31.01.2025
H3
Projects
Quality Characteristics of Interactions during „Mathematical Conversations“ in Plenum
Ann-Christin Beforth
The project focuses on „Mathematical Conversations“ in primary school lessons, which take place in the interaction in the class plenum between teacher and students. Of particular interest is how the professional discussion takes place in these interactions and how the teacher influences them. As a result, the interplay of interaction design and subject-specific quality in „Mathematical Conversations“ emerges as an area of investigation.
A look at the current research shows that there are hardly any results about a coherent view of conversation and subject content in „Mathematical Conversations“ in plenum in (elementary school) mathematics classes. With the question of the extent to which subject-specific quality is evident in mathematical conversations in plenum and which quality characteristics these exhibit, plenum situations are to be specifically examined and analysed with regard to typical interaction patterns.
The data analysis is based on videotaped primary school mathematics lessons, in which plenum situations with „Mathematical Conversations“ are first identified. Subsequently, these will be analysed with regard to interaction patterns and subject-specific depth of engagement with the content, so that indicators for subject-specific quality of interactions in „Mathematical Conversations“ can be identified. Finally, a first formulation of quality characteristics of interactions in „Mathematical Conversations“ in plenum is aimed at.
Interactional Adjustments of Teachers in Classroom Talk: Insights from Linguistically Diverse Primary School Classrooms
Simay Birce Cirit
This PhD project investigates how teachers manage divergent interactions during whole-class interactions in linguistically diverse mathematics classrooms. The focus is on “divergences,” in classroom talk, defined in this study as a discrepancy between teachers´ verbal demands, which are typically conveyed through instructions or questions, and the responses provided by learners. The study examines what adjustments teachers make in response to divergences in order to direct learners to their demands.
The study is framed within sociocultural theory and incorporates Brousseau’s (1997) “didactic contract”, and “breach” in joint-action-theory in didactics framework (Ligozat et al., 2018). This exploratory qualitative study is based on data from 13 mathematics lessons in five 3rd grade classrooms with high numbers of emerging multilingual learners. Qualitative content analysis is employed, with coding of whole-class interactions to identify different types of divergences, teacher adjustments, and resolution.
Teachers interacting with students with different first languages in primary school mathematics
Alexandra Dannenberg
Learners with another first language than the language of instruction frequently show lower mathematics achievement than students whose first language is the language of instruction. I consult literature from two disciplines that investigate this problem: research on mathematics didactics determines linguistic demands of learning mathematics while research on multilingual learners’ general academic success emphasizes the connection to social power relations and the role of teacher-student interactions. I attempt to combine both perspectives with a focus on classroom practices that I conceptualize as situated and only partially rational. Using an ethnographic research design, I investigate how teachers interact with linguistically diverse learners in primary school mathematics and how differences are produced in the process. Based on participatory observations of mathematics lessons at four primary schools, observation protocols were written and are currently analyzed using methods oriented at Grounded Theory.
Student Questions in Classroom Interaction: A Comparative Analysis Considering Question Quality in Elementary German and Mathematics Lessons
Timon Demburg
In academic discourse, the significance of student-generated questions for initiating learning and educational processes is undisputed. Although student questions occur far less frequently in classroom interactions than teacher questions, they are considered to have high didactic potential, especially when they are content-focused and formulated at a higher qualitative level concerning the subject matter. Such questions can activate learners’ prior knowledge, motivate them to engage in transfer tasks, and present new challenges by requiring the retrieval and contextualization of existing knowledge. However, in current elementary education research, few studies explicitly address the qualitative level of student questions in the classroom. Both internationally and nationally, studies on the importance and structure of teacher questions dominate the discourse on teaching and instructional quality.
To address this research gap, the present doctoral project focuses on investigating student-generated questions, particularly their quality, in whole-class discussions in elementary German and mathematics lessons. The study aims to examine and compare the practice of student questioning in these subjects using ethnomethodological conversation analysis. Furthermore, it seeks to empirically explore the learning processes initiated by student questions and leverage the resulting insights for practical didactic applications.
„Research and discovery“ in elementary school spelling lessons
Candy Friedrich
Both general and subject-specific didactic concepts for the design of (primary school) lessons are based on a constructivist view of teaching and learning. This understanding of learning is realized in forms of teaching such as “discovery learning”, which postulates a high degree of active knowledge acquisition on the part of pupils and focuses on the process of acquiring knowledge. Teachers are responsible for providing appropriate learning opportunities and designing learning environments.
The video data from the Interfach video study shows, that teachers often use a “research and discovery” mode for spelling lessons. The project starts from this observation and asks how this mode is brought about in classroom interaction and how it is shaped with a view to subject-specific learning. Based on the methodological construct of learning culture (Kolbe et al., 2008), the aim is to reconstruct the appropriation and mediation processes typical of “research and discovery in spelling lessons” beyond one particular learning group from a praxeological perspective and thus learn more about the actual practice of spelling lessons.
Assessment of subject-specific professional competences of (prospective) primary school teachers in spelling lessons - development and validation of the image- and video-based survey instrument KoRevi
Dana Kirch
The professional knowledge of teachers for German language is increasingly becoming the focus of empirical research efforts. Despite this, the systematic assessment of professional knowledge in the field of German language teaching is still in its infancy. In this dissertation project, a vignette test assessing the professional knowledge of teachers in the field of teaching spelling, will be developed and validated. For this purpose, a video vignette-based survey instrument with an open response format is designed. The video clips show typical classroom situations in primary spelling lessons. The teachers participating in the video study are asked to discuss and analyze these clips. The situational nature of video vignettes seems to be particularly suitable for recording teachers’ reflective and action-related competencies in addition to content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Since there are only a few studies on the teaching quality in German lessons oriented towards subject didactics, another concern of the project is to take a closer look at characteristics of (subject-specific) teaching quality in spelling lessons and to operationalize them for video-based recording.
On the situational production of difference and commonality in heterogeneous learning groups in primary school German lessons
Amelie Krug
The dialectical relationship between commonality and difference (or sameness/individuality) shapes primary school teaching for a heterogeneous student body and constitutes a central challenge to the development of inclusive teaching, especially regarding the development of inclusive subject-didactic approaches.
Difference(s) and commonality(ies) do not simply exist in the classroom, but are produced, stabilized, and transformed in social practices and associated interactive attributions of characteristics as well as forms of addressing in specific orders.
In this research project, the interactive implementation of lessons will be related to the subject dimension of inclusive German lessons. The aim is to examine how difference(s) are processed or (re-)produced in pedagogical practices by means of recognition, and how opportunities for participation are established or restricted – and negotiated in relation to the subject matter. The focus lies on how the subject of German lessons, explicitly spelling, becomes a normative frame of reference in the process.
Interactions between Teachers, Students, and Subject Matter when Considering a Literary Work with a High Degree of Polyvalence
Lisa Mehmel
The teacher’s management of conversations in class has already been investigated early in conversation analysis studies. These studies illustrated that a task-solution pattern which is implicitly based on the fact that the teacher already knows the solution to the task, and that the students try to figure it out, dominates classroom discussion. This pattern, which aims at developing a ‘correct’ solution, already indicates difficulties within the context of the here focussed literary texts, since the central characteristic of these texts is to allow, even demand, several (diverse) interpretations and approaches to the text. Accordingly, classifying the learners’ contributions into ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ does not seem possible without more ado.
Within this doctoral thesis, it would be necessary to investigate and identify the interaction patterns as well as moderation-, management-, and support procedures in conversations about the subject matter when dealing with ambiguous literary texts. Particularly in the field of German didactics, there are only a few studies that focus on how lessons are precisely structured with regard to the interactive development of the subject matter when considering a literary work with a high degree of polyvalence.
Practices of interaction with arithmetic tools in the classroom of the school entrance phase
Sandra Parsch
In the classroom, interaction represents the space in which teaching and learning take place. Not only human actors shape everyday teaching practice, but also objects are involved in interactions and can significantly influence and co-determine their emergence. In this sense, they are to be understood as material actors that offer interpretation and action to human participants in interaction.
The research project takes up this perspective. It is dedicated to the observation and description of interactions in elementary school mathematics lessons with a focus on the integration of arithmetic tools. In doing so, not only a technical, mathematical-didactical perspective on everyday classroom activities is taken. It is asked how organizational procedures and subject-specific practices are mutually dependent.
The examination of arithmetic tools is a particularly exciting topic. They provide children with fundamental insights into abstract mathematical number and task relationships and structures that would otherwise be difficult to grasp. However, a mathematically sound understanding does not result from merely acting with the materials, but requires conscious handling and interaction with them.
By opening up the view on subject-related and organizational teaching processes in the classroom, it can become visible how this sensitive subject of using arithmetic tools is embedded in the structural conditions of the institution school and which practices of handling and use have become established.
Interaction design in “helping situations”
Emine Shaka
The project focuses on “helping situations” which take place in maths lessons in primary school and can be observed in teacher-student interaction. Those situations are initiated either by the learner who requests assistance or by the teacher who gives unsolicited help. Furthermore, “helping situations” contain a mathematical subject matter and are characterized by professional support which is provided by the teacher. In order to effectively promote the students’ learning process, it seems apparent that the aid needs to be individualized. Therefore, adaptivity and cognitive activation as well as their potential significance for professional quality in “helping situations” constitute the object of research. So far, these situations have been insufficiently explored. Pursuing the research question in how far professional quality is embedded in “helping situations”, those specific teacher-student interactions are going to be analysed so that their typical patterns can be delineated. For this, videotaped maths lessons in primary school are used. As a first step, “helping situations” are going to be identified. Afterwards, the extracted sequences will be evaluated in regard to cognitive activation, adaptivity and mathematical depth so that indicators for professional quality can be derived.
Patterns and structures in mathematics lessons – A qualitative study on the verbalization of mathematical thoughts by elementary and secondary school students
Elisa Wagner
If patterns and structures are introduced as a central subject of mathematics lessons, they allow for a variety of possibilities for working on tasks together (Hirt & Wälti 2011). Therefore, it is crucial that students discuss what they and others see in patterns (Gysin 2013). In the dissertation project “Patterns and structures in mathematics lessons – A qualitative study on the verbalization of mathematical thoughts of elementary and secondary school students”, the moments of exchange between students about the patterns and structures in structured packets are examined. For this purpose, “natural teaching settings” were generated in which the teacher introduces the substantial learning environment of structured packets, which are then processed by the students and subsequently presented by a selection of students. The students were videotaped in partner and group work phases.
Interaction based on the textbook in primary school mathematics classes
Rebekka Will
Mathematics textbooks worldwide represent the potentially implemented curriculum, the i.e., intermediate stage between the expectations for teaching and their implementation in situational execution and interaction. While various studies have adressed their theoretical use and consequences, there is little research on their practical use. In this desideratum, my project will pursue the goal of generating theory on interaction using textbooks (also digital). This involves participatory observation and videotaping of classroom scenes. The findings of the resulting interpretations are seen as a basis for approaches to practical changes in terms of textbooks and their use. As relevant aspects, the observed functions of textbooks will be defined and the communication and interaction with and through them will be conceptualised. Based on comparisons between expectations and practical use, the study also asks about the tension between mathematics didactic quality demands on the textbooks and their situational implementation. The usage of videography for data collection seems appropriate due to the (partly non-verbal) complexity of the subject matter, although not exclusively.