(5) Skill development in the fields of study

Skills in educational science

The general fundamentals of educational science form the theory-based framework for the analysis of educational and upbringing processes and educational systems and the importance of their influencing variables. Graduates have a comprehensive understanding of their educational tasks which range from the ability to facilitate learning and knowledge acquisition under optimal conditions to the performance of educational tasks in heterogeneous learning groups to the assumption of new tasks in a changing society.

The scientific disciplines of pedagogy, psychology, communication science, sociology, philosophy, and inclusive education stand for the theoretical frame of reference in different thematic participation.

The graduates …

• have dealt with fundamental human rights and ethical issues (in particular children’s rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), they are familiar with different framework conditions (in particular central findings on children’s participation in and success in education) under which children grow up, and they are able to orientate their teaching, education, and upbringing activities towards different needs
• have knowledge of educational science and pedagogy, developmental education and psychology, and learning theory and psychology as well as educational and cultural sociology, which enables them to design learning environments appropriate to the subject and the learner; they have tested this in the field of practice
• are familiar with the professional and skill requirements of the teaching profession and have critically examined questions of the profession, their own professional development (their own gender construction and other gender constructions), personal values, and the tasks of the school
• are familiar with discourses on teaching and learning, can explain and justify the positions and recognise and reflect on the pedagogical questions and contexts of justification
• are familiar with academic discourse on diversity and inclusion and can take a well-founded position and recognise and reflect on overarching pedagogical issues
• have dealt theoretically and application-oriented with questions of the design of lessons as well as with questions of the identification of learning barriers, the diagnostics of learning performance, and behavioural patterns
• use supportive performance and skills assessments to plan individual and personal learning opportunities and organise joint learning situations in the field of practice
• have knowledge of the current state of research and a broad spectrum of methods
• can plan, design, and evaluate learning environments for the unfolding of learning and development processes of learners with different learning prerequisites
• are prepared for the challenge posed by disadvantages and disorders in the social-emotional sphere in children
• are familiar with preventive measures and support systems and can deal with conflicts and crises in a solution-oriented manner
• are familiar with the fundamentals of professional conversation and values and are able to communicate, guide, advise, and cooperate adequately in the context of schools
• have reflected on their experiences in co-teaching in a theory-based and person-oriented manner
• are familiar with instruments of quality assurance in schools (e.g. quality frameworks; index for inclusion) and have analysed correlations, influencing factors, and indicators on the topic of learning, teaching, and developing
• can correctly select the appropriate research methods and instruments for an operationalised, occupationally related question
• can apply social science and humanities methods and generate, analyse, and interpret qualitative and/or quantitative data

In the Master’s programme, the areas of competence of pedagogical quality development and professionalism development, instruments of quality development at Austrian schools, and design and evaluation of educational processes, among others, are consolidated and reflected upon and further developed against the background of professional field experiences.

Subject-specific skills

The subject-specific requirements of teacher action in the field of primary level education and didactics comprise basic knowledge as well as reflective and action-related skills (cf Lindmeier, 2011). Through basic knowledge, both subject knowledge and subject didactic knowledge are acquired in equal measure, incorporating principles and concepts of the subject and suitable approaches to subject content. Graduates have skills that enable them to plan, implement, and evaluate subject-specific lessons (e.g. which introduction to a topic or learning area – based on individual prerequisites for a specific learning group – is particularly suitable and which further planning can be derived from the learning processes of learners). They can cope with demands in a concrete teaching situation (e.g. spontaneously reacting to comprehension questions or analysing learning outcomes under time pressure) through the action-related skills acquired (cf Blömeke, Kaiser & Lehmann, 2010; Lindmeier, 2011). The skills listed below represent the framework for all quality requirements relevant at the primary level and are specified in the course descriptions for more concrete requirements.

The graduates …

• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of essential profession-oriented, subject-specific, and pedagogical content
• understand the central concepts, procedures, methods, research tools, and structures of the disciplines underlying the learning areas and subjects at the primary level
• can reflect on and modify selected subject didactic contents, theories, and areas of application
• can draw consequences for their teaching and design lessons that are age-appropriate and sensitive to differentiation
• are familiar with the curricula and can plan subject-specific lessons at different levels of complexity and skills
• design lessons in a cross-curricular and interdisciplinary manner and can integrate educational language requirements and promotion
• have the ability to design subject-related learning occasions, learning environments, and forms of learning for individual and joint learning
• are familiar with measures to support professional learning processes and can use them in a situation-appropriate manner
• can model the degree of complexity of subject content
• give supportive performance feedback and can plan further learning opportunities based on their performance assessment

Cross-cutting and interdisciplinary skills

Not only the significant skills related to one subject, one discipline, or those to be acquired in several subject areas are recorded in the course descriptions under the named common designation. As a cross-sectional subject, they also convey interrelationships and form links between orientations, years of study, and courses. In addition, such skills can be explicitly mapped through courses or orientations (e.g. English, multilingualism, inclusion/diversity, media skills).

Following the recommendations of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) in the context of the new conception of the curricula for primary school, which will become legally valid from the 2021/22 school year, the skill development in this curriculum is oriented not only to the cross-cutting and supra-subject skill objectives relevant for the students but also to the cross-curricular skills for the pupils assigned in this new curriculum. This is because the PH NÖ considers it an indispensable continuum of theory and practice to make explicitly accessible to students those goals that will accompany them from the beginning of their professional life. Another objective is to centrally position the teaching principles and educational concerns that have not been sufficiently effective in the classroom in the past in order to make them effective or to reinforce them. The transversal skills converge in the following uses of the term: language education, intercultural education/multilingualism, civic education, media education/informational education, diversity/inclusion, social-emotional learning, scientific work, English.

The levels of complexity/depths of processing in the courses (Anderson et al., 2002; Krathwohl et al., 2002; Marzano, 2007; Webb et al., 2005) are:

(a) Remember, understand – concretely reproduce in a factual manner (perceive), get to know

Remember (draw on relevant knowledge); understand (interpret, classify, infer, compare, explain); remember and understand knowledge/skill bases as well as attitudes

(b) Apply (perform/implement) – abstract, conceptual, analytical

Perform a course of action in a specific situation (use a method, scheme); apply (combine) knowledge, skills, attitudes

(c) Analyse and evaluate – creatively, critically

Solve problems through experimentation, research, evaluation; analyse and evaluate knowledge, abilities, attitudes; self- and co-responsible evaluation

(d) Innovate, create, expand

Expand knowledge; reflect on the basis of knowledge, skills, and attitudes; initiate (further) developments

Researching attitude, scientific work

“Scientific work” is not only seen as a propaedeutic for writing the Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis but also serves to build up a researching attitude, which accompanies the development of skills in the subject sciences, subject didactics, and pedagogical practice in the study programme and increasingly deepens the profession-oriented discourse.

In the courses of the PH NÖ, this skill development is taught …

• by introducing theory-based analysis, reflection, and initial application of scientific research and working techniques in seminar papers, whereby research questions, observation methods, and data evaluation are tested within the framework of research-based learning.
• as a focus on the fundamentals of social and empirical professional research. In the process, the first simple research designs are designed, applied, and further developed in cooperative learning communities (action research, learning studies, lesson studies, variation theory) in the pedagogical–practical studies in a case-oriented manner. (cf  Posch, 2018)
• as a discursive, research-based attitude, consolidated through independent work on questions related to the professional field, research-oriented individual or team projects, corresponding performance records (reflective papers, seminar papers, documentations) and the writing of the Bachelor’s thesis.
• in a subject- and subject-didactically oriented manner, devoting sufficient space to the research-diagnostic and criterion-guided observation and evaluation skills and the research and cognitive methods of the respective area of studies.

The pedagogical–practical studies are characterised by cooperative and cyclical research elements in the sense of action research within the framework of Lesson Studies and individual courses.

References:

Anderson, L.W.; Krathwohl, D.R.; Airasian, P.W.; Cruikshank, K.A.; Mayer, R.E.; Pintrich, P.R.; Raths, J. & Wittrovk, M.C. (Eds.) (2002). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and Assessing. A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman. (cf https://www.uky.edu/~rsand1/china2018/texts/Anderson-Krathwohl%20-%20A%20taxonomy%20for%20learning%20teaching%20and%20assessing.pdf)

Blömeke, S.; Kaiser, G. & Lehmann, R. (Eds.) (2010). TEDS-M 2008: Professionelle Kompetenz und Lerngelegenheiten angehender Primarstufenlehrkräfte im internationalen Vergleich. Münster: Waxmann.

Krathwohl, D.R. (2002). A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An Overview. Theory Into Practice 41:4, 212–218, DOI: 10.1207/s15430421tip4104_2

Lindmeier, A. (2011). Modeling and Measuring Knowledge and Competencies of Teachers: A Threefold Domain-Specific Structure Model for Mathematics. Empirical studies on the didactics of mathematics: Vol. 7. Münster: Waxmann.

Marzano, R.J. & Kendall, J.S. (Eds.) (2007). The New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. 2^nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press. (cf http://www.ifeet.org/files/The-New-taxonomy-of-Educational-Objectives.pdf)

Webb, N.L. et al. (2005). Web Alignment Tool (WAT). Training Manuel. July, 2005 University of Wisconsin-Madison: Wisconsin Center of Educational Research. (cf https://nanopdf.com/download/downloading-wat-web-alignment-tool_pdf)

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