Dresden University School at IALS Annual Conference 2026

Building civic and community engagement in youth development: A shared responsibility of schools and extended education 

2026 GELYDA International Conference
24.-26. June 2026
Seoul, South Korea
Organized at Sungkyunkwan University

Hannah Bartels and Wiebke Bergjürgen, researchers at the Dresden University School Research Center, will share their expertise and findings from the QualiPro and GoFlexi projects at the 2026 GELYDA Conference. You can find more information about the third party funded projects within the Dresden University School pilot project on the website of the Chair of Educational Science / Inclusive Education.

• Between research and practice: Learning at the Dresden University School 
  Speaker: Hannah Bartels
  
  The Dresden University School is taking a new and experimental approach to learning by creating a setting that encourages social learning and empowers students to take charge of their own learning process. The laboratory school sets a high value on selfregulated, project-based learning, and supports the students in organizing their own learning, following their own interests, and working in mixed-age groups. To make this possible and to develop evidence-based, student-centered learning formats, the school is engaged in a research-practice-partnership with the Dresden University of Technology (TUD). Building on this collaboration, the present contribution reports on a design-based research study (QualiPro) which is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ). The study focuses on the development and refinement of formative assessment practices to support individualized learning. Drawing on interviews with students, participatory classroom observations, and online surveys with teachers, the study iteratively designs, implements, and evaluates formats of learning process support in selfregulated, project-based learning settings. The aim is to strengthen the effectiveness of formative assessment and to derive practical, research-informed design recommendations that enable teachers to scaffold students’ autonomous learning, foster motivation, and promote sustainable competence development in mixed-age learning groups.
• Making school more flexible – organizational factors in fostering sustainable and self-regulated learning in students
  Speaker: Wiebke Bergjürgen
  
  Schools are under a constant pressure to do justice to the rapidly developing society and prepare students for the future ahead of them, as well as enabling life-long learning and more equal opportunities for the students. One way to approach these demands is integrating project-based learning into the class schedules, as well as time for selfdirected learning in flexible groups. While these changes enable students to take more charge in their learning processes and gives them more freedom of choice, it also confronts schools with new challenges, e.g. in terms of timetabling, organizing the lessons or taking attendance in flexible learning groups. The GO-flexi project, sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ), closely works with schools that have decided to establish a flexible upper secondary and aims to support them in managing some of the organizational challenges they are presented with. At the beginning of the project an interview study with representatives of the participating schools has been conducted and analyzed using the qualitative content analysis. The findings give an insight into the motivation and struggles of these schools, as well as the lengths the teachers and employees are willing to go to to make it work.

About GELYDA - Global Extended Learning and Youth Development Association

The Global Extended Learning and Youth Development Association (GELYDA-pronounced GELIDA) is a new international membership organization dedicated to understanding, supporting, and improving expanded opportunities for learning, development, and thriving in schools, afterschool and summer programs, and communities.

Extended learning and development is an essential educational, public health and public safety concern, a fact that should bring it to the fore of policy, practice and research in every locality, country, and global community.

The GELYDA Biannual Conference is being held to facilitate discussion and networking related to the organization's goals. For more information, please visit the conference website and the GELYDA organisation website.

About the University School Dresden

Dresden University School is a joint project of the state capital Dresden and the TUD Dresden University of Technology. It is a public and free community school run by the city, where innovative forms of teaching and learning are tested under academic supervision. In addition, it is a training school for future teachers and prospectively, a further education school for teachers. The ForUS - University School Research Unit at TU Dresden is providing scientific support for the school trial.

Read more about TU Dresden’s research project: https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/unischule
Read more about the University School Dresden: http://universitaetsschule.org

You can find insights into the research project and everyday school life on various social media channels under @unischuleTUD: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. News from the University School Dresden project can be found regularly in the TU Dresden GSW newsletter