Research and Development of Learning Processes Sensitive to Heterogeneity with the Use of Art in Religious Education. An Empirical Analysis of Adaptive Learning

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In the light of increasing heterogeneity, Religious Education (RE) is faced with the challenge of developing learning processes sensitive to heterogeneity. Working with art is attributed the potential of creating opportunities to actively use divergent prior experience and pre-existing constructs brought into the learning context by the learning subjects. The sensory-aesthetic structure of art and artistic production is supposed to open divergent learning ways that are not merely cognitive, supporting different learning styles and strategies and facilitating ways of learning that are sensitive to heterogeneity. Working with art enables adaptive learning, which is supposed to utilize differences in a productive way and decrease inequality among learners. However, empirical research relating to these assumptions only encompasses explorative studies conducted by the applicants themselves, which, ultimately, merely illustrate the complexity and intersectionality of the subject matter itself. Furthermore, concerning didactics of religion sensitive to heterogeneity, only little empirical data is available. Despite the fact that heterogeneity itself has become a central term in RE, research is still dominated by theory-based concepts. The empirical research project at hand aims at closing the gap. For the empirical analysis of learning sensitive and adaptive to heterogeneity through the use of art, the project uses the research format of Didactical Design Research, a method characterized by both its qualitative empirical and subject-matter-oriented focus. Its main objective is the development of didactic theory as well as empirically verified adaptive teaching-designs. The project assumes that the interpretation and assessment of teaching-learning-processes are, in fact, dependent on context and discourse. The project aims at a multi-perspective analysis of the complexity of heterogeneity as a concept, in order to identify potential blind spots within adaptive matching-processes. The research project itself is composed of two subprojects, one of which will investigate reception-oriented approaches, while the other one will focus on production-aesthetic approaches. Within both subprojects, the acquisition and analysis of data ensues on the basis of a theory-based teaching-design, comprised of an investigation and evaluation in three cycles. The collection and analysis of data ensues through the content-structuring and qualitative content-analysis designed by U. Kuckartz. The matching-processes are, focused in the teaching practise, the learning-outcomes and -processes of the pupils as well as the subjective art- and adaption-theories of the teachers. Generating hypotheses, interpretation and theoretic integration of the project’s results follows in conjunction of both subprojects, while the content-related focal points differ between the two, focusing on reception-oriented ways of working with art and on production-oriented ones, as has been described.