Empirical Research in Education

In Learning with Digital Media, the question of the potential of digital media in different educational contexts (school, further education, higher education) is examined. What, for example, are the advantages of media-assisted learning? How can the quality of media-assisted education be created, made visible and tested? A project dealing with these questions is being conducted within the frame of the DFG’s Priority Programme “Science and the General Public: Understanding Fragile and Conflicting Evidence”. The project titled “Reception of Online Science Information – Factors of Selection and Attitude Formation” examines how ordinary people deal with the increasing amount of science-related content generated by private individuals in Web 2.0. Numerous other studies, of which only a selection can be mentioned here, are taking place in Media Didactics. The BMBF project “Stu + Be: Studying for employed people – success factors for lifelong learning at universities” considers the requirements arising from higher education being opened up to working people, while the “E-Learning 2.0 im Handwerk” (E-learning 2.0 in the craft trades) project, funded by the BMBF and the European Social Fund, examines how elements of informal learning and knowledge exchange (“peer-to-peer”) can be linked up with “traditional” e-learning approaches.

The ZeB has also been active in supporting graduate training in empirical educational research at the University of Duisburg-Essen. In addition to organising and coordinating international summer and winter schools, it also organised and supported several national and international workshops. A workshop on academic writing focusing on the structure of abstracts for submission to international conferences was offered, with the aim of increasing the number of contributions accepted over the long term. An internal workshop on active writing and discussion of DFG proposals in empirical educational research was offered for the first time through the ZeB. Here, young researchers and a number of colleagues were able to benefit from ZeB members with experience of the DFG, who discussed the project outlines submitted for the workshop in detail with individual participants. Some of the project outlines are currently being revised by the workshop participants for submission to the DFG as “First Time Proposals”.