Clearing House Unterricht

Project Information

Name Clearing House Unterricht
Project Funding Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF)
Duration Phase I: 7/2015 - 12/2018
Phase II: 1/2019 - 12/2023
Leadership

Prof. Dr. Tina Seidel
Prof. Dr. Doris Holzberger

Prof. Dr. Maria Bannert

Coordinator Dr. Maximilian Knogler
Employees Dr. Andreas Hetmanek
Dr. Claudia Mazziotti
Annika Diery
Annika Schneeweiss
Website www.clearinghouse-unterricht.de
What is the research topic?

Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Clearing House Unterricht project is part of the nationwide initiative supporting the quality of  teacher education (“Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung”). The project analyses current research on effective STEM teaching and communicates selected findings  to teacher educators. A team of experts examines existing research, selects  recent and relevant meta-analyses, evaluates their quality and summarizes all the information in German language. These so-called short reviews are available on the online platform of the project,  www.clearinghouse-unterricht.de. An additional evaluation investigates the teacher educator’s attitude towards evidence based practice and their acceptance of the products of Clearing House Unterricht. Currently the project focuses on findings on effective STEM teaching for the secondary student population.

What is the specific issue of the project?

Research on effective teaching accumulates rapidly. Although many findings are relevant for classroom practice, there has been a large gap between research and practice: Teachers usually don’t have the time or the expertise necessary for searching and assessing recent empirical findings and many of them do not have access to journals or relevant publications. Thus, there is a need to communicate research evidence in an accessible way. The Clearing House Unterricht is a research and service project that aims to support the transfer of scientific knowledge about effective teaching into practice. The project addresses teacher educators as knowledge brookers or transfer agents and supports them with concise, clear and relevant information about recent empirical findings.

What is the main goal of the project?

Following the agenda of evidence-based practice in education, the goal of the project is to enable teacher educators and teachers to integrate empirical findings on effective teaching in professional decision-making. Scientific evidence is thereby – next to theoretical knowledge, intuition and personal experience – another important source that provides orientation and guidance for an effective design of learning environments. To further strengthen the agenda of evidence-based practice, the Clearing House Unterricht team is currently extending its services by developing further material and educational formats for teacher educators.