Name: Winnie-Karen Giera

Expertise: Adolescent & (Inter-)Disciplinary Literacy, Digital Literacy

Country: Germany

 

 

Fields of expertise:

As a scholarship holder of the Stiftung Begabtenförderung Berufliche Bildung, she  completed  her Master  of  Education  in  German  and  Political  Education  at  Leuphana  University  in Lüneburg  in  2013.  During her studies she took part in the COST-Action-Conferences European Research Network: Learning to Write Effectively in Potsdam 2011 as well as in Poitiers 2012. She was able to participate as a scholarship holder at the European Cost Training School Mastering Eye and Pen software for studying handwriting in real time in Poitiers. The international working atmosphere sparked her research idea to digitally examine writing processes. Afterwards,  she  conducted her  PhD  project  part-time  at  the  Institute  for  German Language,  Literature  and  Didactics  until  defending  in  April  2019.  Her  doctoral  dissertation  was  an intervention study of ninth-graders and vocational school students in a career-oriented writing project at  several  secondary  and  vocational  schools. She analyzed the digital writing processes and products with an keylogging program. This  work  received  an  award  from  the  Faculty  of Education  in  2019.  Parallel  to  her  doctorate  and  teaching  assignments, she  completed  the  2nd  state examination  for secondary-school teaching in Verden with distinction at the  beginning of 2015. The next  stage  of  her career  began  at  the  integrated  secondary  school  Jungfernheide  in  Berlin,  before she changed  to  the  Theodor-Fontane-Oberschule  in  Ketzin/Havel  and  became  a  civil  servant.  There, she taught German, Politics and vocational orientation in the subject Economics-Work-Technology. She was also a class teacher for a mixed-ability inclusive class for several years. Due to her numerous literacy projects with extracurricular institutions from the political, economic and cultural fields, she was recognized for the Teacher of the Year Award by the State of Brandenburg in 2017.  Since 2021, she has been appointed as a junior professor (tenure-track) at the University of Potsdam. Her current research projects are interdisciplinary interventions studies with adolescent students  to promote  writing,  reading,  debating  and  dramatic  play  skills. Her focus is on students  with and  without  language-support needs in inclusive learning stettings in interdisciplinary school projects.

Research Interests:

• Diagnostics of reading and writing behavior of adolescent students
• Competency-oriented writing tasks for lower secondary level
• Promoting reading and writing skills in inclusive learning settings
• Diagnostics and promotion of (meta-) cognitive skills in writing and reading
• Self-regulated writing and learning
• Digitally supported writing and reading tasks in inclusive learning settings
• Professional, cultural and political participation of young people through communication training

Institution/Country:

Dr. Winnie-Karen Giera is a Junior Professor for German Didactics in an Inclusive Context/Focus on Language and Communication (Secondary Level I) at the University of Potsdam. She belongs to the Faculty of Philosophy, Institute for German Studies, and teachs literary education in inclusive learning settings with adolescent students. She earned her bachelor’s degree, master’s and doctorate from the the Leuphana University in Lüneburg. 

Languages: German, English, Latin

Membership and functions in professional organizations:

• European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, EARLI SIG 12 Writing and 15 Special Educational Needs (member)
• The International Association for Research in L1 Education, ARLE, SIG Literacies: Reading, Writing & Oracies (member)
• Center of Teacher Training and Education Research at the University of Potsdam, ZeLB (chairperson for the working group Das Potsdamer Inklusionsdidaktische Unterrichtsmodell)
• Potsdam Library Society (member)
• Society for Writing Didactics and Writing Research e.V., Gefsus (chairperson for the SIG Schreiben in der Schule)
• Symposium Deutschdidaktik e. V., SDD (member)
• Gesellschaft für Angewandte Linguistik e. V., GAL (member)
• Society for Media Education and Communication Culture, GMK (member)
• Potsdam Graduate School at University of Potsdam, PoGS (Representative for Tenure-Track Professors)