Institutions
Teacher education researchers at the University of Cologne have access to a diverse and well-networked cross-Faculty research infrastructure.
This consists of graduate schools, research centres and cooperating institutions that are coordinated within the University of Cologne Teacher Education Hub.
Educational science and research in subject-specific didactics in Cologne is closely coordinated with schools in the training region of Cologne and the university’s own training and research school, the IUS.
Interdisciplinary Centre for Empirical Research on Teachers and Teaching (IZeF)
The IZeF is the heart of educational science and subject-specific didactics research. As an academic institution of the Faculty of Human Sciences, it brings together educational sciences, psychology, special education, and subject-specific didactics.
Over 30 third-party funded projects are organized into six research groups: competence measurement, language education, media and digitalization, mental health in educational institutions, persistence and change in schools, teaching and the teaching profession.
The Emerging Group ‘Proving the Effectiveness of Teacher Education’, which is based at the IZeF, is driving further innovations in research and expanding collaborative research.
Research Centre for Humanities Pedagogies
The IFDG at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities promotes collaboration between the didactic disciplines of the humanities in teaching, competence, and professionalization research.
Projects are carried out on an interdisciplinary basis and in cooperation with the IZeF and the Center for Teacher Education (ZfL), with a focus on sustainability, inclusion, and transcultural learning.
Interdisciplinary Network for Qualitative Research
The interdisciplinary network is a cross-faculty initiative for qualitative research in educational sciences and subject-specific didactics at the University of Cologne.
The "Doing Research" format hosts regular workshop discussions in which qualitative researchers share insights into ongoing projects on school and classroom research. Anyone interested is warmly invited to join these work-in-progress sessions.
To strengthen the network further, joint research perspectives are currently being developed. One focus is on how teacher education students develop their professional habitus, both within their subject studies and with regard to their professionalisation.
Department of Didactics of Mathematics and the Natural Sciences
The Department of Didactics of Mathematics and the Natural Sciences brings together six subject areas (biology, chemistry, geography, mathematics, physics, and general science), with a focus on the analysis, planning, design, and evaluation of teaching and learning processes.
The department's work is structured around seven interdisciplinary research areas: teacher professionalisation, education for sustainable development, inclusion and heterogeneity, teaching and learning processes, language and communication, developmental research, and digitality.
Department of Business Education
In the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, teacher education research focuses on vocational education and the teaching profession at vocational colleges. Research examines the organisation, teaching methods, and assessment of vocational training programmes and in-company training.
Key topics include curriculum development, the design and evaluation of teaching and learning arrangements, the design of online learning resources for teachers and learners, quality development in vocational education, internationally comparative vocational education research, and language-aware teaching in vocational training.
The research also accompanies the North Rhine-Westphalian pilot scheme for regional education centres at vocational colleges and strengthens international research collaboration through EU projects. The German Research Center for Comparative Vocational Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) consolidates this internationally oriented research.
Department of Educational and Social Sciences
The Department at the Faculty of Human Sciences investigates how people learn and develop at different stages of life, and how education can be understood as a societal subsystem.
The scope of educational research ranges from fundamental questions of educational anthropology to digitalisation, social inequality, and intercultural perspectives.
The profile area of educational science in the context of school, teaching, and the profession centres, in a narrower sense, on school‑related research. The social‑science focus encompasses political science, sociology, and economic education.