LEAD Graduate School & Research Network

Communication, Advice and Application

As well as undertaking excellent research and developing new talent in innovative ways, LEAD’s third key role is in knowledge transfer. In 2012 LEAD established the LEADing Research Center (LRC) explicitly for this purpose, and it is now a mainstay, supporting the members with its Schule & Wissenschaft [School & Science] cooperation program and with focused science communications. LEAD’s activities are wide ranging, covering the areas defined by the German Science Council “communication, advice and application”.

Communication: in dialogue with the target groups

LEAD.schule - One portal for politics and practical application

The University of Tübingen’s portal LEAD.schule aims to make findings from educational research comprehensible and accessible to all scientists from LEAD present their studies and latest results of their work here, sometimes as short blog features enabling a dialog – about self-regulation or quality of teaching through to learning difficulties and exceptional abilities.

Lecture Series - „Beyond Ideology and Gut Feeling“

On the University of Tübingen’s Studium Generale, LEAD members introduce education from the perspective of various research disciplines such as neurosciences, biology, psychology, sports science and sociology. At the same time, they cover various levels: from that of individual school students through classes and schools to society as a whole. Around 1,500 listeners attended the eleven lectures in the series "Jenseits von Ideologie and Bauchgefühl: Empirische Bildungs- forschung erforscht, wie Bildung gelingt [Beyond Ideology and Gut Feeling: empirical educational research into successful education]".

Schule & Wissenschaft cooperation program

As a section of the LEADing Research Center Schule & Wissenschaft [School & Science] aims to promote the exchange between educational research and educational practice. The goal is to reduce the gulf between the two – or ideally overcome it – and expand areas where they overlap. LEAD launched the Schule & Wissenschaft cooperation program back in 2013. Working with schools in the region has built up a long-term, trusting network of partners and a unique form of research cooperation that benefits both sides: on the one hand, this benefits educational research by providing real-life issues and ideas from scholastic practice as well as schools that are fundamentally willing to take part in LEAD studies; on the other, it also benefits LEAD partner schools by contributing pedagogic findings to be incorporated into everyday teaching; and the two together through the assurance that they are improving educational processes for everyone involved in education. The first LEAD partner school signed the cooperation agreement in 2013; by summer 2022 there were already 27 partner schools of all kinds.

LEAD Day of Science and online lecture series

Since the early days, Schule & Wissenschaft has organized opportunities for exchange and knowledge transfer: initially these included school-related lectures and the annual LEAD Day of Science training event, later in 2017 these were joined by the LEAD.schule.News newsletter and in 2021 with “Insights into School Practice”, a new format for LEAD’s junior academics.

The online lecture series LErnforschung Auf Distanz reached several hundred people in winter 2020/21 and along with the annual LEAD Day of Science which took place in spring 2022 with 200 participants made a major contribution to the profile of LEAD and the schools cooperation program. It also boosted the LEAD.schule.News newsletter, which had 40 subscribers at the start of 2017 and which today reaches more than 900 people in educational practice, policy and research.

Advise: Evidence as a guideline

LEAD members contribute to debates at all levels of the political system. Based on their research findings, they advise ministries and associations at the national and international level, for example, and work closely with the Institute for Educational Analysis Baden-Württemberg (IBBW) and the Center for School Quality and Teacher Education (ZSL).

LEAD co-director Ulrike Cress was appointed to the newly established Standing Scientific Commission of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs in 2021, whose task is to advise the states of Germany on the further development of the education system. Since 2018, she has been deputy chairwoman of the Deutsche Telekom Foundation, which promotes good education in the digital world.

Ulrich Trautwein, also LEAD co-director, has been chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2017, which accompanies the re-organization of the quality development of the school system of Baden-Württemberg. From 2011 to 2018, he was also a member, including four years as chairman, of the Scientific Advisory Board, which advises the federal and state governments on issues relating to the performance of the education system in an international comparison.

Apply: From research directly into practice

The scientific support of Hector Kinderakademien (Hector Children's Academies), a program for particularly gifted and highly talented elementary school children, is a prime example of how research findings can find their way directly into practice. In close cooperation with colleagues from various disciplines and course instructors from the field, LEAD scientists develop the so-called Hector Core Courses - based on new findings from psychology and teaching quality research. The courses are then implemented at Hector Kinderakademien, evaluated and their promotional effect tested.

Scientific findings also flow directly into practice at Jugend präsentiert, an educational initiative of the Klaus Tschira Foundation in cooperation with Wissenschaft im Dialog and the Presentation Skills Research Center at the Seminar for General Rhetoric. The nationwide competition is designed to promote students' presentation skills, primarily in mathematics and science classes. Training courses are offered to participating students, which are developed and evaluated by LEAD members. They also design the teaching materials, which are freely available to all schools, and offer numerous different training opportunities (including multiplier training) for teachers.