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Internal Cooperations
Science and Social Studies and Inclusive Didactics, as a subject with "no or many related sciences" (Richter 2005), cooperates with numerous subject didactics departments at Leibniz University Hanover, which, among other things, provide teaching materials for the subject:
BWI – Center Bildung – Wissen- Innovation
Institut für politische Wissenschaft
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External Cooperations
Research-based teaching and learning - Establishment and development of a research laboratory at the Gebrüder-Körting-Schule in Hanover
Questioning phenomena and events and discovering one's own learning paths characterises research-based teaching and learning in schools and universities. This helps future teachers develop the skills they need to support and guide children in their own learning processes and to develop a professional understanding of teaching. The aim is to develop a space at the Gebrüder-Körting-Schule where school pupils and students have the opportunity to explore phenomena of animate and inanimate nature in a variety of ways. Students can support children in their discovery process and point out new opportunities for experience after they themselves have explored the nature of these phenomena. By developing materials that support the discovery process of children with diverse learning requirements, students establish a fruitful relationship between theoretical knowledge and practical action. The research-based teaching/learning processes initiated here in the context of the university enable students to critically examine their own learning process and evaluate it through self-designed practice.
Discovering and understanding technical phenomena – basic research in primary school science lessons
We encounter technical phenomena in many contexts in our everyday lives: when using household appliances, to support our mobility on the way to work, or even to pursue our hobbies in our free time. Often, we no longer question these phenomena or examine them to understand how they work. In most cases, we only engage with them when technology fails. The importance of technical phenomena also becomes clear when we consciously try to exclude them from our everyday lives: mobile phones, the internet... Are we still part of society, can we still actively participate?
Against the backdrop of these considerations, the aim of the cooperation project with the Collaborative Research Centre 653, 'Gentelligent Components in the Life Cycle' (led by Prof. Dr. B. Dekena/IFW) was to work together on current technical issues. Selected content from the SFB was prepared for school pupils in a didactic manner by developing contexts that relate to their everyday lives. This resulted in teaching and learning materials that make the technical issues addressed by the SFB tangible for school pupils. In collaboration with the Leibniz JuniorLab, students develop the content with primary school pupils.
The zoo as an extracurricular learning location in General Studies
Extracurricular learning locations are particularly important in General Studies. They enable pupils to talk to experts on site and explore phenomena and issues in a concrete way.
In collaboration with teachers from the Hanover Zoo School, students develop scientific and didactic foundations for the zoo as a place of learning, which they then use as a basis for developing teaching materials for general studies. They test these materials with pupils from primary and special schools in the context of the zoo as a place of learning.
Working with open-ended materials – the NetzWerkstatt einfallsreich!
In collaboration with the state capital of Hanover, the Lower Saxony Institute for Early Childhood Education and Development (nifbe), the KunstWerk e. V. art school and the HAWK in Hildesheim, the NetzWerkstatt einfallsreich! was opened in 2014 on the premises of the KunstWerk art school. It is a collection of materials that accumulate in the production processes of industrial and craft businesses. These materials serve as a starting point for experimental and creative learning processes. The amazement at the abundance and properties of the stored items raises many new questions: How does it feel? What kind of material is it? What can be done with it? In addition to looking at material resources, attention is also drawn to scientific phenomena, craft techniques and artistic processes, broadening one's own individual approach to things. Students use the materials to explore various questions arising from the context of science teaching and apply them in projects with schoolchildren, among other things.
Hanover Hearing Region
The Hanover Hearing Region comprises stakeholders from around 80 organisations, initiatives, companies and institutions that address issues relating to hearing from the perspectives of science, business, medicine, education and culture for the Hanover region. The board of trustees of the Hanover Hearing Region includes the German Hearing Centre Hanover, the audio company Sennheiser, the hearing aid manufacturers Kind Hörgeräte GmbH & Co. KG and Cochlear Deutschland GmbH, the State Music Academy and Musikland Niedersachsen GmbH, as well as the University of Music, Theatre and Media (HMTMH) and Leibniz University Hannover (Prof. Dr. Claudia Schomaker). The network provides a platform for exchange between stakeholders, acts as a catalyst for innovation and initiates events and listening experiences. Through joint events, the aim of the Hannover Hearing Region is to make this topic accessible in all its facets to all citizens of the Hannover region in order to sensitise them to the challenges of good hearing in everyday life, promote the participation of people with hearing impairments, make knowledge about acoustic media tangible, inspire enthusiasm for the aesthetic effects of sound and thus introduce perspectives from research, science and industry in the fields of hearing acoustics and hearing impairment. Along the educational chain, the current focus is on institutionally anchored offerings that are made accessible to children and young people in the context of STEM education in elementary, primary and secondary schools. The educational project "Hör mal hin!" (Listen up!) by Hörregion Hannover (scientific directors: Prof. Dr. C. Schomaker and Prof. Dr. G. Friege/Leibniz University Hannover) continues this approach for general studies in primary schools and for physics lessons (secondary level I). Teaching materials have been developed based on everyday questions asked by children and young people, which can be used in all types of schools to explore the various facets of 'hearing'. In addition, teachers are supported in implementing the topic of 'hearing' in their lessons through further training.
ZeitZentrumZivilcourage
The ZeitZentrumZivilcourage was opened in March 2021 as an extracurricular learning centre in the city of Hanover. The aim of the learning centre is to enable people to engage with the crimes of National Socialism on the basis of contemporary issues, in order to develop future-oriented positions and possible courses of action on socially relevant issues. The concept is rooted in the context of historical-political education with the aim of promoting social participation for all people. Various didactic and methodological approaches are used to sensitise all citizens, with their different needs and questions, to these topics. Forty-five different life stories are used to address persecution, resistance, bystandership and perpetration during the Nazi era in Hanover, encouraging visitors to critically examine possible courses of action and decisions. "The historical examination and contemporary and future-oriented reflection on the crimes of National Socialism in Germany, including the continuities of forms of discrimination and anti-democratic tendencies, are thus at the heart of the formation of a historically conscious, active citizenry."
Cooperations
The Department of Science and Social Studies and Inclusive Didactics cooperates with a number of institutions within Leibniz University Hanover as well as with institutions in the city and region of Hanover.