Research on Subject-Specific Education
Auch auf Deutsch verfügbar
Subject-specific education is the science of subject-specific teaching and learning inside and outside of the school environment. It deals with the selection, legitimation and pedagogical reconstruction of learning objects, the definition and justification of teaching objectives, the methodical structuring of learning processes and the appropriate consideration of the psychological and social starting situation of teachers and students. It also deals with the professionalisation of teachers in training and further education as well as with the development and evaluation of teaching and learning materials – always related to a specific domain or subject.
Central components of subject-specific education are:
- Content research: selection and legitimation of subject content
- Development research: practice-oriented analyses of subject-specific teaching and learning
- Teaching and learning research: basic analyses of subject-specific teaching and learning both in and out of the schooling context
- Pupils research: from everyday ideas and pre-concepts to subject-specific skills
- Teacher research: from subject-specific education knowledge to professionalism as a teacher
- Research on subject-relevant framework conditions of learning
- Research on subject-relevant learning with digital tools
- Research on the history and theory of subject-specific education
Research in subject-specific education aims to generate knowledge that can be used to improve the quality of (subject) teaching or the education and training of teachers. Development components are therefore often integrated into the research process, for example when innovative teaching and learning concepts are developed in order to subsequently investigate whether the quality of education has improved.
Research on subject-specific educational components are linked to standardised procedures, linked to their own terms (e.g. learning needs, pedagogical guidelines), and there is a culture of self-reflection on the component. At the same time, established quality standards apply to research on subject-specific education, which are appropriate to the subject matter and induced by the chosen research design.
Important neighbouring disciplines of subject-specific education are the scientific subjects in the corresponding domains, educational science, empirical educational research, educational sociology and, more recently, neuroscience.
The complex field of research in the area of subject-specific education is the focus of the department of the same name, which is committed to making a contribution to the teaching of tomorrow.