Research Focus

Focus on General Educational Science

How did I become who I am? How does learning work and how can it be improved? Since when and why do schools exist at all? What is the significance of education, upbringing and socialization in our society and in other societies, and how can all this be studied scientifically?

At our institute, researchers in the General Educational Science specialisation are dedicated to the foundations of educational science, to which this selection of questions and problems belongs. They are concerned with clarifying basic concepts and fundamental questions of the discipline as well as with communicating, applying and critically discussing the research perspectives that are typical of thinking in educational science today.

The six working areas of this research focus cover a wide range of topics from different sub-disciplines of educational science. They range from reflection on basic questions of subject theory and methodology; to the analysis of the social framework of upbringing, education and socialization in different cultural contexts and at different times; to pedagogical-psychological research on the conditions of learning from both theoretical and application-oriented perspectives.

In all courses of study in educational science, an introduction to the disciplinary foundations and core areas of educational science and its methodological procedures form a focal point of the teaching program. For example, all student teachers in the basic module Educational Science take a lecture jointly designed by three chair-holders with coordinated content from the different working areas. Particular attention is paid to the application of and reflection on theoretical knowledge for future educational practice. Exercises, seminars, and methodological and research workshops bring students as close as possible to academic research practice in the smallest possible groups, so that even dry content can be taught in a student-friendly way. Innovative teaching formats, such as collaborative teamwork, e-learning opportunities, or methods from the digital humanities are used, regularly evaluated, and in some cases even turned into new research objects themselves. Self-introduction of the research area General Educational Science.