About

The department focuses on the individual development of children in educational contexts. In the field of basic research, the crucial issue concerns individual prerequisites and conditions necessary for the development of successful learning, such as motivational and volitional dispositions as well as manifold cognitive competencies. Differential analyses of individual educational pathways are based on longitudinal studies.

In addition to the basic research of the department, practical applications focus on individual diagnostics and support in kindergarten and school: diagnostic procedures are developed and standardised for assessing individual learning dispositions and learning disorders. Existing approaches of individual support programmes (e.g. acquistion of reading skills) and prevention of educational failure (e.g. language training) are evaluated. Part of our practical research is also designing and validating own approaches as well as the scientific monitoring of pilot projects.

The overall objective is to obtain theoretically and empirically based foundations for designing educational processes across the lifespan – with focus on early education – so that deeper insights can be gained into the potentials for development and the possibilities for changing individual behaviour and experiences.

Important activities in infrastructure and networking are brought together in the department:

• The coordination of the Leibniz Education Research Network Alliance,
• the coordination and laboratories of the Center for Research on Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk (IDeA),
• the participation in the joint initiative Education Through Language and Writing and
• the coordination of the research initiative Cause-related Individual Diagnostics and Intervention in Defined School-related Developmental Disorders in cooperation with the University of Munich.

Department Units

Development of Successful Learning

Which capabilities contribute to successful learning during childhood? What are the developmental trajectories of these capabilities and how can we achieve their improvement? To provide answers to these questions the developmental changes, contributions to the learning outcomes as well as the modifiability of cognitive (e.g. attention control, functions of working memory, strategies of learning, domain-specific precursors, previous knowledge), as well as motivational (self-concept, intrinsic motivation) and volitional (self-regulation, action control) capabilities are scrutinised.

Cognitive Development

Processes of change at different time levels play an important role in the study of the development of learning across the lifespan. These processes of change and their multivariate dynamics are conceptually analysed. The research team develops and evaluates statistical models for repeated measuring at different time levels and conducts empirical studies of intraindividual variability of working memory performance and their determinants.

Individualised Learning

How can we support children at risk of academic failure? Can educational technology help to integrate individualised training programmes in the daily routine of primary schools? The research group investigates cognitive factors that determine the success of training programmes and tests them in randomised controlled studies. A key focus of the group lies on developing and testing methods to successfully activate prior knowledge in children with different prerequisites for learning.

IDeA-Center: Coordination and Laboratories

IDeA is an interdisciplinary research center that investigates learning and developmental processes of children up to the age of twelve with a specific focus on children at risk of academic failure. The center’s coordinating office facilitates networking between the approximately 120 members, organises events, and runs programmes for promoting young scientists. The laboratory unit enables a wide variety of behavioural and neurocognitive studies. The spectrum of methods used ranges from paper-and-pencil and computer-assisted cognitive tests to eye-tracking, EEG, and functional and structural imaging.

Management

Director

Prof. Dr. Marcus Hasselhorn, Development of Successful Learning

Heads of Units

Prof. Dr. Florian Schmiedek, Cognitive Development

Prof. Dr. Garvin Brod, Individualised Learning

Dr. Jeanette Ziehm, IDeA Coordination

Dr. Björn Rump, IDeA Lab

Contact

Gudrun Steup-Simrock, Assistant

• ACHILLES – Assessing Daily Changes in Individual Prerequisites of Learning Success
• BiSS-Transfer – Education Through Language and Writing
• DeSign – Dynamics of Students’ Self-Regulation and Interrelations with Experienced Teaching Quality
• GamA – Gamified Assessment
• GeoChild – Development of geometrical competences in early childhood
• Hector – Formative Evaluation of Hector Children’s Academies
• Individual Developmental Trajectories and Institutional Contexts Across the Lifespan
• LONDI – The Development of an Online Platform for Diagnosis and Remediation of Children with Learning Disabilities
• LeA-Training – Learning Acceleration Training
• MORAL – Socio-Moral Development of Children and Adolescents
• PACO – Psychological Adjustment to the COVID-19 Pandemic
• PREDICT – Prediction Generation as a Tool to Activate Children’s Prior Knowledge and Improve Learning
• Research Exchange and Cooperation between Canada and Germany on the Integration of Refugees
• SASCHA – Social and Academic School Transition Challenges
• Stereo-no-GO – Gender- and Origin-based Inequalities in Programs for Gifted Children
• TRIO – Language Education in Early Child Care Centers
• The Multidimensional Self-concept in School Contexts: Extending Empirical Findings
• TwiSt – Impact of Transfer: An Exploratory Project
• UPWIND – Understanding and Improving Daily Cognitive and Affective Within-Child Dynamics in the School Context
• VokSi – App-based vocabulary learning
• WiNK – Knowledge in the Neighborhood of Kids
• iLearn – Individual Formative Assessment for Adaptive Support of Children with Reading Difficulties
• zEbra – Social Belonging in the Real and Digital World

• PD Dr. Katrin Arens, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Dr. Hanna Beißert, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Dr. Friederike Blume, Post-doc Researcher, Cognitive Development
• Dr. Janin Brandenburg, Post-doc Researcher, Development of Successful Learning
• Jasmin Breitwieser, Doctoral Candidate, Individualised Learning
• Prof. Dr. Garvin Brod, Head of Unit, Individualised Learning
• Verena Diel, Officer
• Dr. Judith Dirk, Associated Researcher, Cognitive Development
• Dr. Minja Dubowy, Coordinator, Development of Successful Learning
• Prof. Dr. em. Lutz Eckensberger, Emeritus, Education and Human Development
• Florens Eckert, Assistant, IDeA-Coordination
• Dr. Jan-Henning Ehm, Post-doc Researcher, Development of Successful Learning
• Sabine Eyert-Kobler, Assistant, Cognitive Development
• Dr. Anne Fischbach, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Dr. Elena Galeano Weber, Academic Staff, Individualised Learning
• Dr. Sabrina Geyer, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Katharina Grunewald, Assistant, Leibniz Education Research Network
• Katharina Grunwald, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Christin Güldemund, Academic Staff, Education and Human Development
• Prof. Dr. Marcus Hasselhorn, Director, Education and Human Development
• Sina Huschka, Doctoral Candidate, Development of Successful Learning
• Dr. Verena Johann, Associated Researcher, Cognitive Development
• Fenke Kachisi, Doctoral Candidate, Development of Successful Learning
• Dr. Alexandra Karousou, Visiting Researcher, Cognitive Development
• Dr. Sebastian Korinth, Academic Staff, IDeA-Laboratories
• Andrea Kramer, Doctoral Candidate, Cognitive Development
• Dr. Patrick Lösche, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Filip Marinkovic, Assistant, IDeA-Laboratories
• Zahide Marquardt-Gültepe, Coordinator, Leibniz Education Research Network
• Michaela Menstell, Assistant, Cognitive Development
• Katharina Merz, Assistant, IDeA-Coordination
• Nicola Mühlhäußer, Associated Researcher, Leibniz Education Research Network
• Dr. Telse Nagler, Post-doc Researcher, Development of Successful Learning
• Gabriele Naumann-Dietzsch, Assistant, Cognitive Development
• Dr. Andreas Neubauer, Coordinator, Cognitive Development
• Diana Richter, Assistant, Development of Successful Learning
• Anna Ropeter, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Dr. Björn Rump, Head of Unit, IDeA-Laboratories
• Aamir Sajjad, Software Engineer, IDeA-Laboratories
• Dr. Martin Schastak, Academic Staff, Cognitive Development
• Andrea Schmidt, Doctoral Candidate, Cognitive Development
• Prof. Dr. Florian Schmiedek, Head of Unit, Cognitive Development
• Dr. Alexandra Schmitterer, Post-doc Researcher, Individualised Learning
• Jolika Schulte, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Rebecca Silva von Heesen, Visiting Researcher, Development of Successful Learning
• Leonard Tetzlaff, Doctoral Candidate, Individualised Learning
• Dr. Maria Theobald, Post-doc Researcher, Individualised Learning
• Dr. Kathleen Thomas, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Dr. Cora Titz, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Dr. Melanie Verhovnik-Heinze, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Dr. Linda Visser, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Hanna Wagner, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Susanne Weber, Academic Staff, Development of Successful Learning
• Kathrin Weber-Rauland, Coordinator, Leibniz Education Research Network
• Dr. Annett Wilde, Coordinator, IDeA-Laboratories
• Dr. Wolfgang Woerner, Data Administrator, Education and Human Development
• Jelena Zaric, Doctoral Candidate, Development of Successful Learning
• Dr. Jeanette Ziehm, Head of Unit, IDeA-Coordination
• Prof. Dr. Karin Zimmer, Associated Researcher, Leibniz Education Research Network