Prof. Dr. Daniel Schmerse,

Research Interests

Socialization and skill development in early childhood education settings, motivational and learning development during the transition from kindergarten to elementary school, early childhood language development.

Professional Experience and Education

• Since 2022, Chair of the Professorship for "Child Development and Socialization Processes", School of Education, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland
• 2016 – 2022, Research Associate, IPN - Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Department of Educational Science and Educational Psychology
• 2016 – 2021, Lecturer for the Master's Program in "Management of Early Childhood Education Settings", Europa-Universität Flensburg
• 2012 – 2016, Project Manager and Authorized Signatory, Educational Quality Information Systems (PädQUIS) gGmbH
• 2009 – 2012, Ph.D. Candidate, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Developmental  and Comparative Psychology

• 2014, Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Leipzig
• 2003-2009, Studies in Patholinguistics, University of Potsdam
• 2007-2008, Studies in Linguistics and Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego

LESIC – The Role of Effective Learning Environments in Preschool Children's Understanding of the Scientific Inquiry Cycle

Knowledge about the generation of scientific knowledge is considered a central component of scientific education, along with content knowledge. This includes understanding the research cycle, which links various steps of scientific discovery and emphasizes the cumulative nature of this process. The central question of this project is under what conditions preschool children can recognize and compare steps of the research cycle across examples and build an initial understanding of the entire cycle (rather than isolated steps). A quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-assessments will be used to compare two learning environments where children receive targeted learning support against a control group (conducting scientific activities without specific learning support) and a baseline group. Secondly, the two supported learning environments, where the similarity between the examined scientific phenomena is systematically varied, will be compared.

Duration: 2020 – 2022
Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Project team: Prof. Dr. Mirjam Steffensky, University of Hamburg (Co-Lead); Dr. Jana Mohr, Europa-Universität Flensburg; Henning Dominke, University of Hamburg

Duration: 2016 – 2021
Funding: Leibniz Association and Leibniz Education Research Network

Duration: 2014 – 2016
Funding: German Children and Youth Foundation (DKJS), Mercator Foundation