TESOL Research Projects
There are currently two ongoing research projects, one about digital feedback methods and the other one about the development of activities for the teaching of culture.
Please also visit Jun.-Prof. Dr. Schluer’s external website, ResearchGate profile, Instagram channel and YouTube channel for recent updates.
Digital learning and teaching have gained in importance in the past years. But what about digital feedback? Less attention has been paid to it even though feedback is crucial for the learning process. Dr. Jennifer Schluer has therefore investigated digital feedback methods since 2018, specifically screencast feedback (SCFB). This is an asynchronous audiovisual feedback method in which assessors record their computer screen and accompanying audio in order to provide explanations, corrections and suggestions for scaffolding the self-regulated learning process. A brief introduction can be found here.
In order to foster the required skills among the future teachers, Dr. Schluer has developed a peer SCFB approach which she implements in her seminars. She continuously evaluates the data from multiple perspectives in order to derive practical suggestions based on her empirical insights.
In addition, she has published a book about Digital Feedback Methods (Schluer, 2022). It presents and discusses fifteen digital feedback methods, including feedback in text editors, cloud documents, chats, blogs, forums, wikis, surveys, polls, e-mails, automated written feedback, as well as multimodal feedback in video conferences and recorded audio, video and screencast feedback.
For her work in this area, Dr. Schluer received a Digital Fellowship by the Saxon State Ministry for Research, Culture and Tourism (Sächsisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Kultur und Tourismus, SMWK) in 2021/22 and was nominated as a Digital Change Agent in 2022/23. Her follow-up project, “Pedagogical guidance for the use of digital feedback: Digital feedback map (DFM)”, was funded by the Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre (09/2022-11/2023). It aimed at developing a Digital Feedback Map that teachers and students can use to learn more about different digital feedback methods and to assist them in their implementation. Owing to this funding, it was possible to conduct course research and to expand the Digital Feedback Map through hands-on manuals and video tutorials as well as four additional digital feedback methods (i.e. 19 instead of 15). Furthermore, Dr. Schluer hosted a Digital Feedback Conference in June 2023.
As an important product, the edited volume "Digital feedback in higher education: Teaching practices, student voices, and research findings" (Schluer, 2024) provides insights into the DFM project and contains contributions from several conference participants. It is freely available online (open access).
In interdisciplinary and international projects, Dr. Schluer has expanded the previously gained knowledge. For instance, she has co-authored a handbook article on transdisciplinary feedback literacy. Moreover, together with Dr. Brück-Hübner, she has worked on a scoping review of feedback interventions in higher education and created an Interactive Feedback Taxonomy that provides guidance and inspirations for the planning of feedback activities. Through a Transfer Fellowship granted by the SMWK (04/2024-11/2024), it was possible to create German-language versions of both the Digital Feedback Map and the Interactive Feedback Taxonomy as well as to explore their interdisciplinary applicability. In collaboration with her transfer partner, Prof. Dr. Monique Meier (Didactics of Biology, TU Dresden), she has also held interdisciplinary symposia as well as a workshop for higher education staff.
For her highly student-centered teaching fostering a collaborative learning culture within digital environments, Dr. Schluer received the Award for Excellent Teaching in 2024.
Language learning and culture learning are closely intertwined. Given the status of English as an international language and widely used lingua franca, these interconnections deserve special consideration. In fact, speakers with diverse linguistic and cultural repertoires might have different linguistic and cultural conceptualizations in their minds that could lead to mis- or non-understanding during a communicative event. In English language teaching, it is therefore essential to raise learners’ awareness of potentially differing cultural conceptualizations and to equip them with useful strategies for intercultural encounters. In that regard, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Schluer is specifically interested in the development of teaching approaches to raise cultural awareness, encourage reflection and develop interaction skills. Please see her publication on metacultural competence as well her doctoral dissertation for more information. Further publications on culture teaching will appear from 2025 onwards (see list of recent works).