University of Vienna alumna Vera Popper and educational psychologist Christiane Spiel talk in an interview about the school of the future, the challenges of digitization and the role of the university. Practice-oriented research that has an impact on society is central to their work.
In a nutshell:
– Self-organization: School should increasingly promote interdisciplinary skills
– Evaluation: Working out the goals, model and effect of a measure and making them measurable creates quality
– Concepts from educational psychology can strengthen teams and encourage people to experience self-efficacy
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uni: view: Ms. Spiel, as an educational psychologist, you and your colleagues surveyed the effects of school closings on learning success and learning. What conclusions do you draw from the results?
Christiane game: In schools, interdisciplinary skills such as self-organized learning must be systematically promoted, as the COVID-19 lockdown shows. Those who are able to do so can always acquire new knowledge or brush up on old ones. The second area is digitization. The schools have received the necessary boost to become more digital – but in addition to the equipment, appropriate pedagogy and didactics must also be considered.
uni: view: Ms. Popper, as a coach and consultant for companies, you also dealt with home office issues during the lockdown. What did you see?
Vera Popper: My experience with working from home is ambivalent. If there is no exchange away from the screen, a lot of learning that otherwise happens informally in breaks and interviews does not take place. We don’t stop below the head, we perceive a lot intuitively about the body. It is important to take a closer look now: What are the advantages of working from home – and by that I don’t mean the costs? What do you want to continue? And where is it important that the whole person has space?
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uni: view: Which big questions of the future will your departments have to provide answers to?
Game: In the field of education, we have to think about the skills young people need in a time and society that is constantly changing. These are self-organization and basic digital skills, but also courage, self-confidence, solidarity and acceptance of responsibility. The school will have to create learning opportunities for this, also for dealing with change. This requires more tasks with open solutions that are worked on in teams and in which everyone can contribute.
Popper: Our profession is important to support the necessary change in attitudes. In my coaching work I see that the people who deal with questions of meaning are getting younger and younger: How can I lead a good life? How can I work sensibly? When more and more work is done by machines, we have more time. We have to think about what we are going to use them for. We have to know our strengths and interests because the “classic” professions will no longer exist.
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Works. Since 1365.
The University of Vienna cooperates in research with business, culture and society. Your apprenticeship prepares around 10,000 graduates for their professional careers every year and encourages them to think critically and act independently. With the main focus “Works. Since 1365” we show you in various articles what the University of Vienna does for our society.
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uni: view: Where do you see the influence of your daily work – can you give an example?
Game: I spent a long time doing research on violence prevention in schools and was asked by the ministry to develop a national strategy for the education sector. In the course of this, we developed and evaluated a prevention program for schools and trained trainers who accompanied the schools in the implementation. The rates of violence in schools have been significantly reduced through our program.
Popper: When I work with teams and design the processes according to educational psychological concepts – that is, competence-oriented, strength-focused and resource-oriented – completely new dynamics develop. When people start to trust themselves, that is one of the best feedback.
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Christiane game is head of the Third Mission Projekts at the University of Vienna, which is about taking active and conscious responsibility for society. For Spiel, this means “making scientific knowledge accessible to the public and being prepared to participate in social discourse.” The second focus of the project is on the transfer of technologies and innovations through cooperation with business.
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Achieve your own goals
uni: view: Ms. Spiel, what role does practice-oriented research play in your teaching?
Game: I bring my research results into teaching on an ongoing basis. In terms of content, the focus is on self-organized learning, motivation to learn, and violence prevention in schools, as well as gender stereotypes and evaluation and implementation research. With the students, I also discuss the intervention or prevention programs we have developed or the effects of measures that politicians or companies have taken and we have evaluated.
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Why study at the University of Vienna?
The University of Vienna offers a wide range of courses and courses. With over 180 courses at 15 faculties and 5 centers, it is the largest university in the German-speaking area. In the context of Humans of University of Vienna Teaching and psychology students also tell about what life is like at the university and why they study at the University of Vienna.
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uni: view: Ms. Popper, you did your doctorate at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Vienna and dared to set out on your own. What did the University of Vienna give you?
Popper: I am out and about in different contexts to find out together with a person, a team, a group or an organization how they can achieve certain goals. To do this, I use the “conceptual tools” that I learned at university. I can offer methods, theory, concepts and models with reduced complexity and at the same time well-founded. When I look back, time was one of the greatest gifts for me at the University of Vienna. Concentrating on a topic, dealing with questions conceptually and in an intensive exchange with others – this creates new ideas.
uni: view: Thank you for the interview! (sn)
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Christiane game is Professor of Educational Psychology and Evaluation at the Faculty of Psychology. Spiel studied mathematics, history and psychology. She is the founder of educational psychology.
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Vera Popper works as an organizational consultant, coach, psychologist and lecturer at the University of Vienna. From 2008 to 2012, Popper deepened her evaluation skills as part of her dissertation at the Institute for Applied Psychology: Work, Education, Economy. Together with Christiane Spiel, she carried out a number of evaluation projects.
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