The research training group “Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht” (teaching of natural sciences) at the University of Essen deals with the dissemination of natural science contents in school. It focuses on three levels of analysis: The level of educational psychology addresses issues such as learning mechanisms of pupils. At the level of teaching, didactical aspects of imparting natural science contents are examined. The level of educational research concentrates on aspects such as school organisation. The aim of the study programme is to improve the teaching of natural science subjects in the medium to long term.
The exclusion of certain groups of people is at the centre of the new research training group “Gruppenbezogene Menschenfeindlichkeit: Ursachen, Phänomenologie und Konsequenzen” (group-related misanthropy: its causes, phenomenology and consequences). Doctoral candidates at the Universities of Marburg and Bielefeld will deal with the causes and manifestations of hostile attitudes towards so-called “alien” groups, including religious groupings and migrants as well as homosexual and homeless people. These surveys are based on a research project that has been in progress since 2002 and is being funded by the Volkswagen Foundation in which regular interviews are conducted on group-related misanthropy. At the research training group, this quantitative focus is to be extended theoretically and with a view to application, thus opening up a broad range of perspectives on this topic.
The international research training group “Quantum Fields and Strongly Interacting Matter: From Vacuum to Extreme Density and Temperature Conditions” is being run at the locations of Bielefeld and Paris and deals with issues of theoretical high-energy physics. In the planned research and study programme, quantum field theories and the behaviour of matter in extreme conditions such as high temperatures and densities are examined. In addition, members of the research training group are dealing with the examination of the properties of hot material that is created, for example, in cosmological or astrophysical processes, but also in heavy ion experiments.
In detail, the new research training groups are:
- Gruppenbezogene Menschenfeindlichkeit: Ursachen, Phänomenologie, Konsequenzen (group-related misanthropy: its causes, phenomenology and consequence), Universities of Marburg and Bielefeld
- Transnationale Medienereignisse von der frühen Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart (transnational media events from early modern times up to the present), University of Gießen
- Informationswirtschaft und Market Engineering (information management and market engineering), University of Karlsruhe
- Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht (teaching of natural sciences), University of Essen
- Gehirn und Verhalten (brain and behaviour), Universities of Marburg and Gießen
- Arithmetic and Geometry, Humboldt University, Berlin, ETH Zürich, University of Zürich
- Vascular Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Rijksuniversiteit Gronigen (NL)
- Quantum Fields and Strongly Interacting Matter: From Vacuum to Extreme Density and Temperature Conditions, University of Bielefeld, Université de Paris Sud XI
- Bioethik – Theoretische Grundlagen, Neurowissenschaften, Genetische Information (bioethics – theoretical foundations, neurosciences, genetic information), University of Tübingen
- Selbstorganisation durch koordinierte und nichtkonvalente Wechselwirkung (self-organisation by coordinated and non-convalent interaction), University of Halle-Wittenberg
- of gods – images of God – images of the world: polytheism and monotheism in the world of the Antique), University of Göttingen
- Bildgebende Verfahren zur Expressionsanalytik: Vom Gen zum Protein (image-creating methods for gene expression analysis: from the gene to the protein), University of Heidelberg, Fachhochschule Mannheim
Since 1990, the DFG has been funding specially qualified doctoral candidates of all disciplines in research training groups. 15 to 25 doctoral candidates each work on what is usually an interdisciplinary research and study programme under the supervision of professors who have distinguished themselves in research and teaching. Currently, around ten percent of all doctoral candidates in Germany complete their PhD at research training groups. As a rule, graduates from research training groups are more comprehensively qualified and, on average, two years younger than other doctoral candidates. The share of foreign doctoral candidates at research training groups is more than twice as high as it is on a national average.
Recently, the DFG conducted a survey to find out how the quality of support at research training groups is evaluated by the doctoral candidates themselves. The results have been published under the title “Qualität der Förderung in Graduiertenkollegs” (the quality of support at research training groups). The aim of the survey was to establish how the doctoral candidates assess support in their doctoral studies at the training group and what assistance they are receiving in their academic qualification and professional career development. In addition to what was overall a very positive appraisal by the doctoral candidates, the survey also showed where additional improvements could be made in supporting junior scientists and scholars at research training groups.
Details can be obtained from Dr. Robert Paul Königs, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Kennedyallee 40, D-53175 Bonn, Germany, Tel.: +49 (0) 228 885-2424, E-mail: robert-paul.koenigs@dfg.de