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Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Shavelson, R.J. & Bartnik, T.N. What Have We Learned About Modelling and Assessing Mathematics Teachers’ Competence? – Insights from a Literature Review. ZDM Mathematics Education (2025). doi: 10.1007/s11858-025-01689-w
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Marie-Theres Nagel successfully passed the disputation as part of her doctoral procedure on 29 April 2025. The dissertation is entitled: ’Validation of Assessments for Measuring Critical Thinking and Critical Online Reasoning in German Higher Education’. We would like to congratulate Mrs Nagel on her outstanding doctorate. |
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Cortina, S., & Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O. (2025). Kritisches Denken in der Hochschulbildung im digitalen Zeitalter. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 2(2025), 141–144. Beltz Juventa. doi: 10.3262/ZP2502141
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Toward a dynamic understanding of work–family boundary management: A control theory perspective. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, by Eunae Cho, Laurenz L. Meier, Christian Dormann, and Tammy Allen as Editor’s Choice selection paper. Editor’s Choice papers represent the best science in each area of their discipline, reflecting science that is exceptionally important, impactful, and deserves additional visibility for the whole fieldFree download: https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2026-00081-001.pdf
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Kohmer, A., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Fischer, J., & Nagel, M.-T. (2025). Design and Transferability of a Digital Training to Improve Generic and Domain-Specific Critical Online Reasoning. International Journal of Training and Development. doi: 10.1111/ijtd.12368
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As part of the Teaching Day, an intensive exchange took place between the Chairs of Business Education, lecturers, the Office of Student Affairs, representatives of other chairs and departments as well as practice partners and students on the topic of ‘current developments and experiences in dealing with AI tools in teaching’.
We would like to thank everyone involved for their active participation, especially Dr Fitzpatrick, Prof. Schelle, Prof. Rothlauf and Hon. Prof. Böhner for their exciting input!
We are looking forward to presenting our research work at Earli 2025 in Graz from August 25 - 29:
Depré, K., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Braunheim, D., Bartnik, T. N., Nagel, M.-T. & Shavelson, R. (2025). Criteria-based Evaluation of Students’ Use of Multiple Information in Solving a Performance Task [Symposium].
Nagel, M.-T., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Trierweiler, L., Drake, P., Hartig, J., & Walstad, W. (2025). Developing Domain-Specific Critical Online Reasoning Skills of Economics Students in their First Year [Symposium].
Schelle, C., Braunheim, D., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Banerjee, M., & Touzos A. A. (2025). Narrative-Reconstructive Case Study of Students’ Generic and Domain-Specific Critical Online Reasoning [Symposium].
Rinke, T., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Depré, K. & Toepper, M. (2025). Integrating Startups into Germany's Dual Vocational Training System: Opportunities and Challenges [Poster].
We are pleased to present our research at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting from April 23 - 27 and at the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) Annual Meeting in Denver from April 23 - 26:
Depré K., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Braunheim, D., & Shavelson, R. (2025). University Students’ Critical Thinking – Evaluation of Performance and Thought Processes when Using Multiple Online Sources [AERA Symposium].
Maur, A., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Martin de los Santos Kleinz, L., Nagel, M., & Fischer, J. (2025, April 23-27). Assessing Critical Online Reasoning Skills: Latent Trajectories among Young Professionals in Medicine, Law, and Teaching [Paper presentation].
Nagel, M., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Hartig, J., Trierweiler, L., & Drake, P. (2025) Valid Assessment of Economics Students’ Domain-Specific Critical Online Reasoning Skills [Paper Presentation].
Hodes, P. F., Federiakin, D., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Martin de los Santos Kleinz, L., Gabler, J., & Molerov, D. (2025). Impact of Vocational Education on Student Media Usage Skills: A Quasi-Experimental Design [Symposium].
Maur, A., Kunz, A.-K., Brückner, S., Kohmer, A., & Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O. (2025). COR Processes – Eye-Tracking Analysis of High and Low Performers [Symposium].
Molerov, D., Shenavai, K., Federiakin, D., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., & Trierweiler, L. (2025). Students’ COR Task Solving in Economics: Time-to-Draft with and without ChatGPT [Symposium].
Nagel, M.-T., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Hartig, J., Trierweiler, L., & Drake, P. (2025). Valid Assessment of Economics Students’ Domain-Specific Critical Online Reasoning Skills [Symposium].
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Henriette Hillebrand has successfully completed her Master's thesis in Business Education with a grade of 1.0. Her Master's thesis is entitled: ‘Mapping the critical thinking of business education students when using multiple sources in performance assessments by categorising the cognitive processes involved and the performance-based dimensions’
We congratulate her on this excellent achievement and wish her all the best for the future!
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Dr Denis Federiakin receives the prize of the Alfred Teves Foundation of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz for outstanding dissertations, which will be awarded on 25.06.25 during the DIES ACADEMICUS.
Congratulations on this special achievement!
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Cho, E., Meier, L. L., Dormann, C., & Allen, T. D. (in press). Toward a Dynamic Understanding of Work-Family Boundary Management: A Control Theory Perspective. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.
Dormann, C. & Diener, O. (in press). I Watch SEM: Continuous Time Dynamic Models with N ≥ 1 Smart Watch Data. Industrial Health.
Wiese, C. W., Dormann, C., Vaziri, H., Tya, L., Wille, B., Chen, J., Moran, L., & Li, Y. (in press). Happy Work, Happy Life? A Replication and Comparison of the Longitudinal Effects between Job and Life Satisfaction Using Continuous Time Meta-Analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior.
We congratulate PD. Dr habil. Sebastian Brückner on his outstanding achievement.
| Katharina Depré successfully passed the disputation as part of her doctoral procedure on 27 January 2025. The dissertation is entitled: ‘University promotion of media didactic knowledge facets and media-related convictions of prospective teachers: A consideration of the usability of multimedia learning tools’. We would like to congratulate Mrs Depré on her outstanding doctorate. |
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We wish you happy holidays and a good start into the new year!
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Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Nagel, M.-T.-, Klose, V., & Mehler, A. (2024). Students’, Graduates’ and Young Professionals’ Critical Use of Online Information. Digital Performance Assessment and Training within and across Domains. Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-69510-0
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| Dr Jasmin Reichert-Schlax has been awarded the dissertation prize of the Department of Economics for her work entitled ‘Types of academic success in economics and social sciences - an analysis of personal determinants of academic success over the course of a Bachelor's degree’, which was presented at the doctoral ceremony on 15 November 2014. Congratulations from the Chair! |
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As part of the Mainz Science Market on 7 & 8 September 2024, we provided insights into critical online thinking and media literacy with our CORE research project. In dialogue with visitors, we were able to highlight the relevance of digital information assessment and self-directed online learning. It was a pleasure to be part of the programme on both days - and we are already looking forward to next year! |
Kunz, A.-K., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Schmidt, S. Nagel, M.-T., & Brückner, S. (2024). Investigation of students' use of online information in higher education using eye tracking. Smart Learning Environments, 11(44). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-024-00333-6
| Kathrin Bauer has successfully completed her master's thesis in Business and Economics Education (topic of the thesis: ‘Criteria-based evaluation of the selection and use of multiple sources to assess critical thinking skills as part of the iPAL performance assessment at Johannes Gutenberg University’) with a grade of 1.0. |  |
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Deniz Can has successfully completed her Master's thesis in Business and Economics Education (topic of the thesis: ‘Making decisions in the 21st century - criteria-based evaluation of critical thinking in students’) with a grade of 1.3. |
| Julian Orthmann successfully completed his Master's degree in the summer semester of 2024 with an overall grade of 1.0, very good. |  |
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Lucas Jobs successfully completed his Master's thesis in Business and Economics Education (topic of the thesis: ‘Adaptation of a German-language teaching-learning package for teacher training in the USA’) with a grade of 1.0. |
We would like to congratulate them on their excellent results and wish them all the best for the future.
Frank, K., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Brückner, S., Reichert-Schlax, J., Saas, H., Schneider, M. & Kuhn, C. (2024). Digitalisierung der wirtschaftspädagogischen Lehrkräftebildung: Innovative praxisorientierte Lehr-Lerntools zur Förderung handlungsorientierter Kompetenzen. In S. Lange, C. Porcher & K. Trampe (Hrsg.), Handbuch Standorte beruflicher Lehrkräftebildung in Deutschland (S. 583–594). wbv Publikation. doi: 10.3278/9783763973743
Frank, K., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Brückner, S., Reichert-Schlax, J., Schneider, M. Saas, H., Kuhn, C. & Dormann, C. (2024). Johannes Gutenberg-Universität (JGU) Mainz – Kurzcharakteristik des Standorts. In S. Lange, C. Porcher & K. Trampe (Hrsg.), Handbuch Standorte beruflicher Lehrkräftebildung in Deutschland (S. 577–581). wbv Publikation. doi: 10.3278/9783763973743
Frank, K., Kuhn, C., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O. & Brückner (2024). Digitale Lehr-Lerntools für eine praxisnahe Lehrkräftebildung – Umgang mit ChatGPT im Unterricht. SEMINAR, 3(30), 72–82. doi: 10.3278/ SEM2403W
I had the pleasure of attending the General Assembly of the International Academy of Education in Singapore from September 4th to 6th. It was a valuable opportunity to engage with experts on current trends and strategies in education.
Summer party 2024
This year's summer party took place on 9 July 2024, which was also attended by staff from other chairs in the department. In the best midsummer weather, we spent a wonderful evening with delicious barbecue specialities, which were actively prepared by our assistants, among others.
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Doctorate Denis Federiakin
Denis Federiakin successfully passed the disputation a part of his doctoral procedure on 10 july 2024. The dissertation is entitled: "Psychometric Modeling of Student's Generic and Domain-Specific Competencies Using Bifactor Models“.
We congratulate Mr Federiakin on his outstanding doctorate.
From June 21-27, Prof. Patricia Alexander was a guest at the Chair of Business Education.
Prof. Alexander, a distinguished Professor at the University of Maryland, Director of the Learning Research Lab and a long-term PLATO PI, is a world- leading expert in (digital) media literacy, multiple source use, and critical and relational reasoning, and developed the higly renowned Model of Domain Learning and the integrative Framework of Learning from Multiple (online) Texts, which the FOR stongly relies on in its research.
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Michael Gessler, M., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Bohlinger, S., Olivier, C., Toepper, M., Bieß, A., Greppmair, A.-C., Nguyen Long, H., Scheuch, I. (Eds.) (2024). Expanding Horizons. Research on the Internationalization of Vocational Education and Training. Springer VS.
Available via https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-43742-8
Frank, K., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Braunheim, D., Nagel, M.-T., & Shavelson, R. (2024). Kriterienbasierte Bewertung von Critical Thinking – Prozesse bei der Auswahl und Nutzung multipler Quellen von Wirtschaftspädagogik - Studierenden.
Hodes, P., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Fischer, J., Molerov, D. (2024). Critical Online Reasoning beim internetbasierten Lernen von Studierenden der Wirtschaftspädagogik - eine systematische Forschungsübersicht.
Nagel, M.-T., Zlatkin-Troitschanskai, O., Hodes, P., Schmidt, S., Beck, K., Martin de los Santos, L. (2024). Domänenspezifisches Critical Online Reasoning (DOM-COR) bei StudienanfängerInnen der Wirtschaftswissenschaften und der Wirtschaftspädagogik und wesentliche Einflussfaktoren auf die DOM-COR Baseline.
We are looking forward to presenting our research work from September 25 - 27 at the SIG 4 & 17 in Utrecht.Frank, K., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., & Reichert-Schlax, J. (2024). Evaluation of Teaching-Learning Tools for Promotion of Students’ Media-Didactic Knowledge and Skills. [Poster]
Frank, K., Braunheim, D., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Nagel, M.-T., & Shavelson, R. (2024). Evaluation of Critical Thinking Processes in Selection and Use of Information by University Students. [Poster]
On 28 June, Kati Frank presented a paper on "Digital Tools for Promoting Teaching Competencies - Evaluation through Longitudinal Analyses" at JURE 2024:
Frank, K., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O. & Reichert-Schlax, J. (2024, Jun 28). Digital Tools for Promoting Teaching Competencies – Evaluation through Longitudinal Analyses [Paper presentation]. JURE 2024, Sevilla, Spain.
Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia (Spring 2024). Global Education without Walls: A Multidisciplinary Investigation of University Learning in Online Environments across Disciplines.Daedalus 153(2), pp. 237–245.
Frank, K., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Braunheim, D., Nagel, M., & Shavelson, R. (2024) Criteria-based Evaluation of Critical Thinking Processes in the Selection and Use of Multiple Sources by University Students in Germany. [Paper presentation]
Maur, A., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Martin de los Santos Kleinz, L., Fischer, J. & Nagel, M. (2024). Exploring Log Data to Identify Online Reasoning Patterns in University Students and Graduates.
Nagel, M.-T., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Hartig, J., Martin de los Santos Kleinz, M., & Drake, P. (2024). Economics Students’ Domain-Specific (DOM)-COR-Skills. [Symposium]
Schelle, C., Banerjee, M., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Touzos, A., & Braunheim, D. (2024). Interdisciplinary Approaches to Measure, Analyze and Promote Critical Reasoning across Domains in Higher Education. [Symposium]
Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Fischer, J., Hodes, P., Martin de los Santos Kleinz, M., & Trierweiler, L. (2024). Critical Online Reasoning in Higher Education. First Insights from an Interdisciplinary and International and Research Group on Internet-based Learning. [Poster]
The TWIND brochure "Digital media packages for student teachers, trainee teachers and teaching staff" is dedicated to presenting the individual media packages and offers valuable tips on the didactic implementation and integration of the media packages in courses.
The TWIND brochure is now available via VCRP (in German only):
https://edusharing.vcrp.de/edu-sharing/components/render/94f98fdc-2b30-4364-8f08-cc2f1efd3cf3?viewType=1&id=4a4cab21-f029-4e64-a767-cb0ddad8daa6
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Abstract: This article describes a comprehensive multi-perspective evaluation of the multimedia teaching and learning tools developed in the QLB project "Technik und Wirtschaft. Integrated Didactics" research-based multimedia teaching and learning tools, the "SAMR model" and "ICAP model", which address the use of media in the classroom. The focus is on evaluating the potential to effectively promote action-oriented, media-didactic knowledge among prospective teachers of business education courses. In order to evaluate the use of the newly developed tools, data from a quasi-experimental pre-post design study was analyzed. |
99 trainee teachers for vocational schools worked with the teaching-learning tools for two weeks. The tools led to a positive change in the target knowledge facets. Based on the evaluation results, the limitations of the study and implications for further research and practice of digitally transformed teacher training are presented.
Frank, K., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Brückner, S., Schell, M., Liederbach, N., Dormann, C. & Reichert-Schlax, J. (2023). Evaluation of multimedia teaching-learning tools to promote the media-didactic knowledge of student teachers in teacher education. Lehrerbildung auf dem Prüfstand, 16(2), 144–163.
Website: https://www.vep-landau.de/produkt/lehrerbildung-auf-dem-pruefstand-2023-16-2-kap-1-digital/
A TWIND contribution will be presented at the RMU Dialogue Conference:
16.02.2024 - 2:30 pm Presentation 4 and Dialogue
Innovative Medienpakete zur multimedialen Förderung handlungsorientierter Kompetenzen (angehender) Lehrkräfte – Einsatzmöglichkeiten und Nutzbarkeit
Frank, Katharina, Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Olga, Brückner, Sebastian, Kuhn, Christiane &
Reichert-Schlax, Jasmin
The PLATO program as well as the newly established DFG research unit CORE (FOR 5404) mourns the passing of our brilliant colleague and principal investigator Prof. Dr. Uwe Schmidt, who left us much too soon on December 18, 2023, at the age of 63.
Uwe was an outstanding, internationally renowned sociologist and higher education researcher. He was the Director of the Center for Quality Assurance and Development at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (since 2012) and of the office of the Evaluation Association of Institutes of Higher Education (for Southwest Germany). He was a member of the Commission of Institutional Evaluation of FIBAA, of the German Council of Science and Humanities, and (since 2018) a permanent guest in an Advisory Capacity of the German Accreditation Council.
Under his leadership, important milestones in higher education research and practice were achieved, including - but not limited to - the expansion of the mapping to include types of higher education institutions outside the state universities and the reintroduction of degree programs in small subjects into this mapping. In the field of higher education research, Uwe Schmidt headed several successful third-funded projects, including projects within the PLATO program and one project within the new DFG research unit CORE. Despite his recent serious illness, Uwe Schmidt remained actively involved in various interdisciplinary projects, including PLATO and CORE. His unwavering dedication was instrumental in the success of these endeavors.
In his numerous national and international projects and corresponding publications, his particular focus lay with questions of complex interrelationships of study success and quality development in higher education. His outstanding research work is relevant for many domains and helped substantially to reduce deficits and desiderata in national and international empirical research in the field of higher education.
Uwe's contribution to higher education research, practice, and policy is truly remarkable despite his relatively young academic age. In addition, he consistently demonstrated enthusiastic support for the promotion of young researchers. His academic legacy is significant and his work will undoubtedly inspire many generations to come. With his untimely passing, we mourn the loss of an excellent, dedicated, border-crossing researcher in the interdisciplinary community of higher education, as well as a wonderful colleague and friend. His academic work has a strong appeal and will remain an example of an innovative future-oriented research vision in higher education and beyond.
In deep sorrow and silent appreciation, we would like to bid a fond academic farewell to our Fellow Uwe Schmidt. We hope that the family and friends of Uwe Schmidt can find solace in knowing that his contributions enriched the lives of so many people and that his work will continue to influence the field for many years to come.
For the PLATO program and the FOR CORE, Olga Troitschanskaia
We congratulate Annika Müller on the funding of approximately 10,000 € for her dissertation project "Between Right and Wrong: Moral Stress in Science".
The adept handling of data is indispensable in economics and social sciences. However, the evaluation of data in statistical software is generally only taught as a peripheral topic at the end of the Bachelor's degree and examined in summative form, so that support needs are not recognized in good time and students begin their methodological theses with little practical preparation.
Against this background, we are pleased to announce the approval of funding in the amount of approx. 5,000 € for the teaching project "FORSTAT - Development of formative e-quizzes and competence-based e-portfolios to promote statistical learning processes in a methodology course" under the direction of Dr. Andreas Maur as part of the "Funding line for digitally supported examination formats".
In the teaching project, two formative, digitally supported examination formats will be further developed and redesigned in a statistical methods course in business education. The first format is an e-quiz task pool, which contains up to 200 action-oriented tasks on various topics that reflect the students' current performance level during the semester and are varied on a semester-by-semester basis and depending on individual performance levels. The second component is competence-based e-portfolios, in which students carry out and document independent data analyses with SPSS for the first time. The portfolio comprises the development of up to 20 different research scenarios, which students work on in teams of two. The exercises developed are linked to SPSS software tutorials in order to make the acquisition of knowledge more autonomous. The concept will be tested in winter semester 23/24 and further optimized in the following years.
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Abstract: In teacher education, digital teaching-learning tools to promote action-oriented competencies in preparation for classroom practice have become an essential component. This paper presents selected digital tools developed in the QLB project Technology and Business. Integrated Didactics project are presented, e.g. for "Teaching in the training occupation of e-commerce clerk". The focus is on the potential of the new tools through multiple cross-phase application possibilities as well as the broad transfer in teacher training. |
Frank, K., Brückner, S., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Schell, M. & Reichert-Schlax, J. (2023). Digitale Lehr-Lerntools zur Förderung handlungsorientierter Kompetenzen (angehender) Lehrkräfte. In J. Aufenanger & M. Bigos (Hrsg.), Digitalisierung in der Lehrer:innenbildung – Corona als Katalysator?! (S. 228–242). Beltz Juventa.
You can find the publisher volume under the following link.
We are looking forward to presenting our research work from November 22 - 24 at the ERAS International Conference and WERA Focal Meeting 2023 in
Singapore:
Banerjee, M., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Schelle, C. (2023). Narrative Framing & Latent Meaning Structures of Online Information Used by Students in Their Critical Online Reasoning.
Frank, K., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Reichert-Schlax, J., Dormann, C. & Brückner, S. (2023). Effectiveness of Digital Tools for Promoting Situation-Specific Skills of (Prospective) Teachers – A Pre-Post-Study.
Fischer, J., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Pötzsch, J. & Schumacher, J. (2023). Use of Online Media for Student Learning in Higher Education – Insights from a Review of International Current Research.
Kohmer, A., Klose, V., Nagel, M.-T., Fischer, K. & Martin de los Santos Kleinz, L. (2023). Effects of Digital Training on “Critical Online Reasoning” among Young Professionals in Medicine: A Pre-Post-Study.
Laufer, A., Federiakin, D. & Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia (2023). Measuring Relations between Individual and Website Characteristics on Information Search Using Bayesian Statistics.
Nagel, M.-T., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Fischer, J., Andreas Maur, Martin de los Santos Kleinz, L., Molerov, D. & Shavelson, R. J. (2023). Development and Validation of a Critical Online Reasoning Assessment in Higher Education – An International Study.
Reichert-Schlax, J., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Frank, K., Liederbach, N., Schell, M., Dormann, C. & Brückner, S. (2023). Effects of Digital Learning Tool on Media-Didactic Knowledge in German Teacher Education: Results from a Pre-Post-Study.
You can find more information about the conference under the following link.
More news can be found here.