Ph.D. Projects
Athanasios Charisiadis: The second chance school curriculum (Kopie 1)
The starting point and the Problem setting
Over the past two decades many of the countries in the European Union have experienced high level of unemployment, affecting mostly young people, whose educational background is poor. Considering that this phenomenon has become a common situation in the European Union and within the framework of the White Book ‚“teaching and learning- towards the learning society”the Commission has aim its attention at finding ways to reduce the economical and social exclusion. Part of this effort was also at first the proposal and thereupon the existence of the Second Chance Schools.
The Second Chance Schools network has expanded considerably in the last few years, and their programme has already been put in practice in more than 10 countries-members of the European Union and among a few others in eastern Europe as well. Despite the common conceptual framework of these schools, there are significant similarities as well as differences among the European countries as far as the interpretation and the application of the main guiding lines of the programme and the structure of the curricula are concerned. The main reasons for this situation are the different educational policy, the specific social conditions and the role and current state of the adult education in each of those countries. This thesis focuses on the comparison of the curricula of two countries (Germany-Greece) and what’s more on the other hand on the viewpoints and attitudes of the participants toward the curricular concept of these Schools.
Timo van Treeck: Educational Beliefs of Academics
Many research-papers in english-speaking countries do see a big impact of so called educational beliefs on the quality of university teaching. But in germany it is mostly a question of structural change which is meant to improve this quality.
Workshops regarding didactical professional development often deal with the beliefs about and attitudes towards teaching, students etc, but suitable basic research is still missing.
The work examines educational beliefs of teachers and decision makers in universities. Based on problem-based interviews typologies shall be developed and questions concerning the connections between Beliefs and innovative teaching (e.g. eLearning), attendance of professional development workshops and general conditions of teaching be answered.