Deeper Learning projects of the Research and Teaching Unit School Pedagogy

Deeper Learning in Schools: Development of a Deeper Learning Innovation Network

In the pilot project "Deeper Learning at Project Schools in Baden-Württemberg, we would like to work together with our project partner, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, to stimulate a change in the learning and teaching practice of schools and to further develop the pedagogy of Deeper Learning.

The core of this pedagogy is the interweaving of knowledge acquisition with co-constructive and co-creative problem-solving processes. Knowledge can be experienced in action and profound learning processes lead to authentic achievements. In addition to the authenticity of learning outcomes, the linking of performance development with formative feedback is of central importance. Overall, Deeper Learning takes place in hybrid learning environments from school, extracurricular and digital life worlds.

The overall aim of the project is to further develop teaching in German secondary schools through Deeper Learning. In order to initiate a "next practice" and to research this next practice, we are initially developing Deeper Learning as an example in a development network of ten schools in Baden-Württemberg. The pilot project is jointly led by Anne Sliwka,Professor of School Education at the University of Heidelberg, and Britta Klopsch, Professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and co-supervised by the research assistants Janina Beigel (University of Heidelberg) and Joana Kling (KIT).

Project and funding period: Hune 2021 - November 2024

Deeper Learning Innovation Network: Designing deep learning processes in STEM teaching

Learning that is enjoyable, deep and opens up opportunities for individual development - these principles are reflected in the pedagogy of Deeper Learning. It provides the impetus for the transformation of learning and teaching practice towards a contemporary and forward-looking education. The acquisition of knowledge on the one hand and the acquisition of the four central interdisciplinary competences of communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity on the other go hand in hand. With the project „Deeper Learning Innovation Network“ the Deutsche Telekom Foundation supports the dissemination of this approach at schools in Germany.

Together with teams of teachers from 12 - 14 selected pioneer schools, Deeper Learning teaching sequences are developed and tested over several school years. In the process, the teachers tie in with their actual lessons, exchange their experiences in the network and develop ideas further together. The starting point is STEM teaching, which explores scientific concepts and phenomena - also in the context of language, social science or humanities perspectives. After all, we can hardly do justice to many of the topics of our time without a multi-perspective approach. Professor Anne Sliwka and Janina Beigel (research assistant) are leading and supervising the project as a scientific team, together with subject didacticians and researchers and practitioners from around the world. The project is also supported by the Initiative for New Learning

Project and funding period: Decemeber 2021 - December 2024

Deeper Learning Initiative

The Deeper Learning Initiative, which has been based at the Institute of Educational Science and the Heidelberg School of Education (HSE) since 2015, sees itself as an innovation centre for the development of innovative approaches in the field of pedagogy.

The initiative provides impulses that contribute to the development of a learning culture that supports adolescents in developing individual potential and becoming active shapers of the future. A key focus of the Innovation Centre's work is the conceptual development and scientific research of teaching/learning processes aimed at Deeper Learning.

Deeper Learning Initiative website: https://hse-heidelberg.de/hsedigital/hse-digital-teaching-and-learning-lab/deeper-learning-initiative.

HSE website: https://hse-heidelberg.de

EduChallenge

Deeper Learning can take many forms and requires a creative approach to the numerous didactic possibilities in order to lead learners on varied, substantial learning paths. This is how the learning arrangement "EduChallenge" came into being in collaborative development and experimentation at the „New Learning Workshop“. An "EduChallenge" draws on elements of the pedagogy of Deeper Learning and is characterised by the playful-competitive character of a challenge. Based on a motivating and at the same time complex challenge, the learners develop a product-oriented solution approach (authentic learning performance). In the more design-oriented co-constructive and co-creative phase, learners work in teams and are supported throughout the process by a learning offer in the form of multimedia materials in a (hybrid) learning environment. This process design promises, among other things, an explicit promotion of the 4Cs: critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration. With our example on the topic of research in natural sciences, we deal with a current topic with a high relevance for democratic and personal decision-making processes in the 21st century. The core of the project is a cooperation between the Institute of Educational Science at the University of Heidelberg (Janina Beigel) and the Didactics of Physics at the University of Bonn (Jan Heysel). As an innovative learning format, we would like to develop and test an "EduChallenge" on topics related to "research and discovery in the natural sciences" and evaluate it according to the design-based research approach. The project is supported by the Deutsche Telekom Foundation.

Project and funding period: November 2021 - March 2023