Prof. Dr. Marc Stadtler

Head of the Competence Development
and Competence Modeling Lab
Institute for Educational Research
Universitätsstraße 150
44801 Bochum
GA 2/31
Phone: +49 234 32 - 27317
Email: marc.stadtler@rub.de

Short bio:

Marc Stadtler is a professor for Competence Development and Competence Modeling at the Institute of Educational Research at Ruhr-University Bochum. His research focuses on the cognitive and metacognitive foundations of learning from multiple documents, the development and evaluation of training programs to enhance critical online information evaluation skills, and the understanding and assessment of scientific information by laypersons. A key area of interest lies in integrating formal and informal learning settings, encompassing both school-based and extracurricular contexts. Prof. Dr. Stadtler earned his degree in Psychology with a specialization in Educational Psychology from the University of Münster, where he also completed his doctorate on the role of metacognition in web search by laypersons. For his dissertation, he was awarded the University of Münster's Dissertation Prize in 2005. In 2014, he earned his habilitation at the University of Münster with a thesis that intertwined cognitive models of reading comprehension with theories on laypersons' understanding of science. His research has been supported by prestigious organizations, including the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the French National Research Agency (ANR), and private foundations such as the Deutsche Telekom Foundation.

Selected Publications (read more):

Barzilai, S., & Stadtler, M. (2025). Learning to Evaluate (Mis)information in an Online Game: Strategies Matter! Computers & Education, 227, 105210. doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2024.105210 open access

Pérez, A., Potocki, A., Stadtler, M., Macedo-Rouet, M., Paul, J., Salmerón, L., Rouet, J.-F. (2018). Fostering Teenagers’ Assessment of Information Reliability: Effects of a Classroom Intervention focused on Critical Source Dimensions. Learning and Instruction, 58, 53-64. doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2018.04.006

Scharrer, L., Pape, V., & Stadtler, M. (2022). Watch Out: Fake! How Warning Labels Affect Laypeople’s Evaluation of Simplified Scientific Misinformation. Discourse Processes, 59, 575-590. doi:10.1080/0163853X.2022.2096364

Schuster, C., Alef, M., Mierwald, M., Brauch, N., & Stadtler, M. (2023). Metacomprehension in Multiple Document Reading. Can Judgment Accuracy Be Fostered by Generating Twitter-Like Summaries? Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie. https://doi.org/10.1026/0049-8637/a000278

Stadtler, M. & Bromme, R. (2014). The content–source integration model: A taxonomic description of how readers comprehend conflicting scientific information. In D. N. Rapp, & J. Braasch (Eds.), Processing Inaccurate Information: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives from Cognitive Science and the Educational Sciences (pp. 379-402). MIT Press.

Follow Prof. Dr. Marc Stadtler on BlueSky (@marcstadtler.bsky.social) | Google Scholar | ResearchGate

Consultation hours

Upon request - Please send me an email (marc.stadtler@rub.de) and I'll get back to you.