Educational Sciences

The launch of some exciting new research projects marked the highlights of activities in 2009 and 2010, with the Institute of Psychology showing particularly strong research performance. Professor Annette Boeger’s workgroup began a University-funded project on student withdrawal from teacher training programmes. In the working groups of Professors Annemarie Fritz-Stratmann and Detlev Leutner, two joint BMBF projects began exploring the development of mathematical skills at preschool and primary school age. Professor Detlev Leutner’s group welcomed extension of the DFG “Teaching and Learning of Science” Research Unit and Research Training Group, “Competence Models” and the DFG “Competence Models” Priority Programme, and the launch of a BMBF project on the pedagogical knowledge of graduates from teacher training programmes. Detlev Leutner was also appointed to the DFG Senate. The workgroup of Professor Marcus Roth conducted a DFG project on sensation seeking as an interindividual determinant of stress perception and processing. Professor Wolfgang Stark’s group embarked on several projects dealing with social responsibility and workplace health management. Three projects got underway in the workgroup of Professor Gisela Steins, including a RWE Youth Foundation-funded project on the reintegration of young people from psychiatry into school, a Lions Club Oberhausen-funded project on social education in lower secondary and comprehensive schools, and a project to study the attitudes of head teachers in NRW to quality analysis, funded by the Ministry of Education. Professor Oliver Wilhelm and his group undertook three DFG projects to investigate interindividual development trajectories in German and mathematics, individual differences in cognitive conflict as determinants of school performance and school-related deviance, and differences in emotional expression. The Institute is keen to uphold its strong research capabilities and performance and employ them to the benefit of scientific development and teaching in the Faculty.