Projects
Critical Thinking 2.0
Hermann Astleitner
Many people seem to have the impression that we live in a very dynamic and fragmented society. The high level of dynamism arises primarily from digitalization in many areas of life; fragmentation is related to crisis phenomena and the resulting polarization. Social media and artificial intelligence can be used as brainwashing tools and can deceive us all, raising fears about the end of truth. These phenomena together create cognitive and associated emotional problem areas such as information bubbles, irrationalism, mistrust and fear. To deal with such problems in the educational context, a way of thinking is advocated, which is traditionally referred to as critical thinking. However, traditional concepts of critical thinking are no longer sufficient to find high-quality and, above all, amicable solutions. It seems necessary to redefine the concept of knowledge and to expand methods of critical thinking to include emotional aspects. The project attempts to couple heteromorphic knowledge and standards of sensitivity to establish sensitive critical thinking. The project (2024-) is about theories, methods and practical examples on how this sensitive critical way of thinking can be used for teaching-learning research as well as in school and extracurricular training and further education contexts. The research questions within the project are embedded in the context of the use and evaluation of artificial intelligence. A distinction is made between critical thinking about, with and by artificial intelligence.
Cognitive neglect
Hermann Astleitner
Some believe that our intelligence as well as cultural knowledge and skills are declining and society is approaching idiocracy: They see epidemic stupidity, a negative Flynn effect, or that people do not realize how little they know. This project addresses the question of whether, in addition to physical and emotional neglect, there is also cognitive neglect in children and adolescents. Cognitive neglect might be related to phenomena such as lack of conversation, intellectually stimulating activities, engagement with achievements in arts and culture as well as educational goals and associated individual perspectives. The aim of the project is to analyze how strong these phenomena are and what their causes are. In addition, prevention and intervention methods should be explored to successfully counteract the problem of cognitive neglect. We pay particular attention to the role of the media (in information search, entertainment and as a learning and thinking aid), cognitive stimulation in families, education in high culture, and preacademic skills.
EdTecAll
Educational technologies (EdTech) can provide students with early digital literacy skills to support further education in STEM. The goal of this project is to explore feasible EdTech approaches consisting of digitally enhanced instructional materials to support STEM classes. The project has a strong focus on mature technologies that are emerging for use in the classroom, such as augmented and virtual reality. In addition, the project creates structures and competencies for further development of the new EdTech Hub Salzburg Initiative.
Partners: Didactics of Chemistry at the Paris Lodron University Salzburg, Pädagogische Hochschule Salzburg Stefan Zweig & Fachhochschule Salzburg (project lead).
Effortful Problem Solving and Metacognitive Monitoring
Ines Zeitlhofer
“No pain, no gain” is also valid for educational practices and serves as the guiding principle of this research project. Within this project, we investigate the role of metacognitive monitoring in effortful problem-solving tasks and its influence on learning. Solving unfamiliar or complex problems requires sustained attention and significant mental effort. Metacognitive monitoring is critical for navigating these challenges successfully. However, especially in effortful tasks, metacognitive monitoring is often compromised by working memory limitations and inaccurate self-assessments.
To address these issues, this project employs an experimental approach to analyze the interplay between effortful problem solving, metacognitive monitoring, and their combined effect on cognition and learning success. Moreover, we aim to develop and test methods to enhance learners‘ engagement in metacognitive processes and improve the accuracy of their self-assessments. By addressing these challenges, this project seeks to advance our understanding of cognitive and metacognitive mechanisms in self-regulated problem-solving and to offer practical strategies for promoting effective learning in demanding contexts.
Project Archive
Aggression in Violent Computer Gaming: The Value of implicit measures
In this research project, we examine short- and long-time effects of repeated computer-gaming focusing on differences between users of violent and non-violent computer games as well as non-gaming computer users. In experimental and quasi-experimental studies, we apply implicit and explicit measures of aggressiveness to adults. Methods include explicit questionnaires, Implicit Association Tests (IAT), and physiological parameters.
Chances and limits of (meta-)cognitive scaffolding in learning with digital media.
Self-directed learning is one of the core competencies in today’s knowledge and information society. Nevertheless, various studies show that self-directed learning is not an automatism and many learners show problems here. One possibility for support is the promotion of cognitive and metacognitive processes before and during learning. Various studies have specifically investigated how such support through so-called „scaffolding“ affects learning with digital media. In this context, there are definitely advantages in complex, interactive areas, while disadvantages are to be expected in primarily receptive learning opportunities. In addition, studies within the natural science domains (physics, geography and biology) show that metacognitive strategies can certainly be trained, but that the effect of such primarily short training sessions is quite small. Overall, this research projects aims on providing indicators of where and how (meta-)cognitive support is indicated and for which domains it is rather not.
Digital Affective Learning Assignments (DALA)
Hermann Astleitner
The DALA-project (2022-2024) deals with the question of whether it is possible to positively influence affective personality development and related skills with digital assignments. We have developed a theoretical approach that connects affective assignments (like expressive writing) with a model on the resilience of learners (related to control [e.g., emotional regulation], problem solving [e.g., error analysis and prevention], and personal growth [e.g., ego development]). In a next step, we want to experimentally test the effectiveness of different types of such assignments on related facets of resilience. Our experiments will be implemented online and work according to instructional principles of adaptive learning.
TASS (Team-, Assessment-, and Scaffolding-based School Development)-Project
Hermann Astleitner, Claudia Ortner
The TASS-project is about testing students and using the findings for designing adaptive teacher trainings. The project has a duration of four years (2019-2023) and is founded by the Luxembourg Ministry of Education. The project was conceptualized as adaptive theory-testing-intervention-cycles. Due to trends in digitalization and considering the COVID-19-pandemic, we had to implement online-testing as well as online-training procedures. In the first cycle, we started with a certain theoretical background on scaffolding, self-regulated learning, and hybrid learning. Then students were tested related to learning strategies as well as on self-assessments on motivation, performance, classroom needs and so on. Based on the theoretical background and on the results of the assessments, we conceptualized the teacher trainings. The teacher trainings were evaluated and the findings were integrated into the knowledge pool of the project. In the second cycle, we updated the theoretical background on motivational design of instruction and strategies for supporting the personality development of students and so on.
Proficient Use of Digital Technologies in the Biology Classroom
Proficient use of digital technologies in biology classrooms and lesson planning for biology classes is a key skill biology teachers and teacher trainees for biology need to possess in order to be able to effectively teach biology. However, most teachers and teacher trainees lack the competences necessary for meaningful use of digital technologies in class (Bos et al., 2016). Especially, technology use according to the TPACK model developed by Mishra and Koehler (2006) is still rare in biology classes. Besides, Lu and Lei (2012) identified reflection as a key tool for improving teaching. Consequently, this thesis combines reflection and TPACK in a quantitative and a qualitative study as a means to investigate effects of reflection on biology teacher training students’ TPACK.