Teachers’ beliefs about the determinants of students’ academic achievement
How well students perform in school depends on many factors. Teachers are aware of this. We investigate the significance of teachers’ beliefs about the determinants of academic success in the school environment. Can every child do well in school, or does it require a special talent? We examine both the relationships between teachers’ beliefs and the behavior and professional well-being of teachers themselves, as well as the motivational and emotional development of their students. The latter is funded, among others, by a grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) on the significance of growth and fixed mindsets of teachers (project number: 449022799).
We also focus on particularly vulnerable student groups and differences between subjects. For example, we have shown that lower-achieving students have less intrinsic motivation for mathematics when their mathematics teacher is convinced that children need an innate talent to be really good at mathematics (Heyder et al., 2020; Learning and Instruction). For our research, we use both secondary analyses of existing data (e.g., from the National Educational Panel NEPS) and experimental study designs and mixed-methods approaches.

Functional use of digital media in children and adolescents
Digital media are an important part of the lives of children and adolescents in Germany. While dysfunctional media use has been frequently studied in the past due to its clinical relevance, the research on functional use and its promotion is still insufficient. As part of the MERCUR-funded network “RuhrNetwork for Functional Digital Media-Use in Children and Adolescents” (Ko-2021 0023), we are developing a conceptual understanding of functional media use together with Prof. Dr. Stephanie Antons (now University of Siegen), PD Dr. Magnus Liebherr (University of Duisburg-Essen), and Apl.-Prof. Dr. Julia Brailovskaia (Deutsches Zentrum für Psychische Gesundheit, Bochum/Marburg; RUB). We are researching its psychological mechanisms and developing measures to promote it. The goal is to contribute to better utilizing the opportunities and possibilities that digital media offer, and not just to protect against the risks of dysfunctional use through prevention offers.
https://www.uni-due.de/functional-media-use-network/index.php