Research Profile

 

Our institute is characterized by its empirical orientation in the investigation of current educational questions.

The following research focuses are currently being investigated:

  • Digital Media in Teaching and Learning Contexts
  • "Learning through Shaping": Strategies for Media Education and Handling Media in Schools
  • (Vocational)Education Theroy
  • Pedagogical Professionalism
  • Modern Vocation
  • Methods of Qualitative Education Research
  • Motivation and Emotion in Teaching and Learning Processes
  • Collaborative Learning and Working in Education Institutions
  • Teacher Motivation and Resilience

Scientists at the institute focus on the principles below in their research activities:

  • Interdisciplinary collaboration: The scientists at the institute have learned different disciplines, methods, and schools of theory through their scientific socialization. The background of different scientific traditions also influences access to research questions and the design of research projects. Collaboration between the individual teaching areas results in a broad research spectrum. Additionally, many research activities have been realized in collaboration with other RWTH institutes and other universities in Germany and abroad. This includes for example, the RWTH Aachen Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics, the Murdoch University School of Education in Australia, and the Combined Program at the University of Michigan in the USA. An inter-faculty exchange for current projects regularly takes place within the framework of the E.Learning AG and the Fachdidaktik Forum at RWTH Aachen.
  • International cooperations: In the past years the institute has intensified cooperations with international research institutions and scientists. This falls in line with RWTH's mission statement.
  • Promotion of junior researchers: The chairholders value support for young researchers, particularly with regards to doctoral study performance. There is no focus on employed staff - even external doctoral candidates enrich the institute's research portfolio. Promotion takes shape through multiple research workshops, a joint research colloquium, and workshops for doctoral candidates.
  • Linking research and teaching: One of the institute's central characteristics is linking knowledge gained from research with teaching activities. As it were, problems from teaching are implemented as action-guiding questions in research projects. This results in innovative impulses.
  • Triangulation: The strength of the institute lies in the breadth of the methodological expertise of the researchers. The institute is made up of employees, who  have a qualitative and/or quantitative methods background. A "mixed-method" approach is always selected when possible.
  • Further development of research methods: Through the application of proven research methods, realizations can be made, which can be accepted with the scientific community. Furthermore, innovative research questions also require the development of new research designs and the futher development of existing methods.
  • Openness and transparency: The academic standard is to make findings from resarch projects available to the interested scientific community, students, and the discipline. The overview of our publications offers a glance at the research output of the teaching fields.


Here you can find an overview of current research projects.