About the Graduate School

Firstly, the Graduate School aims to develop empirical studies on the practice of subject-related learning in elementary school classrooms. Thus, we can thoroughly investigate the significance of the interaction order for subject-related learning and the content-related quality of teaching. One key area of focus is the tension between the smooth flow of the teaching process and the potential for creating stimulating content. Against this background, the Graduate School offers a framework for doctoral projects that focus both on the reconstruction of the instructional order and its functioning, and on the subject-didactic demands on the instruction that’s being researched.

Secondly, the Graduate School wants to develop opportunities for comparative didactic teaching research (in German and mathematics, subjects which are central to elementary school) and combine them with educational science perspectives. The specificity or generalizability of individual didactic phenomena only becomes clear in dedicated comparative didactic teaching research, which has hardly been available to date.

The Graduate School offers a framework for such a comparative discussion in the form of workshops, national and international conferences, and joint publications.

Thirdly, beyond existing approaches, work is needed on the definition of teaching quality regarding the relationship between the order of interaction and subject-specific learning. From a theoretical and methodological point of view, we can explore new ways to observe and analyze learning as a social practice.