Promoting teachers´ competence through computer-supported case-based learning: Experimental research on the implementation of pedagogical innovations

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Annika Goeze; Professor Dr. Josef Schrader
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: from 2014 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 270242841

The project presented here originates from the Research Group *Analyzing and enhancing effective processes of learning and instruction* funded by the German Research Foundation. In its entirety, the project analyses how (prospective) teachers* competence to diagnose situations of learning and instruction can be enhanced by video case-based learning. The empirically tested concept *video case-based learning for teachers* is based on authentic cases directly taken from real life foreign language courses. The video cases are integrated into a computer supported learning environment and complemented by instructional support in form of hyperlinks to conceptual knowledge (e.g., (subject specific) models of learning and instruction) as well as multiple perspectives (authentic comments by individuals shown in the respective video). The first funding phase proved that this precise combination of instructional support is best for the enhancement of the competence*s sub-dimensions to diagnose situations of learning and instruction. Findings of the second funding phase show that the concept of video case-based learning remains effective even if it is put from the hands of the academic investigator into the hands of the practitioners in the midst of their own workaday courses. At the same time, the results indicate that the competence increases the most if the concept is implemented closely to the original, i.e., implemented with little educational autonomy, in contrast to medium or high autonomy (independent variable 1). At present, findings on the influence of additional deliberate practice with video cases (independent variable 2: given vs. not given) on prospective teachers* competence to diagnose situations of learning and instruction cannot be calculated yet due to field-impaired, non-balanced sampling within the experimental conditions. Thus, possible interaction effects of this 3x2 design are also not yet detected. A positive effect of additional deliberate practice is anticipated on the development and on the extension of the addressed competence. This grant proposal for the third funding phase, as a final funding, aims at filling in the cells until the existing sample is balanced and the calculations mentioned above can be done; the same holds true for the calculation of multi-level analyses that are laid out in the research design. Complementing the already existing sample is the only way to reliably estimate the effects of the relative influences on prospective teachers* competence development, which vary with the educational autonomy given, as well as with various levels such as the teacher educators, the course-specific implementation conditions, and individual characteristics of the prospective teachers.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants