Instructional processes in inclusive learning settings: Influences of teacher-student interactions and student-student interactions on academic achievement and learning behavior of primary school students

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Nadine Spörer
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: from 2014 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 270241616

Based on Helmke's (2010) model of learning and instruction, the present research project's key objective is to examine how inclusive learning settings influence changes in the academic achievement and learning behavior of primary school students. Building on recent research in inclusive education, it is anticipated that especially forms of individualized instruction are positively correlated with changes in students' academic and personal competences. Further, our aim is to analyze how teacher-student interactions and student-student interactions would be correlated with indicators of academic achievement and learning behavior. In our hypothesis, the intensity and quality of teacher-student and student-student interactions is assigned a mediational role in explaining the hypothesized effects of individualized instruction on students' changes in academic achievement and learning behavior. The planned investigations should be realized within a longitudinal classroom study with three measurement points across two school years. Ten inclusive learning classes with approx. 250 students will be accompanied in the fourth and fifth grade. At each measurement point, written standardized measures are used to collect information on students' academic achievement in reading, writing and mathematics. Further, questionnaire measures are used to assess students' academic and social self-concepts, their interests in learning, and students' self-reported quality of learning and instruction (e.g., classroom climate). Moreover, instruction in the domains of mathematics and German will be systematically and comprehensively observed by trained research assistants. By assessing instructional processes and its effects on different groups of students, our aim is to specify under which instructional conditions inclusive education is especially effective. These findings can contribute to corroborate models of effective inclusive education as well as to strengthen the quality of primary school teacher training.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants