Project Details
Projekt
Development of a subject-independent instrument for a video-based classification of meta-cognitive-discursive instructional quality using the examples of the subjects history, mathematics, religion
Applicants
Professor Dr. Elmar Cohors-Fresenborg; Professor Dr. Frank Lipowsky; Professorin Dr. Anna-Katharina Praetorius
Subject Area
General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
Term
from 2014 to 2018
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 271037475
The goal of this project is to develop a subject-independent coding and rating instrument for assessing metacognitive-discursive instructional quality. In several examined subjects, metacognition has a great impact on learning success. However, in some previous studies the effects of metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive abilities on solving complex tasks have been very low. In these publications it is discussed that the reason for the small influences is that only teachers' metacognitive suggestions were measured whereas independent metacognitive activities of the learners themselves were not looked at. Besides, more recent studies showed that metacognition in an instructional context cannot be examined isolated from the quality of instructional discourse. Discourse quality of instruction is important with respect to the majority of school subjects because learning processes can only be stimulated if in talks and discussions statements and arguments are expressed accurately and refer to each other in a compelling manner. If not, planning, monitoring and reflecting related activities cannot be productive. After all, it can be supposed that a combined assessment of metacognition and discursivity in the sense of metacognitive-discursive instructional quality can provide a significant contribution for explaining students' learning success beyond the so-far-established constructs in the field of instructional research. The focus of the planned project is on developing a coding and rating instrument for assessing metacognitive-discursive instructional quality. The instrument is to cover teachers' meta-cognitive suggestions that have been focused on in previous studies. Additionally, the learners' metacognitive activities as well as the discursive instructional quality will be measured. The instrument will be conceptualized as being subject-independent. Preliminary work regarding the development of a system of categories already exists. For developing the instrument it is planned to videotape and analyze lessons in the subjects of history, mathematics, and religion (5 teachers each and 4 lessons per teacher). Reliability, distribution of variance and the number of recorded lessons that are required to measure the metacognitive-discursive instructional quality of a teacher will be estimated using generalizability studies and decision studies. The findings of the project are to be used for further studies to examine both the influence of metacognitive-discursive instructional quality and the trainability of teachers regarding changes in their instructional habits.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
