence for this assumption. To address this void a postgraduate master’s course in Teaching and School Development at the University of Education Freiburg, Germany, was evaluated for two years in a mixed-methods-design. The sample consists of 16 teachers and covered a full cohort of students. A standardized competence test (LeScEd, Groß Ophoff et al., 2017) was used in a pre-post-test design to assess changes in the ERL competence facets Information Literacy, Statistical Literacy and Evidence-Based Reasoning. Nine of the teachers were interviewed in course of their studies. The teachers’ Information Literacy and Evidence-Based Reasoning improved significantly from a rather low to an intermediate proficiency level. For Statistical Literacy no significant development could be determined. Within the interviews the students confirmed that they had benefited in their research competencies, especially concerning their knowledge about research methods and statistics as well as their ability to work scientifically.
