Mathematics

Figure 4: Course Participants (all courses)
3 Evaluation results
If it is about implementing internal innovations or pursuing development of
teaching in schools in a sustainable manner, the relevant findings from work or
organisational psychology should be taken into account by all means. In
particular: “[… the motivation of the persons concerned, their willingness to
really get involved with changes, to convert intentions into action, and to
develop an attitude of responsibility” depend largely on “how their emotional
state is being dealt with].” (Doppler et al. 2002). Krüger (2002) describes this
desired process with the two stages of an acceptance of attitude and an
acceptance of behaviour. First of all, the actors of changes must gain positive
experience with an explanatory model for the relevant phenomena within their
own practical knowledge. Positive balances between stimuli and contributions
within an activated decision model will then lead to an acceptance of
behaviour.
A study entitled “Professionalisation of teachers in the online age – conception
and evaluation of online training courses for mathematics teachers” (project
WOLF) was conducted over the four six-month courses in 2011 and 2012
offered by us (cf. Szymanski & Bruder 2012). There, the following aspects
relating to the “four levels of evaluation” (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick 2006) were
examined by means of a newly developed questionnaire:
• Acceptance of courses offered
• Growth of knowledge (subjective assessment by teaching staff)
• Transfer (Testing the course contents in class? Inherent part of own
teaching? Is there any intention to keep integrating the course contents
into own teaching?), and
• Sustainability of courses.
The first two levels relate to an acceptance of attitude, the latter two to an
acceptance of behaviour.
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