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The motto of a knowledge society is: Life-Long Learning - as children and adolescents in school, as young adults during vocational education or at university, and as adults in continuing and further education. The empirical educational sciences provide the theoretical background and the methods to verify theoretical models empirically.

Scientific discussions focus on teaching methods, motivation to learn, training expertise, decisions and inequalities in education, returns on education, and heterogeneity. Both on a national and international level there are numerous contacts with research institutions and a close cooperation with experts in practice to analyze the processes of learning from elementary school to adult age.

One of the most recent priorities in research and teaching is inclusive pedagogics. The Federal State of Brandenburg is committed to an inclusive school system. On this account, five new professors for inclusive pedagogics were appointed. The degree program for primary teachers specializing in inclusive pedagogics was started in the winter semester 2013/14. The cooperation with the research focuses in educational, cognitive, and linguistic sciences creates the best conditions for this program.

Another interesting aspect is the interdisciplinary cooperation with the health sciences. Experience gained in disabled sports and rehabilitation, sports, music, and arts provide good therapeutic concepts that are integrated into the teacher training focusing on inclusive pedagogics. An accompanying study has been started to evaluate counselling and further training at the pilot schools.

The empirical studies go beyond a single discipline, and so it is self-evident that education specialists, pedagogues, sociologists, and psychologists conduct collaborative research. Issues in society become issues in scholarship, for example in investigating why so many teenagers in Brandenburg drop out of school or how children of immigrants can learn German better so that they are not excluded from educational opportunities. Understanding language as a key to all other learning processes leads to cooperation with the cognitive sciences. A joint project is investigating how urban youth language affects the way students of Turkish background learn in school.

Building on a long tradition of teacher training in Potsdam, many research projects are directly connected to institutional learning processes. Currently, there are two priorities: Life-long Learning and School and Classroom . With empirically supported knowledge and verified methods, Potsdam's scholars want to contribute to the national educational discourse. Collaboration with international partners is being further expanded.

One of the most recent priorities in research and teaching is inclusive pedagogics. The Federal State of Brandenburg is committed to an inclusive school system. On this account, five new professors for inclusive pedagogics were appointed. The degree program for primary teachers specializing in inclusive pedagogics was started in the winter semester 2013/14. The cooperation with the research focuses in educational, cognitive, and linguistic sciences creates the best conditions for this program.

Another interesting aspect is the interdisciplinary cooperation with the health sciences. Experience gained in disabled sports and rehabilitation, sports, music, and arts provide good therapeutic concepts that are integrated into the teacher training focusing on inclusive pedagogics. An accompanying study has been started to evaluate counselling and further training at the pilot schools.