Completed research projects

The study "Literary comprehension in dealing with metaphor (LiMet)" was the first to reconstruct both learner-side comprehension processes in dealing with literary metaphor and teacher-side modeling of comprehension requirements and processes in grades 6 and 9. The study thus addressed a central research desideratum in literary didactics, as the focus to date has primarily been on the dimensions of literary competence and the reconstruction of literary didactic convictions is still in its infancy in German didactic teacher research.

As part of the study, a thinking aloud study was carried out with 69 pupils in years 6 and 9 from different types of school in Lower Saxony and Saxony on three lyrical texts characterized by metaphor. These texts were also the starting point for problem-centered interviews with 16 teachers (also from Saxony and Lower Saxony). These interviews focused in particular on questions of text selection and lesson planning for the chosen text.

The thinking aloud protocols were initially coded with a view to metaphor comprehension operations. On the basis of the coding, four comprehension levels were determined and the protocols were assessed accordingly. In addition, a selection of the transcripts (n=7) was subjected to a sequence analysis in order to determine aesthetic strategies and their connection to comprehension levels. The distribution of levels shows that in both the sixth and ninth graders, the group that achieves a differentiated metaphorical understanding on a global level (levels C and D) is always smaller than the groups that achieve no or only local metaphorical understanding (levels A and B). At the same time, there are fewer differences between the class levels than between the three poems, which makes it possible to draw conclusions about the specific text difficulties. Finally, with the help of the sequence analysis, eight aesthetic reception strategies could be reconstructed across all cases and texts, which relate to the productive handling of irritations, the development of interpretation hypotheses and involvement in the interpretation process.

The interviews with the teachers were evaluated using the documentary method, as this provided a methodological foundation that was appropriate to the research question. For the individual cases and across all cases, (A) student-related, (B) (teaching) subject-related, (C) subject-related teacher beliefs and (D) beliefs about profession-related self-perception were reconstructed. Four constellations of beliefs could be described. For example, teachers with a potential-oriented student image have a strong self-efficacy conviction regarding their possibilities for action in the development of cognitive literature-related skills. However, the extent to which these beliefs are oriented towards institutional norms and didactic conventions was also analyzed. In the cross-case evaluation of the data material, two domain-specific areas of tension in teacher action were also described in more detail with regard to the relationship between analysis and interpretation and between guidance and discovery in literature lessons.

The results of the study thus offer starting points both for the targeted manner of promoting skills in dealing with literary metaphor and for teacher training.

LiMet was a cooperative project between the TUD Dresden University of Technology and the University of Hildesheim. The collection and analysis of the interview and thinking aloud data took place in equal parts at the Dresden and Hildesheim sites.

Project staff (TU Dresden):

Prof. Dr. Dorothee Wieser (Head)

Marie Lessing-Sattari (Research Associate)

Project staff (University of Hildesheim):

Prof. Dr. Irene Pieper (Head)

Bianca Strutz (Research Associate)

The DFG project LiMet was carried out from 01.04.2016 to 30.09.2018.

Marie Lessing-Sattari and Dorothee Wieser (2016): The difficulty of being irritated. A literary didactic challenge. In: Literature in the classroom, vol. 17, p. 2, pp. 127-142.

Irene Pieper (2016): Wissen im Zwischenraum: On the specifics of the question of understanding-relevant knowledge in the literary-didactic space of reflection. In: Thomas Möbius/Michael Steinmetz: Knowledge and literary learning. Frankfurt et al: Peter Lange (Positions in German didactics 4). S. 129-152.

Marie Lessing-Sattari, Irene Pieper, Bianca Strutz and Dorothee Wieser (2017): Approaches to the knowledge of literature teachers. Conceptual and methodological considerations using the example of the LiMet study. In: Christian Dawidowski et al. (eds.): Teacher and classroom research in literature didactics. Concepts and Projects Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, pp. 102-120.

Irene Pieper and Bianca Strutz (2018): Learners' approaches to poetic metaphor: A think aloud study with secondary school students in Grade 6 and 9. Contribution to a special issue in honor of Gert Rijlaarsdam Making Connections: Studies of Language and Literature Education. In: L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature, Vol. 18, pp. 1-35. https://doi.org/10.17239/L1ESLL-2018.18.03.05 (peer-reviewed).

Irene Pieper and Dorothee Wieser (2018): Poetological convictions and literary understanding. In: Leseräume, Vol. 5, H. 4: The linguistic nature of teaching literature. S. 108-124. http://leseräume.de/?page_id=692.

Marie Lessing-Sattari (2018): On the development and interaction of teachers' beliefs about literary reading in German lessons. Presentation of the documentary reconstruction of domain-specific beliefs and initial evaluation results of the LiMet-L study. In: Leseräume Ergebnisse, Vol. 5, H. 5, pp. 1-22. http://leseräume.de/?page_id=667 (peer-reviewed).

Irene Pieper (2019): "and that stands for the different directions that life has": Procedures of metaphor interpretation among students in grades 6 and 9. In: Sandrine Aeby Daghé et. al (eds.): La construction de la didactique du français comme discipline scientifique. Lille: Septentrion.

Marie Lessing-Sattari and Dorothee Wieser (2020): On the relationship between literary didactic educational claims and the inherent logic of literature teaching using the example of the school's handling of irritation and metaphor. In: Freudenberg, Ricarda/ Lessing-Sattari, Marie (eds.): On the role of irritation and amazement in the context of (literary) aesthetic experience. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang (= Positionen der Deutschdidaktik). S. 221-239.

Irene Pieper and Dorothee Wieser (2020): "Like a tiger in the rain ...". Text procedures in the context of interpreting poetic metaphor. In: Practice German (281). S. 50-58.

Dorothee Wieser and Irene Pieper (2020): Learner-side understanding processes of literary metaphor and teacher-side modeling in the reciprocal horizon. In: Dawidowski, Christian/Hoffmann, Anna Rebecca/Stolle, Angelika Ruth/Witte, Jennifer (eds.): Schulische Literaturvermittlungsprozesse im Fokus empirischer Forschung. Berlin: Peter Lang (Contributions to literature and media didactics, 43). S. 119-139.

Dorothee Wieser, Irene Pieper and Marie Lessing-Sattari (2021): What is and how does "adequate" literary comprehension develop? Teachers' perspectives on learners' comprehension processes. In: Brenz, Lydia/Pflugmacher, Torsten (eds.): Normativity and literary understanding. Interdisciplinary perspectives on the teaching of literature. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang. S. 155-173.