Function: Wiss. Mitarb. Kompetenzentwicklung und Kompetenzmodellierung Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft Ruhr-Uni­ver­si­tät Bo­chum Uni­ver­si­täts­stra­ße 150 D - 44801 Bo­chum Phone: 0234 / 32-27342 Mail: maria.alef@rub.de Room: GA 2 / 33

Consultation hours

Note:
by appointment

Research and Expertise
Educational Psychology
Learning with multiple documents
Reading Comprehension
Historical Reasoning
Historical Theory
PhD-Project: Fostering the calibration of metacognitive judgements when reading multiple documents in the field of history
Funded by Professional School of Education at the Doctoral College Metacognitive Monitoring in Authentic Teaching/Learning Contexts in Student Laboratories

Funding period: March 2020-March 2023

This research project examines the calibration of metacognitive judgments when reading multiple documents in the field of history. Although there is extensive research on metacognitive judgments, barely any of them have covered metacognitive judgments in correlation to the reading of multiple documents. Up to this day, we don’t know whether findings, such as that learners with little prior knowledge tend to overestimate their understanding and competences (de Bruin & van Gog, 2012), are transferable to the special situation of reading multiple, complex and sometimes even conflicting documents. Studies concerned with the reading of multiple documents suggest that learners who are inexperienced in dealing with multiple documents tend to create hardly any intertextual references (Wineburg, 1991, Britt & Rouet, 2012). At best, the isolationist processing of texts leads to fragmented knowledge and an incomplete documents model. In the field of history, such connections are particularly crucial, where working with multiple, sometimes conflicting contents is inherent. Learners of history especially must be well calibrated, e.g. they must be able to assess whether historical texts have been sufficiently understood and, accordingly, whether multi-perspective positions can be plausibly reconstructed. Therefore, we need to bridge the gap between students’ metacognitive-judgment skills when reading multiple, complex documents in the field of history.

In a series of empirical studies, we first examine whether similar levels of overconfidence can be observed among students who deal with multiple authentic documents in the field of history. We will then develop, implement and evaluate training procedures that aim at fostering calibration accuracy among upper secondary students. In so doing, we will also examine to what extent students perceive their reading task as an authentic part of the historic research process and how this perception relates to metacognitive accuracy.

The research project will be conducted as part of the Doctoral College “Metacognitive Monitoring in Authentic Teaching/Learning Contexts in Student Laboratories” (Memo-akS) in the Alfried Krupp-Schülerlabor (akS) at Ruhr-University Bochum. The akS is the first laboratory at a German university with a humanities programme for students from lower to upper secondary education levels and offers a broad environment for didactic and educational research. The project receives funding through a doctoral stipend awarded by the Professional School of Education at MeMo-akS. Our collaborative and interdisciplinary approach ensures that each member of our team effectively contributes to this research project within their areas of expertise.

For more information see:  What, if..? Anne Frank and her hope for the Allied invasion

Maria Alef, Prof. Dr. Marc Stadtler, Prof. Dr. Nicola Brauch

Curriculum Vitae
Oct 2013-Mar 2017: Undergraduate studies in History and English and American Studies at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany, degree: Bachelor of Arts
Aug-Dec 2015: Undergraduate studies in History and English and American Studies at the University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
Aug 2018-May 2019: Graduate studies in History at the Central Michigan University, Michigan, USA, degree: Master of Arts
April 2017-Mar 2020: Graduate studies in History, English and American Studies, and Secondary Education at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany, degree: Master of Education
March 2020-Present: Doctoral researcher at the Institute of Educational Science of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and scholarship holder of MeMo-akS at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany (http://www.aks.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/aktuelles/2019/aks00160.html.de)
Area of specialization: Competence modeling and competence developing
Honors and Awards
2019:

Awarded Best Non-CMU Paper by the Central Michigan Graduate School for the best non-CMU paper written by a graduate student
International Graduate Historical Studies Conference, Transcending Boundaries, Central Michigan University, Michigan
Paper: “A Nation of Poets and Thinkers? Bildung, Patria and the Making of a German Nation”
Awarded as winner by the Liberal School of Arts and Social Sciences, Central Michigan University, Michigan
CLASS Student Paper Competition, Central Michigan University, MI
Paper: “Peace in Purgatory – WWI, Its Remembrance and the Competition for Interpretative Authority”
Conferences and Exhibitions
Nov. 2019

Studentische Tagung Wissen-Können-Handeln: Forschendes Lernen an Gymnasien, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum
Paper: „Who Controls the Past Controls the Future. Historical Consciousness and the Competence of Historical and Critical Judgement in 6th Grade of a Gymnasium in Bochum”
April 17, 2019

Research and Creative Endeavors Exhibition, Central Michigan University, Michigan
Refereed Research Poster: “A Nation of Poets and Thinkers? Bildung, Patria and the Making of a German Nation”
March 29-30, 2019

International Graduate Historical Studies Conference Transcending Boundaries, Central Michigan University, Michigan
Paper: “A Nation of Poets and Thinkers? Bildung, Patria and the Making of a German Nation”