Processes of inclusion and exclusion are favourable or inhibiting factors for participation in a society; they enable or threaten a self-determined life. The school subject of history is able to illustrate how diversity has always changed and enriched societies, but also challenged them, how exclusion processes with all their destructive potential can take place in an uncontrolled or controlled manner and what individual and social costs this has. History lessons can exploit the interdisciplinary potential of historical orientation if they go beyond specific historical cases and provide categorising insights into processes, mechanisms and target groups of exclusion and inclusion. Diversity-sensitive teaching supports orientation by, for example, providing learners with opportunities to choose approaches that are relevant to orientation and to acquire the necessary skills in ways that are suitable for them. Our interdisciplinary project utilises findings from empirical inclusion research, history didactics, psychology and teaching quality research to design diversity-sensitive lessons. In a design-based research approach, a package of teaching aids will be developed in collaboration with further education centres and teachers on the basis of a concept for Universal Design for History Learning, which will be tested for its effectiveness with the help of a randomised field study.

Framework data:

• Duration 10/2025 to 03/2030

• Scope 850,000 euros

• BMBF Empirical educational research

• "Dealing with diversity" funding line (2023)

• Project members: Clemens Hillenbrand, Matthias Schulden

• Contact person: Matthias Schulden

The press release on the GUIDE project can be found here.

The ENAIBLE project aims to improve employability and social inclusion for individuals with intellectual disabilities through AI-powered vocational training in electronics. By utilizing an AI EdTech tool, adaptive learning and gamified resources, the project provides accessible digital tools that offer recognised micro-credentials, addressing barriers to employment and fostering digital inclusion in the labour market.

The planned activities include the development of a user-friendly AI based EdTech digital learning platform, creation of modular training content, and deployment of AI-enhanced gamified learning tools. Pilot training sessions and stakeholder engagement initiatives ensure broad adoption. Dissemination strategies promote scalability, while continuous evaluation ensures the effectiveness and long-term sustainability of the project.

Expected outcomes include:

• a fully functional AI-powered Ed Tech learning platform with interactive gamified modules

• 200 trained participants obtaining recognised micro-credentials

• 65 trained VET professionals

• Improved employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities

• Integration of ENAIBLE training modules and micro-credentials into existing VET programmes.

• Widespread dissemination and adoption of project results at local, national, and European levels.

Framework data:

• Duration 12/2025 - 11/2027

• Scope 400,000 euros

• Project funding from ERASMUS+, VAT

• Project members: Clemens Hillenbrand, Leon Meier

• Contact person: Leon Meier

The systematic promotion of the development of emotional and social competences in the context of subject-related learning at school offers great opportunities to strengthen the mental health and key skills of learners. The project realises a research cooperation between the government of the German-speaking Community of Belgium and the University of Oldenburg. The aim is to analyse and adapt current scientific findings on emotional and social skills in childhood and adolescence in order to develop a curricular orientation and integration across the age groups from pre-school to adolescence. Within the Belgian education system, the emotional and social competences of children and adolescents are to be systematically supported and development-promoting approaches are to be integrated into the curriculum of the school subjects. Concrete implementation steps are being prepared. The main content of the co-operation is the coordinated and cooperative development of the corresponding curriculum as well as the implementation options for issues of social and emotional support in the education system.

Framework data:

• Duration 01/2025 - 03/2026

• Scope approx. 20,000 euros

• Project funding from the Government of the German-speaking Community of Belgium

• Project members: Clemens Hillenbrand, Leon Meier

• Contact person: Leon Meier

Secondary schools are currently facing major challenges, as multiple crises put a strain on young people's development and, for example, increase the risk of radicalisation (Beelmann & Lutterbach, 2023). The aim of the scientifically based OPUS qualification project is to support teachers and educational teams in years 5 and 6 at secondary schools in Oldenburg in effectively implementing evidence-based concepts to promote social-emotional skills, strengthen self-regulated learning and prevent crisis and risk behaviour.
In four coordinated qualification units, specialists receive practical impulses, try out concrete methods in workshops and further develop their own teaching ideas in line with the lesson study approach.
OPUS combines current research with school practice and develops sustainable solutions for successful learning and development processes together with the Oldenburg secondary schools.
All materials and results are made available digitally and ensure long-term use in the schools.

Framework data:

• Duration: 07/2025 - 07/2026
• Co-operation between the Oldenburg secondary schools and scientists from the University of Oldenburg and the Heilpädagogische Akademie e.V. (Cologne).
• Funded by the Oldenburg Prevention Council
• Project members: Clemens Hillenbrand, Matthias Schulden, Leon Meier

• Contact person: Matthias Schulden

Arithmetic skills, i.e. arithmetic skills with basic operations in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, represent basic mathematical skills for learning more complex concepts (Sokolowski, Hawes & Ansari, 2023).

In the research project "BeeMath: Securing the multiplication tables with bees", the focus is on multiplication skills. The focus is on securing and automating simple multiplication tasks through a variety of exercises for flexible multiplication skills (Hasemann & Gasteiger, 2020; Reinck et al., 2024). The multiplication table (Wittmann & Müller, 1994; Sigl & Gasteiger, 2012), a frequently used working material that is recommended in terms of mathematics didactics, is suitable for securing multiplication tasks.

Bluebots are used to motivate pupils to work with the multiplication table. The robots, which can be easily programmed by primary school pupils, are programmed to solve multiplication tables on the multiplication table as part of the support programme.

The target group of the project are pupils with arithmetic difficulties or a lack of multiplication skills in the third and fourth grades at primary schools. The scientific testing is carried out in a multiple baseline design so that the support is implemented in parallel with individual pupils or with a small group.

Framework data:

• Duration: October 2025 to June 2026
• Funded by the EWE Foundation (amount €5,000)
• Co-operation with Prof Dr Nadine Dittert, University of Koblenz
• Contact person: Carolin Reinck

The coronavirus pandemic was and is a difficult time for pupils, parents, teachers and school administrators. In addition, children and young people are currently being increasingly confronted with images of war and violence as well as climate change in practically all (social) media that are often difficult to categorise. The emotional and social consequences of all these events cannot yet be assessed - however, teachers are increasingly noticing that the social behaviour of many pupils has changed in the classroom and at home.

The overarching aim of our study is to support schools and teachers in coping with the emotional and social consequences of the pandemic, images of war/violence and climate change. To this end, concrete and suitable support offers are to be developed, which can be implemented as part of student projects, further training programmes or co-operation with other institutions. Firstly, however, it is crucial to take a differentiated look at the current situation. This survey of the social-emotional situation of children and young people represents the first step of the "SENSOR" project.

Framework data:

• Duration: April 2024 to June 2024
• Co-operation: Tijs Bolz, Corinna Hank, Philipp Nicolay, Christian Huber, Anna Friederike Gensler, Karolina Urton, Robert Vrban, Nicola-Hans Schwarzer
• Project members: Clemens Hillenbrand, Carolin Reinck, Matthias Schulden
• Contact person: Carolin Reinck

Publication:

Schwarzer, N. H., Nicolay, P., Urton, K., Bolz, T., Gensler, A. F., Hank, C., Reinck, C, Schulden, M., Vrban, R., Huber, C. & Hillenbrand, C. (2025). Corona-related future anxiety and well-being among school-aged children: the relevance of social integration and the student-teacher relationship.Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 1-16. doi.org/10.1080/13632752.2025.2584928

Strategies for heterogeneous classes

Even though the funding for the project has now ended, our materials are still available to all interested parties:

>> Click here to go directly to all our materials on twillo <<

Not least due to the mandate to establish an inclusive education system, heterogeneous classes are omnipresent in schools today. This also poses challenges for teacher training, which we would like to tackle together by creating OER on the topic.

With a focus on supporting the learning and social-emotional development of learners, the project has created materials that can be used in the future for all teaching degree programmes as optional teaching-learning opportunities.

Videos and texts ("products") were developed under various thematic focuses ("packages") to help prospective teachers better deal with the complexity of teaching.

Materials were developed for the following subject packages:

Particular emphasis was placed on high-quality, accessible and appealing materials. Teachers at universities are to be supported in advancing prospective teachers in the professionalisation process so that they can face the topic of "heterogeneous learning groups" with confidence in their future professional field.

All products were made available for further use on the OER platform twillo.de of the state of Lower Saxony.

The project was a co-operation with the University of Vechta and is funded by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, with the participation of the University of Flensburg.

Contact person: Clemens Hillenbrand

The incidence of bullying is steadily increasing in German schools (Böhmer & Steffgen, 2020). International studies show that pupils with special educational needs in learning and/or social-emotional development are significantly more likely to be involved in bullying processes as victims or perpetrators than pupils without support needs (Huber, 2012; Rose & Gage, 2017). In addition to the various psychosocial consequences for victims and perpetrators, the negative effects on academic performance are particularly difficult (Wolke & Lereya, 2015).

There has been little research into bullying in the context of inclusive schooling at a national level to date (Bilz et al., 2018). The planned approach will examine this significant research gap in greater depth. The overarching question "Which personal, social and school factors suggest bullying in the inclusive education system?" will be investigated. Based on this, in addition to the prevalences, discrepancies between self and peer nominations (Wolke et al., 2019) in the context of academic performance and special educational support needs will be investigated. A groundbreaking differentiation between the roles and forms within bullying will be explored in the context of school and year group forms. According to the protection and risk factor model (e.g. Gutzwiller & Paccaud, 2011), personal and social resources are used and examined in connection with bullying in order to develop preventive and interventive programmes.

With the help of evidence-based survey instruments, pupils at lower secondary level in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia are asked about their situation in class using an online questionnaire. The cross-sectional data will be analysed using descriptive statistics, mean value comparisons and regression analyses.

Researchers involved: Clemens Hillenbrand, Moritz Börnert-Ringleb (Leibniz University Hannover)

Doctoral student: Anika Conring

Problem outline: The planned project aims to investigate the emotionality and behaviour of children and adolescents with physical disabilities from a bio-psycho-social perspective. In this context, psychological risk burdens in the context of a physical impairment are not assumed to be a linear causal chain, but rather seen as the product of largely social interaction processes. With regard to pupils with physical-motor impairments, caregivers can react to the unusual appearance or behaviour that is contrary to expectations with uncertainty, which can lead to problems such as social isolation and further behavioural problems (Leyendecker, 2004).

Aim of the study: The aim of the research project is to determine the prevalence of psychosocial risk factors in pupils with special educational needs in the area of physical and motor development and the dimensions of their participation in school. A differentiated recording and detailed description of the population and their participation in school is to be carried out in order to be able to empirically derive measures for the prevention of emotional-social risk stress for children and adolescents with physical-motor impairments on this basis.

Target group: Pupils with a physical-motor impairment

Quantitative study design: Non-experimental cross-sectional study

Scientists involved: Annett Thiele, Clemens Hillenbrand

Doctoral student: Carolyn Goda