Institute for Research and Development

Knowledge acquisition in the constructivist sense always implies a high degree of self-determination and is justified by the fact that it contains action-guiding elements. Learning is always also an authentic exploration, insofar as there is a personally meaningful interest in discovery. (cf. Theory of Inquiry-Based Learning Arrangements, Reitinger, 2016).
The question of the extent to which teacher education can realize ethical and epistemological goals arises again and again, both in times of developing new curricula and in the everyday teaching and provision of knowledge.
One of several areas of focus at the Institute explores the effectiveness of ethical competence facets in the acquisition of knowledge. Highly developed ethical thinking patterns result in action routines based on humanistic-democratic principles (cf. e.g. the VaKE model, Weinberger). In times like these, this is a factor that cannot be valued highly enough for a reflective engagement with our volatile world.
In doing so, we try to create research settings that enable the equal participation of all participants in knowledge development in the sense of inclusion orientation. (cf. e.g. Knowledge-Building, Hollick).
We push interdisciplinary diversity on all questions of educational science in the sense of an integrative research concept. We perceive service, monitoring and support for the documentation of these research processes as participatory research management. The scientific foundation of teaching is a challenge for the tertiary education landscape and finds its implementation in the description of how beneficial educational processes can be realized. The change of the educational landscape is currently accelerated, on the one hand by digital-media developments, on the other hand by the diversity of different ways of thinking about how education is to be understood. Here it is necessary to understand education not only from an epistemological, but also from an ontological point of view (cf. Kramer).