Research on teacher knowledge has been criticised for taking too narrow a view on expertise. Therefore, teacher competence frameworks have been developed that are closely related to professional demands. Their practice-oriented conceptualisations have led to innovative measures with situative demands. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on whether these frameworks are actually suited to map teacher growth. This study investigated whether two components of teacher competence, Action-related (AC) and Reflective Competence (RC), can be differentially fostered through specific interventions in early childhood mathematics education. We designed two professional development programmes with a focus on AC and RC and implemented them in a randomised controlled experiment with 170 teachers. Overall, we found that AC, RC, and professional knowledge were sensitive to interventions with different change profiles. Although our hypotheses were only partially supported, the results can be seen as evidence regarding the distinctness of competence and knowledge components.

Zusammenfassung: Die interdisziplinäre Kooperation von sonderpädagogischen Lehrkräften und Regellehrkräften wird seit den ersten Schulversuchen zur schulischen Integration bzw. Inklusion in den 1980-iger Jahren als eine zentrale Notwendigkeit von inklusivem Unterricht oder sogar als conditio sine qua non betrachtet. Ob Kooperation aber Inklusion tatsächlich wirksam verbessert, lässt sich bisher kaum beurteilen. Auf der einen Seite fehlen präzise und eindeutige Theorien zu Wirkmechanismen der interdisziplinären Kooperation von Lehrkräften, die erklären könnten, was genau die Wirksamkeitsannahme von Kooperation begründet. Auf der anderen Seite zeigt die Durchsicht empirischer Studien zur Wirksamkeit der Kooperation, dass die Befundlage – anders als in der einschlägigen Inklusionsliteratur dargestellt – ausgesprochen dünn ist. Deshalb plädiert der vorliegende Artikel, Theorien zur Kooperation von Lehrkräften im inklusiven Unterricht zu präzisieren und gezielte empirische Wirksamkeitsstudien zu deren Überprüfung durchzuführen. Hierfür werden Ansatzpunkte skizziert.

Adaptive learning support is a key element of high quality preschool education and includes the planning of learning situations and teacher–child interactions. The provision of effective adaptive learning support in kindergarten is challenging. This longitudinal experimental study examined the impact of two professional development programs on 132 kindergarten teachers. One program focused on teacher–child interactions (micro-adaptive learning support), the other on planning, preparation, and reflection (macro-adaptive learning support). Each program had a positive impact on the quality of the specific type of adaptive mathematical learning support provided by kindergarten teachers, macro or micro, it was designed to improve.

The purpose of this study was to identify the different profiles and patterns of progress in numerical skills of 6- to 10-year-old elementary school students with mild or moderate intellectual disability (ID). A standardised test of numerical and arithmetic skills was administered to 57 students with ID at the beginning and at the end of a school year. A cluster analysis was conducted with the participants’ numerical skills at Time 1 and Time 2. Four groups of children which exhibited significantly distinct profiles at the beginning of the school year were identified: (1) children with inconsistent basic numerical skills with numbers up to 10, (2) children with basic numerical skills with numbers up to 10, (3) children with numerical skills with numbers up to 20, (4) children with numerical skills with numbers up to 100 and arithmetic skills. The group of children with inconsistent basic numerical skills with numbers up to 10 did not progress significantly during the school year. In contrast, most children with the second, third and fourth profile extended their numerical skills to larger number domains (respectively up to 20, 100 or 1000) during the school year. The implications of these findings are discussed.

This study investigated the differences between the mathematical profiles of primary school pupils with intellectual disabilities (ID) enrolled in inclusive classrooms and those enrolled in special schools. It also considered whether the instructional setting has an impact on mathematical achievement gain. The mathematical achievement of 100 pupils with ID in inclusive classrooms (group^INCLUSIVE, n = 44) and special schools (group^SPECIAL, n = 56) was assessed at the beginning and the end of one school year. The results show that pupils with ID have a different mathematical profile in each setting. More of the pupils with very low mathematical achievement were enrolled in special schools and they made little progress over the course of the year. More of the pupils with ID who had computational skills were in inclusive classrooms. Due to large differences in age, IQ, and prior mathematical achievement between the two groups, a sample of matched pairs with one pupil from each setting was selected (n = 44). Regression analysis showed that the inclusive setting had a small positive effect on mathematical achievement gain after nine months. The study provides evidence that inclusive education is beneficial for the mathematical achievement gain of pupils with ID.