Understanding and knowledge of scientific reasoning skills is a key ability of pre-service teachers. In a written survey (open response format), biology and chemistry pre-service teachers (n = 51) from two German universities claimed central decisions or actions school students have to perform in scientific reasoning in the open inquiry instruction of an experiment. The participants’ answers were assessed in a quality content analysis using a rubric system generated from a theoretical background. Instruments in a closed response format were used to measure attitudes towards the importance of diagnostics in teacher training and the domain-specific expectations of self-efficacy. The pre-service teacher lacked pedagogical (didactics) content knowledge about potential student difficulties and also exhibited a low level of content methodological (procedural) knowledge. There was no correlation between the knowledge of student difficulties and the approach to experimenting with expectations of self-efficacy for diagnosing student abilities regarding scientific reasoning. Self-efficacy expectations concerning their own abilities to successfully cope with general and experimental diagnostic activities were significantly lower than the attitude towards the importance of diagnostics in teacher training. The results are discussed with regard to practical implications as they imply that scientific reasoning should be promoted in university courses, emphasising the importance of understanding the science-specific procedures (knowing how) and epistemic constructs in scientific reasoning (knowing why).

By means of slow-motion film analysis we found new female refusal behaviour patterns against male harassment in a variety of Odonata species. Often, females could escape simply by flying faster than males. Due to the morphological preconditions, there were differences in the two suborders. In Anisoptera, several behavioural specialities were analysed: (a) females of Aeshna cyanea, which oviposit solitarily and endophytically, clung to the substrate with great force when being pulled away by attacking males. (b) Anax imperator females showed a very fast, characteristic bending of the abdomen causing sudden U-turns for escape. (c) Solitary Libellula quadrimaculata females flew loops to escape pursuing males or to shake them off. They either used the impact of the crashing male for the turning moment or they generated it themselves by an abrupt change of the wing beat direction. In Zygoptera we investigated different Calopteryx species, which all oviposit alone. Fleeing was most common but wing clapping, not cooperating to build a tandem, tandem separation, fast diving for submerged oviposition and threatening and attacking the male were also documented. Fast water current prevented submerged oviposition by Calopteryx xanthostoma and increased refusal behaviour by females.

Während die Akzeptanz und positive Wirkung videofallbasierten Lernens empirisch belegt ist (Schrader et al. 2010), ist die Frage, unter welchen Bedingungen wissenschaftlich abgesicherte Videofallarbeitskonzepte in die Aus- und Weiterbildungspraxis von (angehenden) Lehrpersonen integriert werden können, wenig untersucht (Digel und Hetfleisch 2013). In der vorliegenden Studie werden aus authentischen Experimentierphasen von Schülerinnen und Schülern in Kleingruppen im naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht interaktive Videovignetten erstellt, die in Lehrveranstaltungen im Master eingesetzt sowie zur individuellen Nutzung auf einer Lehr-Lernplattform zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Die Studierenden beobachten, beschreiben und analysieren die videografierten Situationen im Event-Sampling und entwickeln Handlungsalternativen. Sie nutzen hierbei ein Kategoriensystem, das auf dem SDDS-Modell basiert (Klahr und Dunbar 1988; Klahr 2000). Die Analysen der Studierenden werden mit Expertenratings verglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass auf Basis dieser videobasierten Lerngelegenheiten die Diagnosekompetenz von Lehramtsstudierenden der naturwissenschaftlichen Fächer in Bezug auf die experimentellen Problemlösefähigkeiten von Schülerinnen und Schülern bereits in der universitären Ausbildungsphase angebahnt werden kann. Die einzelfallgestützte, qualitative Auswertung der Lernprozessanalysen zeigt eine zunehmende Reflexionsbreite, die jedoch noch nicht durchgängig am SDDS-Modell bzw. Kategoriensystem begründet wird (Reflexionstiefe).