Volume 3 (2020): Issue 1 (December 2020)

This in-depth explorative qualitative study provides an empirical analysis of students’ understanding of the concept of water springs based on the theoretical framework of Knowledge-in-Pieces (KiP) by diSessa (1993). KiP is an epistemological perspective that views knowledge as a complex system of many types of knowledge elements. These include the so-called explanatory primitives (e-prims), that is, intuitive knowledge elements that people use when interpreting the world. The aim of this study was to gauge the potential of KiP in the field of research on pre-instructional conceptual knowledge in the geosciences by analysing conceptions of the complex hydrological issue of the formation of water springs. When probing student explanations of springs for e-prims in two case studies involving 12-year-old boys, we identified two explanatory primitives not previously documented. We named these “stuff in motion has force” and “hard stuff blocks, loose stuff lets something through.

In the last decades, subject-matter education (Fachdidaktik) has been addressing the idea of inclusion rather incidentally. Although inclusive teaching and learning became more and more prominent in research and practice, a theoretical scheme combining inclusive pedagogy with respective subject-specific characteristics is still missing. This article by members of NinU („Netzwerk inklusiver naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht“/”Network Inclusive Science Education“) focuses on this challenge with science as an exemplary subject. To systematically combine the two perspectives, the article presents selected and significant characteristics of inclusive pedagogy and science education, before a scheme is suggested adjoining the two perspectives. NinU itself, as well as the presented scheme, can serve as a successful example of cooperation beyond disciplinary boundaries. Educators of other subjects are invited to identify significant aspects of their own subject that could be brought together with inclusive pedagogy in the same manner.

Interdisciplinary science teaching is a challenge for German teachers due to primarily subject-specific teacher education in biology, chemistry, and physics. Content knowledge is an important aspect of professional competence in teacher education. We address the self-rating of content knowledge in a study on developing a suitable measure. Previous measures of self-rated content knowledge in science are general, focus on primary education, or do not integrate the core ideas of curricula for lower secondary German education. Therefore, we developed and validated a new discipline-specific measure.

Confirmatory factor analysis (n = 552) established that biology, chemistry, and physics are factors of self-rated content knowledge and indicated that self-rated content knowledge in science is subject-specific. The correlation between self-rated content knowledge and academic self-concept in science, and the impact of science education subjects studied and the final science grades in secondary school on self-rated content knowledge in science support the validity of the new measure and its disciplinarity. Concluding from the findings of this valid and reliable measure, the different factors of self-rated content knowledge in science make interdisciplinary science teaching difficult. This conclusion underlines the need for qualification in interdisciplinary science teaching.

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study in which two newly developed pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) assessment tools in the fields of German and mathematics were used. In these instruments, preservice teachers (27 in German, 40 in mathematics) were presented with exemplary tasks for school students and with authentic student responses. Preservice teachers were asked to name the requirements of the tasks, to assess the quality of students’ answers and to formulate feedback to the students (i.e. preservice teachers dealt with authentic problems that are pivotal in the field of teaching). The data collected in the study were analysed from an interdisciplinary perspective. Findings showed that preservice teachers of both subjects followed comparable strategies for complexity reduction and encountered transfer problems. Interdisciplinary conclusions can be drawn for the design of learning environments in teacher education.

A Delphi study on the topic “school-related content knowledge in organic chemistry” was conducted in two rounds. National and international experts from the academic and school fields participated. The aim of the study was to investigate what kind of knowledge is practically needed for the future teachers in order to effectively teach in school. The category of the school-related knowledge was recognized as a category providing a sufficient amount of knowledge covering the basics and considering the enhanced conceptual aspects of each topic.

Logical pictures, such as graphs and charts are an important part of instruction, not only in economic education. Learning with these logical pictures might be beneficial under appropriate conditions, however, domain-specific and visualization-specific challenges might impede learning. In this paper, we study the use of logical pictures in secondary economic education learning material and in economics teaching. In a mixed-method approach, we first analyze 450 logical pictures and propose a category system which distinguishes between the form of a logical picture as well as its domain-specificity. In a second step, we conducted teacher interviews with economic teachers. Results show that logical pictures are used frequently in textbooks, with graphs occurring more often than charts. The interview findings support the relevance of graphs and charts for instruction and provide information about the necessary student abilities and their challenges when working with different logical pictures in economic education from the teacher’s perspective.

This paper focuses on student texts produced in the context of material based writing and presents a text analysis grid which is developed in an interdisciplinary research project between the didactics of geography and of German language. Based on a critical discussion of the typical methodological procedures that are currently used in research to evaluate the quality of written argumentations, we argue that only a combination of structural, linguistic and content-related analysis steps can determine the quality of argumentative texts as a whole. Hence, there is a particular need for development in text product analysis with regard to linking the various aspects. We therefore propose a catalogue of criteria, which is interdisciplinarily theory-guided and enables a quantitative and qualitative in-depth-analysis of text products on multiple levels: content-related, structural, linguistic and material-related with special consideration of the multiple document input.

The article outlines a new scientific approach developed under the title of “General Subject Didactics”. This concept is based on the existence of several scientific disciplines that can be called “subject-matter didactics” (or short: subject didactics). These are linked to certain domains like biology or mathematics and to respective school subjects.

General subject didactics can be defined as the theory of subject didactics. It observes and reflects how the individual subject didactics explore subject-specific teaching and learning. This is done both by top-down reflections and by bottom-up comparisons. 17 subject didactics in Germany are compared on the basis of six impulses, leading to new insights, e.g. on the reference sciences of subject didactics or the sources and selection of subject content.

The article develops further perspectives on the usefulness of this innovative theory as part of the philosophy of education, nationally and internationally.