Teacher Professionalization in Higher Education through Geographic Modeling Competence

This work is intended to contribute to the professionalization of prospective geography teachers. It assesses existing deficits and develops how student teachers' ability to reflect on their subject matter can be systematically promoted. For this purpose, a competency model is developed and tested in practical use that explicitly describes the ability to model geographically and thus enables systematic promotion and evaluation of geographic modeling competence. The novelty of this work consists of (1) the systematic and standardized assessment and discussion of pre-service geography teachers' self-assessed ESD competencies, (2) the development of a subject-specific competency model for geographic modeling, and (3) results for the holistic and application-oriented promotion of modeling skills in the context of a course, in which student groups deal with theoretical, practical and technical problems. The methodical research approach required the complex integration of quantitative and qualitative theoretical approaches in a multiphase mixed methods design. The empirical data collection took place in university geography teaching, the theoretical derivation and embedding on the data basis of national educational goals and the international state of research. This research method made it possible to achieve the methodological and conceptual progress summarized below concerning geographic modeling competence, which is empirically and theoretically justified and has proven itself in practice. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has become an important benchmark in geography lessons and embodies the interdisciplinary geographic approach. The competence self-assessment was comprehensively surveyed among pre-service geography teachers enrolled in Marburg (n=100) in the field of ESD and in relation to the training modules in a cross-sectional study to identify whether and, if so, what action is required. The varying correlation of positive competence self-assessments with the var-ious modules shows that active learning settings, such as field and school internships, are perceived as increasing competence. The self-assessed competence increased most in the knowledge dimension over the entire study course. However, personal and social skills in self-assessment do not rise through the study course. Since personal skills are also essential for scientific work and should be encouraged during teacher training, the subsequent studies focused on the action-centered promotion of scientific working methods. The very high assessment of their own level of competence suggests that the students overestimate themselves. The development of differentiated competency models, which formulate levels within competence dimensions, can enable targeted and reflective support and thus also help to more realistic self-assessments. Although modeling is mandatory in geography research and also in geography school lessons, for example, for systemic thinking, the analysis of existing concepts revealed a gap. The subsequently developed competence model for geographical modeling systematically integrates the defined geography education goals of the DGfG with the findings of science education research. It hierarchically arranges the complex modeling task in levels along with the system components structure, function, and process. The competence dimensions are defined by the model-ing practices design, use, evaluate, and revise. The competency model provides a framework for promoting action competence, which is of paramount importance within education for sustainable development, and at the same time focuses on a central geography-specific practice. On this conceptual basis, a course for students (bachelor and teaching post) on computer-based geographic modeling with NetLogo was developed in a design-based research approach. The combination of technology and modeling in teaching enables an authentic research-based approach that realistically conveys geographic practices since geographic modeling in science is always computer-based. Interviews with the partici-pating groups accompanied the course (n=15), and the final reports and final models were analyzed for their level of competence based on the competence model. The results show heterogeneity in the learning process of the student groups, which can be grouped into four types of learning, regardless of the study program. Almost 50% of students stagnate given technical and conceptual challenges. The other half develop geographic modeling skills to varying degrees. Overall, particularly successful groups already had well-developed skills for conceptual thinking before the course and were able to expand them successfully according to the new requirements. This result emphasizes the im-portance of continuous competence development throughout the educational path.