This study explores the use of analytical artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance lesson planning in teacher education, particularly in vocational business education. Providing detailed, individualized feedback for lesson planning is challenging for university instructors. An analytical AI platform that offers expert-level feedback on lesson plans could be a suitable supplement to traditional feedback as it balances out critical aspects of generative AI systems. In a longitudinal study with 103 participants, an experimental group received AI feedback on the lesson plans they developed throughout a semester, while a control group received human feedback. Results indicate that AI feedback can match or surpass human feedback in some dimensions, improving planning aspects like certain content-related sustainability aspects, action orientation, relatedness or even technology use, lesson structure, and learner engagement. Besides the integration of didactic planning dimensions into the lesson plans, this study looked at student motivation, self-reported AI literacy, AI attitudes, self-efficacy with digital technologies and digital competences. Results of these meta-dimensions show that the mere use of AI does not automatically enhance AI literacy, change attitudes or improve motivation. The study suggests that as a consequence, analytical AI platforms can effectively supplement traditional feedback but should be used within a holistic framework.

The use of AI systems is rapidly gaining importance both in the professional world and in vocational education and training. As a result, (prospective) teachers are required to take a closer look at AI and its application for teaching and learning processes. This article focuses on the potential of AI to assist teachers in designing lessons based on the fundamentals and functions of AI. We explore the question of how an AI-based learning platform can be designed to help develop lesson planning skills. The AI platform EDDA will be presented, which can be used to analyze lesson plans and materials during studies, in the preparatory service and in teaching practice. EDDA provides feedback on the implementation of selected didactic criteria of lesson planning and provides information for reflection and further development of lesson plans. EDDA also provides an infrastructure for further research into teaching and learning with AI.

Learning analytics represent a promising approach for fostering personalized learning processes. Most applications of this technology currently do not use textual data for providing information on learning, or for deriving recommendations for further development. This paper presents the results of three studies aiming to make textual information usable. In the first study, the iota concept is introduced as a new content analysis measure to evaluate inter-coder reliability. The main advantage of this new concept is that it provides a reliability estimation for every single category, allowing deeper insight into the quality of textual analysis. The second study simulates the process of content analysis, comparing the new iota concept with well-established measures (e.g., Krippendorff's Alpha, percentage agreement). The results show that the new concept covers the true reliability of a coding scheme, and is not affected by the number of coders or categories, the sample size, or the distribution of data. Furthermore, cut-off values are derived for judging the quality of the analysis. The third study employs the new concept, as it analyzes the performance of different artificial intelligence (AI) approaches for interpreting textual data based on 90 different constructs. The texts used here were either created by apprentices, students, and pupils, or were taken from vocational textbooks. The paper shows that AI can reliably interpret textual information for learning purposes, and also provides recommendations for optimal AI configuration.

Learning analytics represent a promising approach for fostering personalized learning processes. Most applications of this technology currently do not use textual data for providing information on learning, or for deriving recommendations for further development. This paper presents the results of three studies aiming to make textual information usable. In the first study, the iota concept is introduced as a new content analysis measure to evaluate inter-coder reliability. The main advantage of this new concept is that it provides a reliability estimation for every single category, allowing deeper insight into the quality of textual analysis. The second study simulates the process of content analysis, comparing the new iota concept with well-established measures (e.g., Krippendorff’s alpha, percentage agreement). The results show that the new concept covers the true reliability of a coding scheme, and is not affected by the number of coders or categories, the sample size, or the distribution of data. Furthermore, cut-off values are derived for judging the quality of the analysis. The third study uses the new concept, analyzing the performance of different artificial intelligence (AI) approaches for interpreting textual data based on 90 different constructs. The texts used here were either created by apprentices, students, and pupils, or were taken from vocational textbooks. The paper shows that AI can reliably interpret textual information for learning purposes, and also provides recommendations for optimal AI configuration.

Die Berufsbildung für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung zielt darauf ab, die Bereitschaft und die Kompetenzen für nachhaltigkeitsorientiertes berufliches Handeln zu fördern. Bedingung dafür ist ein handlungswirksames Wissen. Der Beitrag beleuchtet vor diesem Hintergrund die Potenziale von Concept Maps zum Wissenserwerb und zur -strukturierung und in diesem Zuge Ergebnisse der Zusatzqualifikation für nachhaltiges Wirtschaften im Lebensmittelhandwerk „mach.werk“.

Achieving a sustainable economic system is a key challenge facing society. However, sustainable business to date has been only minimally considered when it comes to the requisites and curricula of business trainees. It generally has been left up to schools and teachers to provide their students with sustainable business skills. This involves creating teaching and training that effectively harmonize with learner requirements. To support teachers in this process, the following develops a sustainability-oriented innovation competence typology using a latent profile analysis based on data gathered from 1,149 business trainees who were in the first, second, or third year of their apprenticeship. This typology can be used to plan and develop classroom teaching. Competency assessment was done using a multiple-choice test along with a questionnaire to determine students’ beliefs about sustainable development. The latent profile analysis revealed six groups of learner competence profiles, each of which require specific teaching when it comes to achieving sustainable innovation skills. Based on these, the following paper develops recommendations for specific teaching methods and lessons that effectively promote business trainee sustainability-oriented innovation competence, while at the same time including their specific requirements into teaching.

Choosing a career is one of the most fundamental decisions for young people, both personally and socially. The family, as well as practical experience, continue to be important influencing factors. At the same time, new studies indicate that media also plays a role that should not be underestimated when choosing a career. However, it is hardly known how young people currently use the media that is relevant to them. Given this, the article analyzes the role of the application “Instagram” for the career selection process of 14 students in the semi-qualifying vocational school (business). The study shows that career aspirations are not triggered by Instagram, but that particular career aspirations originate from practical experience and family environment. The results further show that young people use Instagram to collect information about their career aspirations and that Instagram above all reinforces the pupils’ career aspirations. Especially for adolescents with only a secondary school certificate, Instagram creates a reinforcing spiral, as postulated for example by the social-cognitive theory of Lent, Brown and Hackett (1994). The article concludes that young people in classroom have to be informed about this reinforcement function of specific media.

Career choice depends on individual’s motives. Studies of the last decades investigate the motives of prospective teachers for general education. These studies take teachers for vocational education and training only rarely into account. Thus, the last study for teachers in vocational education and training was conducted in 2005. At that time teachers suffered from unemployment and studied within the old diploma structures. Today the Bachelor and Master structures are introduced and teachers are a scarce resource on the job market. Against this backdrop the current study updates insights into the career choices of teachers for vocational education and training. It confirms social orientation as leading motive but emphasizes the increasing relevance of economic criteria for becoming a teacher. The results emphasize the role of media in career choice and point to two groups of students which differ in the importance of chance for their career decision.

In-company trainers play an important role in the design of teaching-learning processes in companies. However, so far they have hardly been explicitly included in the strategic business model development of companies, with the result that potentials from the design of vocational and post-vocational training and education remain untapped in order to cope with major transformations. In addition, there is a large discrepancy between the regulatory possibilities of didactic-methodical professionalization and the actual realization of this claim. Against this background, the article develops the actual didactic-methodological self-image and the professional perspectives for the implementation of sustainable development based on the data of 253 training specialists. The article identifies that the understanding of sustainability predominantly ends at the company’s own borders and is hardly associated with strategic business model development. In addition, the trainers show a rather traditional didactic-methodical self-image, although they emphasize the importance of independent learning and independent participation in fundamental questions of training. In the data, efforts to further professionalize the trainers can be seen.

Die Berufsbildung für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung (BBNE) ist als zentrales Zukunftsprogramm einzuordnen, das Beiträge für eine sozial, ökologisch und ökonomisch verantwortliche Gesellschaft und Ökonomie leistet. Mit der BBNE sollen Lernende und Lehrende zur kompetenten Mitgestaltung einer nachhaltigen Zukunft sensibilisiert, motiviert und befähigt werden. Notwendige Voraussetzungen dafür sind, die betrieblichen und schulischen Lernorte an der Nachhaltigkeitsidee auszurichten und die Mitgestaltungschancen der Individuen zu verbessern. Damit kann die BBNE zugleich die Persönlichkeitsentwicklung, berufliche Sozialisation und Beschäftigungsfähigkeit der beruflich Lernenden für die Zukunft stärken. Obwohl entsprechende Fragestellungen zur BBNE seit Anfang der 2000er-Jahre verstärkt im Rahmen von Modellversuchsforschung, Entwicklungsforschung und vereinzelt auch grundständigen empirischen Studien bearbeitet wurden, ist es jedoch (noch) nicht gelungen, nachhaltige Entwicklung zu einem integrativen Bestandteil der Berufsbildungspraxis und zu einem Kernarbeitsfeld der Berufsbildungsforschung zu machen. Der Beitrag skizziert zunächst konzeptuelle Grundlagen, Rahmensetzungen und Handlungsfelder der BBNE. Danach wird der für die BBNE zentrale Diskurs um Kompetenzen für nachhaltige Entwicklung dargelegt.

The sustainable development of a society demands companies to initiate innovation processes and to acquire the necessary innovation competence. The current paper presents a model for describing such a competence as part of the professional action competence of employees. Based on this model the paper reports the development of instruments for measuring the knowledge and the beliefs about the source, structure, applicability, certainty, and justification of knowledge in sustainable business administration (epistemic beliefs). For assessing the knowledge in sustainable business administration a multiple-choice test is developed comprising 15 tasks. A study with 101 students reveals that the new test is in line with the properties and assumptions of a Rasch model. For measuring the beliefs about knowledge in sustainable business administration a questionnaire is developed. Based on a survey of 292 students the questionnaire reveals high reliabilities (about .800) and discriminant validity. A third study with 1,149 commercial apprentices confirms the properties and factor structure of the new questionnaire. The results reveal that learners differ in their knowledge about sustainable business administration depending on their specific profession. While the year of training does not influence apprentices’ knowledge their beliefs about the structure and certainty of knowledge in sustainable business administration explain about 12 % of the variation in sustainable business administration knowledge.

Der Beitrag berichtet über ein Konzept zur Implementierung forschenden Lernens in der Ausbildung von angehenden Lehrkräften an berufsbildenden Schulen im Rahmen eines Kompetenzentwicklungsportfolios. Das Portfoliokonzept wird regelhaft im Bachelor und Master eingesetzt und verbindet beide Studienabschnitte miteinander. Es zielt auf die Beförderung der (Selbst-) Reflexionsfähigkeit ab und widmet sich in Teilen explizit dem forschenden Lernen. So werden in einem Bachelormodul die Studierenden systematisch darin unterstützt, eigene Forschungsskizzen zu erstellen, diese zu begründen und zur Diskussion zu stellen. Im Master wird in einem Praxismodul konkret an diese Forschungsskizzen angeknüpft. Hier entwickeln und erproben die Studierenden konkrete Erhebungsinstrumente und Auswertungsverfahren. Die in beiden Modulen gewonnenen Einsichten fließen wiederum in die Planung und Durchführung einer empirischen Masterarbeit ein. Das Kompetenzentwicklungsportfolio dient dabei der Institutionalisierung und Verstetigung von Reflexionsanlässen über die verschiedenen Module, sodass eine kontinuierliche (Weiter-)Entwicklung der (Selbst-)Reflexionsfähigkeit sichergestellt werden kann. Es begleitet und unterstützt somit die Studierenden beim forschenden Lernen, indem durch das Hinterfragen der eigenen Forschungsaktivitäten eine (selbst-)reflexive Haltung befördert wird.

This article presents the results of a three-year (Nov. 2010–Dec. 2013) model test that was part of the “Occupational Training for a Sustainable Development” program sponsored by the German Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training). It was conducted by the University of Oldenburg’s department of vocational training and business education jointly with the Bundestechnologiezentrum für Elektro- und Informationstechnik e. V. (BFE) (Federal Center for Electrical Engineering and Information Technology). The model test pursued two different, albeit connected research approaches: a concept-development and a theory-modelling approach. The first one successfully developed, implemented and evaluated the unique, flexible and modularized renewable energies/energy efficiency specialist advanced training as defined by §42a of the German Chamber of Crafts’ trade and crafts code. The second stream of theory-modelling complemented this by gaining well-founded insight that helps to describe and explain how exactly an occupational training works for sustainable development in professions operating in the energy sector.

In this paper we describe the development of scales for assessing learners' beliefs about learning in biology. The scales can be used for conducting scientific studies or diagnosing learning prerequisites. The paper argues that reliable instruments for assessing beliefs about knowledge, knowing and learning are still missing. The need to differentiate between beliefs about knowledge and knowing on the one hand and beliefs about learning on the other hand is lined out. Based on a literature review, scales measuring the beliefs about ability, effort, and speed to learn are developed. 363 teacher students for biology and nature and life (Sachunterricht) participated in the study. Factor analyses provide evidence for the assumed beliefs about learning. All scales reach high values for Cronbach's a ranging between .71 and .86. Discriminant validity of the scales is proved by the strict Fornell-Larcker-Criterion. The paper draws conclusions for further scale development.