Building blocks for successful teaching Cooperation project between universities in Lower Saxony supports prospective teachers

Joint press release from TU Braunschweig, University of Hildesheim and Leibniz University Hannover

Which routines, techniques, and approaches do prospective teachers need, and how can they learn them? Funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, the universities of Hildesheim, Braunschweig and Hannover are conducting a joint research project to investigate core teaching practices and their teaching methods. In future, trainee teachers will undergo training in these core practices to better prepare them for the complex demands of their profession.

Starting a lesson, organising and supervising group work, or demonstrating how to teach skills: these core practices are relevant tools for lesson planning, regardless of the type of school, grade level or subject. In order to research how such “core teaching practices” can be taught to future teachers, the three universities are establishing a joint science room.

“This research space will help us to systematically train prospective teachers in these core practices while they are still studying,” explains Prof. Dr. Christof Wecker, Professor of Empirical Teaching Research at University of Hildesheim. “The collaboration between the three locations will enable us to examine the acquisition of these skills for all types of schools and provide students with a broader range of options for various core practices.”

Prof. Dr. Svenja Vieluf, Professor of Empirical Teaching Research at Technische Universität Braunschweig, also recognises the potential of the collaboration in professionalising prospective teachers: “In the planned seminars, students will acquire the practical skills essential for their future careers.”

Prof. Dr. Julia Gerick, Professor of Empirical Educational Research with a focus on school development research at TU Braunschweig, adds: “This strengthens the link between theory and practice.”

“The core practices approach focuses on the professional actions of teachers in the classroom, embracing their complexity. In the teaching labs, we can comprehensively examine how these actions can be translated into effective learning opportunities,” explains Prof. Dr. Katharina Müller, Professor of School Pedagogy with a focus on teaching and learning research at Leibniz University Hannover.

Together, they will investigate how different design variants promote the development of teaching skills. In addition, case studies will be conducted and the learning progress of prospective teachers will be analysed in detail.

Project data

In the research area Teaching Labs for the Analysis and Promotion of Core Teaching Practices, researchers from the universities of Hildesheim, Hannover and Braunschweig are examining core teaching practices across subjects and school types. The four-year research project is funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture with 2,976,500 euros.