Conference Agenda

Being able to learn independently is indispensable for successfully organizing your time at university. Individual learners are influenced by the teaching practices in higher education, which are often primarily shaped by university lecturers. However, ideas about the design and requirements of self-study often remain vague for this group (Gerber, 2023). One way to address this challenge is to familiarize lecturers with different conceptual understandings and design dimensions of self-study, particularly in light of the fact that the German-speaking scientific discourse on concepts of self-study has so far been largely independent of the rich theoretical and empirical work on related concepts such as self-directed, self-regulated, and self-organized learning (e.g. Dyrna, 2021). Thematizing own ideas and concepts of self-study, especially from an international comparative perspective, seems to open up new opportunities to contribute to the further development of self-study in the European Higher Education Area. Such thematization and reflection were undertaken with lecturers from Germany and Ukraine as part of three workshops on higher education didactics.

Based on the theoretical assumption that metaphors, in particular, have an influence on thinking, speaking, and action (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003), the hypothesis can be derived that the metaphors used by university lecturers to describe self-study reflect their ideas of academic teaching and learning and have an impact on their didactic activities. Lakoff and Johnson (2003) propose that our "unreflected everyday actions [Author's translation.]" and our "everyday language [Author's translation.]" are largely structured by metaphorical concepts. In the following, a metaphor is understood as a transfer of meaning "from one area to another" (Schmitt, 2017, p. 39). A "metaphorical concept" is a bundling of corresponding individual metaphorical phrases and formulations (Schmitt, 2017). Rau and Kosubski (2019) view metaphors in learning and educational contexts as having the potential to express individual and collective ideas about specific topics linguistically and to make them accessible for reflection because they "bundle specific individual or cultural patterns of thought, perception, feeling, and action [Author's translation.]" (Schmitt, 2017, p. 52). The reconstruction of metaphorical concepts opens up opportunities for reflection regarding the linguistic means of one's own didactic expressiveness as well as the everyday language of certain target groups (Rau & Kosubski, 2019). The potential of metaphors as tools for reflection is being discussed and examined, particularly in the English- and German-speaking debate in higher education didactics (e.g. Ekoç-Özçelik 2022; Scharlau, 2020; Bager-Elsborg & Greve 2019; Wegner & Nückles, 2013; Visser-Wijnveen et al., 2009).

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the perceptions and beliefs of university lecturers regarding the concept of self-study through the use of metaphors. In pursuit of this overarching goal, the research addresses the following questions:

• Which metaphors do university lecturers employ to depict self-study?
• How do university teachers conceptualize their role as educators in the context of self-study with respect to the chosen metaphors?
• What disparities exist in the metaphors and interpretations between teachers in Ukraine and Germany?

By the the age of Uncertainty I understand the knot of recently experienced: economic crises, global warming, pandemics, technological development, wars, and mass migrations. All these contribute to the necessity of posing the question on the aim of education again.

My research question is: how do adults, who are directly responsible for children’s development, (i.e. parents and teachers), understand the aim of preschool education and their role in it? What values, attitudes and competences they find fundamental in that regard, and how they define them.

I place special emphasis on preschool education. Evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that experiences from birth through age 5 are critical to children’s development (Wechsler, 2016). At the same time, preschool children are unknowingly thrown into education and these are adults who are responsible for delivering the best possible raising up conditions.

On one hand, research indicates important elements of high-quality early childhood education programs. These include, among others:

• early learning standards and curricula that address the whole child, are developmentally appropriate, and are effectively implemented, assessments that consider children’s academic;

• social-emotional, and physical progress and contribute to instructional and program planning well-prepared teachers who provide engaging interactions and classroom environments that support learning;

• meaningful family engagement.

These high-quality building blocks should be the foundation of any early childhood education system (Wechsler, 2016).

On the other hand, there is a gap between academic research and the way that preschool education is organised and provided in different countries.

Also, the growing consensus that preschool quality matters greatly for children’s outcomes focuses mainly on school entry readiness and academic achievement over the subsequent four years (Newman, 2022).

Various schools that are providing early childhood education have been found exceeding their limits and putting unnecessary pressure and academic burden on pre-schoolers by stressing on formal teaching of reading, writing and number work. These practices appear to have encouraged parents to subject children in the age-group of 3-6 years to the pressure of formal education.

It is very important for both parents and teachers to understand that they have a valuable contribution to make towards development of children at early years without burdening the young mind.

My expected outcome is to unveil parents’ and teachers' Subjective Concepts of Meanings of aims of preschool education.

Capturing the differences and similarities in the subjective perception of reality can be used to redefine the role of the preschool teachers, refresh curriculum and teaching methods.

Outcomes need to be compiled with the current interdisciplinary research and core curricilum which indicates the purpose of preschool education, the preventive and educational tasks of a preschool education setting and the results of the tasks achieved by children at the end of preschool education