Institute Profile

Economic and Social Geography
The Economic and Social Geography Unit conducts research on the economic, social and political-planning development of spaces and regions. They focus on developments in urban and metropolitan areas, with a regional focus on developments in the Ruhr region and Germany, and another on North America. In the area of teaching, the main focus is on the geographical and economic content of teacher training in the subject of social sciences/subject teaching.

Primary and Secondary School Didactics of Social Sciences
Without competent citizens, no functioning democracy - without political education, no competent citizens
The professorship of of Primary and Secondary School Didactics of Social Sciences therefore researches social science teaching-learning processes, especially with regard to the genesis and structure of conceptual knowledge about politics. Based on this, it participates in the development of political didactic basic and subject concepts and thus contributes to the professionalization of teaching.
The special significance of the media in democracy and in political education is taken into account through increased consideration of political communication research and research into the use of media and methods in social science teaching.
In the area of teaching, it also imparts central subject didactic competencies for future teachers in social science teaching and in political education, so that they are compatible with the second phase of teacher training.

Didactics of Social Sciences with a focus on Empirical Political Didactics
Empirical teaching-learning research in political science teaching
The professorship is dedicated to empirical teaching-learning research in the field of civic education in schools. The concept of civic education is broadly defined, i.e., economic and social perspectives are to be taken into account in addition to political ones. Traditionally, the comparatively young discipline of political didactics (from about 1960) has seen itself as a theory of educational content. Today, this normative orientation is complemented by the empirical-analytical approach. The overarching goal of the professorship is to generate action-relevant findings for the design of high-quality political education. This requires theories and models for political education that are based on the psychology of teaching and learning and that are subjected to empirical testing.
Subject-specific competence modeling and test construction
The modeling of subject-specific competencies and the associated development of suitable test instruments is an important area of research in subject didactics. Valid measurement instruments are of great importance for an evidence-based evaluation of learning processes. In political didactics research, however, there is a desideratum of appropriate instruments, especially in the field of teacher education. Therefore, this task represents the second research focus of the professorship. The current focus is on the investigation of the development of professional knowledge of student teachers of social sciences in the course of the university phase of teacher education. In addition, correlations between professional knowledge and other factors relevant to the profession (for example, motivational characteristics) are of interest.