Learn by doing: How to include new requirements of research in engineering education

Co-operation between university and industry for technology transfer is not only useful for industry, but also for students. In the Fraunhofer Institute of the author, about 40 projects annually for individual companies as well as co-operative research projects with many partners for international programmes such as EUREKA, ESPRIT and LEONARDO are carried out. Students are involved in many ways, as part-time assistants or during their intermediate and diploma thesis projects as well as PhD theses, and contribute significantly to the research and development. By being members of a team of professionals they learn about their later work in industry to the extent that they get ideas for planning their careers and even consider becoming entrepreneurs themselves.     

One task,divergent solutions: high- versus low-status sources and social comparison guide adaptation in a computer-supported socio-cognitive conflict task

This experimental study extends conflict elaboration theory (1) by revealing social influence dynamics for a knowledge-rich computer-supported socio-cognitive conflict task not investigated in the context of this theory before and (2) by showing the impact of individual differences in social comparison orientation. Students in two conditions (N = 59) compared their self-created task solution with a partly correct solution presented additionally, deviating from their solution. The other solution’s source was introduced either as a low status source (“peer”) or as a high status source (“textbook”) whereas the presented solution was identical. In a baseline condition, this comparison possibility was missing. Students in the textbook condition experienced more socio-cognitive conflict and adapted their solution more often to the correct aspect of the presented solution than students in the peer condition. Students low in social comparison orientation adapted their solution more extensively in the textbook condition than in the peer condition.     

Welche Rolle spielt neben Merkmalen des Instruktionsdesigns die fachspezifische und aufgabenspezifische Motivation beim Lernen mit Multimedia im naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht?

The present paper reports on an empirical study which investigated learning with text and animations in the science classroom. In a 2?×?2 design the presence of multimedia learning material instruction (text only vs. text + animations) as well as the modality of the explanatory text (spoken vs. written) were tested. Prior to learning, students’ motivation to learn was assessed as a continuous factor. Recall and transfer were assessed immediately after learning. The results show better recall of information for learners with multimedia materials, providing the animations were accompanied by spoken text. However, in contrast to the positive effects of domain-specific motivation this multimedia effect was not evident for transfer. The effects of multimedia design were independent of motivation. Implications for future studies are discussed.     

Children’s right to religion and spirituality: legal,educational and practical perspectives1

The attempt to establish children’s rights can be called one of the major twentieth‐century projects, with the 1989 United Nations Convention on Children’s Rights as one of its most important results. Yet while the issue of spiritual development has played a clear role in the struggle for children’s rights ever since the ground‐breaking Geneva Declaration of the 1920s, the 1989 declaration does not include a clear reference to children’s right to religion or spirituality. The aim of the present article is to investigate the possibilities for establishing such a right, not only in legal terms but also on pedagogical grounds and in terms of religious education. How can children’s needs be taken seriously, for example, vis‐à‐vis death and dying? How does a children’s rights perspective affect the understanding of religious education? What could a more formally established right to religion and spirituality really mean for the child, as well as for educational institutions? The article discusses such questions in conversation with educational authors such as Janusz Korczak, the pioneer of ‘children’s right to respect’, as well as with psychological theories of individual, social and religious or spiritual development.