Junior Research Groups

The junior research groups are a core element of the promotion of young researchers at DIE. Qualified doctoral candidates are given the opportunity to assume responsibility as head of a junior research group and thus to develop an individual research profile.

Since 2018, junior research groups have been continuously established at DIE, whose doctoral students conduct research on current issues in adult and continuing education.

Research focus of Junior Research Groups

• Audiovisual instruction and information (Head: Dr. Martin Merkt)
• Participant recruitment in adult and continuing education as a coordination task of different actors in a multi-level system (Head: Dr. Ewelina Mania)
• The importance of implementation contexts for the effectiveness of educational policy interventions in the multi-level system of continuing education (Head: Dr. Fabian Rüter)

Junior Research Group Merkt

Audiovisual instruction and information
Head: Dr. Martin Merkt
PhD students: Daniela Decker und Christina Sondermann

The Junior Research Group is associated with the department for "Teaching, Learning, Counselling" department. One focus of the research conducted in this group is on the design of instructional videos, trying to identify principles that may guide production, post-production, and the embedding of videos in more complex learning environments. Another focus of the group’s research emphasises the critical analysis of audiovisual information. In this respect, interventions that support learners in identifying videos’ manipulative intent will be developed.

Junior Research Group Mania

Participant recruitment in adult and continuing education as a coordination task of different actors in a multi-level system
Head: Dr. Ewelina Mania (since January 2023)
PhD student: Julia Plechatsch

Against the background of the specifics of the adult and continuing education sector, the recruitment of participants for educational offers is one of the central challenges of continuing education practice and represents a classical task of the staff. In the Junior Research Group of the department "Organization and Program Planning", the recruitment of participants in adult and continuing education is examined from the perspective of educational governance research as a coordination task of different actors using qualitative and quantitative methods. The focus is on both intra- and inter-organizational coordination of action in selected program areas. The first focus is on the analysis of the conditions for success and the effects of socio-spatial strategies in literacy and basic education.

Junior Research Group Rüter

The importance of implementation contexts for the effectiveness of educational policy interventions in the multi-level system of continuing education
Head: Dr. Fabian Rüter (since January 2023)
PhD students: Renan Sari Winkler, Julian Hemmerich

The Junior Research Group, which is oriented towards the main research areas of the department "System and Politics", focusses on the question of how institutional, organizational and personal implementation contexts and conditions influence the effectiveness of educational policies in the field of continuing education. In the multi-level perspective of educational governance research, the research follows the assumption that the effectiveness of educational policies is heterogeneous regarding these contexts and conditions. Drawing on secondary datasets, quasi-experimental research designs that follow the logic of causal inference are applied.

Concluded Junior Research Groups:

Junior Research Group Kaufmann-Kuchta

Interrelations of institutional frameworks and the provision of adult education in international comparison
Head: Dr. Katrin Kaufmann-Kuchta
PhD students: Anna Caroline Bernhardt and Diana Trevino-Eberhard

Within the institute’s "System and Politics" department, the Junior Research Group analyses interrelations between legal and financial regulations and the provision of adult and continuing education in three countries. Within the comparative case studies, two types of providers are accounted for: 1) organisations providing higher education for adults and 2) organisations providing health education for adults. This thematic focus implies some form of public funding, which is a prerequisite to investigate the impact of state regulations and policies on the provision of adult education. By means of text analyses and expert interviews, the Junior Research Groups aims to describe structures of adult education systems at national levels and identify key features and linkages for further insights in the interrelations of adult education governance within a multi-level system.

Junior Research Group Goeze 

Professional competences of continuing educators
Head: Dr. Annika Goeze
PhD students: Christian Marx and Dorett Schneider
PhD: Dr. Petra Hetfleisch

The Junior Research Group (2013-2019) focused on professional competences of continuing educators, which also included the study of personnel diagnostic competences in choosing teachers and counsellors for adult and continuing education institutions. In addition, the group concentrated on the development of a tool for recording teachers' pedagogical and psychological knowledge, the effects of video case-based learning on teachers' competences, as well as the conditions of a successful implementation of evidence-based concepts based on the concept "Teachers learn through video-cases".

Junior Research Group Herbrechter

Fostering professional beliefs of teaching staff in adult education in professional learning communities
Head: Dr. Dörthe Herbrechter
PhD students: Eva Hahnrath and Xenia Kuhn

Findings from current educational research show that teacher beliefs and values are relevant for their professional competence. Following this, this junior research group focuses on the so far little-researched beliefs of teaching staff in adult education with the aim of examining possibilities to develop and foster teacher beliefs in an intervention study. Applying qualitative and quantitative methods, the mental foundation of professional competence as well as forms of "near the job" professionalisation through collegial counselling in professional learning communities will be focused. Against this background, the junior research group is thematically assigned to the "Organisation and Programme Planning" department.

Since October 2020, Dr. Dörthe Herbrechter has been employed as a junior professor at Heidelberg University. Since then, the junior research group has been led provisionally by Prof. Dr. Josef Schrader. For questions regarding the research agenda of the junior research group, please contact Jun.-Prof. Dörthe Herbrechter (herbrechter@ibw.uni-heidelberg.de).

Junior Research Group Martin

Effects and revenues of education-political interventions in the field of continuing education
Head: Dr. Andreas Martin
PhD students: Julia Granderath and Fabian Rüter 

The Junior Research Group is aligned with research conducted in the "System and Politics" department. It concentrates on effects and revenues of education-political interventions in the multi-level system of continuing education based on quantiative secondary analyses. It focuses on the effects of supranational and national interference of education policy on the programme and participation structure and its monetary and non-monetary consequences on various aggregation levels.