Teaching and Learning Environments

Language and AI in Education lab

Duration 11/2025 - 10/2028

One in four children in Germany fails to reach minimum standards in reading at the end of primary school (IGLU 2021). These children cannot read well enough for knowledge acquisition – a dramatic limitation given that education crucially depends on this skill. There also is substantial heterogeneity between children, posing a big challenge for teachers. Social status has a strong impact, so the issue is also closely tied to educational equity. While interventions have been designed to address these challenges, realizing them puts high demands on educators, and scaling up is infeasible due to the personnel resources this would require.

Realistic Depictions lab

Duration 04/2025 - 03/2028

With regard to the communications and learning of scientific information, there has been a growing awareness in the field of formal and informal learning in recent years that the uncertainties inherent in scientific information must be communicated to learners. This is particularly evident in history lessons, where the construct character of history should be taught. But this is also important on the Internet, where we are dealing with a range of information that is characterized by a wide variety of more or less well-founded scientific information and a multitude of more or less reliable sources of information. In order to adequately understand scientific information, participate in informed discussions, form an opinion and make decisions based on the information provided, the nature and degree of uncertainty of the information must be presented, cognitively processed and taken into account when proceeding. It is therefore increasingly important to understand how people cognitively process uncertain information and information sources and how knowledge is created from this in interaction with other factors. Glaser et al. (2022) have already developed and empirically tested a theoretical model for the cognitive processing of uncertain information: the IMPEUV model. In the project, this model is to be supplemented by further influencing factors and supported empirically. These are: the trustworthiness and expertise of the information source, scientific justifications of the uncertainties, the congruence of the information with prior knowledge structures, and epistemic reception goals. This project additionally aims to improve the connectivity of the IMPEUV model to existing similar research areas and its suitability for application to concrete learning situations.

Language and AI in Education lab

Duration 01/2025 - 05/2028

In the first project phase of ALEE, we set ourselves the challenge of designing and developing an adaptive AI-based learning platform for individual support in business lessons. We created a prototype learning platform for a selected subject area with over 700 different tasks of varying complexity and empirically evaluated it in a pilot study in the real world of education. Even after 3 years of project duration, digital support for teaching and learning in schools, universities and other educational contexts remains at the top of the political agenda, as it can concretely address the major challenges of the education system due to the substantial heterogeneity of learners and opens up new potential for teaching-learning processes at all levels of the education system (e.g. KMK 2021). Adaptive learning systems are an important building block for successful digitalization in education. Digital adaptive learning platforms enable a personalization of learning that teachers can hardly achieve in practice. They can offer individual learning paths with tasks that correspond to the individual performance level and thus also support teachers in the design of differentiated lessons. However, such systems have so far been developed primarily for mathematics and science subjects, not for the humanities or social sciences. We have begun to address this gap by researching and developing adaptivity at the interface between STEM and social sciences, specifically in economics education. Further development of the prototype of our learning platform in a second project phase towards an applicable adaptive AI-based system in economic education is therefore very promising and necessary in order to promote adaptive learning in schools on a broad scale. The innovative character of this research project lies in particular in the interdisciplinary cooperation and the special content domain, which places further demands on the AI system. The research project therefore promises a gain in knowledge that can be transferred to similar content domains and can be applied in the future far beyond the research carried out.

Individual Development and Adaptive Learning lab - Multimodal Interaction lab

Duration 10/2024 - open

Learning in three-dimensional virtual environments, such as virtual or augmented reality (VR, AR), is gaining increasing relevance in educational contexts, including schools. However, little is currently known about how learners can be effectively supported in processing educational content within these environments. This project investigates whether the well-established learning strategy of tracing—the act of following shapes with one’s finger—can also enhance learning in three-dimensional virtual environments, and which specific aspects of tracing contribute to this effect.

Duration 06/2024 - 06/2025

Research on multimedia testing showed beneficial effects of (adding) pictures in test items. This research, how-ever, mainly focused on the item stem. Effects of multimedia in the response options has scarcely been exam-ined. Using a concept inventory on ray optics, we will examine the effect of presentation formats in item re-sponse options. Eye movement data will provide insight into underlying mechanisms of such effects.

Multimodal Interaction lab

Duration 01/2024 - open

In the context of this project, a collaborative multi-touch table game is being developed for schools and museum education. Learners navigate through virtual spaces by using GPT-generated sentences or original sentences by an author, e.g. Kafka, as a "literary fingerprint" to progress and thereby learn something about an author's writing style. A dissertation is investigating the means by which such a game can generate curiosity and whether this has a beneficial effect on learning. The first step is to investigate the extent to which players acquire both explicit (declarative) and implicit knowledge about an author's literary style through the game. Furthermore, it will be analyzed whether and to what extent the game arouses curiosity – specifically, whether an authentic interest in the learning content is aroused or whether it merely serves as a means to an end – winning the game. Subsequent studies will examine which specific features or game elements – for example, a narrative or the option of group play as opposed to solo play – generate or intensify curiosity and what effects this has on the learning process. The educational content of the game will be developed in cooperation with the Center for Didactic Computer Game Research at the PH Freiburg and the German Literature Archive Marbach.

Language and AI in Education lab

Duration 01/2024 - 12/2029

PostdocTEIFUN is an interdisciplinary postdoctoral college in the field of education and AI. Research is conducted into technology-supported innovations in subject-specific teaching settings and their practical application. Extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications permeate almost all areas of social life. How education and teaching relate to this is the subject of intense debate. The dynamics that can currently be observed are correspondingly high: research work on the relationship between school education and the new XR and AI technologies is already available or is currently being developed. However, there is still not enough research to be able to make conclusive statements about how technology-supported innovations can best contribute to an actual and sustainable improvement in subject-specific teaching. The cooperative postdoctoral college TEIFUN, which is being run jointly by the Professional School of Education Stuttgart-Ludwigsburg (PSE) and the Tübingen School of Education (TüSE) from 2024 to 2029, is dedicated to precisely this question.

Language and AI in Education lab

Duration 01/2024 - 12/2029

Listening skills are known to pose a great challenge for many language learners, as their development requires a lot of exposure to spoken language, which is in many ways less accessible than written language. Authentic spoken language is often considerably above learners' comprehension level and, compared to written language, is more difficult to adapt. In addition, learners (and often teachers) have little awareness of the building blocks of successful listening, such as the ability to recognize specific phonemic contrasts or to segment continuous speech stream into words. If these abilities are not well developed, this becomes a bottleneck in accessing any top-down listening strategies, such as using contextual information or speakers' intonation, which is very important to infer speaker's intentions and attitudes. Another major issue is that successful listening comprehension depends largely on learners' vocabulary knowledge and, crucially, learners' ability to recognize the words they know in continuous speech. However, most vocabulary learning occurs in written mode, and even when listening to word pronunciation is included, words are usually presented in isolation and pronounced very clearly.

Multimodal Interaction lab - Knowledge Construction lab

Duration 01/2024 - 12/2026

In WR-AI-TING the potentials and risks of artificial intelligence (AI) in cultural education are being investigated, with a focus on AI-supported scenarios of literary creative writing among young people in schools and museums. Central to the project are the questions of how the linguistic and literary aesthetic quality of works produced with and without AI is perceived, how AI is changing our understanding of creativity and authorship, and how it can be meaningfully integrated into educational contexts without ethical risks. These questions will be addressed using qualitative and quantitative research approaches from psychology, computational linguistics, German language and writing didactics, literary studies, and museum education.

Language and AI in Education lab

Duration 12/2023 - 11/2026

In the WoLKE project, which is funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK), AI methods are specifically analyzed in order to develop technically and didactically suitable teaching-learning formats for use in teacher training. The increasing spread of AI in education and society requires teachers to develop not only technical skills, but also a deep understanding of the ethical and didactic implications of AI tools. Without sound training, there is a risk that AI will be used without reflection, which can lead to unforeseeable consequences in the classroom. The aim of the project is to create new, curriculum-based courses that will provide future teachers with the necessary knowledge and skills for the reflective use of AI tools in language and STEM lessons. An interdisciplinary team from the fields of computational linguistics, computer science and subject didactics, working in collaboration with the Ludwigsburg University of Education (responsible for language didactics) and Schwäbisch Gmünd University of Education (responsible for STEM didactics), is developing these formats based on international research findings. The focus is on practical relevance and understanding the possibilities and limitations of AI in education. Following successful development, the courses will initially be implemented at the partner universities. Subsequently, a broader dissemination of the results is planned.

Perception and Action lab

Duration 10/2023 - 09/2026

Event perception and cognition theories assume dynamic events are segmented into meaningful chunks of sub-actions with partonomic relationships. This allows viewers to process streaming information in units and predict future states of action based on their expectations and event knowledge. Event models store relevant information for events and guide perception using schemas (or scripts). While event models hold immediately accessible representations stored in long-term memory, working event models process perceptual representations of unfolding activity throughout the event. The studies of this project will shed light on whether event processing in working event models and long-term event schemas are modality-dependent. Considering that the grain of action leads to different levels of processing – with fine-grained events being aggregated into coarse-grained events – understanding modal and amodal representations of fine and coarse context will be important to the perceptual and conceptual organization of event comprehension. Furthermore, this project will explore the role of confidence and metacognitive sensitivity in event cognition. Since sensory information is continuously processed at working event models to predict what will happen next, it is important to know if one’s cognition relies on the perception of event boundaries. Results obtained from metacognitive sensitivity measures will provide further evidence for the event models and their interactions with event schemata. Lastly, this project will address whether event schemata influence the processing of events in general and whether repeated exposure to new events changes their cognition. However, the testing of these questions will be applied using visual and verbal events to observe modality-specific effects of different context grains (fine and coarse).

Multimodal Interaction lab - e-teaching Transfer lab

Duration 07/2023 - 02/2026

Digital technologies offer opportunities to rethink and redesign art, music, and sports lessons (KuMuS). Digital technologies are a promising medium especially for the targeted promotion of individual learning requirements of pupils. To integrate these technologies innovatively and successfully into everyday life in schools, the "KuMuS-ProNeD" project aims to develop an integrative overall concept for teacher education in art, music and sport and thus complements the "MINT-ProNeD".

Multimodal Interaction lab - e-teaching Transfer lab

Duration 04/2023 - 09/2025

Students with very different learning abilities take part in STEM lessons. Adaptive teaching, which considers individual prerequisites and offers personalised learning opportunities, is a promising didactic concept for dealing with heterogeneity. In the MINT-ProNeD project, research-based training and counselling concepts are being developed to support STEM teachers in using digital technologies for adaptive teaching and in preparing for future technologies.

e-teaching Transfer lab

Duration 02/2023 - 06/2026

Students are growing into a culture of digitality. To shape their future in a self-directed way, they need digitization-related know-how and orientational knowledge. High-quality teacher training is a prerequisite for the successful digital transformation of schools and education. The Kompetenzverbund lernen:digital is committed to this goal. The IWM participates in the science communication for lernen:digital by designing the Future Space on the lernen:digital web portal.

Multimodal Interaction lab - Perception and Action lab

Duration 01/2023 - 08/2026

Video-SRS is an interdisciplinary project that focuses on supporting video learning in mathematics by exploring and improving self-regulation. It combines insights from cognitive and educational psychology, mathematics education, and computer science to develop innovative approaches to this type of learning. The use of responsible machine learning algorithms plays a significant role in this process. Specifically, the collaborative project aims to identify and address self-regulation problems in video learning by automatically recognizing when such problems occur and providing appropriate and automated assistance. Similarly, the project aims to recognize suboptimal characteristics of instructional videos that could assist learners in selection and creators in the production of better videos. On the educational side, the project focuses on the study of learning for derivation, as there is a great need for learning in this area among German students. Methodologically, the project not only utilizes machine learning techniques, but also analyzes video materials, log file data from video platforms, and multimodal sensor data from individual video learners, such as eye movement data. Where possible, these analyses are triangulated to make the best possible statements about self-regulation problems and their solutions. The goal of the project is both to deepen theoretical insights into the role of self-regulation in video learning and to obtain practical approaches for optimizing learning.

Knowledge Construction lab

Duration 01/2023 - 12/2025

According to numerous studies graduate students face difficulties in finishing their dissertations. Among the factors that make it difficult to produce the preliminary or final work are the difficulties encountered by students in reading and writing practices, and dealing with the task on their own, generally performed in isolation and without didactic support. In this project, the use of digital technologies in the preparation of dissertations will be examined in this context.

Perception and Action lab

Duration 01/2023 - 12/2025

This PhD project explores the role of video structure in influencing learning outcomes as well as popularity. By studying structural elements of videos through cognitive psychology, event segmentation theory, and basic shapes of narratives, the project examines how these impact measures of learning and video popularity. The research combines traditional psychological methods with big data and machine learning techniques to gain comprehensive insights into video impact. Online video content consumption, including educational, entertaining, and social media videos, holds significant relevance in today's society. As such, this PhD project delves into how video structure can influence video impact. The research is subdivided into two primary areas. The first part investigates how structural elements in educational videos affect learning outcomes. It utilizes event segmentation theory which posits that people break down events into units to comprehend them. This theory is employed to get an understanding of video structure. It combines this information with the learning outcome analysis to gain valuable insights into the impact of video structure on learning success. The project's second aspect addresses the impact of narrative video structure on the popularity and reach of TikTok short videos. It employs an approach derived from narrative theory and Kurt Vonnegut's six basic shapes of narratives to categorize video content into emotional narrative arcs. In order to obtain these narrative arcs, machine learning techniques are employed. In conjunction, this project seeks not only to deepen the understanding of video structure's influence on video impact but also to show how machine learning and big data can enhance psychological research.

Perception and Action lab

Duration 02/2022 - 12/2025

The comprehension of different types of narratives, such as text, pictures, or comics, is important for societal participation. This dissertation project investigates how narrative comprehension changes with age and which factors contribute positively or negatively to narrative comprehension. These findings are essential for the development of interventions for different age groups and thus for greater societal participation.

Knowledge Construction lab - e-teaching Transfer lab

Duration 01/2022 - 12/2024

The aim of the project is to develop sustainable effective curriculum-accompanying innovative teaching formats with content that can be dynamically adapted to different conditions and developments for students of medicine and medical-related life science courses, which serve to impart theoretical and practical AI knowledge at different levels (basics, in-depth studies, applications) with socially relevant questions on ethics, law, privacy, transparency etc. TüKITZ Med is intended to teach basic concepts and methods of artificial intelligence competently and effectively to students who are not familiar with AI.

Language and AI in Education lab

Duration 11/2021 - 03/2025

Reading competences in foreign languages are essential for young Europeans to gain access to information in other countries, to compare different perspectives on complex issues and to cooperate in solving problems in international contexts. The teaching of these crucial competences cannot rely on pre-packaged materials in textbooks and readers, but needs to use reading materials that (1) address current issues to build and maintain reading motivation and that (2) meet the language levels of students to develop their reading competences.

Knowledge Construction lab

Duration 07/2021 - 12/2024

Scientific findings are gaining increasingly importance. However, it is often difficult for many people to interpret and understand these findings. This is partly due to the fact that the scientific process of knowledge gain has received little attention so far. Therefore, the goal of the VideT project is to develop a video-based transfer tool in order to communicate the empirical scientific research process to the public and test it in schools.

Knowledge Construction lab

Duration 05/2021 - 04/2024

The coronavirus crisis has once again demonstrated the importance of supporting learning in schools through digital technologies. Far beyond the use of digital platforms to distribute assignments to students, digital technologies enable the tracking of individual student learning and the provision of targeted support tailored to individual needs. This research project investigates the extent to which data derived from student interactions with digital technologies in mathematics and science classrooms can be used to 1) continuously evaluate individual student learning, 2) reconstruct learning pathways across sequences of learning activities, and 3) identify those pathways associated with the development of competencies in mathematics and science.

Individual Development and Adaptive Learning lab

Duration 01/2021 - open

Learning with texts and pictures, so-called multimedia material, plays a central role in different learning contexts (e.g. school). While the positive effect of text-picture combinations on learning success has been demonstrated frequently, the underlying cognitive processes have received less attention so far. Therefore, the project focuses on the cognitive processes in learning with text-picture combinations. We aim to further develop existing theories and to derive supportive measures for learners.

Duration 01/2021 - 12/2024

Often, information is conveyed through illustrated texts. While there are many models regarding the cognitive processes involved in reading, there is little research on how pictures influence these processes. By better understanding the cognitive processes that take place when reading illustrated text, it is possible to extend existing theories. This knowledge is relevant wherever learning through illustrated texts occurs e.g., in (higher) education.

Realistic Depictions lab

Duration 10/2020 - 09/2023

Artificial intelligence-based applications, especially deep learning techniques, allow the manipulation of visual and auditory information. In the context of knowledge acquisition, these technological developments offer the potential to personalize learning materials and optimize their utility. Aim of the project is to investigate the extent to which aligning the tutor with the learner influences the learning process.

Individual Development and Adaptive Learning lab

Duration 08/2020 - open

Adaptive learning systems should support learners by, e.g., personalized feedback. In this dissertation project, a tool is developed that automatically analyzes learners' written answers based on Natural Language Processing methods. This tool will then be implemented in a learning environment that provides automatic feedback adapted to the learners' answers. Subsequently, the impact of this feedback on performance and user acceptance will be investigated.

Language and AI in Education lab

Duration 06/2020 - 05/2026

Following a debate on the DigitalPakt Schule that focused primarily on the school infrastructure, the project poses the central question of how the fundamental possibilities of digital learning contexts can be realized in the real school context for the effective digitalization of school education. On the one hand, AI-based adaptive, interactive systems enable a genuine improvement in learning through tailored support, which makes them attractive for the often called for internal differentiation in schools. On the other hand, there has so far been little discussion about how individual digital support can be meaningfully integrated into school lessons. Teachers play a central role here, as they can obtain important diagnostic information on the basis of individual learning analytics through digital systems, but also require substantial skills for the interpretation and the resulting methodological and didactic options for action for the guiding design of the learning process. The project offers both the necessary technical expansion and systematic further training for digitally supported teaching and learning in English. The planned expansion of the school-proven intelligent tutoring system FeedBook to include a teacher interface will process the diverse information on the learning processes and individual skills of the pupils in a class in such a way that teachers can obtain the information they need to design lessons in a way that promotes learning in a short space of time. The further training of teachers supports both the concrete use of such an interface in school practice and the learning-psychological and methodological-didactic foundations required for independent interpretation. The project is being carried out in cooperation with the Center for School Quality and Teacher Training; its effectiveness will be evaluated in several stages according to the scientific state of the art.

Perception and Action lab

Duration 01/2020 - open

Narratives communicate information in many ways, for example in books, audio dramas, films, or visual narrations like comics. While there is extensive research on text or film comprehension, relatively little is known about comic comprehension. Visual narratives, however, offer many possibilities in formal and informal education settings. This project therefore addresses the question how we comprehend and process visual narratives like comics.

Duration 12/2019 - 06/2025

In this project, metacognitive processes in learning and problem solving are investigated. Learners need to constantly regulate their learning process, i.e., they need to monitor and control the cognitive resources they use to accomplish the (learning) task. The adequate regulation of cognitive resources plays a central role in learning, which is why the results from this project are relevant, for instance, in school or university contexts.

Knowledge Construction lab

Duration 09/2018 - 12/2023

The design and use of technological developments and the promotion of digital competences are central fields of action in the education sector. The meta-project "Digitisation in Education" (Digi-EBF) supports the projects of the BMBF funding line of the same name in the framework programme Empirical Educational Research.

Multimodal Interaction lab

Duration 01/2018 - open

The technical development in the field of Virtual Reality currently shows a strong dynamic development. The high degree of immersion of this technology makes it possible to create for the user an intense feeling of presence in the virtual world. It is assumed that cognitive processes create a mental model of the self in the virtual world, which generates a feeling of "being in the virtual world". However, it is unclear from a cognitive science and learning psychology perspective in what ways this form of immersion can benefit the user in knowledge contexts.

Individual Development and Adaptive Learning lab

Duration 01/2018 - open

Many people have misconceptions about scientific phenomena. Research shows that texts in which these misconceptions are explicitly addressed (refutational text) represent a possibility for long-term revision of misconceptions. This project investigates whether pictorial representations (self-generated drawings, pictures, videos) can further reinforce this positive effect. The results of this project are relevant wherever misconceptions play a role (e.g. school or university).

Individual Development and Adaptive Learning lab

Duration 08/2017 - open

When searching for information on the Internet, one often comes across different, often contradictory explanations for the same phenomenon. This project investigates how reading different explanations for the same natural phenomenon affects recall performance and how sequence effects influence recall performance. The results from this project are relevant wherever information retrieval plays a role, for example, in school or university.

Multimodal Interaction lab

Duration 07/2017 - open

Students’ focused attention is a central prerequisite for classroom learning. Research shows that teachers differ substantially in how successful they are in eliciting and guiding their students’ attention, which is often referred to as “classroom management” and “cognitive activation”. Furthermore, they may also not always be aware of their students’ attentional focus, and this may be particularly true for beginning teachers (teachers who are in the induction phase or shortly after this stage).

Multimodal Interaction lab

Duration 01/2017 - open

The project aims at bridging the gap between neuroscience and instructional psychology via informatics by studying the use of brain-computer interface (BCI) methodologies for research in instructional psychology (e.g., the individual classification of working memory load in real-time). As long-term goal stands the development of an online adaptive learning environment based on physiological measures of basic cognitive processes. Specifically, the online adaption grounds on the detection and classification of specific neural signatures in the electroencephalogram (EEG) of learners by means of advanced BCI methodologies.

Individual Development and Adaptive Learning lab

Duration 07/2016 - open

The Tübingen Digital Teaching Lab (TüDiLab) simulates a classroom equipped with up-to-date digital media and data collection instruments. The project has two aims: (1) practice-oriented professionalization of teachers related to their media competence in the context of the Tübingen School of Education, and (2) research on the effects of teaching with digital media.

Duration 06/2016 - 10/2023

Universities and organizations alike often communicate social norms to their members. These norms imply expected types of behavior. In the last years, ‘excellence’ has become increasingly important: Numerous universities and organizations emphasize, for instance, on their websites or internal communication platforms, the importance of excellent performance and the premium quality of their products. How do members respond to such norms about excellence?

Multimodal Interaction lab

Duration 01/2013 - open

The use and application of interactive multi-touch displays increase continuously. Therefore, touch-based user interfaces like multi-touch tables, tablets or smartphones can be found in many public facilities and private households today. These user interfaces allow direct manipulation of external representations with the hands without the need for additional and indirect interaction devices (e.g., mouse). Thus, the question arises as to how manual interactions should be designed to support information processing.

Multimodal Interaction lab

Duration 08/2008 - open

The communication and exchange of information often takes place across certain hierarchies - be it in organizations between managers and employees, or in schools between teachers and school management or students. Power structures such as these bring with them freedom, but also a great deal of responsibility for the more powerful people. It can be particularly difficult to live up to this responsibility when working together over long distances (e.g. in virtual contexts).

e-teaching Transfer lab

Duration 01/2003 - open

The use of digital media in higher education seems to be taken for granted today - but a closer look reveals that its potential is often far from being fully exploited. This applies both to traditional forms, such as the use of learning management systems, and to new developments, such as the design of hybrid learning spaces or the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in teaching. These examples illustrate the importance of continuous, low-threshold and quality-assured support for the use of digital media in teaching. The information and qualification portal "e-teaching.org" has been pursuing precisely this goal since its launch in 2003. The portal specifically targets university lecturers and those responsible for e-learning at universities in German-speaking areas and has won several prestigious awards, such as the Comenius EduMedia Award. It aims to support the didactically meaningful integration of digital media in teaching and to encourage the testing of innovative teaching scenarios through a comprehensive, scientifically based Open Access programme developed in collaboration with the community. "e-teaching.org" contributes to the networking and exchange between science and practice by promoting the transfer of research results into practice and by providing impulses for further research based on practical experience. In its eight sections, the portal provides a wide range of topics such as didactical, technological and organizational aspects. The content is regularly being extended and updated. The presentation formats include texts, audios and video features, online events with e-learning experts and more as well as several social media channels. Acknowledging the necessity of strong partnerships, "e-teaching.org" cooperates with more than 100 universities and other partners in German-speaking countries. The community section of the portal offers the over 8.9000 members a broad range of functions. For the IWM, e-teaching.org fulfils three main functions: It is a sensor for current e-learning trends as well as a tool for transfer and for research. Therefore, the central tasks of the editorial team include the identification of promising ways to utilize knowledge media for learning. This sensor function allows the IWM to identify current trends at an early stage and to take up relevant issues in research. At the same time, the portal can be used to collect data in the field. Ever since its beginning, "e-teaching.org" has also served to communicate research results of the IWM to the public.