Development, testing and implementation of new environmental education programmes on the topic of 'Endangerment and protection of the UNESCO Wadden Sea World Heritage Site'

Subject/discipline: Didactics of biology

Project leader: Anja Wübben (coordination)

Project start: January 2016

Duration: 3 years

Funded by: DBU

Website: <link ibu/biodidaktik/forschung/dbu-netzwerkaufbau/>https://uol.de/ibu/biodidaktik/forschung/dbu-netzwerkaufbau/</link>

Project description:

The idea for this project developed from the co-operation between the ICBM (Prof. Dr Hillebrand, Dr Holger Winkler) and biology didactics (Prof. Dr Corinna Hößle, Dipl. Biol. Anja Wübben) in the jointly managed "Lernlabor Wattenmeer" (www.lernlabor-wattenmeer.de). The project aims to establish a network between the University of Oldenburg and the national park centres on the Wadden Sea coast of Lower Saxony. In the network, educational programmes on the topic of "Endangerment and protection of the UNESCO World Heritage Wadden Sea" are developed directly from the current research of the ICBM under the aspect of preventive environmental protection. Current research topics are didactically and methodically revised and initially tested with local schoolchildren in the "Wadden Sea Learning Laboratory" before being adapted to the needs of the national park houses and presented to a wider audience beyond the specialised scientific community. During an initial network meeting with representatives from three national park centres, five key topics from the ICBM's fields of work were narrowed down. The aim is to link current findings from marine research with basic concepts of environmental education in the national park centres in order to support the responsible use of the Wadden Sea ecosystem. To achieve this goal, those responsible for the project are working closely with the managers of the national park centres in Sehestedt, Spiekeroog and Wangerooge. As the project progresses, an effectiveness analysis will be carried out to determine whether the new educational programmes contribute to the promotion of evaluation skills, practical knowledge and specialist knowledge among the participating visitors to the national park houses. Based on the results, a book will be produced that will make the tested learning programmes available to all other national park houses.

Investigation of processes of research-based learning at extracurricular STEM learning centres and their embedding in regional learning contexts

Subject/discipline: GINT (the subject didactics of biology, chemistry, physics, Computing Science and technology at the University of Oldenburg, the subject didactics of physics at the University of Hanover, the subject didactics of physics at the University of Odense (Denmark), the subject didactics of physics at the University of Crete (Greece) and geography at the University of Vechta are working together)

Project leaders: Prof Dr Peter Röben and Prof Dr Michael Komorek

Project start: 2016

Duration: 4 years

Funded by: State of Lower Saxony

Website: uol.de/gint/

Project description:

However, little is currently known about how learning takes place in these "non-formal" (compared to school) or informal (in terms of the respective learning environment) learning locations. Little is known about the factors that promote and inhibit learning and what role the informal learning environment plays in this. These questions are to be investigated in the programme applied for here with the aim of understanding the effect of extracurricular learning locations, modelling them and, if necessary, promoting them. This is a challenging new task for didactic research. In particular, it should be empirically investigated whether and how research-based learning in the sense of "inquiry-based learning" (Abd-El-Khalick et al., 2004; Yacoubian et al., 2010) takes place at the aforementioned extracurricular learning venues, as called for in educational policy studies (European Commission, 2007). Video-based observation, interview techniques and various intervention methods are used. On the one hand, the scientific findings are used for basic research into learning in the STEM field. On the other hand, suggestions will be made to extracurricular institutions on how they can organise their programmes in a more targeted and learning-efficient way. And finally, concepts are to be developed and (partially) trialled as to how certain regional and previously unconnected offers can be systematically networked in order to support social transformations towards sustainable (regional and global) development. Coastal protection and the Wadden Sea, energy and sustainability are exemplary STEM contexts for the learning and educational processes to be investigated. The doctoral students on the programme will later find jobs at extracurricular learning locations, at schools and universities and in educational administration.

Subject/Discipline: Economics Education

Project leader: Prof Dr Dr Kaminski

Project start: October 2014

Duration: n. A.

Funded by: PwC Foundation (Youth-Education-Culture), Karl Chelcht Foundation

Project description:

How do values and business go together? How can the value dimensions in economic contexts be discovered in the workshop? And how can the pupils best be supported and guided by the peer teamers when working independently in the workshops? These were some of the questions addressed in the team training for the workshops of the "Wa(h)re Werte - Wirtschafts.Forscher!" project, which are being held for the first time at the project schools in Bavaria, Hesse and Lower Saxony. The workshop concept is based at the interface between ethics, economics and political education and aims to work on questions of economic ethics from different perspectives using the method of research-based learning. During the workshops, the teamers guide the young people to independently work out values that are important to them using the example of problem-oriented economic topics and to analyse the associated challenges from different perspectives. The training began with an introduction to the project status by Hester Weigand, advisor to the PwC Foundation, followed by organisational input from conference leader Eva Feldmann-Wojtachnia and Dr Barbara Tham from CAP. The theoretical principles of the workshop, combined with the specific workshop agenda and the associated methodological and didactic processes, were at the top of the training programme. Intensive work with the materials was also part of the programme. This was followed by the joint development of the content components and materials for the three workshop topics: "From the cotton plantation to my wardrobe. International textile production", "Can I have a little more? Mass production of meat", "What can and should my mobile phone do? Smartphone - top seller on the world market". In an interactive, intensive training session, the workshop was worked through point by point. By switching roles from team leader to student for those who did not have to take over the guidance, the different perspectives were clearly understood and various school situations were practised. At the same time, this part of the training was also a lot of fun. The joint consolidation of the methodological and didactic processes and the well-earned breaks strengthened the teamwork for the upcoming workshops. Now the schools can get started, the teamers feel well prepared and are looking forward to their task.

Subject/discipline: Vocational and Business Education

Project leaders: Prof Dr Rebmann, Prof Dr Tobias Schlömer

Project start: May 2016

Duration: 3 years

Funded by: BMBF

Website: https://uol.de/innone

Project description:

The objectives of the project are to develop, test, evaluate and establish a set of instruments for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the stationary retail sector that provides needs-based guidance for the planning and implementation of sustainability-oriented innovation projects and effectively promotes the innovation skills of managers and vocational training staff (called INE Toolbox). Together with twelve training retail companies from the Weser-Ems and Elbe-Weser regions, this toolbox will be iteratively developed and trialled using the design-based research approach. To this end, innovation teams with managers and vocational training staff will be formed in the participating SMEs to plan and implement innovation projects in (at least) one of the five sustainability-oriented fields of action in the retail sector (energy and resources, logistics and transport, product range design and customer advice, personnel and training, and social commitment). Four companies will be combined into a cohort so that three test loops can be realised and evaluated using quantitative (multiple-choice tests, questionnaires) and qualitative (interviews, flashlights, group discussions) methods. The instruments and the INE toolbox guide the innovation process by providing a structure for the management of innovation: From problem definition, idea generation and idea evaluation through to idea realisation, the innovation teams are supported by individual work and learning tasks as well as cooperative methods. Apprentices can also actively participate in the innovation process via the vocational training staff. The tools are used to simultaneously promote the subject and personnel skills of the innovation teams in terms of sustainability-oriented innovation expertise. To this end, specialist knowledge in the field of sustainability is promoted in a targeted manner via the work and learning tasks. Personal competence can be modelled via individual sustainability-oriented epistemic convictions. These subjective ideas are collected in the project and developed in the direction of differentiated convictions through co-operation and the epistemic messages in the work and learning tasks.

Subject/discipline: Vocational and Business Education

Project leader: n. A.

Project start: April 2016

Duration: 3 years

Funded by: BMBF

Website: uol.de/wire/bwp/forschung/berufsbildung-fuer-eine-nachhaltige-entwicklung/gekonawi/

Project description:

The pilot project pursues the following interlinked research and practical objectives for business model and competence development for sustainable business in retail, wholesale and foreign trade. The practical strand of the project involves the development, testing and implementation of a further training programme consisting of four modules for in-company trainers and for specialist staff providing training in sustainable management. After each module, the training participants will gradually develop company-specific training programmes on sustainable management for their apprentices, which they will test in the course of four practical phases, evaluate together with other trainers within the module sequences and finally consolidate in their companies. One strand of research is aimed at the empirical foundation, evaluation and quality assurance (QA) as well as the transfer of the module training and training programmes. Firstly, the design of the training programme is based on a four-dimensional model developed from several years of studies, development projects and a pilot project. The four model dimensions guide the iterative structure of the module training programme: Sustainability-oriented business model development in retail, wholesale and foreign trade, professional action at the interfaces of sustainable production and consumption, the design of teaching-learning processes and the modelling and balancing of sustainability skills are interlinked in the further training via a process-oriented approach. This means that operational/academic appointment business processes, work processes and teaching/learning processes are dealt with, which are to be linked with their different meanings, functions and objectives. Secondly, an empirical study is carried out to differentiate the model dimensions according to target group and domain. Four scientific-practical expert workshops and an online-based written customer survey (net sample n=350) will be used to determine the characteristics of business models of sustainable management, operational work systems, requirements for teaching-learning processes in retail training and the competence needs of trainers, apprentices and skilled workers. In line with the model dimensions, four face-to-face modules will be developed in the first year of funding. The training programme will be tested in the region of East Frisia and northern Emsland and trialled and evaluated in three rounds, each with 20-25 participants and their apprentices from the beginning of the second year of funding. An Advance Organiser (AO) is used to methodically interlink the four modules via a technical learning environment (ILIAS), which serves as an important teaching and learning strategy for the participants. The test results will be used to develop an accessible and nationally available training programme with comprehensive handouts and process instructions. On this basis, implementation and transfer strategies for the training programme will be pursued in the third year of funding.

Subject/discipline: Didactics of Technology and Didactics of Computing Science

Project leader: Prof Dr Peter Röben

Project start: February 2016

Duration: 3 years

Funded by: DBU

Website: uol.de/physics/research/technical-education/research-and-development-projects/retibne/

Project description:

In recent years, the technological development of electronic devices has led to a rapid increase in the amount of electronic waste, not only in industrialised countries but also in emerging and developing countries, which is largely disposed of improperly and causes massive damage to the environment and to people. The enormous increase in these mountains of waste is partly due to the phenomenon of obsolescence. In addition to planned or condoned obsolescence, in which the rapid wear and tear of important components leads to an avoidable reduction in service life for economic reasons, the ever faster succession of innovations is causing an increasing proportion of functional obsolescence because older and new devices and functions are no longer compatible. In addition to these forms of unsustainable development caused by producers, consumers are also making a decisive contribution to exacerbating the problem by disposing of fully functional technical artefacts. The phenomenon of obsolescence is accompanied by a decline in awareness of the possibility of repairing defective items and extending their useful life in this way. Whereas just a few decades ago, repair was an area relevant to education and the concern for maximising service life was taken for granted, today these topics play no role either in general education or in the awareness of children and young people. This is where the project comes in. With this project, the Technical Education working group at the University of Oldenburg, in co-operation with the Computing Science degree programme, aims to implement repair as an educational task in technology and Computing Science lessons in general education schools. The didactic and methodical preparation of the repair tasks for the classroom should, on the one hand, help to enable pupils to identify and analyse sources of error in a professional manner and to restore the functionality of technical artefacts. On the other hand, analysing how they work should contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex problems associated with their manufacture, use and disposal. For this reason, methods and materials are to be developed that address the ethical, ecological, economic and political implications associated with repair and obsolescence in an interdisciplinary manner in the spirit of education for sustainable development. The project is divided into three phases. In the first phase, the initial development and implementation of concepts, methods and materials will take place at the University of Oldenburg in the Engineering and Computing Science degree programmes in order to incorporate subject-specific perspectives from both areas and closely interlink the interdisciplinary aspects. Students from both subjects will be involved in the development and testing of the materials by initially testing and documenting their own repairs in their modules. Subsequently, projects and teaching sequences will be carried out in student laboratories and schools, focussing on different aspects of the topic. The second phase serves to adapt, expand and differentiate the concepts and materials by the participating universities. To this end, the materials and experiences will be made available to the project partners in a transfer process and implemented in the degree programmes of the cooperating universities. In a third phase, companies and organisations are to be involved in the process in order to develop excursions together with them that highlight the areas of repair and recycling from a vocational perspective and that are suitable for integration into technology and computer science lessons as part of academic appointments. Nine degree programmes from eight universities and so far eight schools in the Oldenburg region are involved in the project. Once the project has been completed, it is planned to continue and consolidate the implementation in teacher training programmes and in the subjects of Computing Science and Technology.