Department of Educational Science III

Chair owner

E-Mail Hans.Gruber@ur.de

Building PT, Zi. 4.1.20
Phone +49 (0)941 943-3783
Fax +49 (0)941 943-4989

Important links

Chair profile

The chair for Educational Science III's (Learning and Instruction) has the goal of contributing in science and teaching to the development of the state of knowledge about

Professional Learning

With this aim in mind, the learning processes that lead to competence development are in the centre of attention. Researchers at the chair analyse, describe and explain how the continued transformation of knowledge and ability contributes to the acquisition of outstanding expertise.

The complexity of professional expertise requires that individual, as well as collective processes of professional learning are investigated. We do this by combining two principal scientific approaches:

(1) Via methodically controlled (e.g. quasi-experimental) studies of Professinal Learning, generalisable results for developing professional competence are gained.

(2) Via the simultaneous analysis of naturalistic contexts, it is ensured that professionally relevant reality excerpts which originate from professional networks are addressed.

More concretely, the chair actively researches the following topics:

• The analysis of Professional Learning in complex domains (e.g. medical science, economics, sports, computer science, music, academic teaching)

• The analysis of individual expertise and competence in such complex domains

• The analysis of enculturation processes in building professional networks

• Professional Learning: The design of complex learning environments and the implementation of such environments in higher education

The above listed topics are not only central areas of research, but they also represent core topics of teaching within the Bachelor's degree and the Master's degree (Core subject "Learning and Instruction" and major fields of study "Enterprise Educational Work" and "Further Education with special consideration of new media").