Institutes
The ZIB research projects are conducted by the endowed chairs and ZIB staff at the DIPF in Frankfurt am Main, the IPN in Kiel and the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology in Munich. The pursuit of ZIB research projects within the institutes and resultant cooperation thus pools the diverse competencies of all three sites in the field of educational research to create a lively research environment to which all three ZIB sites contribute their respective expertise.
TUM
At the Technical University of Munich (TUM➚), the ZIB research projects are conducted within the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology➚. The department focuses on research in educational science as well as teaching in teacher training and master's degree programmes in educational science.
The ZIB has two main pillars at the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology. Firstly, the natinal PISA team, which is responsible for the planning, execution and evaluation of the PISA study in Germany, is based here. The work of the German PISA team is particularly characterised by the fact that analyses and interpretations of the research results are carried out independently and autonomously. The national project is headed by Prof. Dr. Doris Lewalter and Dr. Mirjam Weis.
Secondly, in September 2018 the ZIB endowed professorship at the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology was filled by Prof. Dr. Doris Holzberger. Her first research focus is on school and classroom research, which is concerned with analyzing school and classroom-related factors and their effects. The secondfocus is the coordination of research syntheses, in which existing research on educational policy and practice-relevant issues is systematically summarized. The insights gained are thereby processed for practice and policy.
Current ZIB projects at the TUM
- Framework conditions of general education and vocational schools: school profiles and implemented activities
- Secondary analysis of the competence of teachers
- Classroom experience, characteristics and outcome: multidimensional educational goals and the views of students and teachers (Ceco)
- Fostering the development of gifted students – a research synthesis
- Parental involvement in school processes
- Gender-specific support strategies
- Effects and development of the professional competence of teachers
DIPF
The Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education (DIPF➚) is a member of the Leibniz Association. The DIPF operates platforms such as the Fachportal Pädagogik➚ and the German Education Server portals➚ for this area.
Within the framework of ZIB, research at DIPF focuses on the areas of educational-psychological diagnostics and large scale assessments with the corresponding methodological research. The focus is on performance measurements of students through technology-based applications. This includes research on computer-based surveys, for example. Such tests make it possible to analyse so-called process data such as processing times in addition to the evaluation of the actual test. This contributes to a more comprehensive view of the students' performance and how it is achieved.
Prof. Frank Goldhammer➚ holds the ZIB endowed professorship for educational-psychological diagnostics. It is anchored at the DIPF in the Department of Educational Quality and Evaluation with a focus on Technology Based Assessment. The Centre for Technology-Based Assessment➚ is also headed by Prof. Goldhammer.
Current ZIB projects at the DIPF
IPN
The Leibniz Institute for Science Education and Mathematics (IPN➚) is a member of the Leibniz Association. Its work focuses on the investigation of mathematical and scientific teaching and learning processes.
Research here focuses on questions of how student performance can be optimally measured and how measurement and analysis methods can be improved. One of the main areas of research is the handling of missing data in educational research. The focus here is on the further development and application of multi-level models. Another research focus is on the estimation of causal effects with non-experimental data. This includes the questions of the extent to which cause-effect relationships can be derived from school performance studies and which statistical methods are best suited for this purpose.
In addition, regular advanced training courses such as workshops are offered to familiarize researchers inside and outside ZIB/IPN with new methodological developments.
The endowed professorship at ZIB with focus on methodological research at the IPN is filled by Prof. Oliver Lüdtke➚. Prof. Lüdtke is also head of the Department of Educational Measurement➚ at the IPN.
Current ZIB projects at the IPN
Research Data Centre
The Research Data Centre (FDZ➚) is jointly headed by the ZIB and the Institute for Educational Quality Improvement (IQB➚) and is based at the IQB in Berlin. The FDZ collects the data from national and international school performance surveys and makes it available to researchers. The data includes in particular educational studies like PISA or the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS➚).
The collection and provision of scientific data is vital to the performance of in-depth analyses and allows this data, collected with a great deal of effort, to be used for related research. The FDZ plays a major role in developing the research data infrastructure in Germany’s educational sector.
The centre also offers methodological training events for young researchers. Workshops➚ have been held twice a year since 2010. These workshops explain methods of empirical educational research and more than 300 participants annually are trained at the FDZ.