Klagenfurt University

The Institute of Instructional and School Development (IUS) of the Klagenfurt University (UNI-KLU) is an Austrian Educational Competence Centre (AECC). The IUS is part of the School of Education (SOE) (http://ius.uni-klu.ac.at). Its field of operation is the development of and research on educational practice, schools and educational systems.

The following presents the largest departmental projects, however, there are various other research and development projects (in the areas of instructional and school development as well as Education for Sustainable Development) pursued at the IUS. The IUS conducts the national large-scale project IMST (Innovations in Mathematics, Science and Technology Teaching) which aims at improving instruction in mathematics, science, IT and related subjects. The focus is on students’ and teachers’ learning. The project involves about 6000 teachers across all Austria who participate in projects, attend conferences or cooperate in regional and thematic networks. The IMST-programme Regional and Thematic Networks supports and researches regional networks in all nine Austrian provinces, five thematic networks and 18 Regional Competence Centres. Within the IMST-Fund, teachers put innovative instructional projects into practice and get support in terms of content, organisation and finances. In the programme Examination Culture, teachers reflect their forms of assessment in various seminars. Gender Sensitivity and Gender Mainstreaming are important principles of the project, and their implementation is supported by the Gender Network. In order to investigate the impacts of IMST, evaluation and research is integrated on all levels. (http://imst.uni-klu.ac.at, German).

Another focus is Education for Sustainable in which the institute and especially involved staff has experiences. One of the longlasting co-operation is with the ENSI programme (www.ensi.org). The IUS is also partner of other current EC-projects like PROFILES (http://ius.uni-klu.ac.at/misc/profiles/articles/view/29 FIBONACCI (www.fibonacci-project.eu), CoDes (www.comenius-codes.eu). 

Teacher Professional Development in SSIBL -Lower Secondary Education (WP3)

UNI-KLU local webpage [de]

UNI-KLU PARRISE brochure [de]

Prof. Dr. Franz Rauch, head of the Institute of Instructional and School Development at the University of Klagenfurt; he holds a master’s degree in Natural Sciences (teaching certification), a Ph.D. and a Venia Docenti in Education; he was a science teacher in  secondary schools for several years; since 1991 he is involved in and leads research and development projects nationally and internationally;  he was a research fellow at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle upon Tyne, England and Fulbright Scholar at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, USA;  he is one of the editors of the fully reviewed Educational Action Research Journal and consulting editor of the Journal of Environmental Education;  fields of expertise and publications: networks in education; science education, environmental education – education for sustainable development, continuing education of teachers/professional development, action research. http://ius.aau.at/franzrauch

Dr. Diana Radmann, responsible for the co-coordination of PARRISE since January 2014, finished her PhD in media and communication studies in April 2015. Her fields of expertise are evaluation of school- and sustainability projects, cross-cultural and trans-cultural comparative media and communication research. She has used both qualitative and quantitative research methods in her study.

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schmölzer, University College of Teacher Education Carinthia; he directs the center for teaching methods of natural sciences. He is working as a science teacher educator and engaged in action research. He was a science teacher in the subject Physics for more than 15 years. Fields of expertise and publications: His current research focuses on the transfer of knowledge through extracurricular learning. Before that, he has conducted research in biophysical and sports medicine fields and authored several publications. One of them even in the scientific journal Nature. 

Sieglinde Demarle is responsible for the administrative support of PARRISE.