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Lifelong Learning - Focus Area Empirical Educational Studies |
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The motto of the knowledge society is: Lifelong Learning – children and adolescents at school, young adults during vocational training, and adults during further education. The Focus Area Empirical Educational Studies develops the theoretical background and the methods to verify theoretical models empirically. Scientific discussions focus on teaching methods, the motivation for learning, training expertise, decisions, and imbalances in education, return on education, and heterogeneity. Both on a national and international level there are numerous contacts with research institutions and a close cooperation with experts in practice in order to analyze the processes of learning from elementary school to adult age. There are several research projects investigating the process of learning at different age and educational levels. A widely used longitudinal perspective has the advantage of being able to identify causal relationships and to consider their effects. This is the only way to assess the various models of learning more efficiently and to understand and influence processes of education. These empirical investigations transgress the boundaries of a single discipline, and thus it goes without saying that education specialists, pedagogues, sociologists, and psychologists conduct collaborative research within the focus area. Issues in society become issues in scholarship – for example in investigating why so many teenagers in Brandenburg drop out of school or how children of immigrants can learn German better so that they are not excluded from further educational opportunities. |
"Educational research in Potsdam profits greatly from its proximity to teacher training. Academia and real life benefit from one another and thus produce optimal results." Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Lauterbach |
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Photos: private, Karla Fritze |
Understanding language as a key to all other learning processes has led to cooperation with the Cognitive Sciences Area of Excellence. A first joint project is
investigating how street speech affects the way that students of Turkish background learn in school. Building on a long tradition of teacher training in Potsdam,
many research projects are directly connected to institutional learning processes. Thus, the focus is currently on two clusters: “Lifelong Learning” and “School
and Classroom.” With empirically supported knowledge and verified methods, Potsdam’s scholars want to contribute significantly to the national educational discourse.
Collaboration with international partners is being expanded further.
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