EQUIP - Development of Quality and Interaction in Everyday Pedagogical Life

The cooperative practice research programme EQUIP combines training, research and practice development in the field of early childhood education. In two practice development and research fields, EQUIP makes scientifically sound contributions to quality development in everyday educational practice. Field and experimental laboratory research, qualitative and quantitative approaches are combined. Students on the joint MA programme "Early Childhood Education Research" at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and the University of Potsdam gain access to research and practice development in early childhood education within their research focus.
Practice development and research field 1:

Educational processes in pedagogical interaction

Investigating the impact factors of successful pedagogical interaction in the field is a prerequisite for the scientifically sound development of pedagogical process quality. EQUIP therefore pursues the research and further development of pedagogical interaction processes in constant dialogue with practitioners.

Sub-project 1A - Effects of Sustained Shared Thinking

Sub-project leaders: Dr Ramiro Glauer, Karsten Manske (University of Potsdam)

Sustained Shared Thinking (König, 2009; Siraj-Blatchford et al. 2002) has proven to be a particularly promising format of pedagogical interaction in terms of pedagogical process quality. The aim of the sub-project is to investigate the influence of this interaction format on children's language behaviour, exploration activities and cognitive abilities.

Sub-project 1B - Cognitively stimulating interactions in practice

Sub-project management: Tina Marusch (University of Potsdam), Juliane Burmester (University of Potsdam)

The practice development and research project investigates characteristics of successful cognitively stimulating interaction with the aim of developing a taxonomy of cognitively stimulating speech acts, in particular Sustained Shared Thinking, in the context of pedagogical actions. The adequacy of these interactions for children of different age groups and multilingual children is a further focus of investigation.

Sub-project 1C - Children's perspectives in the quality development of daycare centres

Sub-project management: Joseph Rothmaler, Stephanie Pigorsch
Module leader: Prof Dr Stefan Thomas

This sub-project uses an ethnographic approach and participatory methods to investigate children's perspectives on and their contribution to the quality of their daycare centres. In cooperation with the various stakeholders in the daycare centres, methods for assessing children about their daycare centre are jointly developed, tested, applied and integrated into the daycare centre's quality development process.
Practice development and research field 2:

Professionalisation processes of educators on pedagogical interaction and transfer programmes

The greatest challenges for professionalisation processes in early education lie not only in the communication of knowledge about research findings on the advantages of innovative pedagogical practices, but also in a sustainable reflection and, if necessary, adaptation of values, professional identities, implicit representations and affective tendencies of educators. Another challenge is the development of training formats that favour a sustainable knowledge and technology transfer into practice.

Sub-project 2A - Transformation of attitudes towards pedagogical interaction

Sub-project leader: Jasmin Luthardt
Module leader: Prof. Dr Tobias Schröder

The beliefs of educators in daycare centres in Berlin and Brandenburg regarding pedagogical interactions are recorded and visualised in the context of cognitive psychological theories. A central concern of the sub-project is to investigate the attitudes of educators in early childhood care and education centres towards interaction and how they are presented or change in relation to social, educational policy requirements and institutional frameworks.

Sub-project 2B - Transfer research and practice development

Sub-project leader: Ruben Maué
Module coordinator: Prof. Dr Alexandra Schmidt-Wenzel

As part of the sub-project, various training programmes are being investigated with regard to their effectiveness in the area of interaction quality. The focus here is on identifying factors that contribute to successful knowledge and technology transfer between training and everyday pedagogical practice. Findings from the effectiveness studies will be used to develop efficient training formats for the state of Brandenburg (e.g. webinars, online coaching, video-based interaction analyses).

Publications
Article published in Frühe Bildung by Jasmin Luthardt, Inka Bormann and Frauke Hildebrandt: "Einstellungen pädagogischer Fachkräfte zu anregenden Interaktionen in Kindertagesstätten Fortbildungsbedarfe entdecken mit Cognitive-Affective Maps (CAMs)." (04.08.2021) -> https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/10.1026/2191-9186/a000531
Article by Richard Moore "The cultural evolution of mind-modelling" on the connection between language development and Theory of Mind (ToM). (18.09.2020) -> https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-020-02853-3
The article by Dr Gregor Kachel "The origin of pointing: Evidence for the touch hypothesis" deals with children's pointing gestures. (20.07.2020) -> https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/5/7/eaav2558.full.pdf