Development of Model Competence in Biology Education

Models of competency development play a key role in the field of subject didactics as well as for teaching practice since they provide information about the level of competence students attain and the ways in which they develop the competence in question (Hammann, 2004). Based on a theoretical structure of model competence (Upmeier zu Belzen & Krüger, 2010) this project describes developmental trajectories of students' model competence within a longitudinal-section-cohort study over three years including grades seven to ten. The data allows investigating to what extent the theoretical structure of model competence can be interpreted as a hierarchical model of competency development. As such, when assessing competence development it is important to identify which opportunities the students have been offered to acquire the competence in question. In addition to the students, at each measurement point the teachers of the participating students are asked for which purposes they use models.