Fostering competencies of document-based diagnosis of students mathematical achievement in simulation-based learning environments

Diagnosing learning processes and learning outcomes is a key competence of teachers. However, there is a lack of research on diagnostic processes. Moreover, it is to date unclear how the diagnostic competencies of prospective teachers in the early phase of teacher training can be fostered effectively and how individual factors influence the develop¬ment of diagnostic competencies. This is the starting point for the project. It aims at to foster¬ing diagnostic competencies in prospective primary school teachers of mathematics. The participants will work with a simulation-based learning environment, which allows to assess their diagnostic processes as well as the effectiveness of instructional approaches for foster-ing diagnostic competencies under controlled conditions. The learning environment includes mathematical problems and solutions virtual of primary school students to these problems. The task of the participants is to diagnose the mathematical competencies of virtual students based on their worked solutions. The worked solutions are taken from a large-scale study, so that we know the empirical difficulties of the mathematical problems as well as the empirical competence level of the virtual school students. In three studies, diagnostic processes as well as effectiveness of two versions of scaffolding are addressed. In the first version, the complexity of worked solutions of students will initially be reduced and then gradually increase. The second version is a form of part task learning: two prospective teachers work together on the same task. Each of the two focuses on a limited and then gradually increased part of the worked solutions. The study uses a quasi-experimental pre-post test design to investigate the effectiveness of the two versions of scaffolding. Prospective teachers with high and low pedagogical content knowledge of mathematics will work with learning environ¬ments that do or do not include the respective scaffolding approach. Investigating the quality of the diagnoses and the process of diagnosis will allow an analysis of the effectiveness of interventions. The results of the study will contribute to a better understanding of the process of diagnosis and the development of diagnostic competencies of prospective mathematics teachers. As a benefit for teacher education practice, the study includes the development and evaluation a simulation-based learning environment to foster diagnostic competencies in prospective teachers.