Professional Competences and Classroom Practice of Primary Teachers in the Didactic Field of Orthography. An International Comparative Study (Switzerland/Germany)

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Susanne Riegler
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: from 2017 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 323380059

What exactly happens in orthography teaching at primary level has up till now only been rudimentarily researched. The aim of this investigation will be to find reliable empirical data about teachers' professionality and classroom practice in orthography classes of German and Swiss primary schools. The teaching of orthography shall be described with regard to its surface structure and shall be analysed from a perspective of German language didactics in terms of subject-related teaching quality. It is planned to videotape in each case 20 teaching hours concerning the writing of in 3rd or 4th forms in Germany (Saxony) and Switzerland (Northwest Switzerland). Videography will be transcribed and interpreted with the help of different low- and high-inference analytic instruments. At the same time subject-related professional knowledge of teaching staff as well as their beliefs will be screened with the help of a questionnaire, in order that the relationship of these aspects of professional competence amongst each other and to teachers' classroom practice can be analysed. Using an internationally comparative perspective another goal of the study will be to find out whether there are specific national differences (cultural and/or language-determined). Next to generating content based insights it is a central issue of the investigation to develop tools for future research in the field of teaching orthography. A following up project which connects characteristics of teaching and teachers with pupils' markers as well as usage and effect aspects of teaching orthography is in planning.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Dr. Maja Wiprächtiger-Geppert